That had been with a small band, but when I saw she was playing at a venue in Woking that I'd never heard of, I decided I'd go and see her again.
The venue turned out to be part of a disused office building (Someone said it was once KFC's regional HQ) and felt a lot like the venue I'd been to in Bracknell to see the Police 3.0 a few months earlier - A big room with a very low stage and a bar area.
I spoke to a friendly man at the 'merch' stand and bought a copy of her covers CD, made up of songs from artists from towns on this tour (disappointingly, she decided against my suggestion of covering A Town Called Malice, but did cover a Paul Weller song).
Disappointingly, for me, I discovered the venue was all seated. I like to move around a bit at gigs (My wife would definitely discourage me from calling it dancing) and being stuck in a hard plastic chair isn't my idea of a good gig, but it was what it was and I found a seat near the front, so I'd have a good view.
The tickets said 7:00PM start (on a Sunday evening), so I assumed Nerina probably wouldn't be on stage until 8:00, so I don't think I was alone in being a little surprised when she appeared at 7:15! Good job I got there early!
Nerina was alone on the stage, with an electronic piano and a couple of guitars and started with a couple of song on an electric guitar, before moving to the keyboard.
Singing unaccompanied by a band, I was even more struck by how good Nerina's voice is.
She has a clarity and a great range.
Another thing I've always liked about her is the variety of her songs, she's not just a ballard singer or a 'rock chick', she even had a 'Randy Newman'esque song (written in a hurry for an advert, she tells us, because "Randy Newman was too expensive!") in You and Me (The Dog Song), laughing that people have said they had this played at their wedding, which made her wonder what they were trying to say...
As in Guildford (where she chatted so much, she was told to hurry up to finish the set), she chatted amiably with the audience, even eliciting some 'news' from the audience (One woman was there alone on her husband's birthday because he 'hates live music' and someone announced the arrival of a nephew).
Before she played "Everybody's Gone To War" she quipped, "I'll play my one hit now and then normal service will be resumed".
At one point, she called the friendly man from the Merch stand up on stage.
He turning out to be her husband who, she told us, has more stage fright than her (despite being an accomplished keyboard player, it transpired) and he accompanied her on Wild Wood, her 'local act' cover for the evening.
There was a brief interlude mid set, while the audience got drinks and Nerina had a costume change, I see this more and more, maybe the audiences at gigs I go to need a pee break mid way!
She ended the set and then returned mere moments later to give us her cover of Love Will Tear Us Apart - Usually I hate covers of that song (Paul Young's emotionless dirge being the worst offender), but Nerina's arrangement is very different, while retaining all the emotion and despair of the original.
If I'm honest, I prefered her gig at the Boiler Room, with the bigger sound of a band and being able to stand up for the performance gave the gig a more energetic, less passive feel, but perhaps that's just a personal preference. I'd have liked to have heard "Alice At The Beach", too, the song that introduced her to me, but as you can see, she covered a lot of her back catalogue and I suspect a lot of those there found her through her earlier material.
If nothing else I discovered two albums from her I'd not heard, "Into The Light of a Dark Black Night" (the covers album) and "A Psalm For Emily Salvi" (released in 2024 and somehow I'd not realised there was a whole album).
Overall, though, another very enjoyable performance by Nerina - She's performing at the Royal Albert Hall next May and I'm still toying with the idea of going, much as I dislike the hassle of going to central London for gigs these days.
Setlist:
These are songs I recall from the gig, the order is definitely wrong, except the encore
Everybody's Gone to War
Put Your Hands Up
Sofia
You and Me (The Dog Song)
Wild Wood (Paul Weller cover)
Idaho
Real Late Starter
The Right Side (Not 100% sure about this one.)
Geek Love
Learning to Breathe
I Don’t Know What I’m Doing
The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter
Bring Him Fire
It Starts
Damascus
Daphne and Apollo
Encore:
Love Will Tear Us Apart (Joy Division cover)
