The continuing shenanigans of a springtime tour ... Bristol to the Isle of Man

When last we met dear reader, I was happily ensconced at my lovely friend Helen Watson’s delightful home in Burnham-on-Crouch. I spent a relaxing few days in her wonderful company and while packing the car ready for my journey to Bristol for the next gig, became enamoured of a brilliant display of bright poppies leaning artfully against the house next door. I couldn’t resist snapping away with my camera to try and capture their beauty, then proceeded to capture Corvax the cat as he posed for me in a warm pool of sunlight at the back of Helen’s fairytale garden, only then did I feel ready to drive westward.

Rob Cross was back in Cardiff in the mean time and met me at the Future Inn, in the centre of Bristol, scene of that night’s show. We were met by the Jazz@The Future Inn’s promoter Ian Storrer, downstairs in the performance area; light from above, screened out by a very complicated but well arranged series of black-out sheets - a weird but effective procedure! Unfortunately Ian had been told that very day, that our show could be the last at the venue due to economic circumstances and the considered opinions of a faceless accountant’s short term business projections. What a shame.

Bob came down from London with Steve Lima - hurrah - and our lovely friend Paul Dodgson - co-writer of Ashlands and author of Famous, the Radio 4 play (ooer missus!) from 2001- also made a much appreciated appearance. Unfortunately it wasn’t the most fun I’ve ever had at a gig ... my daft banter didn’t really hit the mark and I felt a little off kilter with the monitoring system being off to one side ... so I didn’t hear clearly what was being projected through the PA. All excuses I know ... we forged on non-the-less and by the end of the night had a fairly excited audience response - phew! It just felt like hard work at times - hey-ho.

A Smorgasbord of Bristol bits from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

We’d arranged to drive to Sandhurst after the show in order to stay with our delightful friend's Martin and Pam Drury - always a joy. In fact we were able to stay with them for the next few nights and had a wonderfully sociable time in their infectiously enthusiastic company. Despite the late hour ... Martin greeted us with open arms and a primed kettle. He and Rob stayed up a while longer chewing the cud and sharing a few wee drams of a highly sort after bottle of Scotch ... their giggling shenanigans helped us drift off to a much needed deep sleep.

The following morning, Bob and I were up earlier than we'd have liked as I’d arranged to meet Helen Watson at Jacqui McShee’s lovely home, an hour from Martin and Pam’s, for our one and only rehearsal for that night’s performance - eek! Julian Lewry, promoter and all round good egg of the Farncombe Music Club, had suggested many months before, that I might like to invite some talented pals to guest with me on a couple of songs, as it would be the last concert at St John’s Church before much needed renovations began and he loved the idea of going out with a bang. He’d already set up for the Guildford Community Vox Choir to be the support for the night and for them to also join Rob and I on our final song in the second set - all very exciting!

Bob, bless him, drove with me to Jacqui’s and then left us to our hurried practice. We were attempting to perform 2 songs we’d recorded for my Songbird album on Fledg’ling records way back in 1999: "Cornfield" - a haunting and wonderfully strange Lal Waterson song, followed by Christine McVie’s beautiful "Songbird". We’d never sung them live - and were a little apprehensive about wether we could pull it off! I think you’ll agree that we did pretty damned well in the end.

Rehearsals before Farncombe from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Bob and I left a little earlier than the girls to get to the venue in time for Rob and I to sound check. Once that was done Helen and Jacqui joined me near the Alter (!) and decided we’d like to perform without microphones ... we simply positioned the 2 vocal mics Rob and I used in order to just boost the overall sound ... so that took no time at all. Then the Guildford Vox Community Choir gathered and we all delighted in their warm-up exercises and then were blown away by the arrangement their lovely Choir Mistress Anna Tabbush had taught them. I had a lump in my throat the first time we tried out our collaboration. What a joy to sing with so many wonderful voices!

And so to the gig ... Farncombe! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

To say we had a wonderful show is a fairly ridiculous understatement ... we had a FABULOUS show and were thrilled by the Choir’s own performance at the beginning of the night and again when Jacqui and Helen joined me for our 2 songs ... everything went amazingly well ... we made a beautiful and moving sound between us and were ridiculously happy we’d pulled it off! So when the Choir took their positions at the end of the second set, immediately after Helen and Jacqui’s appearance, I was already on a high.

"Cornfield" with Jacqui McShee & Helen Watson from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

When all were in place and Rob and I began Guy Garvey’s brilliant One Day Like This ... we were more than ready. The Choir began to sing and I thought I might not be able to carry on as a huge well of tears threatened to undo me but I somehow managed to get on top of my emotional wobble. Rob and I were both fairly taken aback by the wave of euphoria that swept us up at the end of the performance. It was a truly memorable and breath taking experience. The audience went wild! Yes!!! A great BIG heart-felt thank you to the marvelous Guildford Community Vox Choir and their brilliant Choir Mistress Anna Tabbush - hurrah! More of this please.

