I promised with June Tabor's last album here — just nine days ago — some more details about seeing her perform. The first time was on 5 October 2001 at the Union Chapel in Islington (the first time I started scouting London for locations to move to). It was good, but perhaps not quite as good as I'd hoped for. The long declamatory introductions to each song sowed seeds of doubt. The second time was the following year, in Sheffield's Memorial Hall, where D and I were more or less in the front row. I have a minidisk recording of that somewhere. By this time, the schoolteacher style was really beginning to grate, especially as some of the introductions were the same as the first time. And the third time was the next year, on 20 September at St Giles Cripplegate. On this occasion, June T actually had someone on hand to interview her between songs. The following day I wrote:
Note to self, and anyone else who cares: do not go and see June Tabor again unless in a folk club where, during the pedestrian lecturing and self-righteous chat between songs, you can at least buy a round of drinks, chat to your mates or relieve your bladder. Yesterday when someone shouted "More songs, please" during the chat there was an immediate burst of applause, letting off pent-up audience frustration. The pauses disrupted the flow of the performance so much that Huw Warren fluffed several notes and JT had to restart a couple of verses because she'd got the words out of order.And that really marked the premature end, or at least suspension, of my love affair with June Tabor's music. A couple of years ago I met Martin Simpson (I'll explain how and why another time), and the subject of June Tabor came up. I asked if he knew her well. Duh. They only recorded an album together
(crazy boots) and played live for many years… I mentioned my reservations. Anything Martin might have said by way of response was not for publication.
I bought this album (a fiver from Fopp, natch) in 2000, in the wake of the the first one that I enjoyed so much. It naturally lacks the consistent sound and feel of A Quiet Eye, because it's drawn from 15 years of her career (up to 1992). So it's hit and miss for me.
However, I've found that almost all of June Tabor's albums are available on eMusic, so I may explore some of the albums that feature the "hits".
 MusicBrainz entry for this album
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