Paolo, on tour all summer!

Paolo is on tour all summer! Check out the tour dates below to see if he's coming to a city near you!

JUNE
08 - Waldbuhne - Berlin, Germany (Supporting P!nk) - BUY TICKETS
09 - Vega - Copenhagen, Denmark - BUY TICKETS
11 - Stadtpark Freilichtbuehne - Hamburg, Germany - BUY TICKETS
12 - Tradgarn - Gotenburg, Sweden - BUY TICKETS
13 - Rockefeller - Oslo, Norway - BUY TICKETS
15 - Meltdown Festival - London, UK - SOLD OUT!

JULY
07 - Open Air Arena - Vienna, Austria - BUY TICKETS
08 - Stadion - Linz, Austria (Supporting Pink) - BUY TICKETS
10 - T in The Park, Balado - Perth and Kinross, UK - SOLD OUT!
11 - Oxegen Festival - County Kildare, Ireland - BUY TICKETS
13 - The Eden Sessions - The Eden Project - SOLD OUT!
14 - The Eden Sessions - The Eden Project - BUY TICKETS
16 - Piazza Castello - Udine, Italy - BUY TICKETS
17 - Piazza Castello - Ferrara, Italy - BUY TICKETS
18 - Cavea Auditorium - Rome, Italy - BUY TICKETS
20 - Lucca Summer Festival - Lucca, Italy - BUY TICKETS
21 - MJF Arena Civica - Milan, Italy - BUY TICKETS
22 - Circus Krone - Munich, Germany - BUY TICKETS
24 - Paleo Festival - Nyon, Switzerland - SOLD OUT!

AUGUST
20 - Leeds Academy - Leeds, UK - BUY TICKETS
21 - V Festival - Stafford, UK - SOLD OUT!
22 - V Festival - Stafford, UK - SOLD OUT!
24 - Rivierenhof - Antwerp, Belgium - SOLD OUT!
25 - Rivierenhof - Antwerp, Belgium - BUY TICKETS
27 - Steinberggasse - Winterthurer, Switzerland - BUY TICKETS
28 - Rock en Seine - Saint-Cloud, France - BUY TICKETS

Paolo Nutini

Royal Festival Hall, London

x 5

Tim Adams

guardian.co.uk , Wednesday 16 June 2010 13.07 BST

Paolo Nutini channels more voices than the late Doris Stokes, and all of them were present at this one-off concert for Meltdown. The singer, still only 23, began inflected with Ray Charles, took in along the way in no particular order Bob Marley, Otis Redding, various blind Mississippi bluesmen, gestured toward Pete Seeger and the Proclaimers, and ended up in Spanish Harlem. It is a tribute to his own remarkable vocal possibilities that he can carry all of this off, and still sound just like himself. As somebody once said of Clive James, Nutini is a wonderful bunch of guys.

Backed by his irrepressible horn trio he sometimes seemed at pains to deliver several concerts all at once. Later this week Meltdown curator Richard Thompson will attempt 1,000 Years of Popular Music in 90 minutes or so. Nutini threatened to get there in a fraction of the time. The singing accent most often wanders from his native Livi Road in Paisley in the direction of the Caribbean – at times he sounds more Jamaican than Lord Kitch fresh off Windrush boat – but what he sacrifices in authenticity he makes up for in audacity.

He is, along the way, also capable of moments of proper intimacy. Candy is an otherworldly sound of infatuation, and his rendering of These Streets his delicate song of English exile, trembled with easy pathos. Nutini can't stay sombre for long, though. His patter tends to be less understandable than his patois – even the St Andrews cross bearing bravehearts were straining to catch his mumbled observations. Nobody seemed to mind much, though. Nutini has long learned that there is charm in inarticulacy. One phrase we did catch was "This is a song for upbeat people …" It might have applied to anything in the whole set. Even when he launched into "It takes a worried man to sing a worried song" Nutini gave every appearance of being the happiest man in the world, or certainly the sunniest Scot.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/jun/16/paolo-nutini-meltdown

Live: Paolo Nutini

Verdict: ****

Albert Ball: Paulo Nutini

By John Earls , 11/04/2010

A CELEBRATION gig to mark the end of touring for last year's Sunny Side Up, and Paolo knows how to get a crowd partying.

Before first song 10/10, fans are already out of their seats singing along to his intro music - Can't Take My Eyes Off You by Andy Williams - and the carnival mood stays for the next 100 minutes.

A teenager when he hit No 1 in 2006 with debut album These Streets, back then Paolo was just another singer relying on his looks and riding on the success of James Blunt.

Rejecting that safe path, he went nuts on Sunny Side Up, a platinum-selling album of crazy blues, Cajun rhythms and obscure vocals.

