June Tabor on BBC TV

Subject: RE: June Tabor on BBC TV
From: Pete_Standing
Date: 08 Jun 04 - 04:45 PM

OK that's me put in my place then (and might I add, Ralphie, very politely too)! But I'm warning you, I shall be listening to it again tomorrow night through my HiFi rather than my TV. If I still can't hear more than the occasional drone from Mr Cutting, I shall be disappointed!

Subject: RE: June Tabor on BBC TV
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 08 Jun 04 - 04:59 PM

Mr Cutting was playing a...deep breath...diatonic button accordion. Shall we all say that together?

So, Peter, either upgrade your equipment or get yourself up from Oxford a bit more often. (Only 10 notes on the Oxtube and these BBC gigs are free...)

Subject: RE: June Tabor on BBC TV
From: Ralphie
Date: 09 Jun 04 - 01:23 AM

Peter.
Thanks for that!
Having listened again, the redoubtable Mr C, is playing very much a supporting role with the band, and seems to sit in the mix nicely, providing a supporting role for Junes atmospheric delivery. Personally, I wouldn't have lifted him any higher in the mix. Shame that History Man was left on the floor but, then, it was a JT gig after all!
All this reminds of a PA gig at a fest with a (now defunct)very fine English Dance Band many years ago.
I was approached by a very "cheerful" Morris man, who berated me for the fact that the melodeon wasn't loud enough.

I dutifully boosted the level to satisfy him, knowing full well that it wouldn't make a blind bit of difference, as the tune being played was Sax led, in Bb, and the box player was at the bar!! Could I convince him??!!...

Regards Ralphie, and Congrats to BBC4 for even trying.

Subject: RE: June Tabor on BBC TV
From: Pete_Standing
Date: 09 Jun 04 - 06:49 AM

Countess, I was a bit Billy miffed that I couldn't go. If I gave up playing music then I would get to a few more gigs, but my addiction is too strong.

Now THAT mix (and I sense I'm just about to get into deep water). Listen to Mr Cutting's (deep breath) diatonic button accordion playing on June's "Aleyn" or "Against the Streams", especially the wonderful rendition of "Johnny O'Bredislee/Glory Of The West". I reckon his role is mainly a supporting one, easy to hear but not dominant in the mix. Something interesting I found whilst snooping around on the web is this review of Aleyn by George Graham (The Graham Weekly Album Review #1086)

'An interesting aspect of Aleyn was that it was recorded live before audiences in four locations, though it was not intended to sound like a live album. There are no reactions from the audience on the CD. Ms. Tabor and her producer John Ravenhall, felt that the spirit and "spark" of the music was captured best live before an audience.'

If this information is true, then it shows just how remarkable June and her supporting musicians are. I think the mix is well balanced on that album - and I still think that Andy's playing could have been lifted just a little in the mix for the concert. Anyway despite my (slight) reservations about the mix, it was still a fantastic gig; well done June, well done Messrs. Emerson, Warren, Harries, Lockhart, Simpson and CUTTING, well done BBC4 and well done Mr Felton. It's easy being an armchair sound engineer/producer innit!

Subject: RE: June Tabor on BBC TV
From: GUEST,George Hawes
Date: 14 Jun 04 - 04:17 AM

Well, having been at the gig and finally caught up with the video . .
I would say it was an excellent recording (in all respects) of a fantistic concert. Yes, I had quibbles about bits of it, but they are insignificant compared with the overall splendour . . . For instance, Chris (wife) and I both felt "Strange Affair" came over better on the video than it did at the concert - perhaps the editing of the different cameras resored some of the intimacy lost through the compromises of the stage layout. Interresting that the broadcast has June talking about the Coppers song which hadn't actually been broadcast . . . Was June slightly more nervous than usual? It seemed that way to me on the video. Equally, the audience seemed rather more
restrained than I'd have expected (or than the concert deserved) -
perhaps because the tables weren't populated by the core fans, and the terrace was a bit removed from the audience mics . . .

How come you weren't there, Ralphie? And on a technical note - why would they have been using a long boom-arm mic in the region of the accompanists (Mark E, Andy C and the Sax especially) when the instruments were close-mic'd? Mearly curious here.

Long time no speak - we've missed you!

G.

Subject: RE: June Tabor on BBC TV
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 14 Jun 04 - 05:43 AM

George - I can't PM you 'cos you're not logged in. If you could lift the spamblocker that thinks my email is an illegal alias, I'd tell you more.

Subject: RE: June Tabor on BBC TV
From: GUEST,George Hawes
Date: 15 Jun 04 - 05:42 AM

Peter, Yes, the information you read about how Aleyn was recorded is true. However, if you want an even more powerfull live recording of June's then search out "They Died in Hell - We called it Paschendaele". (But it's not a recording for those who found the BBC4 concert too sombre . . personally I thought, by June's standards, the BBC set was a little on the jolly side . . .)

