We have a red box into which we throw any tangible memories of our adventures here in London. This morning I threw two Paolo Nutini concert tickets in there – mementoes of a surprisingly wonderful concert we saw last night.
I don’t know Paolo Nutini’s music too well, although I enjoy it and we have his CDs. When we saw he was performing in London, we thought it would be great to see him. I just didn’t realise he would blow my highlights back as much as he did last night. He is one hugely talented songwriter and singer, and his poignant lyrics and soulful delivery belie his 23 years.
I booked our tickets the very minute ticket sales opened, about a month ago. I was thrilled to get our two tickets, and I grew more and more excited as the concert date loomed on our calendar. What I didn’t realise, and I only discovered when we chatted to a couple last night who had travelled over from New Zealand for the concert, was that the tickets sold out in three minutes. I was totally oblivious to the mad scramble that ensued for tickets after I had got ours … the NZ couple paid three times more than we paid for our tickets, as they’d bought them on auction.
Paolo was the headline act for one of the Little Noise Sessions – an annual week-long acoustic festival to raise funds for Mencap, a mental health charity. Tom Jones headlined for the festival the night before, supported by one of our other favourites, Lauren Pritchard.
The concert was at the Union Chapel in Islington, north London. (The scene of a disaster earlier this year when we saw the wrong show – check out Bad memories make good stories …) It is a beautiful and relatively intimate venue, it seats about 850 people and it also still functions as a church. We got seats in the third row pews, and had a perfect, uninterrupted and up-close-and-personal view of the artists.
The opening acts were great: Jessie J, Michael Kiwanuka and Rumer. Check them out on youtube, they are all worth listening to. Rumer was my favourite; she is shy and self-conscious and her beautiful, soothing voice has been likened to Karen Carpenter’s. Her two big singles Slow and Aretha have had plenty of airtime on radio this year. She says she took ten years to become an overnight success!
The audience went ballistic to welcome Paolo Nutini on stage. Accompanied by a fabulous band – strings, brass, keyboard, drums, plenty of guitars and a ukelele – Paolo took the stage and kept us gripped for the next 90 minutes or so. Occasionally he would say a few words between songs, but mostly he just belted out number after number to the adoring delight of the audience, some of whom seemed to know the words to every song.
He didn’t introduce his band, although he did mention “big hairy Dave”, one of the acoustic guitarists who had co-written a song with him. As the band soulfully and passionately wove magic around Paolo’s unique voice, we enjoyed a journey through songs such as Candy, Pencil Full of Lead, Jenny Don’t be Hasty, Worried Man, Growing Up Beside You and the new and brilliant Bear With Me. My favourite of the evening was Paolo’s beautiful interpretation of Nature Boy, backed by a haunting and liltingly string-filled arrangement.
Of Italian descent, Paolo is exceedingly Scottish. Third generation Scottish, in fact. He grew up in Paisley, on the borders of Glasgow, the son of a fish and chip shop owner. Quite awkward in his song delivery, Paolo locks his knees together, stands on his tiptoes and leans to one side as he pours raw, eye-closed talent and passion through the microphone. His broad Scottish accent shines delightfully through his every song and, as well as everything else about him, that makes me smile.
Our red box is growing full.
Sunshine signing off for today!
Excerpt from Pencil Full of Lead
I’ve got a sheet for my bed
And a pillow for my head
I’ve got a pencil full of lead
And some water for my throat
I’ve got buttons for my coat
And sails on my boat
So much more than I needed before
I got money in the meter
And a two bar heater
Oh now it’s getting hotter
It’s only getting sweeter
I’ve legs on my chair
and a head full of hair
Got in a band
And shoes on my feet
I’ve got a shelf full of books
And most of my teeth
Two pairs of socks
And a door with a lock
I’ve got food in my belly
and a License for my telly
And nothin’s gonna bring me down
Sunshine in London 
I’m watching Lead in my pencil on YouTube now.
Please, when you have a chance, go and see my friend’s delightful song. He is a Brit living in Paris and is a very witty lyricist, I am sure his song will make you laugh out loud:
Oh how lovely, Cindy – you’re right, it did make me laugh out loud! Very clever and witty indeed.