There are 13 in the backing band but, to paraphrase Andy Williams, you can't take your eyes off Paolo.

Dancing hunched over so he looks desperate for a pee, his Scottish accent between songs is so broad he makes Rab C Nesbitt sound posh.

But Paolo's got charisma to spare.

The same unpredictability applies to how he treats his songs, whether it's stripping down hit ballad Last Request or mixing Benny Hill Show music into the swinging Pencil Full Of Lead.

With the public embracing his apparently bizarre choices, it's no surprise he's always grinning and saying thank you. Well, we think that's what he's saying.

It makes you wonder whatever happened to James Blunt anyway.

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/entertainment/Music-gigs/778382/Live-Paolo-Nutini.html

Paolo Nutini

Royal Albert Hall, London
Paolo Nutini might not be seen as cool or authentic, but he's certainly a dab hand at channelling vintage musical genre

 Sunday 11 April 2010

Paolo Nutini at the Albert Hall: ‘The crowd faintly thrums with the desire to mother him.’ Photograph: Gus Stewart/ Redferns

It's instructive to see Paolo Nutini , the Italo-Scottish object of so much female desire, kicking off the first of two performances at the Royal Albert Hall. Wearing lived-in black jeans and a plaid shirt that's just a little too small for him, Nutini bends double over his microphone stand and growls, as though an impoverished sharecropper's upbringing had left him with scoliosis, and a lifetime of bad living had landed him with syphilitic renal failure. The crowd faintly thrums with the desire to mother him. By contrast, men are a little more circumspect. "I fucking hate Paolo Nutini," tweeted Labour parliamentary prospect Stuart MacLennan recently – a refreshing attitude, perhaps, but, on balance, a little harsh (and rash – MacLennan was sacked on Friday for over-zealous tweeting).

The first song is "10/10", a lilting reggae confection that recalls Toots and the Maytals, and what it may sorely lack in cool, it makes up for in audacity and warmth. Nutini seems blissfully unaware that 23-year-olds from Paisley are not supposed to affect the manner and cadences of wizened reggae old-timers. It has also clearly not occurred to him that aping Otis Redding might be an undertaking open to ridicule. Then again, it probably didn't occur to the young Van Morrison either. Nutini has some considerable distance to go before he makes an Astral Weeks, but having begun his pop life as a wipe-clean matinee idol, he has neatly side-stepped those wearisome James Blunt and James Morrison comparisons of late.

Nutini's second album, last year's Sunny Side Up, found the Paisley pin-up thumbing his nose at the slickness of his successful debut, These Streets, and immersing himself in old-time sounds – soul, reggae, folk, bluegrass, ragtime. His major-label handlers were less than keen, but Nutini was vindicated – amply so. Sunny Side Up has sold more than a million copies. Tonight his live band are abetted by a suited'n'booted brass section, the Horns of Thunder, as boisterous and eager as young squirrels. Intriguingly, the Steve Bentley-Kline string quartet gently pluck their accompaniment to "High Hopes", rather than strangling it in chords. Bongos and ukulele complete the picture of a band that is showy without always being irredeemably obvious.

After an auspicious start, though, knee-jerk big-band high jinking takes over. The lead guitarist pulls "rock" faces, as though the act of playing guitar involved passing a kidney stone. There is a lot of larking about, swapping hats; various guitarists sing their backing vocals while leaning against each other, suggesting Nutini's band are fully aware of their need to entertain in the most time-honoured way. "I work for the NHS," notes my neighbour approvingly, "and that is just what I need after a day's work."

With his soul revue brass and his vintage voice, it must be an eternal mystery to Nutini why Amy Winehouse is considered credible and he isn't. Both grew up in households where old soul was the default musical setting. Preternaturally weather-beaten pipes run through their skinny young frames. They are both partial to a bit of skanking. Tonight, Nutini's cover of John Holt's "Riding for a Fall", for instance, is rueful, woozy and pitch-perfect.

The answer isn't as simple as the lack of a beehive, or a drug habit. You could gripe about the perceived authenticity gap in a Scottish kid making like a soul man, but the issue of authenticity is never as straightforward as it appears. The past 75 years of popular music have taught us repeatedly that you don't have to be a syphilitic sharecropper to sing the blues. The last time I saw Paolo Nutini live, he was fronting Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings, warming up for Led Zeppelin at the Ahmet Ertegün tribute concert. Ertegün had signed Nutini to Atlantic in a flurry of praise.

