Nerina Pallot LIVE

Well it seems like someone from the Lowry must indeed have a deal with the Pizza Express dudes, because for the second Lowry concert in a row, we found ourselves having a meal with the artist we were going to see.

Ok, "having a meal" is a bit misleading. "In the same restaurant" would be more appropriate, but as Nerina had the Lasagne just like me, the phrase "I had Lasagne with Nerina Pallot" may be misleading, but you can't say I'm not telling the truth. ;-)

And another point, before we even get to the venue, since when has Nerina been so small? It threw me at first because despite having met her on a few occasions, I never realised she was so tiny. Anyway...

Over to the venue it was, where I spent £1 on some Nerina Pallot stickers, which I now seem to have lost. Ah well, at least I got some badges. There was just time for Gee to fail to respond to being chatter up, us to notice that "Mandy" from Hollyoaks was in the hiz-ous and for me to fail to get over to Andy but then wave to him anyway before we settled into our row E seats.

And from that point on, well what can I say. In a year of great concerts so far, this was another superb one to add to the list. She kicked off with one of my favourites, If I Know You, and there wasn't a duff or dull moment from that point onwards.

It wasn't only the songs either. Unlike a lot of modern day "pop-stars" Nerina has intelligencee and humour to burn. I doubt there will be many other concerts in which the star regales you with tales of shopping, accessories, hermit crabs, Alice Cooper, the Mercruy Music Prize, red wine, Faith Hill, god and Rachel Stevens just to name some of the topics covered. In fact the only really unneccesary thing was the bit about Spurs. No need for that love.

Of course there was also the Suzanne Vega reference, which even though it probably blatantly wasn't directed at me, could actually have been a reference to me so I'll count it ;-)

Still all of this would have been pretty superfluous if not for the quality of the songs. It was nice to hear a couple of DFS (Dear Frustrated Superstar, not the sofa showroom) tracks, and the version of Confide In Me is a classic. Throw in "I'm Gonna Be Your Man" (a "new" track that prior to this show she seemingly didn't want to sing when I was at a gig) and "Grace" and you had the unmistakable experience of a performer at the very top of her game.

And with any luck, this just might be the beginning of something really big.