TalkAwhile - The Folk Corporation Forum

Howabout June Tabor?

Lovely though her voice is, when she did it at Crops in late 80s it was not a huge success and I think has been documented as such :(

I thought the whole performance of Sailors Life at Cropredy with June on vocals and supported by the band was great in real time... I liked it...it was not that bad

i take it you are a deaf person
the band were great, ms t was rubbish she made it a laughing stock

Now, now, Boys, BOYS!

I agree. I'm not a huge fan of a sailors life anyway, although I appreciate the fact that it was one of the first traditional tracks Fairport did. I've never heard June Tabor perform anything else though, so I can't be too judgemental.

and Jim was doing so well too.

He'd managed to avoid rising to the bait for almost a year until now.

(September 11th 2007 being the last mention I believe)

[/quote]
i take it you are a deaf person
the band were great, ms t was rubbish she made it a laughing stock
[/quote]

 ...yes the band were performing great things on the night and I believe the song was not turned into some kind of joke because of the performance...at the time it was great to hear the song performed live...a rare occurrence and in the spirit of the times I look at the attempt by June and Fairport as an honerable one.

full marks for attempting it, 10/10 to the band but detention ,i'm afaid for the chanteuse


sorry nick ive fallen of the JT waggon, and i was doing so well :'(
my names jim i'm not a great fan of JT's rendition of "A Sailors Life"

What you need to know, KK, is that June Tabor is one of the outstanding singers and interpreters of folk, jazz, and rock music of her generation. Her early work with Martin Simpson is at times breathtaking. Her albums Ashes and Diamonds and Abyssinians are wonderful. The Watersons song The Scarecrow on the latter is an all time classic. She is magnificent interpreter of RT songs. The likes of Elvis Costello have written for her (All This Useless Beauty). She made two fabulous albums with Maddy Prior as the Silly Sisters. She made a wonderful album with Oysterband called Freedom and Rain which included an amazing version of The Velvet Underground's All Tomorrow's Parties. Her version of Eric Bogle's "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" is definitive and moves audiences to tears. All in all, June Tabor is acknowledged as one of the most important and influential singers of the last thirty years.

Occasionally she is villified on this board for one allegedly under par performance at Cropredy. I suggest you get hold of some of her stuff and make up your own mind.

Meanwhile, mods, this thread is entitled "Leslie Sings Denny".



Edit: At least, it was... I've cut the June Tabor comments out of the Leslie Sings Denny thread and put them in their own topic...

Weren't there stage monitor problems that night? She has been absolutely briliant in most of the other stuff I have heard.

I've said this before but I'll repeat it for the benefit of KK. The "infamous" June Tabor performance at Cropredy was a result of bad monitors. She couldn't hear the band. This kind of thing can happen when you come on for just a couple of numbers. To judge her on this one performance is to miss the point so fulsomely made by PLW.

Another way to see June Tabor's talent is to find the bit of the film Ken Russell made about English Folk Music in which she performs a capella. The rest of the film is a joke but this section shows how sublime she can be.

And I don't even like June Tabor much!

She did a stunning version of Lili Marlene which was on TV a year or two ago. Must look for it on youtube.

It is also worth noting that June Tabor's surprise performance at Croprey in 1988 was outstanding! She joined Filarfolket for their encore and sang RT's "Pharoah" form the yet to be released Amnesia album.

I didn't realise the 1988 problem was caused by monitors. Full marks to her for carrying on.

To atone for thinking badly of her I have just ordered 'Freedom & Rain'  :)

An excellent album. You'll enjoy it.

I think she is a great interpretor and singer.

Pull down now, about packing away the fair and moving on, I find incredibly emotional.

Paul

The Pulling Down Song, written by another JT, John Tams.

I don't like 'im.

Always moaning about Sheffield.

June's "Sailor" was brilliant at the Half Moon warm-up in '87. Word from the band was that she was off-key at Cropredy because of a monitor problem.

I kept my self away from the last JT bashing session bye and large, having witnessed the unfortunate "Sailors" episode at Crop.

But I'm gonna stand up and be counted in this one!

June has the most beautifully controlled singing style, her voice is one of the best I have ever heard (that is a personal thing obviously), and her interpretations of so many songs are definitive.  

If you judge her purely on one poor performance, caused by u/s monitors, I suggest you go and have your bumps read.....or something  ;D

Absolutely Mark.

June interprets songs in a very special way that makes my spine tingle. Her 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' is one of my all time favourites.

She also has great presence on stage. I know some criticise her for not being more 'animated' but her expression comes from her voice and her face as she talks and sings.

If you see her with other musicians, such as Martin Simpson or the Oyster Band, it is obvious from the way they treat her that they have very great respect for her.

