A small tourette ... no swearing please!

We continue our musical adventures at the Stamford Arts Centre in Lincolnshire on Wednesday 21st September. Dave, Peter and I played here one time before with all the traveling Gentlemen in tow. Bob and I called in to see our lovely friend David Suff en route from Jo and the girls. He provided, as usual, deeply interesting conversation and most importantly ... fabulous cake and tea!

Pete was already setting up when Bob and I arrived but it took a little longer for Dave and Homer to get there ... M1 shenanigans as ever. There was a healthy, well turned out crowd for the show ... we care how well our audiences are fairing. A fun night was had, followed by a lovely sleep at our friend’s Diane and Bryan Ansell in East Stoke ... always a joy.



I’ve often wondered what a ride on the Settle to Carlisle train would be like ... and though I still have to wonder, I now know at least, that Settle is a delightful and music loving place ... our next show was at the marvelous Victoria Hall, Settle; a wonderful, old Methodist’s Citadel turned, delightful Arts Centre. It’s now a fab venue in a pretty, well loved town in North Yorkshire. The staff were incredibly helpful and friendly and looked after us brilliantly. It was a joy to play there. Fingers crossed they’ll invite us back.





The following day had us driving back down the country to the Cinnamon Club, Altrincham in Cheshire. Bob and I managed to find a fabulous Gastro pub en route and enjoyed a leisurely, delicious lunch. Unfortunately, Dave and Homer faired far worse ... their car broke down 5 minutes from the hotel in Burnley, where we stayed the night before.They had to wait to be towed to the nearest garage and then again for a replacement vehicle to be delivered. It wasn’t a very promising appraisal of the broken down car either. Ouch! Still it was all sorted out and they made it to the gig with time to spare. We played upstairs in the club room - a great atmosphere and a fabulous gig. There were 2 people though, sat right at the front ... who apparently didn’t enjoy the evening at all. What little applause they were able to muster, was sparse, to say the least and they were up and out of the room before the rest of the crowd - including their enthusiastic friend who obviously dragged them along - had finished clapping at the end of the night. Why do they always sit at the front?! We, and the rest of the audience, had fun none the less.





Our last show, in a row of four, had us traveling north again; this time heading for Barton-on- Humber and a new venue to me: The Ropewalk. Bob and Peter and I were booked into a B&B on the outskirts of town, which unfortunately had many cats - Bob’s allergic! Oops. Should have asked beforehand and forgot - bad wifey! Sorry Bob! Our landlady was very pleasant and our rooms clean and well appointed, if a little on the small side however the animal smell (there were many small, yapping dogs too) that pervaded the downstairs dining room, was overwhelming! I brought Bob’s breakfast up on a tray to spare him the experience and the awful coughing and sneezing that’s brought on by the close proximity of cat ... stuff. Too much information? Hey-ho. The gig was fine and dandy and the venue very interesting ... apparently it’s a quarter of a mile from one end of the building to the other!

Bob and I stayed with Jo, Mike and the girls for a few days making up for lost ag-ooing and cuddles. We love being grandparents ... sorry ... have I mentioned that already!

We traveled south again on Sunday afternoon and headed for a wonderfully sociable evening with Peter Filleul and his lovely wife Sian Wynne. There was a time, many years ago now, when I used to frequent their delightful home but it’s been ages since that treat was possible. It took 2 hours to reach the centre of London and another hour to finally arrive in Sydenham - c’est la vie n’est pas? Mais oui! Pete is an exceptional cook! We loved the delicious food and drink Pete served up and the wonderful company too.



Bob had meetings in London the following day and decided to meet us in Putney later. I whiled away the day with a late entrance and a frenzy of writing before setting off to brave the south circular. Which, miraculously, was empty! Who knew? The Half Moon Putney is a legendary gig and one we’ve all played many times over a large expanse of time - eek! Joining us tonight with his unique electric guitar flare, was gorgeous Peter Emery - another Traveling Gent if ever there was one. It was delightful to share the stage with him again. Much to our surprise the gig was very well attended and the super cool London crowd were incredibly warm and enthusiastic - hurrah! A very, very late night ensued.



With not nearly enough sleep between us, it was a later than usual start to the day. Bob, bless him, had more meetings in town and trained it out to Aldershot where we were playing that night, at the West End Centre - one of my faves. Our delightful friends Martin, Pam, Phil, Pat and Wendy all sat close to the stage and cheered loudly - hurrah for fab friends. I sang Who Knows Where the Time Goes as a birthday pressie for Phil ... I made him blush! We enjoyed Peter Emery’s playing and presence so much the night before, we invited him back for this show too - what a joy!



