June Tabor facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
June Tabor
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Tabor at Sidmouth Folk Week, 2010
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| Background information | |
| Born | 31 December 1947 |
| Origin | Warwick, England |
| Genres | English Folk |
| Occupation(s) | Singer |
| Years active | 1972–present |
| Labels | Topic Records Rykodisc Records Westpark Music |
June Tabor is a famous English folk singer. She was born in Warwick, England, on December 31, 1947. June is well-known for her own songs and for working with other musicians. She sang with Maddy Prior and the band Oysterband.
Contents
June Tabor's Early Life and Music Journey
June Tabor grew up in Warwick, England. When she was 18, in 1965, she heard an album called The Hazards of Love by Anne Briggs. This music made her want to sing.
June said that she learned the songs on that album perfectly. She practiced a lot, and that's how she started singing. She believes if she hadn't heard Anne Briggs, her life might have been very different.
June Tabor never had formal music lessons. She learned by listening to records over and over. She copied the styles of singers like Anne Briggs and Belle Stewart. Then, she mixed their styles to create her own unique sound.
Her first public performances were in the mid-1960s. She sang at the Heart of England Folk Club in Leamington Spa.
June went to St Hugh's College, Oxford University. She even appeared on the TV show University Challenge in 1968. At Oxford, she joined the Heritage Society and sang with a group called Mistral.
After singing at the Sidmouth Folk Festival, she started getting booked in folk clubs. She also appeared on several recordings. One of her first was in 1972 on an album called Stagfolk Live. She also sang on Rosie Hardman's Firebird (1972) and The First Folk Review Record (1974). At that time, she mostly sang traditional songs without any instruments.
Working with Other Musicians
In 1976, June Tabor worked with Maddy Prior on an album called Silly Sisters. They also went on tour with a full band. This helped June launch her first solo album, Airs and Graces, in the same year. Later, June and Maddy formed a duo and called themselves Silly Sisters.
Starting in 1977, Martin Simpson joined June Tabor in the recording studio. They made three albums together before he moved to the United States in 1987. Martin Simpson has also been a guest artist on June's albums in the 2000s. After Martin left, June began working closely with pianist Huw Warren.
June Tabor took a break from professional singing for a while. During this time, she made some guest appearances with Fairport Convention. She also worked as a librarian. With her husband, David Taylor, she ran a restaurant in Penrith, Cumbria. In the 1990s, she returned to music full-time.
June Tabor's Solo Career Highlights
In 1983, June Tabor sang the main song for the BBC TV series Spyship.
A big moment for June was in 1990 when she recorded an album called Freedom and Rain with the folk-rock band The Oyster Band. She toured with them, and many of her current fans first heard her music during this time.
In 1992, the famous musician Elvis Costello wrote a song just for June Tabor. It was called "All This Useless Beauty." She recorded it for her album Angel Tiger. Elvis Costello didn't record his own version until 1996.
In 1997, June appeared in a TV film by Ken Russell called In Search of English Folk Song. It was shown on Channel 4.
Tim Winton, a writer, chose June Tabor's song "He Fades Away" for a CD related to his novel Dirt Music (2001). The song is about a miner's slow death. June had first included this song on her 1994 CD Against the Streams.
In 2002, June Tabor performed at the "Passchendale Peace Concert" in Flanders. She sang with Coope Boyes and Simpson. In 2006, she sang World War I-era songs live on BBC Radio 3 to remember the Battle of the Somme.
June Tabor has also sung jazz and art song. Her music often has a quiet and serious feel. Her 2003 album An Echo of Hooves was a return to traditional ballads. Critics loved it, calling it "a stunning jewel" in her career. In 2005, she released Always, a special collection of four CDs with rare recordings from her career.
More Collaborations and Recent Work
June Tabor's album "A Cut Above" with Martin Simpson in 1980 was highly praised. A BBC radio host said that when two great musicians work together, the result can be amazing. He felt they pushed each other to create something magnificent.
On October 24, 2003, June Tabor appeared on the TV show Later... with Jools Holland. She sang "Hughie Graeme." This performance was later included on a DVD from the series.
June sang at the "Folk Britannia" concert at the Barbican centre in 2006. She performed "Fair Margaret and Sweet William." She also contributed songs to other projects. For example, she sang "In My Life" by The Beatles without any instruments for an album called Rubber Folk (2006).
June Tabor often tries new things with traditional songs. For example, she frequently sings old songs with just a piano. On the album Singing The Storm (1996), she sang with a harp played by Savourna Stevenson and a bass played by Danny Thompson. In 2004, she sang a version of "Love Will Tear Us Apart" as a duet with John Jones of Oysterband.
June Tabor has also performed funny songs with Les Barker's The Mrs Ackroyd Band. She sang on three of their albums. These included "The Trains of Waterloo" (1990), "The January June" (1994), and "There's a Hole in my Bodhran" (2003). She also sang two songs on Beat The Retreat, an album honoring Richard Thompson.
Topic Records released a special 70-year anniversary collection called Three Score and Ten. June Tabor's album Aqaba was listed as one of their classic albums. Several of her songs are included in this collection.
Awards and Recognition
June Tabor has received several awards for her music:
- In 2004, she was named Folk Singer of the Year at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.
- In 2011, her album Ragged Kingdom was named "Album of the Year" by fRoots magazine critics.
- In 2012, she won Folk Singer of the Year again at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.
June Tabor's Music Albums
Albums with Maddy Prior
- Silly Sisters (1976)
- No More to the Dance (1988) (as The Silly Sisters)
Solo Albums
- Airs and Graces (1976)
- Ashes and Diamonds (1977)
- A Cut Above (1980), with Martin Simpson
- Abyssinians (1983)
- The Peel Sessions (1986)
- Aqaba (1988)
- Some Other Time (1989)
- Angel Tiger (1992)
- Against the Streams (1994)
- Singing the Storm (1996) – with Savourna Stevenson and Danny Thompson
- Aleyn (1997)
- On Air (1998)
- Reflections (1999) (a 3-CD set of her first three solo albums)
- A Quiet Eye (1999)
- Rosa Mundi (2001)
- An Echo of Hooves (2003)
- At the Wood's Heart (2005)
- Apples (2007)
- Ashore (2011)
Albums with Oysterband
- Freedom and Rain (1990)
- June Tabor and the Oyster Band Tour '91 Sampler (1991)
- Ragged Kingdom (2011)
- Fire & Fleet, A Tour Memento (2019)
Albums with Iain Ballamy and Huw Warren
- Quercus (2013)
- Nightfall (2017)
Other Collaborations
- Bees on Horseback (1977) with Flowers and Frolics
- In Real Time (1987) with Fairport Convention (video)
- The Third Leg (1990) with Fairport Convention
- The Stones of Callanish (1989) with The Mrs Ackroyd Band
- Oranges and Lemmings (1990) with The Mrs Ackroyd Band
- Some Love (1992) with The Mrs Ackroyd Band
- Gnus and Roses (1994) with The Mrs Ackroyd Band
- The Wings of Butterflies (1999) with The Mrs Ackroyd Band
- Airs of the Dog (2001) with The Mrs Ackroyd Band
- Yelp! (2003) with The Mrs Ackroyd Band
- Guide Cats for the Blind (2004) with The Mrs Ackroyd Band
- The Transports (1977) with Peter Bellamy and others
Music Collections
- Anthology (1993)
- The Definitive Collection (2003)
- Always (2005) (a 4-CD set with many rare songs)
- An Introduction to June Tabor (2018)
