Shirley Collins. Classic. Dud is not an option here, I'm afraid.

totally. sort of irritates me that there's not more cool shirley footage on youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBxtQhql0N4

it's weird, i used to search for her all the time on youtube, find nothing, and one day i gave up and set up a google alert, thinking that it would tell me when there was anything shirley related!
and really it hasn't been particularly fruitful. i do find the odd thing, but maybe i have it set up wrong or something.
still, that makes it more beautiful when something does come up. scarcity can be good.

The spoken intro to this live "Poor Murdered Woman" is essential esp since Harking Back seems to be ridiculously hard to find.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpGfQ0EUgWk

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151972147412139&l=ff4a785c33

omg

https://scontent-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/q84/s720x720/539793_10151972147412139_1532932372_n.jpg

awesome.

haha wow

she has the most beautiful hair of all hairs

wah!

wondering if they saw her copper-coloured hair as a good fit for their brand identity

Sellout! What year's that from?

HOLY SHIT EVERBODY. HOLY SHIT!

Just got back from seeing Current 93 in London and just before they took the stage, Shirl the Pearl came on and sang two songs!!!

Got an amazing reception, everyone was cheering and clapping like crazy even before she sang a note. She did All The Pretty Little Horses with Ian Kearey on some old stringed thing like a rebec or something, the she sang Death & The Lady with Ian switching to bluesy bottleneck guitar. Her voice was understandably a little rusty and she forgot the words to Death & The Lady bless her, but oh my, so great! And she was quite overcome by the reception too.

As a side note, Ian's a friend who I hadn't seen for a very long time and you could have knocked me down with a feather when he walked out on stage with her. He's had his ups and downs for the last few years so it was so fucking great to see him playing again.

Anyhow, FUCKING HELL!

Wow! That's awesome

I know! Beggining to wonder if it was even real!

btw i lied, it wasn't a rebec, it was more like an appalachian dulcimer, a very old looking long skinny plucked instrument.

Current 93 line itself was quite surreal too actually - James Blackshaw, Bobby from Comus, Jack Barnett from These New Puritans, TONY FUCKING MCPHEE from the Groundhogs...

A picture emerges

:-0 & :-) !!!

WOW!

omg

she sang Death & The Lady

i would have passed out, so happy i tangentially know someone who has heard her sing. amazing. so so so envious but also happy for everyone who saw her.

also i listened to "lovely joan" today and it sounded so great

Sorry to rain on this parade but I heard her sing at a folk club in Lewes around 2000 or so, she only sang one song though

Great post

I was there nick! That was amazing aye. She said she wouldn't have done it for anyone except Tibet.

No rain on my parade -- I hope maybe he can convince her to record again.

Mine neither, just saw a picture of her with Davy Graham in Electric Eden, which is almost as good, no?

I was there nick! That was amazing aye. She said she wouldn't have done it for anyone except Tibet.

wins! seemed to me like everyone in the place did this simultaneous collective gasp when she was introduced.

another picture: https://twitter.com/Neodop/status/432296281290342400/photo/1

hey anagram, maybe send this person a tweet? >>>

https://twitter.com/PollyTaplin/status/432514023519571969/photo/1

i would imagine there was a collective gasp! this news has made me so happy. do you think there's a chance that she'll record again?!

it's a nice thought but i would be amazed. stranger things have happened though!

la lechera i did think of you last night btw and wished i could have emergency teleported you into the building :(

if i was considered in absentia, that's the best i could've realistically hoped for. i know that even if she performs again, i will probably not get a chance to hear it, which is why i am very interested in the possibility of future recordings. also i really liked the way her voice aged from her early recordings/youth to the later death and the lady era, AND since i believe that singers are interpreters of song (rather than people with "beautiful voices") she could really make an interesting record at this point in her life. imagine that life experiences that would come through her voice -- it would be so beautiful! anyway, i'm also thrilled that she could experience a room full of love like that.

anyway, i'm also thrilled that she could experience a room full of love like that.

^ this was the best bit! i was quite far back but she was visibly moved.

oh look here's a review:

http://www.attnmagazine.co.uk/performance/7324

important twitter feed - ShirleyCollins Movie(!):

https://twitter.com/ShirleyCMovie

whoa
are those filmmakers a known entity?

they're the same people who did this thing:
http://www.wayofthemorris.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRV1mW35FlI

wonder how much the fact that they were shooting a film influenced shirley's decision to perform?

oh man that looks totally like the kind of movie i would like to see. (i also like morris dancing -- will try to find a way to watch it!) looks like she's in good hands?!
i was wondering the same thing about the possibility of influence, which is why my first question was "filmmakers are clowns y/n" and it looks like the answer is n, fortunately.

I have that Morris film, but haven't got round to watching it yet.

thought it might be along the same lines as the recent nic jones documentary which ended with him doing his first live performance for something like 32 years, but the style of that morris trailer seems to be a little more dreamlike and fantastical.

xp now's yr cue!

same director also did this which sounds pretty interesting:
Epilogue - 2012 sci-fi TV series

talking of nic jones:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/efdss/8029993946/in/photostream/

damn ur eyes flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/efdss/8029993946/in/photostream/

^ nic'n'shirl

oops: http://www.flickr.com/photos/efdss/8029993454/in/photostream/

TONY FUCKING MCPHEE from the Groundhogs...

... blimey. I often approach revived threads of, ahem, more senior artists with some dread in case they're dead (Holger Czukay has given me a couple of near heart attacks) so I'm glad to see Shirl alive and kicking it.