June Tabor & Oyster Band – Manchester Royal Northern College of Music – 12 October 2024
Please believe in the power of music. Their words, not mine. A combination of wake, celebration, and religious experience. There is a sense of sadness, but no exaggeration, as the end of the journey is in sight and the Oysterband prepares to journey to immortality, where the river’s course finally ends. A short run with June Tabor (and a short run with our “Chopper” Ray Cooper) precedes a longer “band only” run. “The Long Goodbye” will be extended until 2025, so the next step is to perform around 20 performances across the UK in November or December (the final performance in the UK), but this special performance is something to be savored. It’s uplifting and inspirational.
We, the royal “we”/I, only knew a small part of the journey. Perhaps most importantly, June and the Chaps and their album Ragged Kingdom received critical acclaim at the 2012 Folk Awards held at The Raleigh, where June was named Folk Award of the Year. The singer would have chosen them and they would have played Fountains Flowing. As they did tonight, yes, the words “become a pilgrim” still run through my head.
In front of the stage is a hunk of metalwork. Eight microphones are available and all but one may be used depending on the chopper’s position. Fortunately, the splashing was kept to a minimum, but before the lights went down, Eve Alan Prosser crept onto the stage to do a tuning spot and nudged one of the amp’s microphones. If they had found his feet in stockings on the laminate floor, Heath & Safety might have taken charge of his case, but perhaps a risk assessment would have been carried out.
June felt a strange sense of déjà vu after witnessing a similar scene on the Fire & Fleet tour a few years ago, and took center stage wearing the long red velvet coat that had served her well. Most of the eight dates in this combination are sold out. The works they recorded together, Freedom and Rain and Ragged Kingdom (now newly reissued on vinyl), are both esteemed collaborations, the latter particularly an Oyster band standard. is well mined into the set, giving June a strange respite.
Not that she needs it. Her voice is strong and clear, and she sings with purpose and passion. Especially when she finished the second song, She Khan’s “Mississippi,” she declared: Jon Jones even pulls her up for the gentle whispers he heard when they recently met and sang together. “Where did this come from?” he laughs. “I bought it on eBay,” she deadpans.
Set 1 is layered like an elaborate Bake Off challenge. This is a work worthy of shaking hands with Hollywood. Oyster Band songs – Meet You There (Or Where The World Divides?) / By Northern Light – The set begins and ends with A River Runs Through (which, as JJ continued to emphasize in 2016, is one of their most recent songs) (His intro) and Roll Away provide a solid backbone for the collaborative songs to weave together. The center is stuffed with sweets.
Even a fake true love will send shivers down your spine. As in June’s intimate second set when he accompanied her at Shiloh, Al Prosser chooses acoustic, sensitive songs, and the band adds subtly delicate backing. He has been praised by J.J. as “the busiest man on stage.” He seems to start singing every song,” he said, paying tribute to his humble and shy partner. Just as June avoids the word “miserable” on several occasions, she even played JJ’s mother in this set starring her personal favorite, son David.
Covering Dylan (Seven Curses – all nine verses, all drone and rumbling toms), Joy Division (Love Will Tear Us Apart) and The Velvet Underground (All Tomorrow’s Parties), June remembers the late Les Barker, There are special moments that are left unsung. His version of the Roseville Fair was unaccompanied. There’s a joke or two in the story of banjo destruction, followed by a typical Telfar deadpan intro (not of the Scottish persuasion, but I can’t understand the finer points of the Dundee-Aberdeen conflict) Susie “It’s a really “amazing” song to Cleland, he promises.”It’s a really upbeat song.” Sean Randle temporarily puts aside the tom echoes from the smart 4/4 shuffle that’s so common tonight.
All That Way For This has a similarly dry intro: “We wrote about Brexit in 1979, when we were at the cutting edge of songwriting.” An acoustic trio is formed on stage left in one of many combos that demonstrate the unit’s versatility. The return of Chopper on bass and cello may have allowed Al Scott to add guitar and mandolin embellishments, but a nod to the ever-consistent presence of Adrian Oksar. It somehow feels “right” for him to come back. It’s in the fold, albeit for a short period of time.
Of course, given this combination, it is not so far from “tradition”. Juen introduces Sweet Sixteen as one of his songs about being “in progress.” She says, “What this song boils down to is, ‘Oh, I wish I had listened to my mom when I was 16.'” Six Oyster voices provide a rich background, contrasting with John Barleycorn’s driving arrangement, which stomps over a rattling acoustic. guitar part. Chopper also gets lead vocals. The rich red light adds a touch of emotion to the gorgeous sway of “Dancing As Fast As I Can.” The chorus is majestic and often incomprehensible. Perhaps, maybe not, rivaled only by the inevitable Curtis/Hooke/Sumner/Morris classic that Oyster Band and June put their own spin on. We are in Manchester, after all.
The encore came too soon. Psych-folk thrash in White Rabbit – Despite JJ’s encouragement to “come to Manchester”, we’re not going to come forward and bang heads on stage like we were doing in San Francisco at the time – is sandwiched between pairs such as: I bid you a warm farewell. “Dark End Of The Street” and “Put Out The Lights” provide further well-placed emotional moments. There may even be a lump in JJ’s throat as he talks about singing this song for the last time in Manchester.
Yes, it’s a sad farewell, but a farewell to and from Manchester, and a farewell to two names that deserve to be etched on folk music walls and halls of fame.
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