Bob and I stayed with Martin and Pam and tired though we most certainly were, enjoyed a gorgeous midnight feast back at their place after the show - Phil, Pat and Wendy came too ... so lovely to find great friends around and about a touring route :-)

Getting close to the end of the tour now. The drive down to Torrington in Devon was absolutely wonderful ... it was a perfect day ... warm, bright sunlight and undulating, lush, green, landscapes with just a hint of Autumn in the turning leaves - stunning. When we turned up outside the Plough Arts Centre, I was sure I saw an old friend just walking in but it couldn’t have been. Once inside I realised it really was John Eels! I’ve not seen him for far too long and it was an absolute delight to see him again - he was our soundman for the show! All is well all shall be well. We didn’t have what you could call great ticket sales for this show but we did have a fabulous reaction from the quality crowd who came. It was a great show. We’ll be back ...



And so we reach our last show of the tour. Another breath taking drive through Devon’s wonderful coast roads on an unseasonably, warm, September day. Bob and I ended up in Lyme Regis for lunch and were amazed how many people were sunbathing on the sweeping, stony beach. How fab! Our final show was at The New Forest Arts Centre in New Milton. I’ve played here once before and remembered how well run it was. The technical staff were, to a man ... very young, and very good. All in all, the tour was a great success and we’re already thinking about doing something next year. I’ll keep you posted about our plans, as and when they become more solidified.






Thanks to all of you who managed to come to a show we truly appreciate it!

I started with a stinky head-cold the following day - my timing’s impeccable! I had 10 days off before a couple of rogue solo shows with Rob Cross in October and filled that time in between sneezing and sleeping, adoring our gorgeous, growing, grand daughters ... I’m getting pretty good at it now. We actually had an entire day when we were in charge! Hurrah!

After a day’s rehearsal with gorgeous Roblet Crossington - I love calling him that! - in Cardiff, we made our way to Jagz, a firmly established music venue next to the train station in Ascot. I’ve known about this place for years but this was the first time I’ve been asked perform here. The place has been around for decades but for the past 2 years a lovely man by the name of Graham Steel, who used to run another wonderful venue in Windsor for many, many years, has successfully taken over the running of the music side of things. He's a marvel!

It was great to play a different set of songs hot on the heels of another show and reminded me just how much I love variety. Rob played a few of his great songs from the first Snow in June album,(now available for download!) before the first set and warmed our small but fabulous crowd to a delightful, pliable, heat. It was a wonderful night and we can’t thank Graham nearly enough for his warmth, support and enthusiasm. There’s a very good chance we’ll play there again next year. Hurrah.



Pam, Martin, Pat and Phil came to this show too - hurrah! Bob, Rob and I are always keen to stay at Martin and Pam’s delightful home.There’s always a warm welcome and a fine, party atmosphere to be found. It was a relatively early night - for us. Rob, bless him had to drive back to Cardiff the following day. Bob and I stayed on at Martin and Pam’s for 2 days and indulged in several wonderful Gastro Pub lunches, followed by beautiful, nature walks in late autumnal sunshine - delicious on all counts.






On Saturday night we all went to see Show of Hands! Wow ... they were fab-u-lous, as Craig Revel Horwood might say.



And so we reach Hitchin Folk club on Sunday October 16th. This was always going to be a special show as Maureen Jones, the long running club’s wonderful organiser had only recently come through serious health issues and it was a complete joy to see her looking so radiantly healthy again. Bless you darlin’. It was a lovely show and great to end this latest outing on such a high.









Thanks to everyone who came out to support us ... in either combination ... and hope to see even more of you next year.

As a heads up: I’ve been invited to sing a song from Oliver! on a Radio 3 show, The Verb being recorded live in London and broadcast on December 9th. The show’s based around the wonderful works of Dickens and marks the beginning of a year of celebrating his work - it will be the 200th anniversary of his birth next February. I’m thrilled to be asked and working on a version of Pick a Pocket for the show.

I’ll be back with further adventures as I go. Thanks as ever for stopping by to read my musical meanderings and hope to see you out there again soon.

Much love

Christine xx

A Trio of Tourettes - September come she will.

It’s been 4 years since Dave Kelly, myself and some fine Travelling Gentlemen took to the musical road. It seemed like a good idea to get back together again but in a smaller, more acoustic version. Cue: Collister, Kelly and Filleul - we’d make a fine Firm of Lawyers n’est pas?

Dave’s regularly asked me to set aside some time for another tour and I finally succumbed to his delightful request. It’s difficult to find exactly the right set of circumstances, where everyone needed is available, so we grabbed the chance to put a run of dates together this September - 2011.