One Performance like this from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

After our joyous goodbyes with Jacqui, Helen and Julian too, we packed up and headed for Pam and Martin’s where a delicious celebration awaited us ... fab food, chilled champagne, good company and great music made for a wonderously delightful time. Thank you guys we love you too!

I was treated to a wonderful day at Savill Gardens near Virginia Waters in the gorgeous company of Pat and Phil Chappell the following day. Pat works at the award winning Visitor’s centre and absolutely loves her job, so it was a real privilege to be escorted round the beautiful gardens by someone so passionate and knowledgeable. I took a ridiculous amount of photographs, mainly of flourishing foliage, fabulous flowers and ... some beautiful, fluffy baby ducks. Bob and Martin stayed behind to watch football - ah bless.

On Sunday the 15th we said goodbye to Pam, Martin, Phil and Pat, and Bob dropped me off once more at Helen and Clea’s tiny but perfectly formed home in Burnham. He continued north and I settled in with the girls for another sociable couple of days, including an educational visit to Helen’s lovely allotment.

Another Allotment Adventure with Heleny-Welleny-Botson-Swoton-Watson from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Our next concert would be at the Hoy at Anchor Folk Club in Leigh-on-Sea - always a great experience. I had to train it from lovely Burnham and had quite a dizzy making journey but eventually found my way to The Ship where Rob had recently parked.I learnt from the Landlady that he'd taken a walk up the hill so I in turn walked across the railway bridge, thinking I'd catch him on my way back but missed him! We eventually caught up with one another, set up, sound checked and walked the bridge again for a tasty dinner before returning for our show. We had mighty fun that night and were treated to a wonderful response from the sell out crowd. I'm sorry to say that I forgot to Flip on this occasion.

Rob and I were booked on the 3pm Liverpool boat to the Isle of Man the following day and so had a Travelodge near Birmingham booked that night to help us on our way. We arrived at 2.30am - very tired. We left at 11.30 next morning and arrived at the sea terminal for 2pm exactly on time for our journey. Having parked the car at the hotel next to the quay we trundled down the gangway with guitars, stage clothes and cds for the show, to check in for our journey. We both commented on how few cars there were ... and then that there was no boat yet ... funny that. On entering the reception area a young woman looking rather quizzical, came out from the office and asked ... “Can I help you?” ... “yes we’ve come to check in for the boat ...” (der ...) “Which boat would that be?” ... “The 3 O’clock” ( hello!) ... “There isn’t a 3 o’clock boat ” ... “What?!!!” ... “The 3 o’clock boat leaves the Isle of Man and arrives here at 5.30 ... “ “S**t!”. Ok so the internet is a marvellous thing but is a nightmare when booking travel ... I’ve made too many mistakes not to understand that but I really wish it didn’t happen so often. We paid a little extra to get on the 7pm boat to the Island and headed into town for a good meal. All is well all shall be well.

We made it to Douglas for 9.30pm. I stayed with Dave-Why-I-Armstrong and Christy DeHaven for our 3 night sojourn and enjoyed catching up on their various and exciting creative endeavours. On the day of the gig I met up with Svetlana Cameron for the first time - what a delightful woman! She was just hanging her marvellous artwork for her joint exhibition alongside Jim Duggan at the Sayle Gallery, when Christy and I turned up. We brought with us a mastered copy of my song demo inspired by her beautiful drawing “The Morning Light”, so she could have it playing during the exhibition. It was a delightful meeting and bodes well for future connections. Hurrah for extremely talented people!

Our concert at St Ninians was a very exciting affair. For one thing we were the first ever non religious performers to play in this beautiful church and for another we had professional lighting ... I mean PROFESSIONAL LIGHTING! Dave Armstrong had arranged all the technical necessities for the show and had invited a friend of his Justin, to provide good lights for the occasion. Justin took him at his word and brought a HUGE amount of gear to set the atmosphere good and proper. The place looked amazing though it had a disturbing effect on my performance ... I was just so distracted by it all. Hey ho ... the audience absolutely loved the colourful and mesmerising display.

We also had local instrumental duo Strengyn support us and they were simply marvellous. I’d asked Dave and Christy if they could film the whole show and they in turn had asked Simon Rae of Truman Falls to help them out, so we had 3 cameras trained on us and one static camera behind... no pressure there then! Unfortunately Rob and I were less than satisfied with our performance but for reasons we couldn’t fathom - apart from the lights show of course - the audience were ecstatic.

A littler look behind the cassocks at St Ninian's from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

mary rough edit from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

This seems like a good place to leave my musical musings for now but I’ll continue with the last 3 shows - Kirky Stephens, Strathpeffer and Edinburgh with a marvelous few days in Ballater thrown in - as soon as I’ve edited the Flip footage and written up my reports.

Thanks as ever for dropping by and hope to see you with the next instalment soon. I think it only fair to warn you that I’m eagerly waiting to become a Grandma in the next few weeks!! My gorgeous husband’s beautiful daughter Jo, is pregnant with twin girls and they’re due anytime now! I can’t tell you how thrilled we all are but rest assured I’ll be sharing my thoughts and feelings with you here :-) well maybe a few pics here and there?

Take care

Much love

Christine xx