aaamusic | On 26, Oct 2010

“Dusty Springfield weaned on acid folk rock that makes little children laugh and grown men weep,” Ed Harcourt

LONDON & UK DATES OCT/NOV

10th November                           The Grapevine @ Bedfords, 1 Old Post Office Yard NORWICH

22nd November                          93 Feet East, 150 Brick Lane

18^th December                           Bull & Butcher, Turville, Buckinghamshire

FROM JAN 2011 Sing For Your Supper tour hits the UK! More details soon.

“Toothpaste & Whisky” is the debut single release from Claire Nicolson’s forthcoming album “52 Card Pick Up” (due early 2011). A bouncy, up-for-it singalong anthem with a wink in its eye, it’s brimming with bluesy twang, thanks, in part, to some amazing harmonica from Alabama 3’s Nick Reynolds. Flipside “Scorpion”, with its spidery guitar-picking and eerie Mellotron strings, is the polar opposite. It went down best throughout her recent Irish ‘Sing For Your Supper’ tour, and so was a must for this first release. It’s dedicated to the scorpion Claire shared her room with when she wrote the album.

The ‘Sing For Your Supper’ tour is an ongoing project in which Claire pitches up at bars and pubs across the country and offers them a tune or two from her and her guitar in exchange for a hot meal. A few proper gigs are booked on the way too which will allow the odd famous friend to join in. Her first stop was Northern Ireland and Eire earlier this year, where she clocked up 15 dates and gained plenty of press and radio attention, before rocking up at several festivals including Standon Calling and Electric Picnic. Look out for London dates this and next month.

Claire Nicolson’s work as a backing singer and musician have seen her travel the world on global tours and performing with the likes of Kula Shaker, Mike Oldfield, The Waterboys and more recently Martina Topley Bird. Much to her surprise, she’s even turned up recently on the new Surf advert singing the song ‘You and I’ written & produced by her brother Hugo Nicolson for his project “Yellow Hammer” which is to be released in the new year.

A little more history perhaps? A whiz at violin and piano from age five, Claire went on to win a place at the prestigious Royal Academy of Music in London where she studied for two years.

In true modern DIY style, she has been recording her debut album, ’52 Card Pick-Up,’ for her own label, Canned Records. Sign up for a free download at www.clairenicolson.com