After working out a long list of possible songs long-distance, we finally got together for a week’s worth of rehearsal’s at Dave’s delightful family home near Kingston, the week before the tour began. Fortunately for Dave, Pete and myself, Dave’s youngest son Homer, wasn’t due to start University until October 3rd, so we roped him in to play bass and add his rather lovely, dulcet tones to our collective harmonies. Hurrah ... our trio became a quartet, just like that.

After such a long absence it was hard to remember exactly what it was we used to do. It took ages to whittle down the old songs to a manageable bunch of 10 and we took it upon ourselves to add a further 10 new songs to the mix! Given our gathering years, we found it hard to take on board everything all at once but somehow we managed it. It took a few gigs to find our musical stride but find it we did. We also added to the mix, a few nights with guest appearances at 4 separate shows!Bursting the seams of our 4 piece Trio to five - go figure. We like a challenge.

A Tourette in the making from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

We travelled down to Exeter the night before our first date in order to do a live performance and interview with the effervescent Judi Spiers on BBC Radio Devon. We sang Nancy Griffith’s Gulf Coast Highway and a passably raucous version of Chris Smither’s Love Me Like A Man ... not bad for 11.30 on a Wednesday morning - even if I say so myself.

So here they are one by one: Our first date was at the lovely St David’s Hall in South Petherton in Somerset, which someone very kindly reminded me I’ve been playing at for over 25 years! Mm thanks for that! I was in too much of a dither to even remember to Flip the audience that night, let alone any musical interludes but caught the before and after tensions momentarily:



Our next port of call was the Tivoli Theatre in beautiful Wimbourne for lovely promoter Charlie, who has supported all our tours - bless!It was a gorgeous, bright, sunny day. Perfect for enjoying the fabulous countryside thereabouts ... ah touring is a wonderful privilege. Peter Filleul and I travelled together for these first few shows and allowed ourselves a rather lovely late lunch near the theatre. Delicious on all counts.

Our first musical guest joined us for this show and we were very happy to have Richard Brunton on board. He and Pete and I go all the way back to 1986 and The Life’s and Love’s of a She-Devil! He and his lovely wife had that very day spent time with Faye Weldon no less!! She would have come to the show but for a prior family do. Wow. That would have been fabulous. The show was great fun and Richard played brilliantly on half a dozen songs. Thanks Richard - let’s do it again!



With 2 shows under our belt we were getting a little less nervous and a bit more at ease. Look out Wavendon here we come! The Stables is a favourite venue of ours and one of the 2 places our “Live” cd was recorded at, way back in 2006! It was lovely to play there once more. There were friends and family at this particular performance. Bob and I had been apart at this point for 2 weeks. He’d been out on the creative road with young Mr Knowles - who was on this side of the pond for a change, writing up a storm for his next cd, with Steve Chrisanthou. He also performed at the closing ceremonies for the Youth Commonwealth Games, held this year on the Isle of Man. I had a small part to play in co-writing the Anthem for Games with Davy. Sorry I wasn’t able to be there for the opening and closing parties but I know it was a great success. Of course it was great to see Mr Miller again too! he made sure there was some Flip taken - bless!




The next show on our first run out, was at The Mill in Banbury. Hurrah. I love it here. Our techy for the night was Carl and he did a sterling job in accommodating a 5 piece Trio! We swelled our musical ranks with Mr PJ Wright! PJ introduce Pete and I way back in 198. Thereby hangs a tale and without that meeting none of this would be possible - who’d a thunk it all those years ago eh? PJ brought along a plethora of instruments - guitars, pedal steel and harmonica ... playing up a storm on loads of tunes - thank you!




Our next gig and the last of five in a row - was at the Corn Hall in Diss. I misread the information for this show when giving the details to Christy DeHaven for my website and wrote: Diss Cornwall! Oh well my geography leaves a lot to be desired but how many of you know where Ramsey is in relation to Port St Mary? Exactly - more than I’d care to admit no doubt. Anyway ... Corn Hall in Diss - Norfolk - is a fabulous venue and a pretty picturesque place with only one coffee shop open of a Sunday ... no prizes for guessing which chain of caffeine flogging establishments that might be - costa fortune more like. We were treated royally and with great respect by the Hall’s volunteer staff and enjoyed a fairly relaxed performance - practice makes perfect. And then 2 days off to see our glorious twin grand daughters - bless and rapture (They're actually called Isabella and Chiara but Bliss and Rapture sound good too).



I’ll leave you here for now and return with 2 more installments - 4 shows apiece for your further endorsement. Thanks as ever for dropping by. Hope to see you soon.

Much love

Christine xx