Back in 2011 I blogged about my favourite female vocalists. And, re-reading the post and listening to the sample song of each that I chose, I haven’t changed my mind. Each of them is – or was – truly unique and exceptional. Eva and Sandy have long since flown this life to meet on another ledge but Stevie, Adele, Carol and Elkie are still with us and are still actively performing.

Do you remember when we were very young and we changed our minds every time the wind changed direction? We’d have our favourite pop group or singer for a week or two before shamelessly changing horses the minute a new lot took our fancy. Then, in our teens, we grew to appreciating particular musical genres and tended to shape our own lives around them. In my school there arose a serious division between Progressive Rock nerds and the Tamla Motown crowd.

Then we grew up and our musical tastes firmed up. I, for one, am pretty stuck with those artistes I grew to admire in my 30s and 40s. Few newcomers disturb these tranquil and comforting waters.

Though now a couple more female artistes have barged in. The Unthanks have been around for a while now and I’ve admired their take on traditional folk songs. Then I was lucky enough to catch them in concert in Cambridge recently. So here are Rachel, Becky and the gang with not an instrument in sight – what do you think?

Tar Barrel in Dale

The end of 2009 was a pretty sad and emotional time for me. My ambitions to live and work permanently in Ireland were falling to pieces after less than two years. I was on the verge of cutting my losses and heading back to Jersey to try to pick up the threads there again.

Before I did that I headed back to Dublin for a last time with my old friend Deirdre from Cork to see Fleetwood Mac in concert at the old Point Theatre, newly refurbished as the O2. Here is my review written the following day.

I’m not in love, but I’m open to persuasion

I arrived in Jersey 35 years ago today – just in time to watch Borg beat Connors in five sets in the Wimbledon singles final. At much the same time, back in Birmingham, a black girl was having a smash hit called Love and Affection. Joan Armatrading had arrived in Brum with the early wave of West Indian immigrants and was brought up in Stechford, just up the road from me – not of course that I realised that until later.

Yesterday evening Armatrading arguably stole the show from the headline act Ray Davies. She is by now of course a legend of British music and she has a firm following in Jersey. No fuss or frills, baggy trousers and an old top with butterflies on it. But she is a performer who radiates enjoyment and endears herself to her audiences. Yesterday evening she alternated between her back catalogue and some of her new stuff, all of which was well received. I must admit I didn’t realise that she could rock hard and loud as well as captivating the audience with her soulful stuff. Starlight is the title track of the new album and it was well received. But of course All The Way From America, Me Myself I, Drop The Pilot, Call Me Names and her signature song went down best. Versatility is her game and she and her excellent band blasted through their last two numbers leaving me dazzled and in need of a steadying pint. Brilliant from the Brummie chick.

By 1977 by comparison The Kinks had had their glory days. They plodded on before disbanding in the ’90s. Now amazingly 68, Ray Davies reprises those glory days with his own band. And does he do it with panache. He let it rip last night with energy and loudness, goading the Jersey audience into greater clapping, waving and singing efforts. Where Have All The Good Times Gone opened the show. All Day And All Of The Night, See My Friends, Dedicated Follower Of Fashion, Sunny Afternoon, Dead End Street and others followed. The gorgeous Waterloo Sunset was done as an acoustic break from the rocking. I was puzzled as he sang the wimpy Kirsty McColl song Days until learning it is in fact a Davies composition – I listen to it with new ears.

I thought his best song of the night was 20th Century Man , and Davies ended a great set with the deadly You Really Got Me which will once again have sent some local residents scurrying for the telephone even though both evenings finished bang on 10 o’clock, but that’s Jersey.

A great two days. Ticket sales weren’t as high as expected but, if the promoters do it again this festival is destined for repeated success.

Off to People’s Park wondering how to look cool. I needn’t have worried – it was pretty much a regular middle-aged Jersey crowd made up mainly, it seemed, of ex-cricketers. I missed the early stuff and it was Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry first up for me. I guess this was pretty much a first for Jersey, a pure, laid-back reggae beat pounding over the west of the town. Perry is a legend and went down well with many in the crowd. I’m less of a music connoisseur though and the whole thing was a bit too one-paced for me. And when the band was forcibly removed to allow set-up for the next act Perry was still under the illusion that he was in Dublin, if I interpreted his Rasta-speak correctly.

So onto Nouvelle Vague who, frankly, I’d never heard of. But they’ll have gained a few extra Jersey fans with this knock-out performance. Their specialty is in covering New Wave numbers with drive and not a little flair. Visually it’s all about the girl singers. Apparently the girls vary but this lively pair were a mixture of Agnetha, Anna-Fried and Liza Minelli. They sang brilliantly, interacted and danced together and put on a great bit of theatre. Behind them a keyboard and a heavy rhythm section drove the whole thing along. A great set including the Dead Kennedy’s Too Drunk To Fuck which the crowd thoroughly enjoyed singing along to. I hope the Bailiff doesn’t hear about it. These guys will be welcome back any time.