But over the course of an hour and a half at the Albert Hall, Nutini channels vintage genres like an Amazon conveyor belt at Christmas. His songs are full of warmth but become plastic in bulk. Crucially, perhaps, Nutini's love for the old-timers does not dovetail logically into musical ambition, or originality. There are regular feints towards Bob Dylan, while Nutini's default soul fetish quickly accommodates percolating country romps and Scots-Irish folk forms. Curiously, he sings everything as though he had grown up in Jamaica rather than the central Lowlands.

There is absolutely no excuse, either, for the comedy bluegrass of "Funky Cigarette", a live favourite about smoking a spliff that ends with Nutini attempting to inhale the microphone. "Pencil Full of Lead" is a Carry On rock'n'roll parody of sexual longing, featuring a tuba. You can't blame Nutini for the fact that our exit after a three-song encore is soundtracked by Bob Marley's "Exodus" – has any crowd ever looked less like Jah people? – but it is typical of his take on vintage sounds: full of references and signifiers, but lacking in lasting significance.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/apr/11/paolo-nutini-albert-hall-review

(

I efteråret 2009 turnerede Paolo i Storbritannien.  Undervejs blev der indspillet en række cd'ere live, som nu sælges fra Concert Lives hjemmeside til kun 20 £ for to forskellige optagelser. Paolo er god - men han er bedst live:) 14.10.2009 Glasgow Academy   CD 1 1. 10/10 2. Alloway Grove 3. High Hopes 4. Loving You 5. Such A Night 6. Growing Up 7. Candy 8. Chamber Music 9. These Streets 10. Worried Man 11. Funky Cigarette 12. Coming Up Easy CD 2 1. Pencil Full Of Lead 2. (Hi Di Hi) Mexico 3. Sleepwalking 4. New Shoes 5. No Other Way 6. Jenny Don’t Be Hasty 7. Tricks Of The Trade 8. Alone Again 9. Last Request     Links fra koncerten i Boise den 15. september 2009 Pencil Full of Lead Coming Up Easy Down in Mexico Tricks of the Trade Candy Chamber Music (Just the second half, sorry). Smokey Joe's Cafe Last Request Og setlist             From The Huffington Post 9-14-09 An internet newspaper Paolo Nutini Live At The Wiltern You really had to see this show to understand what this Scottrocker and his mates musically have put together. This is like nothing you've ever heard, it being an amalgam of Cab Calloway mini-moochings, Paul Simon Graceland rhythms, E Street Band stage camaraderie, dirty boogies, Aryan soca, Memphis country, Van Morrison and early rock 'n' roll howlings, and a raw energy that doesn't give a flip about promoting singles over having a damned good time. Purely based on feel and spontaneity, the band moves, spins, poses a little, and plays its collective ass off. The 22-year-old and his young non-hooligans (or young-hearted as in the case of his outrageously good harp-buster) genuinely seemed to enjoy each other's company as they rocked, and this boys club had a real "presence" very reminiscent of the great acts of the sixties. Though Paolo was absolutely the focus, there was so much else to be watching on stage--including the well-timed, subtle lighting effects and the billowing '50s "lamme" curtain that back-dropped the band. Actually, the whole show felt like it was of another era with the stage vibing like a mid-twentieth century high school gym, and Paolo's swagger and raspy, raucous vocals abducting the assembly and dumping them at the local pool hall. The entourage rocked through many of the songs from These Streets, the new album, Sunny Side Up, and tracks that appeared in Grey's Anatomy, One Tree Hill, CSI: Miami, and that addicting Puma commercial. When Paolo and company eventually ended their set, the audience genuinely didn't want this party to end, and after about three minutes of clapping, stomping, expected rowdiness (plus a stage-left roadie stoking the crowd further with a quick "get it louder" hand gesture), the lads returned for their fat encore after which Paolo again thanked the audience as the players exited carrying bottles of their well-earned hops-based libations. This show, like much of Paolo's recorded output, was high octane, and if you catch him and his brothers on tour, you will not be disappointed since this is extremely entertaining. Paolo Nutini's Wiltern Set List: Alloway Grove High Hopes Loving You Mellow Down Growing Up Candy Worried Man Funky Cigarette Coming Up Easy Pencil Full Of Lead (Hi Di Hi) / Mexico Sleepwalking 10/10 New Shoes No Other Way ENCORE: These Streets Jenny Don't Be Hasty Last Request Paolo Nutini's Band: Gavin Fitzjohn - trumpet/sax/keys Seamus Simon - drums Michael McDaid - bass Dave Nelson - guitar/percussion Donny Little - lead guitar/ukelele Fraser Speirs - harmonica                 These are from the Absolute Radio Secret Stage Sessions in the VIP Area Photo by: PA Wire Photo by: PA Wire Photo by: PA Wire Here are a few from Backstage at the 2009 V Festival Photo by: Zak Hussein/PA Wire Photo by: Zak Hussein/PA Wire It looks as if there was an interview, but I can't find one... Paolo Nutini and Ben Jones Photo by: Zak Hussein/PA Wire Here he is at his main show for the day, looking very handsome in a nice vest with cool and interesting detail. Wow. No Photo Credit Provided There are several pics from earlier shows available at the site, including a fantastic photo of Paolo and Teri just strolling along at the Isle of Wight. Link: http://www.absoluteradio.co.uk...OjEyNjI0LCJvIjowfQ==     Paolo i Tokyo August 8th; Osaka August 9th                       Concert Review: Paolo Nutini at the Opera House in Toronto Posted: August 03, 2009, 12:03 PM by Scott Maniquet   Maryam Siddiqi, National Post One of the loudest cheers during Paolo Nutini’s show at the Opera House on Friday night came not for the singer, nor his band, but rather a member of the stage crew. It was the awkward time between the show and the encore, when everyone knows the night isn’t over, but we all go through the act of pretending that the musician might not return to the stage. As Nutini and crew exited stage left, a few women proceeded to throw bras up to where, just moments earlier, the band was standing. A hot pink number even landed expertly on the Scottish singer’s microphone. Much to the chagrin of the audience, a man in the stage crew removed said bra as he adjusted the mic. He then hung on to it while he did whatever it is stage crews do during these breaks, and then, right before Nutini came back on stage, he slipped the bra back on the mic. It was then that a roar went up. In fact, the crowd made their presence known throughout the show. The 22-year-old Scot isn’t widely known on this side of the pond, but those familiar with him are devout. Fans in the Opera House’s balcony waved Scottish flags as the audience sung along to hits from Nutini’s first album, These Streets. Technical difficulties during Last Request, the singer’s biggest hit, left Nutini visibly frustrated, but didn’t phase his fans, who sung every word of the tune from start to end. Nutini released his second album, Sunny Side Up, earlier this summer, and more so than These Streets, it is an eclectic mix of genres and sounds. Blues, jazz, country, R&B, rock — they’re all evident in the diverse collection of songs. And his sound isn’t the only thing that’s evolved. At times, Nutini looks like a man possessed by music — crouched over, hanging on to his mic stand for support, stumbling around the stage as he croons. But he makes note that songs off his new album, such as High Hopes, have forced him to change his routine. “I have to stand with my chest out,” he says on his web site. “Different things are coming out.” Indeed, his command of the stage has matured since his last visit to Toronto. For his next tour, he might set stage banter as a goal. Chatter was kept to a minimum, which probably wasn’t a bad thing. Nutini’s Scottish accent is so thick that, when he did finally work up the nerve to talk, much of what he said was lost on the Canadian audience. This didn’t affect the quantity of lingerie thrown on stage, however.  (photo: Maryam Siddiqi/National Post) http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/theampersand/archive/2009/08/03/review-paolo-nutini-at-the-opera-house-in-toronto.aspx       On Tour with Paolo Nutini   In a small room on the third floor of the legendary Theater of the Living Arts on South Street it’s hot and the humidity is nearing 100% on a Saturday afternoon in Philadelphia. There are two couches, a chair and the walls are painted blood red. As I’m standing in front of a big old air conditioner trying to cool off, the first thing that comes to mind is the debauchery that must have gone on in here over the years with the likes of Bob Dylan and Radiohead gracing the stage of this small venue which has a capacity of only 800. Paolo comes in looking tired and says he’s just been jogging that he’s fine. Paolo Nutini & The Vipers are in the middle of a world tour that will crisscross them around the globe to Canada, Japan, Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland, Holland and Brussels and back to the United States. He and his band are driving across America in a bus with a trailer hitched to the back for their instruments. They are traveling light with no props unlike many famous artists on tour, his music speaks for it’s self. We spend almost an hour talking about everything from peanut butter to the military, from how he is inspired to write songs to the smells of Paisley and Tuscany. He finds inspiration for his music “everywhere”, he explains. When he talks with people he will pick up on a phrase he likes and jot it down. Cheesesteaks are to Philly as Fish & Chips are to the UK and I want to know if he has eaten one. He says he has but he didn’t like it then elaborates that he liked the taste but not how big and messy it was and that is when he tells me that he loves American peanut butter. His second album ‘Sunny Side Up’ debuted on the UK chart at number one and I ask if his fame in Europe has made it difficult for him to walk the streets of London alone without being mobbed by fans. “I go walking around all the time without being bothered” he says. It is the aura he puts out when he is offstage that makes it possible for him to live a normal life. He does not attract attention to himself. If you were not looking for him and he walked right by you, you wouldn’t even notice. We discuss his fans that are following him around from show to show and collecting anything they can get their hands on of his. His fans are not only buying one copy of his CD; they are buying multiple copies as gifts for friends and family. They tell everyone they know about him and are on a mission to spread Paolo Nutini around the world. I ask if he knows what a Parrothead is; he doesn’t but wants to guess. He leans over on the couch, and says “Is it some kind of sexual position?” I ask him if he knows what a Deadhead is and he does the same thing and guesses “Does it have to do with marijuana?” I ask if he knows who the Grateful Dead and Jimmy Buffett are hoping that he will and to my relief he realizes what I mean. He tells me he does not have a nickname for his fans. “How ‘bout calling your fans Nutheads?” I ask. He leans over, smiling and thinks for a moment and says “I’m not dislikin’ it.” Paolo’s passionate fan base travel hundreds and even thousands of miles to see him perform and are racking up long lists of shows attended. One came from Portland, Oregon to attend two of his shows in Washington DC and Philadelphia. This will be her fifth and has tickets for four more on the west coast this autumn. Martha and her best friend Cathleen, who has been to three shows, will have driven nearly three thousand miles going to his concerts in 2009. Fans have traveled from across Europe to see him perform in London and Paris. And then there is Glaswegian Denise Deutsch who got in a tub of rotting dead fish wearing only a bikini for the Real Radio Breakfast Show to win a trip to New York City. This would be her 13th time seeing him; the first being his 2006 T Break Stage appearance at T in the Park. After his first CD ‘These Streets’ almost all of his fans were women but not anymore. There were many men who attended the show, young and old; some brought their wives and girlfriends with them and they were singing along to all of his songs. People came with friends who had never heard of him before were instantly hooked. They wanted to know all about him; "How would I categorize his music?" "When is he coming back?" Many said it was the best show they had ever attended and couldn’t wait to go purchase his CD's. Paolo Nutini has an incredible sense of humor along with a serious side. I was lucky enough to see them both that afternoon. There were two fine points he left me with, the fact that he is a curious soul and the two Paolo’s I witnessed; the 22 year-old ordinary guy sitting on the couch chatting with me and the other amazing showman who stepped on to the stage that night. Written by Theresa Longo-Polito For MUSIC NEWS Scotland   Posted 06 August 2009 07:33 PM Just received a Google alert saying that Paolo is sick and needs a rest, so he had to cancel his show at Haldern Pop Festival August 14th. Take care and get well soon,Paolo. clicky (in German) A translation of the German link: "Change of Program at the Haldern Pop Festival 2009 Many people have been looking forward, just as Paolo Nutini himself has, to the 2nd appearance at Haldern of the Scot with the silky voice. The news that Paolo can’t come because of illness and problems with his vocal cords, and therefore needs a break, was naturally a big disappointment for us. But, as ever, we must accept the decision of his doctors. Nutini is at the beginning of his career, and will certainly fulfill his promise in the future. Nutinis withdrawal naturally has consequences for the program. The British Athletes will now crown the program on the main stage. Noah and the Whale will fill in (?nachrucken) on the main stage and Gravenhurst (solo) will move to the (?) Spiegel tent.)

