June Tabor (born 31 December 1947 in Warwick, England) is an English folk singer. Her earliest public performances were at the Heart of England Folk Club, in the Fox and Vivian pub in Leamington Spa in the mid 1960s. She attended St Hugh's College, Oxford University and appeared on University Challenge in 1968, as captain of the college team. She joined the Heritage Society at Oxford University and sang with a group called Mistral. An appearance at Sidmouth Folk Festival led to folk club bookings and she contributed to various records. One of her earliest recordings was in 1972 on an anthology called Stagfolk Live. She also featured on Rosie Hardman's Firebird (1972) and The First Folk Review Record (1974). At the time she was singing purely traditional unaccompanied material but in 1976 she collaborated with Maddy Prior on the Silly Sisters album and tour, with a full band that included Nic Jones. It provided the launching pad that same year (1976) for her first album in her own right, Airs and Graces. She later joined again with Prior, this time using the name Silly Sisters for their duo. Starting in 1977 Martin Simpson joined her in the recording studio for three albums before he moved to America in 1987. (Simpson has returned from America to be a guest guitarist on albums in the 2000s (decade)). After his departure, she started working closely with pianist Huw Warren. Tabor stopped performing professionally for a time after working for decades as a singer, although she made some guest appearances with Fairport Convention during this period. During this time, she worked as a librarian and, with her then-husband David Taylor, ran a restaurant called "Passepartout" in Penrith, Cumbria, England before returning to music professionally in the 1990s.
Links To Peel
Peel discovered June Tabor when Tim Rose, singer of Steeleye Span, was due to perform a session for Peel's show with Maddy Prior in 1975, however she had a sore throat and Tim Rose decided to call June Tabor, who he knew from her work with other folk artists, to invite her to perform with him. After the session was performed, Peel very much liked her voice and would play regular her music on his show, even inviting Tabor in total of seven sessions, including one with Maddy Prior and another with the Oyster Band. Tabor holds one of the Longest Gaps Between Peel Session Appearances from 1978 to 1990. In 1977, Peel nominated her track 'No Man's Land', as one of his favourite songs of the year in his own Festive Fifty. After the 90's, Peel rarely played any of Tabor's subsequent music, but nonetheless she praised Peel for being part of his music collection, when interviewed for the John Peel Archive in 2013.
Festive Fifty Entries
- 1977 Festive Fifty: No Man's Land #40
Sessions
T is for... June Tabor
1. Recorded: 1975-03-04. Broadcast: 10 March 1975. Repeated: 02 June 1975
- Seamus The Showman / Scarborough Fair Town / Dancing At Whitsun / And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda
2. Recorded: 1975-09-23. Broadcast: 20 October 1975. Repeated: 10 December 1975
- Four Loom Weaver / The Seven Joys Of Mary / Singing The Travels / The Doffin' Mistress
3. Recorded: 1976-08-26. Broadcast: 13 September 1976. Repeated:
- Young Waters / Pull Down Lads / Young Allan / Short Jacket And White Trousers
4. Recorded: 1977-01-25. Broadcast: 22 February 1977. Repeated:
- Lord Bateman / The Banks Of The Sweet Dundee / The Fiddle And The Drum / Donal Og
5. Recorded: 1977-07-11. Broadcast: 19 July 1977. Repeated: 28 December 1977
- Derry Jail / Riding Down To Portsmouth / The Devil And The Bailiff McGlinn / Streets Of Forbes / No Man's Land / A Taboresque Utterance
6. Recorded: 1978-01-24. Broadcast: 12 February 1978. Repeated:
- The Overgate / Now I'm Easy / Unicorns / Flash Company / Furze Field
7. Recorded: 1990-11-27. Broadcast: 05 January 1991. Repeated: 03 March 1991
- White Rabbit / Anarchy Gordon / Wheels On Fire / All Along The Watchtower
Other Shows Played
Flowers of the Forest
'No Man's Land', #40 in the 1977 Festive Fifty
1977
- 23 December 1977: No Man's Land (LP – Ashes And Diamonds) Topic FF #40
1980
- 20 March 1980: Strange Affair (LP - A Cut Above) Topic (with Martin Simpson)
- 24 March 1980: 'Le Roi Renaud (LP-A Cut Above)' (Topic) (with Martin Simpson)
1981
- 28 May 1981: The Band Played Waltzing Matilda (album - Airs and Graces) Topic
1983
- 30 November 1983: The Band Played Waltzing Matilda (LP - Airs And Graces) Topic
- 15 December 1983: A Smiling Shore (LP - Abyssinians) Topic
1986
- 25 November 1986: The Fiddle And The Drum (EP - The Peel Sessions) Strange Fruit
- 03 December 1986: Lord Bateman (EP - The Peel Sessions) Strange Fruit
1988
- 21 June 1988: 'The Banks Of Red Roses (LP-Aqaba)' (Topic) (JP: 'Probably about Napoleon, most of her songs are, in my experience.')
1990
- 18 July 1990: Dark Eyed Sailor (album - The Freedom And Rain) Cooking Vinyl (with the Oyster Band)
- 26 July 1990: Dark Eyed Sailor (album - Freedom And Rain) Cooking Vinyl (with the Oyster Band)
- 01 December 1990: Almost Every Circumstance (album - The Work Of June Tabor) Conifer
- 22 December 1990: 'Dark Eyes Sailor (LP-Freedom And Rain)' (Cooking Vinyl) (with the Oyster Band)
1995
- 20 January 1995: 'Genesis Hall (Compilation CD-Beat The Retreat: Songs By Richard Thompson)' (Capitol)
2001
- 25 September 2001: The Band Played Waltzing Matilda (LP - Airs And Graces) Topic
2002
- 28 November 2002: 'The Band Played 'Waltzing Matilda' (LP - Airs And Graces)' (Topic) (JP: "There's no answer to that really.")