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Sunday 6 November 2011

A surreal evening in Salisbury

Ask me to name my half dozen most favourite tracks of all time, and then what would the odds be about hearing two of them them done by the inestimable June Tabor and the excellent Oyster Band?  That's exactly what happened at Salisbury City Hall on Wednesday evening, and it was wonderful.

I expected to hear them do 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' because it's on their new album, 'Ragged Kingdom', but 'White Rabbit' was a bolt from the blue.  Joy Division's LWTUA is bleak and dark, but Tabor and the Oysters turn it into an altogether different song.  Tabor and John Jones share the vocals and rather than being the bloke bemoaning the end of a relationship, it becomes a couple doing it - it won't replace Joy Division's 3' 18" of desolate perfection in my affections, but it's lovely just the same, and does shed new light on the lyrics.

White Rabbit is a different matter, however.  When Jefferson Airplane recorded it, I though that Grace Slick's vocals were as good as it could get, but June Tabor proved that she isn't just a 'folk' singer, because when she wants to she has a great rock voice.  When Tabor told us that 'the one that mother gives you, don't [sic] do anything at all', she changed the whole the emphasis of the song, and made it more understandable.  I hope that she and the Oysters record it sometime soon.

June Tabor's voice is as enthralling as ever, and John Jones is arguably the best male vocalist in the folk rock scene, and they simply brought the house down.  My worry was that Tabor's vocals, usually heard in the more intimate surroundings of concert halls and Arts Centres with a trio accompanying her, might get drowned out by the Oysters driving rock, but a lot of work (and an excellent sound engineer) had gone into getting it just right.  A word too for 'Chopper' on bass and cello, and the excellent Dil Davies on drums - they hold the whole thing together in exemplary fashion.

Salisbury City Hall is a great venue, and almost everyone that matters has played there over the years - the posters round the walls tell part of its story.  Compared with soulless modern concert halls, like the overpriced Anvil in Basingstoke, it's a gem - akin to some elderly beauty who retains her elegance despite the passing years.  It also has a Wagamama just 100m away, and plentiful parking - I love it.

Nineteen years have elapsed since Tabor and the Oysters recorded the beautiful 'Freedom and Rain', and we have to hope that it's not 2030 before we hear the follow-up to Ragged Kingdom.