Article with daily star of scotland
Paolos Concert Bravo

Naughty paolo nutini fans desperate for an encore bombarded the stage with racy lingerie until he reappeared.
Saucy music lovers stripped off and hurled their undies after the scots crooner finished a set in Toronto Canada.
And when the thrilled paisley singer, 22 returned to the citys Opera house stage he found a sexy pink bra dangling from his microphone.
One gig goer revealed it was that awkward time between the show and the encore when everyone is waiting for the musician to come back on.
As paolo and his band left to freshen up women started peeling off their underwear and throwing it to stage.
One girl even managed to land this hot pink number right on paolos microphone to a huge roar from the audience.
paolo had a huge grin on his face when he came back out and spotted it - and he did his encore with it still hanging there.

 

 

Accent Firmly on Songs, Not on Gimmicks

August 02, 2009

It's an audience Tom Jones would be proud to call his own. At the front of the stage, screaming girls are 10 deep, others hang from the rafters of the Terminal 5 Club - a vast warehouse on NewYork's Hudson River.

Only trouble is the Jones boyo is appearing at a different venue across Manhattan.

This posse of adoring females have come to welcome their hero, Paolo Nutini. He walks on stage and shouts: "Hello ... Noo Yoikk" before launching into his 2006 hit, New Shoes.

Paolo is making his mark in the US.

He said: "Over here, music almost seems a very visual thing.You've got to have some kind of gimmick. I don't, I'm only selling my songs.

