June Tabor & Oysterband – Royal Northern College Of Music, Manchester – 12th October 2024

You can trust in the power of music – their words not mine. A cross between a wake, a celebration and religious experience. Not hyperbole despite the feelings of sadness as the end of the journey comes into view and Oysterband prepare for the trip to the undying lands where the river will finally end its course. The short run of dates where they have June Tabor alongside them (plus Ray Cooper – ‘Chopper’ to us all – for a short period) comes ahead of a longer bout of ‘just the band’ dates As The Long Goodbye extends into 2025, with some 20 dates around the UK (their final UK shows) set for November/December the next step, this particular run is one to be savoured. Uplifting and inspirational.

We – the royal ‘we’/I – have only been privvy to a fraction of the journey. Perhaps most significantly being at the folk Awards at The Lowry in 2012 when June and the chaps and their Ragged Kingdom album won a stack of acclaim, June was Folk Singer of the Year and they played Fountains Flowing. As they did tonight and yes, the words “to be a pilgrim” still run in my head.

There’s a mass of metalwork across the front of the stage. Eight microphones are available and at times all but one are in use depending on where chopper is positioned. Fortunately any leaping around is contained, but eve Alan Prosser nudges one of the amp mics as he creeps onstage to do a spot of tuning before the lights go down. Heath & Safety might have been on his case had they spotted his stocking feet on the laminate floor but there’s probably a risk assessment in place.

Feeling a strange sense of deja vu after witnessing much the same a few years back on the Fire & Fleet tour, June moving to centre stage in the long red velvet coat that’s served her well. Most of the eight dates with this particular combination sold out. Their recorded work together, Freedom And Rain and Ragged Kingdom (now in newly reissued vinyl form) are both revered collaborations, the latter in particular well mined for the set along with Oysterband standards that give June the odd breather.

Not that she needs it. er voice remains strong and clear, singing with a purpose and passion. Not least when they finish Si Kahn’s Mississippi, the second song in, and she declares: “Every time we play that I think, my God, what a song!” John Jones even pulls her up for the soft whisper he heard when they recently met up and sang together. “where’ s this come from?” he laughs. “I got it on eBay,” she deadpans.

Set one is layered like a finely crafted Bake Off challenge. One that deserves the Hollywood handshake. Oysterband songs – Meet You There (or is it Where The World Divides?) / By Northern Light – begin and end the set with A River Runs Through (that’s been a song that carries their signature message of recent times as JJ continues to emphasise in his intro) and Roll Away robustly providing the spine around which the collaborative songs are woven; the sweet treats packed in the middle.

False True Love is a spine tingler if ever there were one. As he does in accompanying June on Shiloh as they gather into an intimate huddle in the second set, Al Prosser picks out a delicate tune on the acoustic and the band add a subtly delicate backing. He’s lauded by JJ as “the busiest man on the stage. He seems to start off every song,” in tribute to his partner who’s as humble and abashed as they come. Just as June avoids her rep as ‘miserable’ with several occasions, even playing the part pf JJ’s mother in a personal favourite, Son David, that stars in a set that’s hard to fault.

Covering Dylan (Seven Curses – all nine verses, all drones and rumbling toms) Joy Division (Love Will Tear Us Apart) and The Velvet Undergound (All Tomorrow’s Parties) there’s a special moment when June remembers the late Les Barker and is left to sing unaccompanied his version of Roseville Fair. There’s a titter or two in the story of banjo destruction and comes followed up with a typically Telfer deadpan intro (not being of the Scots persuasion we fail to appreciate the finer points of the Dundee/Aberdeen rivalry) to Susie Clelland that’s exactly the “great tune,” indeed a rollicking one, that he promises. Sean Randle briefly sidelines the rumble of the toms which hare well used tonight from a smart 4/4 shuffle.

An equally dry intro comes for All That Way For This – “written in 1979 – when we were at the cutting edge of songwriting – about Brexit.” An acoustic trio forms at stage left in just one of many combos that display the versatility of the unit. It may be the return of Chopper on bass and cello that frees Al Scott to add decoration from the guitar and mandolin, but with all due respect to Adrian Oxaal whose presence had been constant and consistent, it somehow feels ‘right’ to have him back in the fold albeit briefly.

Of course, given this combination, we’re never too far from’the tradition’. Juen introduces Sweet Sixteen as on of those songs about ‘goings on’. She says “it’s summed up by ‘oh shite – I wish I’d listened to my mum when I was sweet sixteen.'” Six Oyster voices offer a rich backdrop in contrast to a driving arrangement of John Barleycorn that stomps through a rattling acoustic guitar part. Even Chopper gets a lead vocal. Rich red washes of light add a poignancy to the gorgeous sway of Dancing As Fast As I Can. The chorus is majestic and not a little without significance. Perhaps only matched, although possibly not, by the inevitable Curtis/Hook/Sumner/Morris classic to which Oysterband and June have added their own unique take. We’re in Manchester after all.

Encores come around much too soon. A Psych Folk thrash on White Rabbit – we’re not going to come to the front and bang our heads on the stage as they did in San Francisco back in the day despite JJ’s “come on Manchester” encouragement – is sandwiched between a pair that bid a warm farewell. Dark End Of The Street and Put Out The Lights offer further well placed poignant moments. There may even be a lump in JJ’s throat as he talks of singing them for the final time in Manchester.

Yes, a farewell that’s sad but done in the sort of grace and dignified manner you’d expect from these people. A fitting adieu to and from Manchester to two names deservedly etched on the folk music walls and halls of fame.

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