I hope you watched the live version of Paolo singing Pencil Full of Lead – then you’d see “big hairy Dave” next to him! It’s such a brilliant song, and I can see the similarities between this and your friend’s song. Thanks xx
Just realised you are friends with my close friend Browniegirl. Thought I recognised your face each time you left a message on Sunshine’s blog 🙂
This is for Cindy 🙂
Hi Sunshine:
They play Paolo’s “Coming Up Easy” on our CBC Radio 2…love “Pencil Full of Lead”…had never heard it before! It’s interesting that he keeps his accent even when he sings!
Hugs,
Wendy
Isn’t it a fabulous song? I love “Coming Up Easy” too. And I love the accent through the songs … but then you know me and my soft spot for Scots! xx
I’ve heard the name, but I’m not too familiar with him over here in the US.
However, your post about your red box reminds me that I need to get a ‘memory box’ of sorts. Right now I put all my important stubs and things in a big box that was one full of disposable diapers. I could spend $20 and get something much nicer!
Check him out, wittywife – he’s great!
Love your blog! I found it this morning and was thrilled to see a review of Paolo Nutini’s gig at Union Chapel. I saw him in concert for the first time in July 2009 and have seen him 12 times since – including 3 trips to the UK and Italy. I live in the U.S. He is addictive! I would love to share your review on The Daily Paolo-a little site a friend and I manage. Is this ok? Looking forward to reading your blog-just subscribed! Cheers!
Thank you, Mary Anna! Glad you found my blog and thanks for subscribing! Please send me the link to your site – I just saw one with photos from last night, is that it?
Oh, Sunshine. If only there was something fun happening in London. Someplace for you to go, something to do…. 😉
I think I still have the ticket stub for every concert I’ve seen since college. I used to slide them into the CD cases. Now that I mostly download, I don’t know where I’m going to put them. I’d hate for them to get lost.
Oh, Todd, your comment made me laugh out loud!
We used to keep ticket stubs in photo albums, so had to find an alternative too! 🙂
Yes, that is the site. You can look back through all the posts. Here is a link to a recent post. http://community.livejournal.com/daily_paolo/162101.html
Cool! Yes, sure – you’re welcome to share my “review”. I love the photos from last night, they’re great!
Thanks for posting the Nature Boy clip for me – what a great reminder! And for the kind comments about my blog! 🙂
Another fun time Sunshine. Just love checking in and walking through it all with you in the wonderful way in which you describe it all.
Hugs x
Thank you so much! xx
I am so glad you put a link to Paolo’s website on your blog. I had never heard of him, so I went over to check him out and watched the video of Pencil Full of Lead with the Big Ghana Band. It was awesome!! Thanks for sharing and keep filling up that Red Box 🙂 Diane
Thank you, Diane! We’re having fun filling it! Paolo is pretty awesome – I’m glad I could introduce you to him! xx
I saw your review today on The Daily Paolo and I wanted to tell you what a brilliant writer you are! I love the stories and descriptions on their site as well but yours was just out of this world. I could actually feel everything you were telling us. I’m so glad that you found Paolo and shared your experience that exact way!!! If I didn’t know him already, I would certainly find out about him after reading this.
Thanks so much!!
Wow, thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed the review of what was a fabulous evening!
Thanks for visiting my blog – hope you’ll be back!
love paolo and love rumer!! 🙂 yey for fun times in london!
hope you are well…
lots of love xxx
Would have been great to go to that together, hey? Love to you both xx
You are having such amazing experiences in London! With your love for music and talent for writing, you could be looking at a new career: Concert reviewer.
That would be a fabulous career!
I have to admit, I have never connected with Nutini. His somewhat nasaly vocals along with a name no Scott should have, has just been an odd combination to me. Your review is prompting me to have another listen… (and by the way- you saw Rumer!!! Oh my god, I cannot get “Aretha” out of my head, I may actually be in love with that woman…lol) I had a similar experience with JohnMayer- could not stand him ( Your Body Is A Wonderland? Barf…) but a friend of mine convinced me to give him another listen… now I love him… so much so there’s a bare torsoed JM staring down at me from the wall behind my computer…lol.
Do yourself a favour and have another listen to Paolo – he’s amazing! Let me know what you think! And seeing him live was very special. Rumer was also lovely – I would love to see her again too. Her singing is so effortless and beautiful.