"I don't know if that puts me at a disadvantage. It was encouraging to face 2500 fans who all knew my music."

Paolo has politely resisted attempts to manufacture a glossy pop image.

He told me: "I know I'm still a little self conscious on stage. I want to let things move a little free-er between songs.

"But I learn from each show.That's taught me that nobody else is going to do it for me. I've got to achieve it myself."

His US label Atlantic put Paolo in with a speech therapist in a bid to refine his thick Scots accent.

"He said: 'You gotta problem, you gotta project more'," said Paolo, laughing.

"He gave me voice coaching lessons.

No reflection on the guy but I only lasted the initial one-hour meeting. It was laughable.

"Have Atlantic put me in with stylists and make-up artists? Does it look like it? The last haircut I got was at Kenneth Edwards salon in Paisley. It cost 20 quid and I'm delighted with it."

Paolo is happy to let his songs do the talking.

He said: "I've taken to trying to dance. But I don't really dance. I move.I figuredeven though I don't look great people will see I'm trying to react to the music and they'll respond.

"I loved the film Scent Of A Woman with Al Pacino, where he learns the tango. I'm not sure if there are any tango classes in Paisley but I aim to find out."

http://www.californiachronicle.com/articles/yb/133663193

 

Paolo Nutini releases Coming Up Easy, available from August 10th 2009- the second single from his acclaimed No.1 album Sunny Side Up on Atlantic Records.

Written by Paolo Nutiniand produced by Paolo and Ethan Johns (Kings Of Leon) the rolling soul of Coming Up Easy is one of many highlights on Sunny Side Up. Paolo's mesmerising and powerful voice has no equal, which is beautifully portrayed through the soulful swing of Coming Up Easy.

The track is available on CD and download.

Sunny Side Up sold over 150,000 copies in three weeks and has been a permanent fixture in the top 2 since it's release. The Independent's 4* album review states: "Don't be surprised, if come December, this is one of the year's biggest selling albums."

Following Paolo Nutini's No.1 album Sunny Side Up, his emphatic 12-date UK Tour and sublime performance on Later in May, Paolo embarks on a 15-date Autumn UK tour in September.

Paolo Nutini2009 UK dates are:

August
Sat 22nd Stafford, V Festival
Sun 23rd Chelmsford, V Festival

September
Sun 27th Blackpool, Empress Ballroom
Mon 28th Nottingham, Rock City
Tue 29th Birmingham, Academy
Wed 30th London, Hammersmith Apollo

October
Fri 2nd Bournemouth, Bic Solent Hall
Sat 3rd Portsmouth, Guildhall
Mon 5th Manchester, Apollo
Tue 6th Cardiff, Wales Millennium Centre
Wed 7th Sheffield, Academy
Fri 9th Leeds, Academy
Sun 11th Newcastle, Academy
Tue 13th Dundee, Caird Hall
Wed 14th Glasgow, Academy
Thu 15th Glasgow, Academy

http://www.ilikemusic.com/pop/Paolo_Nutini_Coming_Up_Easy-7474

 

 

Nutini blends folk, reggae in latest album Sunny Side Up

“If you’re happy and comfortable then write about it. Obviously there are things going on in the world, but I figured I better make songs that I’m going to like playing.” - Paolo Nutini

Live Friday
Paolo Nutini performs at the Opera House in Toronto Friday.

BRYAN BORZYKOWSKI

METRO CANADA

July 30, 2009 11:30 p.m.

 

Being a young musician has its challenges. One thing 22-year-old Paolo Nutini is trying to come to grips with is how irrelevant some of his first album, which he wrote when he was a teenager, seems today.

“I was singing songs I’d never sing about in that way now,” says the Scottish-born musician, whose debut, Three Streets, was a huge hit in 2006. “There are instances where I won’t play a song, because I don’t really feel it anymore.”

These days the husky-voiced troubadour is feeling the reggae vibes. His sophomore disc, Sunny Side Up, kicks off with a heavy dose of 2 Tone-style reggae (unofficial Specials trombonist Rico Rodriguez plays on the song), and there are upstroke sounds elsewhere on the record.

“Jamaican music is my favourite,” says the guitarist. “It’s not like I wanted to make a reggae record, it’s just how the song came out.”

Nutini is not the next Bob Marley, though. Most of his record dabbles in folk, laidback Jack Johnson-like melodies and some light Simon and Garfunkel-ish sounds. While the music is definitely eclectic, the one thing most of the tunes have in common is that they’re upbeat and happy, as the album’s moniker suggests.

