'And it was New York, New York' - Paloma's American Dream.

Paloma with Lauren Ceradini, Scott Seviour & Joseph Carozza
of Epic Records USA at Soho House.

You may remember on the last album 'Do you want the Truth or Something Beautiful?' Paloma was lamenting about how 'New York' had stolen her lover's heart and 'poisoned his sweet mind'. Therefore you could be forgiven for thinking Paloma's recent trip to New York, might be partly based on getting her own back on the city that stole her man, as a few Twitter followers suggested last week. However, you would be wrong....

The real reason for her visit was for something much more EXCITING!!! As you may already know, on June 14th 2012; Epic Records announced that Paloma had been signed to their label! And as such is one of the newest artists to join their 'Epic family' in AMERICA! The label will be releasing both 'Fall to Grace' and the first single 'Picking up the Pieces' in the States later this year - which is brilliant! I am so excited for Paloma and I think you will agree this deserves big congratulations, I can't wait to see how well it does out there.

So to celebrate the fact that Paloma has been signed in America and also because there are so many wonderful photos to share from her trip last week, I decided I couldn't pass up the opportunity to put all the information and photos together and write another blog! Which hopefully you will all enjoy. Also included are a video and some photos from Paloma's very first live performances in the States.

Although her American dream is only just beginning, I'm sure it won't be long before she lands amongst the stars...

A note that appeared beside Paloma at the Airport.

Paloma in New York with her new shirt & bag from ASOS.

Paloma and band outside Joe's Shanghai in New York.

Paloma took part in this shoot when she arrived in New York,
outfit by Dolce & Gabbana.
© Shervin.

Paloma performed her first ever concert in America, exclusively at the 'Encore! Live sessions at Le Baron Chinatown' in New York on June 19th. Below are just some of the beautiful photos from her performance, the gorgeous blue beaded dress she is wearing was handmade by Wendy Benstead, who as you may already know made some of the pieces for the 'Picking up the Pieces' video, as well as the red dress for the 'Fall to Grace' album artwork.

© Noelle Downing

© Noelle Downing

The next day Scott Seviour from Epic sent me the video below of Paloma performing 'Just Be' at Le Baron. I wrote back to Scott to thank him for sending me the video and also told him to "Look after our Paloma, she's a gem!" to which he replied "Yes, she's a gem & the jewel of Epic!"

It seems Paloma's performance at Le Baron was hugely successful as there was so much positive feedback circulating from people who had attended the gig. One fan tweeted "Sigh. I just saw Paloma Faith sing at the world's smallest club in Chinatown. Magic. Best singer I've seen since Amy Winehouse" and another wrote "Just saw the Brit's Paloma Faith live, she is amazing!" Paloma herself tweeted "Thank you so much Le Baron NYC I am honoured to make you my Amewican debut! #epicfamily"

The next day Paloma took part in a shoot for Project Sounds Magazine, here are some photos of her backstage in makeup, as well as a few from behind the scenes of the shoot.

Picture Paloma tweeted backstage in makeup
"Oh my god Bradley and Glen are the dream team glam squad".

Paloma's amazing hair and makeup backstage.

Behind the scenes of Paloma's shoot for Project Sounds Magazine.

Picture Paloma tweeted of her and her driver Lyron in New York.

June 21st: "I LOVE new york! I'm having a wonderful time here everyone has been so nice!"

Later that day Paloma performed at a press luncheon for her new label Epic at Soho House, New York. Below are some photos from her performance, the gorgeous dress she is wearing is a couture gown by Ashley Isham. 

One attendee at the lunch commented "The incredible Paloma Faith wowed us today with her amazing voice and killer dress!"

The last of Paloma's performances in America took place at the Prabal Gurung Resort 2013 collection dinner in New York. Below are some pictures of Paloma at the dinner as well as some of her performing. (There were further pictures but unfortunately I can't view the full size, so I've just made a mini collage of them and put that below too because they are amazing!) The dress Paloma is wearing is by Prabal Gurung. 

Paloma with Diane Von Furstenburg and Prabal Gurung
at the Prabal Gurung Resort 2013 dinner.