Of course, leaving "Tony Blair's Picnic" out of the broadcast did distort the "emotional balance" of the original . . .

Subject: RE: June Tabor on BBC TV
From: Pete_Standing
Date: 16 Jun 04 - 06:02 AM

Ralphie

I made a DVD recording of the concert and then from that an audio files which could be listened to (MP3 and wav). Certainly listening to the concert on a decent system uncovers more of Andy Cutting's playing; an interesting thing to do, because when purely listening, your ears are not assisted by your eyes. I still think his playing is still a bit muted when compared to the other supporting instruments but I'm probably getting unreasonably fussy now! So I shall retract my criticisms of Mike's work and try not to rush to make judgement in future.

George

I can cope with June irrespective of the mood of her material. I've had a search for "They Died in Hell" and drawn a blank. Where can it be found?

I am quite jealous of those folk who got to the concert. I have seen her quite recently in Oxford but the additional performers Simpson, Lockhart and Cutting made the gig very special indeed.

Subject: RE: June Tabor on BBC TV
From: GUEST,George Hawes
Date: 16 Jun 04 - 06:33 AM

Well for "We died in Hell, They called it Passchendaele" you could try:
http://users.pandora.be/gruwez/all_ned_frames.htm, then click on the red "CDs" heading, then on the CD title . . .
(sorry, it's so long since I've been in these parts I've forgotten how to create links . . . In my previous job [and five companies ago] I'd archived instructions for that sort of thing. . .)

Unfortuately the language of the web site might be a problem (it is for me). There is an audio track of June's on the page describing the CD - which was compiled from live recordings of three concerts, IIRC. From the web site the track listing is:

1. Will 'ye go to Flanders? [June Tabor]
2. Klaaglied van de vrouwen [Kristien Dehollander]
3. Ma mère et la fête [Marwan Zoueini]
4. Di Nakht [Shoshana Kalisch]
5. The Nurse [June Tabor]
6. The long, long trail [June Tabor]
7. The Reaper [June Tabor]
8. Nabwaina owtal el mochwar [Marwan]
9. Und was bekam das Soldaten Weib [June, Shoshana, Kristien]
10. Aux Soldats morts [Kristien]
11. The Bloody Fields of Flanders [The Lone Tree Orchestra]
12. De Rode Heuve [Kristien]
13. Tsen Brider [Shoshana]
14. Lwein Raihine [Marwan]
15. Dos Yingl vet zey firn [Shoshana]
16. Aqaba [June]
17. A Nign [Shoshana]
18. No Man's Land [June]

Subject: RE: June Tabor on BBC TV
From: GUEST,George Hawes
Date: 16 Jun 04 - 06:52 AM

Sorry to follow-up myself, but I wanted to add somthing about the "other artists" on "Died in Hell", and wanted to check some facts first. Anyway, a quick Google produced this on Shoshana (whom I realised, from talking to June, was a Holocaust survivor), which I thought was worth sharing:

Shoshana Kalisch was a survivor of the Lodz concentration camp, and tells of sharing it with Gypsies brought there from Austria:


The Gypsies did not last long. Left without food for days, they were tortured sadistically by their special guards, who often forced them to do gymnastics until they collapsed or died ... The Nazi commander ordered squads of Jews to bury the Gypsies in the Jewish cemetery. Surviving Gypsies were deported to Auschwitz ... when we were deported to Auschwitz, my sister and I were assigned to a barracks of "C" compound at Birkenau, adjacent to the camp in which the Gypsies were detained ... One night in early August, we heard spine-chilling shrieks coming from the Gypsy camp, augmented by the sound of trucks coming and going and the ferocious barking of dogs. The elder in charge of our barracks told us that the Gypsies were being taken away. The sound of the trucks, the barking of the dogs, and the screaming and wailing of the Gypsies permeated our camp throughout the night.
We held onto our shoes, our only possessions aside from the single garment on our bodies, ready to run - which would of course have been useless - expecting in silent terror to be the next ones taken away. Feeling only my sister's and my heartbeats, I made up my mind not to scream when they came for us. The Gypsies, I thought, had been screaming for me too (Kalisch, 1985:87-88).


Shoshana Kalisch (op. cit.) also reproduces a song which was written about the Gypsies in her camp. "Strictly quarantined and isolated from the rest of the ghetto, the Gypsies were easily ignored or forgotten," she says. "Thus it is all the more touching to hear a song describing the Gypsies' plight by the Lodz, ghetto musician David Beigelman." Beigelman died of exhaustion in a slave labor camp just three months before liberation:

(if you want the song then it's at: http://www.geocities.com/Paris/5121/pariah-ch9.htm)