“I’m pretty happy,” says Nutini. “If you’re happy and comfortable then write about it. Obviously there are things going on in the world, but I figured I better make songs that I’m going to like playing.”

It’s a good thing that the songwriter is in a good, emotional place, because many young stars his age have trouble dealing with fame. Nutini, however, hasn’t fallen into the trap of rock ’n’ roll excess like so many of his peers.

“That stuff is always there — everyone says to go out with the band and get drunk every night, but that’s so cliché. And I want to avoid being a cliché,” he says. “I’m not made to consume so much alcohol. I don’t really get the challenge.”

With Sunny Side Up topping the charts in the U.K. and Ireland, it may get increasingly more difficult for Nutini not to get caught up in the fast life, but it helps that the pressure of being a young star isn’t getting to him too much.

“I don’t really think about age,” he says. “The pressure is that you’re just another guy in the queue. But I’m lucky to be in the queue in the first place.”

 

http://www.metronews.ca/edmonton/entertainment/article/271205--nutini-blends-folk-reggae-in-latest-album-sunny-side-up

Paolo Nutini with Matt Hires and Erin McCarley @ 9:30 Club, Washington DC

Posted on 27 July 2009

Paolo Nutini . You glance at the name and think maybe that’s a new flavor of ice cream. Or maybe gelato. Sounds Italian enough, doesn’t it? But you’d be wrong. Paolo Nutini is, in fact, a 22-year-old singer/guitarist from Paisley, Scotland (his father is of Tuscan descent) who quickly became a UK heartthrob in the wake of the success of his 2006 pop/soul debut album These Streets.

I recall seeing the video for his tune “New Shoes” on the VH1 Top 20 Countdown one Saturday morning and sat there thinking, who is this guy, and why haven’t I heard of him before? As evidenced by the estrogen-charged atmosphere at the 9:30 Club on July 23, there were many who have been fans since his first album-length offering and have liked what this Scot has to say and sing about.

His sophomore effort released June 1 in the UK, Sunny Side Up, is a different animal from These Streets entirely. It’s less mainstream and more soul- and folk-influenced and has received mixed reviews in the British press for its perceived lack of accessibility compared to the previous album. Also, Nutini produced the album himself – often the Achilles’ heel of many artists. I’ve been told by outsiders that D.C. crowds are fickle and aren’t as vocal and responsive to their musical heroes as those in other towns; I’ve been to enough gigs in the area to know this definitely isn’t the case, and it depends on who the performer in question is. Having heard some of the new songs on his MySpace, it wondered how these less poppy songs were going to fly with an audience that might not be familiar with the new material and only be expecting the hits from the first album.

Two American singer /songwriters opened for Paolo Nutini this night – Tampa, Florida native Matt Hiresand Nashville-based Texan songstress Erin McCarley. Hires reminds me of another “Matt” with one T, Mat Kearney . This is intriguing, especially if you consider that both singers have had songs featured prominently in ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy and with that exposure, both of them gained attention and new fans. He even took the stage wearing a similar kind of hat that Kearney wears (but I don’t remember whether Mat Kearney got on stage barefooted at Constitution Hall in May). There’s something endearing about the way Hires emotes that makes him more likable to me than the other solo male pop singer/songwriters currently out there. Also, when someone’s out there with an acoustic guitar and nothing else to fall back on, you know they’re going to bring it.

He started his set with his own version of that classic pop standard, “You Are My Sunshine”. “Pick Me Up”, the third song in Hires’ set, was tender, clearly written and sung by a pained man, distraught and upset, and we the audience could feel this. Before launching into “A Perfect Day”, Hires spent a brief moment tuning his guitar, prefacing the tuning with “tuning a guitar…this is when most musicians would tell a funny story. But I’m not good at doing two things at once. If I tried telling you a funny story, we’ll be here all night.” This of course elicited laughs from the crowd.

A sprightly rendition of MGMT’s “Kids” was definitely an unexpected surprise; Hires began the song with jaunty whistling (replacing the synths in the original version) and continued whistling throughout it. His vocals in the closing number, “State Lines”, reminded me a bit of early-era Oasis Liam Gallagher . (By the way, that’s a compliment, folks, not a slight.) Hires’s debut album Take Us to the Start will be available on iTunes on July 28 and the physical CD will be available in stores August 25.

