Taking a chance on me
Back in the early 00s, Lisa Nimmo was the driving force behind Kiwi rock-pop duo Pearl who were the support act for the 2006 concerts of Elton John and Eric Clapton, released a handful of singles and an album and kept on keeping on for some seven years. Haven’t heard of them? Reading Nimmo’s surprisingly engaging story, especially if you live in Auckland, will help explain, in sometimes sobering detail, why they might have passed you by.
Blame it on Abba, which successfully crosses genres from memoir to business goal-setting and life-coaching manual, starts with Nimmo, then 32 and an effective radio advertising saleswoman, being persuaded to perform as Sporty Spice at a 1999 Christmas party.
It awakens a long-lost dream in Nimmo, who has no prior music experience other than performing Abba concerts as a child for family and friends. She sets out to transform herself from “closet-karaoke-singing salesperson” to a professional singer, musician and songwriter and eventually quits her day job to live that dream.
Talk about a radical reinvention. At 32, it might not seem like a late-life change but, as Nimmo discovers, thirtysomething was considered well and truly over-the-hill by the urban radio programmers, venue bookers and record industry execs who held sway over what we — the listening public — got to hear. Forming Pearl with fellow singer-songwriter Shelley Hirini, she needed every bit of business savvy, grit and determination from her past life if they were to get anywhere in New Zealand. Credit to them, for a time they did so and their success celebrated in lifestyle magazines and in their motivational speaking engagements/performances.
Privately, Nimmo, by then a mother of two young children, was chronically overworked, frustrated by the ageism they encountered and, with husband and Pearl music director Chris Jones, heavily in debt.
Blame It On Abba is an honest examination of what “living the dream” can really entail. The latter chapters make for uncomfortable reading as Nimmo highlights the disjunct between those glossy magazine spreads about Pearl’s achievements and real life. Though she must surely want to let rip, she keeps her composure and resists the temptation to “name names”, remaining almost well-mannered when re-telling the sexist and ageist attitudes she and Hirini dealt with.
This is a warm, entertaining and often enlightening read that will have you cheering Nimmo — and Pearl — on while shaking your head at some of the sh*t they deal with. Recommended especially if you’re thinking of quitting your own day job to live a dream — you might come away with a few useful tips and hints as well as an honest appraisal of what it truly takes.