june tabor and the oysterband

Moira and I went to see a remarkable concert last night at St George’s, Bristol. The Oysterband and June Tabor were back on stage touring for the first time for some 17 years. I love June Tabor’s voice and had the booked tickets purely on this basis. I’m sorry to have to admit that I knew very little about the Oysterband and went along very much thinking they’d be her “backing band”. How wrong I was! The Oysterband’s John Jones has a wonderful voice too and the combination of Tabor, him and the highly-gifted band was simply beautiful. They interacted with such ease that it seemed as if they’d be touring together on a weekly basis for ever! June Tabor has an amazing, brooding voice (and she’s even older than me!). Among the highlights for me were covers of Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart”, Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit” and PJ Harvey’s “That Was My Veil”… with a wonderful version of the Oysterband’s “Put Out The Lights” to finish (click here to get a sense of the finale – but ours was better!).
My retirement commitment to attend more concerts is a great success… but now I need to book some more dates in my diary!

Photo: Yes, I know the band members are missing (no photography allowed in the concert) - but we had seats in the front of the balcony immediately above the band and I wanted to capture this for posterity!