I was necking a beer in the hospitality tent when the opening bars of Brown Eyed Girl struck up, sending us all scurrying for the main tent. The Man Himself was in town. And he didn’t disappoint. Complete with cravat, dark glasses and trilby the legend that is Van Morrison was playing the People’s Park, a bit surreal in itself. Backed by half an orchestra, heavy on the brass, Morrison gave a great show. No chatting, no banter with the audience, just 90 minutes of his back catalogue which, of course, we were there to hear. Going way back to his Them days many of his classics were there; Bright Side Of The Road, Days Like This, Moondance, In The Midnight Hour, Whenever God Shines His Light, my favourite Have I Told You Lately and many more. 

Morrison’s voice is as good and strong as ever. He has no chat but he gives his performance all he’s got and the excellent band play no small part in the deliverance. And, having opened with BEG there was never a doubt what was going to close the show. As The Man disappeared offstage, never to reappear, a stunning, loud Gloria outro by the band will have kept the neighbours awake a while longer.

Gonna hear me some good music this year! A great start on 30^th June/31^stJuly with the Jersey Folklore Festival featuring Van Morrison, Joan Armatrading and Ray Davies. An eye-watering £105 for both days but you’d kick yourself were you to miss these legends.

Van the Man

I’ve just booked to see Ian Hunter and his Rant Band in Birmingham in October. Hunter was of course the front man for Mott The Hoople and he’s done some fabulous work in a long, solo career since.

Ian Hunter

I’m going to try and catch Carol Decker (T’Pau) and Richard Digance in the UK somewhere along the way this year as well. I’ve a fancy to attend the Cropredy Festival in August, the Fairport Convention celebration of folk music where Digance always has a spot. Trouble is I’m hardly festival material, preferring my comforts. We’ll see.

Richard Digance

You don’t get major bands in Jersey – the economics don’t permit it. One of the benefits of living in Dublin for a while was to be able to see The Eagles and Fleetwood Mac at a venue within walking distance.

But Jersey have hosted some good bands in the past. I suppose my favourite gig was Marillion at the Fort, performing their Misplaced Childhood album. The Dubliners, Steeleye Span, Tom Paxton. But generally promotors have caught too many colds by mis-reading the fast-changing trends in modern music and booking popular acts too late, once their star has fallen. 

You’ll never lose money promoting the legends though and the Warrens are doing brilliantly in presenting top acts at Jersey Live and now the Folklore.

Where are my beads and kaftan?

It’s a first for me to frantically switch back from the sport on 5Live to catch the second half of Richard Digance’s folk presentation on Radio Devon.  If, like me, you default to 1026MW you get BBC Jersey which switches without warning to either 5Live or the West Country local stations.  Radio Jersey has advanced in light years since its first cringeworthy year of operation but still retains many amateur aspects.  But that’s for another day.

I was about to head out at 5pm today (Sunday) when Digance’s regular programme came on.  He announced an edition dedicated to Sandy Denny, whereupon I immediately changed my plans, turned up the volume and listened intently.  Now I’m not a ‘folkie’, that strange breed of Englishman that delights in traditional songs played in the traditional ways, but I do like a bit of electric folk as performed by Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span and the like.  The two-hour programme paid tribute to Denny who Digance credited with leading the British divergence away from the American-led folk movement in the 60s.

We learnt that Denny was a London girl who was a trainee nurse when she began performing in a duo.  Digance is understandably proud of the time when the young Denny accepted a lift home from his brother late one night, via his mother’s kitchen and a bacon roll!  The young prodigy was spotted by one Dave Cousins who asked Denny to join a new outfit called The Strawbs; this was well before these guys became popular.  We further learned that they were originally known as The Strawberry Hill Boys.  The programme included two recording from those early Strawbs sessions in Copenhagen.

Soon enough Denny joined an embryonic Fairport Convention and, probably unwittingly, they started something memorable.  Digance played the superb A Sailor’s Life and mercifully left in the extended outro which features the fusion of the band’s instruments at their best.  But in the first half of the song Denny’s voice (which I assume was untrained) is displayed at its remarkable and controlled best.

Denny moved on to an outfit called Fotheringay before returning to Fairport and periodically performing solo work.  But Digance mentions ‘alcohol and cigarettes’ and indeed legend suggests that the beautiful and enchanting performer led a pretty wild life out of the public eye.  Denny’s final public performance (though no one then knew it) was at the Royal Albert Hall on 27^th December 1977.  Digance played a couple of tracks from that gig (including the lovely Solo which I hadn’t heard before)  at which she was accompanied by many of her musician friends.  Digance observes that Denny’s voice was, by then, faltering but to me it was as enchanting as ever.

Denny died some months later after a fall and resulting brain haemorrhage.  She was 31. 

As this blog witnesses I am devoted to the rock-powerful voices of Elkie Brooks, Carol Decker and Stevie Nicks.  Sandy Denny was a different kind of singer.  I’m a layman in these matters but to me her voice was less powerful and had a limited range.  However it was beautiful, strange and perfectly controlled and Denny had every song and every audience in the palm of her hand.  We are privileged to have been given so much in so short a life and well done Digance for showcasing it so memorably.