Bournemouth Folk Club

CHRISTINE COLLISTER

The Centre Stage, Bournemouth

October 17, 2010

A seasoned campaigner if ever there was one, Christine Collister, returned to charm an unusually subdued Bournemouth Folk Club audience with two sets of her usual mix of jazz, blues, folk, country and ballads. Drawing from her vast back catalogue as well as her more recent material, it’s hard to believe that she has been performing for more than a quarter of a century. Her collaborations with the likes of Clive Gregson, Richard Thompson et al are well documented but for the current tour she is teamed with singer/songwriter/guitarist Rob Cross. It was Rob who got things going with a slightly ragged opening set which featured three of his own songs and covers of the late Warren Zevon’s Keep Me In Your Heart and Del Amitri’s Tell Her This. Accompanying himself on rhythm guitar, Rob seemed rather overawed and even though just strumming chords, managed to miss several notes. Things soon changed as Christine Collister bounced onto the stage and immediately launched a cappella into Geay jeh’n Aer, a Gaelic Manx song which she performed whilst representing the Isle of Man at the Festival Interceltique de Lorient in Brittany. I Know How It Feels was followed by two numbers co written with Rob Cross; the beautiful ballad Lonely by Design and Give It All Away on which Christine provided percussion with a shaker. A slow, sultry jazz rendering of the timeless classic Summertime, which featured a terrific guitar break from Rob Cross, was followed by Jimmy Webb’s The Moon’s a Harsh Mistress from her excellent album LOVE, another gorgeous ballad. A medley of The Ones That Love You and Just Listen led to the break with the lovely Patty Griffin song Mary.

A short break during which there was inevitably, brisk activity on the merchandise counter and Christine was back in a cappella mode again with another standard Get Happy. All About Love and the mellow Waiting for My Prayer were followed by a great rendition of John Mayer’s Gravity which again featured a terrific guitar break from Rob Cross who was now really coming into his own. After The Big Screen came the lovely Tom Waits number Broken Bicycles featured on the 1996 album BLUE ACONITE and taken from the soundtrack of the 1982 film ‘One from the Heart’. Christine appeared recently at the Richard Thompson ‘Meltdown Festival’ and she thrilled the BFC with one of the songs she performed, the 1960 number one for Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Shop Around although she preferred the version included in many of Emmylou Harris’ live shows which gave the song a female perspective! All too soon, the evening was drawing to a close and Christine finished with another great song, this time Elbow’s On a Day Like This before being called back to encore with We Spoke Today.

Christine is an experienced campaigner who enjoys a rapport with her audience who were strangely, not as responsive as usual. Sensibly promoting her new album UNDER CONSTRUCTION, she gave yet another outstanding performance and it was nice to hear new material. As ever, she chatted away between numbers and was clearly still bubbling following her recent marriage. A wonderful evening’s entertainment.

John Roffey