THE five-year closure of the Jersey Opera House left a big gap in the Island’s arts and music scene.
So when it finally re-opened earlier this year, a homecoming concert for Jersey’s own Nerina Pallot was always going to be high on the board’s wish list.
It is a venue close to the singer-songwriter’s heart having first performed on stage there as a young child.
“Probably the second time I ever did the Eisteddfod, I won and I wasn’t expecting to,” Nerina recalled. “I was so scared and then I did it and I won.
“I burst into tears… I don’t think the teacher was prepared!”
“I’m really excited – the Opera House has been closed for a while. I was really happy to be involved, I did a fundraiser in the summer at Government House. It’s just been such a part of my life growing up.”
It has been almost a decade since Nerina last gigged in her home island and so a return to the Opera House stage will be an “emotional” one.
And, in a moment of “panic” about the weather stopping her from getting to the Island, Nerina moved another show to give herself a longer window to get here as a precaution.
“I’m really excited, I’m just praying that there is no fog,” she said.
There is always a sense of pride in the Island at a Jersey-girl-done-good and Nerina said she always receives strong support from Islanders who go to her shows, even when she cannot always make it back home. A strong Jersey contingent watched her at the London Palladium last year.
“I don’t think I have played a show [in Jersey] in a decade now at least – it’s been a really long time.”
But she stresses she won’t get too hung up on the homecoming part of the concert.
“You get the ‘I’m home, that’s lovely’ part but then I think I want to give people a really great show if they haven’t seen me live for a while.
“Obviously, I think some of the show will be geared towards the Island and it will be nice to be amongst friends and family.
“It’s very emotionally charged for me, that venue.”
Despite now being based in the UK, Jersey and it’s landscape as always been a big part inspiration for her songwriting – particularly walks along St Ouen’s Bay.
Many of the songwriters who inspire her, she added, “are landscape writers”.
“Kate Bush often writes about landscapes,” she said. “Ours had a big influence on the way I write about things.”
Nerina has not had much time to reflect recently. She is currently halfway through “pretty intense” 40-date UK-wide tour.
“I think you just have to pace yourself,” she said. “I spent the summer getting into shape, not drinking, just getting really fit and healthy, It’s very physical – it’s a bit like training for a marathon.”
The tour – All Roads Lead To – has taken her across the UK and will conclude with a grand finale at the Royal Albert Hall.
Despite decades of experience on stage and performing at some huge venues, Nerina admits the Albert Hall gig is the “big one” and one that can leave her feeling “utterly terrified” if she gives it too much thought.
“I get really bad stage fright, I cannot even think about it,” the former JCG student said. “It will be amazing, I’m sure.”
Nerina is keen to help the next generation of musicians flourish and ensure they get the opportunities to perform.
To find a supporting act for the Jersey show, Mrs Pallot held a competition to find a local artist – ultimately choosing alt-pop singer Sam Walwyn, who grew up in Jersey and the Caribbean and now lives in London.
Having gone through the entries with her husband Andy, Nerina was impressed with the standard.
“There is so much proper talent in the Island,” she said. “I’m sure it is the same in acting and dancing too. There is a world of talent, there always has been”.
Theatres across the UK are struggling – 43 were classified as being “at risk” at the start of 2025 – and Mrs Pallot hopes to promote the value of local venues. The tour has taken her to some “amazing” places across the UK – she highlighted Colchester Arts Centre, a “stunning” converted church, the “beautiful” Ludlow Assembly Rooms, and Mexborough’s Imperial Music Venue are particularly impressive.
And she recounted meeting audience members who had never been to their local theatre or arts centre, but promised to come back often.
“The whole point of this tour was to go out and play [these venues] – and I think people have really appreciated that,” she said.
“It’s that juxtaposition playing a big show one night and a little one the next night. You never really know what each night is going to be like.
“Since the pandemic, how many of these venues are just shutting down? If you don’t use them, then they will disappear.”
She believes that artists could do more to promote smaller venues but said that, unfortunately, for many the economics don’t work out.
“I can do this show solo,” she explains. “But, it’s about the economy of scale. I can do that, but I think it’s harder for bands and orchestras.”
“This [playing smaller venues] is where younger musicians and actors and performers would cut their teeth. One of the first jobs you got was in provincial tours.
“It’s a kind of ecosystem that if you don’t pay attention to the little places very soon, you won’t have the talent.”
Social media platforms have given young musicians the chance to have their talents heard on a grand scale, but for Nerina, nothing can replicate the learning experience of playing live to small crowds and honing your craft in front of an audience.
“I think it’s completely different,” she said, “and I think it’s really artificial”
“It’s not about being in a specific space in a moment.
“The feedback you get online in comments and things is quite artificial and it’s very curated, I think.
“When you play an actual venue, lots of things can happen. Someone can heckle you, someone can sing along.”
On the first date of the tour, in Reading, a power cut meant she continued with just her audience’s phone lights.
“It was so magical,” she said. “We did this really intimate, beautiful set. We adapted in the moment.”
These moments are “vanishingly rare”, she adds, when people can just exist in the moment and not focus on the “relentlessly awful” news cycle.
“I think that’s the utter beauty [of live music]. For a moment, you get to forget everything else.”
The Jersey show, she hoped, would be “a really uplifting, all around good show and something for everybody”.