Matt Hires ’ Set List :
You Are My Sunshine (pop standard)
Honey Let Me Sing You a Song
Pick Me Up
Out of the Dark
A Perfect Day
Kids ( MGMT cover)
State Lines

Singer/songwriter Erin McCarley has been compared by some to Regina Spektor and Sara Bareilles. I don’t see the connection – for one, McCarley doesn’t play the piano (her collaborator/producer Jamie Kenney does), and two, Spektor and Bareilles don’t have the sultry voice that McCarley has. When you see her come out on stage and strap her guitar on (leather strap festooned with feathers), you wouldn’t imagine that such a deep, pleasant voice could come out of her. McCarley’s album Love, Save the Empty came out on January 9, and I really enjoyed the first single from it, “Pony (It’s OK)”, with drummer Josh Robinson and pianist K.S. Rhoads coming together with McCarley to create a perfect piece of pop. The tune directly following it, “Blue Suitcase”, was described by McCarley, with a knowing laugh, as “the one bitter song of the night.”

Like Hires before, she also ventured forth with a cover: Suzanne Vega’s “Tom’s Diner”, accompanied by human beatbox from piano/synth player Rhoads. This cover was just as improbable – or maybe more so than Hires’s earlier MGMT cover? – and those in the know like me sang along and contributed the repeated “doo doo doo doo, doo da-doo doos”. It was more than a little unsettling to see little kids around me who obviously had absolutely no reference point to this song, but McCarley was unfazed, she had a winsome smile throughout her performance. McCarley ended her eight-song set with “Pitter Pat”, with the lyrics “pitter pat, the angel on my shoulder is haunting me tonight / tick tock, the clock is getting louder ready for me to decide” – just as gorgeous and sweet as herself.

Erin McCarley ’s Set List:
Sticky Sweet
Pony (It’s OK)
Blue Suitcase
Lovesick Mistake
Tom’s Diner ( Suzanne Vega cover)
Hello Goodbye
Live, Save the Empty
Pitter Pat

It’s been a very long time since I’ve been to a gig where I’ve felt as though my ears were going to be blown out by the sheer force of screaming from enthusiastic (and usually most often than not female) fans. I was really surprised by the wide range of ages I saw at the show, because I expected Paolo Nutini ’s core fan base in America to be women younger than myself – the type of fan most likely to find his videos and music online. I was mistaken: judging from my vantage point on the floor, crammed up at the front were the most vocal fans; older than me, they had brought their daughters with them. For sure, women outnumbered men 5 to 1 (at least), and as I looked backwards and upwards from where I was standing, the place was packed.

I was completely unprepared for the impact of the energized shrieking from the audience when Nutini and his band, the Vipers (all six of them, including a trumpeter/pianist and an harmonica player), finally emerged. The first song out of the gate was the guaranteed to please “New Shoes,” which tested Nutini’s ability to run around the stage, singing along quickly to the song’s quick pace, and ended was a drawn-out jam.

Sure, some of the new songs are cheesy – are polka rhythms “in”? Has polka ever been “in”? Is this 2009? – and some sound like throwbacks to some bygone era for their crooning quality. Songs like “Chamber Music” and “Candy” could have been sung by Bob Dylan; similarly, “No Other Way” sounded like Nutini was channeling Al Green. But if you’d asked any of the Paolo Nutini fans there that night what they thought, I’m sure they would have pledged their undying devotion to him that night.

The highlight of the gig for me was an all-out raucous version of “Jenny Don’t Be Hasty” during the encore, the driving rhythms from the band feeling like a force of nature, combined with the crowd singing along eagerly with every word uttered out from Nutini’s lips. Nutini and his band gave the D.C. audience everything they had, and in return, the audience cheered and applauded to the music in an equally giving way. So it seems only appropriate that he closed the show with a cover of Rodriguez ’s “Forget It” with the lines “so thanks for your time / and you can thank me for mine“, which is a good summation of what happened at the 9:30 Club that night Paolo Nutini and his band came to town.

Paolo Nutini ’s Set List :
New Shoes
High Hopes
Alloway Grove
Pencil Full of Lead
Loving You
Mellow Down Easy
Last Request
These Streets
Growing Up Beside You
Chamber Music
Candy
Funky Cigarette
Coming Up Easy
Down in Mexico
10/10
No Other Way
//
Tricks of the Trade (acoustic solo)
Sleepwalking
Jenny Don’t Be Hasty
Forget It ( Rodriguez cover)

Tour dates
Jul 25 - Theatre of Living Arts / Philadelphia
Jul 27 – Vogue Theatre / Indianapolis
Jul 28 – Variety Playhouse / Atlanta
Jul 29 – Cannery Ballroom / Nashville
Jul 31 – Opera House / Toronto
Aug 01 – St. Andrews Hall / Detroit
Aug 02 – Vic Theatre / Chicago
Aug 03 – Weesner Amphitheater / Apple Valley, MN

http://popwreckoning.com/2009/07/27/paolo-nutini-with-matt-hires-and-erin-mccarley-930-club-washington-d-c/