 

On June 22nd Paloma was made MTV Buzzworthy's 'Artist of the Day' read the article here

Whilst in New York, she also took part in this short interview with Spin titled: 'Everything you need to know about the UK's sassiest Pop Star' read the article here

The USA's WWD Style Magazine covered the Prabal Gurung dinner
and featured this lovely photo of Paloma on the front of their magazine!

Paloma later tweeted "Thank you USA for being so wonderful to me! I'll be back in August but until then hello home!!!!!! Xxx"

Picking up the Pieces will be released by Epic in the USA in August 2012.

Paloma Faith: BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge 2012.

Paloma and Fearne Cotton.

On the 18th June 2012, Paloma joined Fearne Cotton live in the BBC Radio 1 studio at Hackney Academy in London.

After a short interview, Paloma performed two songs in the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge, which were also streamed live across the internet via the webcam. The first being her new single 'Picking up the Pieces' taken from her new album 'Fall to Grace' which is out now. The second was a cover of Rudimental's 'Feel the Love' - which seemed extremely popular both with the studio and radio audiences! Later that day Paloma also took part in a fashion Q&A session at the Hackney Academy before flying to New York!

Below are some photos of Paloma throughout the day from the day. Also included is a video of her performing Rudimental's 'Feel the Love'.

Paloma arriving at BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge
at Hackney Academy.

Paloma performing live in BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge.

 

 

 

Paloma performing in the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge.

 

© Kezia Levitas

© Kezia Levitas

Fans of Paloma is Picking up the Pieces

 

You will never guess where I went yesterday! Actually I'm not sure why I'm asking you all to guess when there are two absolutely huge clues, both in the title and in the picture above this post.

If you are currently thinking "Is that the house where Paloma filmed the video for 'Picking up the Pieces'?" Then you would be correct!

A couple of months ago when the video was first released many of you contacted me to ask where it was filmed. Naturally being intrigued myself I did a bit of digging and managed to find out that the video was filmed at a house called West Wycombe Park which is owned by the National Trust and located just outside of High Wycombe. It is a popular filming location and aside from Paloma's video it has also featured in The Lost Prince (2003) and The Importance of Being Earnest (2002) amongst others.

I decided that I couldn't pass up the opportunity to go and investigate and believe me it looks just as beautiful, grand and glamorous in real life as it does in Paloma's music video! Unfortunately as with most National Trust properties you are not allowed to take photos inside, so I can't show you just how stunning it looked. I did see the grand hall, staircase and a few of the other rooms that feature in the video; however the upstairs was off limits as the family are still living there. One of the highlights was definitely walking into one of the main rooms only to be greeted by the sight of the grounds and lake from the second you stepped into the room because the windows were that huge, it was amazing and so grand! At that moment I felt as though I was in a palace!

Although I can't share the inside with you, I did take a lot of photos of the grounds and the outside of the house, which I am going to share on the remainder of this blog post. I'll also post some caps from the video too, so you can see where they appear. There are some differences between what we see in the video and the house itself, so I will point these out as well.

This is the road Paloma's car drives up at the beginning of the video.

 

One of the statues which appears at the start of the video as Paloma's car drives to the house.

The statue is actually in the grounds at the back of the house not along the driveway.

Another statue shown at the beginning of the video along the driveway, also in the grounds at the back of the house.

 

The car in the video arrives at the front of the house but this is the main entrance at the back.

These are the first views of the house as you come up the drive.

 

Paloma sits on a bench outside this part of the house in the video. Sadly the bench isn't there!!!
But you do get to leave the house this way, as it's the visitors exit.

Just some of the grounds at West Wycombe Park

The back of the house

West Wycombe Brass Band preparing to play a set.

We also got to listen to the West Wycombe Brass Band who were at the house performing a 2 hour set. Which included a number of songs from Disney films and also some of the more traditional marches. Here's a short clip I filmed of them playing 'When You Wish Upon A Star' from Disney's Pinocchio.

 

So that concludes my trip to West Wycombe Park. Hope you enjoyed having a brief look behind the scenes from my photos. I really enjoyed visiting the house and I would definitely recommend a visit yourself, if you're interested in seeing more because it's wonderful!

PS. Yes I am still Picking up the Pieces.