IT’s perhaps fitting that on a day to celebrate independent record shops, I watch Nerina Pallot from a tiny office behind a makeshift stage on which she beguiles the 100 or so punters-come-fans packed into Wimborne’s Square Records.

Surrounded by record shop paraphernalia (souvenir discs, handwritten sales charts, empty CD sleeves), and with the crowd outside staring back at me from a dusty security monitor, I crane my neck to glimpse Pallot’s back as she canters through an immaculate eight-song set.

A Brit Award nominee with a major label deal in her pocket and Kylie covering her songs, Pallot is more at home these days on the stages of 02 Academies and the Shepherd’s Bush Empire, but today is charm personified, paraphrasing Joni Mitchell in a plea to Wimborne’s punters to realise the importance of shops like Square Records before it’s too late.

“This is a really special day. Places like this shaped my life. This is why I do what I do.”

A false start on the uplifting Put Your Hands Up, the soon-to-be first single from new album, Year of the Wolf, only adds to the charm of this none-more-intimate performance.

“I usually play this one on piano,” she murmurs while strumming through the chords in preparation for take two.

But with Pallot, the instrument barely matters.

She is all about the voice, by turns soaring (Sophia), defiant (Everybody’s Going to War), and whisper soft (Human).

There’s time for an impromptu signing session from behind the counter (making the day of the Williams family who’ve driven from Wales to watch her) and she’s off, tending to baby Wolfgang and saying goodbyes to old friend and store owner, Paul Holman.

“What are we going to do next year?” he gasps. Answers on a postcard…