She was described in 1977 by the music journalist Nick Kent[1] as: "very, very pretty", with a "gorgeous ebony face … warm lively eyes and a contagious smile", and her personality as "effervescent [and] fizzing with drive"; and later, in 1990, by the author Sean Mayes as "pretty" and "petite" with an "infectious, bubbling personality" and "irrepressibly outspoken".
One day in their lodgings while on tour, Nestor showed her some of her poems and Armatrading set them to music, and so their writing partnership was born.
Nestor was reportedly a hustler – full of energy, making the connections, doing the talking [5] and arranging meetings, until her efforts were rewarded when the tapes were eventually accepted by Essex Music.
The songs for the debut album were the choice of Dudgeon and Mike Stone, an American promoter who was jointly managing the duo at the time.
Tuesday Productions had wanted to call the album Joan Armatrading, but Nestor fought against that decision, saying it was "absolutely not right" to do so, given the work she had done over three years.
Tuesday Productions wanted to focus their efforts solely on Armatrading and decided they were going to market her as a solo artist, despite the collaboration with Nestor.
"[9] The album was released as a "Joan Armatrading" record, and the front cover credited it to her alone, factors that caused tension between the two writers, and these, together with the later promotional gigs organised by Sherry Copeland and Tuesday Productions/Cube that excluded Nestor entirely, contributed to the eventual breakup of the duo.
The record label seemed determined at the time to erase Nestor from the picture, despite the contributions, lyrically, musically and entrepreneurial, she had made not just to the debut album but to the development of Armatrading as an artist.
However, it had been Nestor who, in the words of biographer Sean Mayes, "gave Joan the courage to do the impossible", [15] and without her it is likely the album would not have been made.
[1] Nestor was the catalyst that enabled Joan Armatrading's career to take off, as Kent said: "she’d do the rapping, the mixing while her quiet friend who spent so much time cloistered behind her piano or guitar, would hang back in the shadows, protected by the former’s feisty joie de vivre".
It was co-written by Nestor, who provided not just the lyrics but the original draft of the music as well, according to the producer of the album, Pete Gage: "As soon as I heard Pam Nestor play – there's one number, it was the blueprint for Dry Land, there’s no doubt about it, Joan had actually learnt bits and pieces of Pam's piano playing".
She appeared on an edition of BBC's Open Door in August 1973 to promote the film, and was interviewed by Austin John Marshall of New Musical Express.
[27] The film is available at the Mediatheque archive at the BFI and is described as "a rarely seen portrait of racial tension in London's East End".
[3] She also continued with some singing and performing engagements, for example, appearing with her band at the Nashville in Kensington, London, on 25 May 1978 supporting the Bowles Brothers,[30] at the Acklam Hall, Notting Hill, on 27 November 1978 along with Liz Xtian and Clapperclaw,[31] and at the Witcombe Lodge in Cheltenham on 25 August 1979, supported by Madness.
Merger recorded a reggae album titled Exiles Ina Babylon on the Sun Star Label, which was released in 1977, and played the title track, "Exiles Ina Babylon" on an edition of The Old Grey Whistle Test in 1977, with Nestor appearing as a backing singer.
Exiles Ina Babylon was re-released as a CD in 2009 by Makasound, the independent French reggae label, with the album notes again crediting Pam Nestor.
Also in 1979, Nestor released a single titled "Hiding & Seeking (No More)" on the Tempus Records label (TEMD 21) with "Man on the Run" as its B-side.
In 2000, Nestor was one of an organising team for a three-day conference at Birkbeck College, University of London, titled The Black Gaze.