As you say, if you judge her by one outing that went wrong then you are cutting your nose off to spite your face. She is magnificent.

ok i'll come clean i dont really hate her and indeed have a couple of her cd's and the one with the oysters
i did know about the monitor problems and i suppose that the mere attempt at doing it was worth keeping it for posterirt on the "real time" video cropredy 87 or whatever it was called
and she doesnt hate me cos she recorded "bonny james campbell" 8) [;-) ::)

Now Pharoah would strike me as a song nearly written for interpretation by June, that I would like to hear.
If you ever see her with her little "axe" earrings she gives the impression that she might not be one to offer your Cropredy 87 opinions to her face.
I came to know her in 76 w the first Silly Sisters record which I liked immensely. I have purchased a couple of her things through the years including one w Martin Simpson where they are standing by the Thames in London and she has high booties on and I think loads of eye makeup. Probably purchased cause I thought she looked pretty hot. I cannot claim to be strongly moved by the few things I have of hers, but in the proper format she is quite potent and original, I believe once a librarian.
Might be one of only 3 or so people on this board who liked her Sailors life at Cropredy, in fact I liked it alot and not just because RT and Ric were smokin on it. Part of it was my joy at seeing it back in the repertoire for a night, and part would be because I have comfortability level w things atonal from years of part of my listening being dedicated to elements of jazz music where atonality is a regular player, or even dating to Tull's Passion Play, "melodies decaying in sweet dissonance." Simon was right in the movie  when he opined that it was a song which, normally at least, would be very much down her street and I still think so. Yet I have no doubt that the rest of the TAW's are correct in their personal assessment, and most certainly I always respect and enjoy Jim's take on this, yet I am not surprised that he actually has a couple of her items in his collection. Funny old world.

You people are debating the merits, including monitor problems, of a performance in a rural field well over 20 years ago. This artist has recorded some magnificent things since (Ok Hard Love, Sudden Waves, Night Comes in) Can you imagine what a proper professional performance backed by the likes of, RT, might sound like, Give that one performance a break, YouTube is really unforgiving!

The Oyster Band 25th Anniversary DVD, which should still be available, has June T on a couple of tracks, including White Rabbit.  The vocal control and intensity - and tunefulness - is palpable.

no way

Sorry, the WAY she sang Sailor's was nothing to do with monitors.



Edit: all better now

June is one of my all time favorite singers, ever since "Silly Sisters"; I never get tired of hearing her.

I love the Silly Sisters albums, and June's version of "Beat the Retreat" on the RT tribute album of the same name is spectacularly gorgeous (with wonderful guitar accompaniment by Martin Carthy on acoustic and David Hidalgo on electric, IIRC).

And you know that because...

Trust me, having been a performer my whole adult life, I can tell you that bad monitors are a DISASTER. I remember one gig (at a relatively famous venue, too) where I, literally, could not hear a single note I played all night; I had to play entirely by sight.

That said, I don't think June's version of "A Sailor's Life" was all that bad...off key, yes, but still done with feeling which counts for far more, IMO. And if the monitors were that bad, she certainly deserves a belated standing ovation. However, I suspect the real problem for some is that she is no Sandy Denny. And I agree, she isn't.

Of course, Sandy was no June Tabor, either.

Not that anyone would (or should) care, but I just remembered that the gig I referred to above was one where we opened for Fairport Convention. 1996, if memory serves, at the Coach House in California.

Life is weird sometimes.

I remember listening to that performance at Croppers and thinking "hang on, something up here". Duff monitors sounds like a good explanation, because being June, she should have blown everybody away. And yeah, she's not Sandy - just different, not worse.

She can be superb even in a loud environment - long ago and far away, she was on at the Enterprise in Chalk Farm. The room was crammed and it was like an oven, so all the windows were open. No PA. June's singing was interspersed with Routemasters, RTs and taxis outside, loud gentlemen of an Irish persuasion and sundry liggers downstairs, and rumblings from the Northern line and the West Coast Main Line over the way. She was magnificent - not a dry eye in the house when she did "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda". And of course every male in the house had their eyes out on stalks anyway.

Mind you she is une femme serieuse! At a benefit gig somewhere around the same time, she gave us a telling off (a bunch of us were being "cool" and hanging out at the bar until somebody well known came on, and she tore my mate off a strip for rabbiting - quite right too. He still winces at the memory).    

Cant blame her if it was monitor problems. I'll try and listen to some more of her stuff so I can make my mind up fully. I'm still not a huge fan of the song though.

I used to feel the same about A Sailor's Life (and Sloth!). Give it another decade or two.