''Daphne's Flight'' is a collaboration between five female vocalists, instrumentalists, and songwriters in the British folk and root music scene:
Christine Collister
Christine Collister (born 28 December 1961) is a Manx folk, blues and jazz singer-songwriter. She was born and grew up on the Isle of Man and first came to public attention in 1986 as the singer of the theme song for the BBC's television adap ...
,
Melanie Harrold
Melanie Harrold (born 5 May 1951) is a British singer-songwriter, best known for her 1970s albums for DJM (''Fancy That'' and ''Blue Angel'') plus recording with Gerry Rafferty, and singing with Hank Wangford.In her early career, and even for ...
,
Julie Matthews
Julie Matthews (born 1963) is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. She has been a member of some of the most influential British folk duos and groups and is acknowledged internationally as a major songwriter ...
,
Helen Watson and
Chris While
Chris While (born 1956) is an English songwriter, singer and musician, known particularly for her vocals and live performances. She has worked as a solo artist, a songwriter and as a member of a number of duos and groups. Her music is often cla ...
. The collaboration resulted in a well-reviewed album and a sell-out tour during the mid-1990s. The project helped to cement relationships between the members, raised their individual profiles nationally and internationally and has been seen as marking a turning point in the role of women within the English folk movement. Twenty years after the initial collaboration, Daphne's Flight returned with a new studio album and a live release, and toured extensively.
History
The group made their début at the 1995
Cambridge Folk Festival
The Cambridge Folk Festival is an annual music festival, established in 1965, held on the site of Cherry Hinton Hall in Cherry Hinton, one of the villages subsumed by the city of Cambridge, England. The festival is known for its eclectic mix o ...
, where they were one of the hits of the event. This was followed by a major concert at London's prestigious Union Chapel in December. In January 1996 they recorded their eponymous album in ten days, fitted between busy schedules, in The Big Room, Kirk Michael, the Isle of Man. The studio had to be completed by builders working through the night. The result was very positively reviewed in the folk and roots music press and gained considerable mainstream press and media attention. The group followed the release with a popular major 18-date tour of England through May and June 1996.
[NME http://www.nme.com/artists/daphnes-flight, recovered 09/01/09]
The project proved a one-off for some time as the members pursued their own careers, but in subsequent years they appeared on and contributed to each other’s albums and live appearances. Partial reunions occurred for specific gigs, and in 2003 at the Prebendal Festival they reassembled for a reunion.
As the 20th anniversary of the initial collaboration approached, members of the group began talking of a full-fledged reunion project, which was eventually realized with the release of the critically acclaimed album ''Knows Time, Knows Change'' in 2017. The entire 2017 tour was recorded on digital multi-track, from which a third album, ''Daphne's Flight Live,'' was assembled and released in 2018. The group continued touring during 2019 and into 2020.
[ ]
Members and contributions
*
Christine Collister
Christine Collister (born 28 December 1961) is a Manx folk, blues and jazz singer-songwriter. She was born and grew up on the Isle of Man and first came to public attention in 1986 as the singer of the theme song for the BBC's television adap ...
-
vocals
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or witho ...
,
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...
,
percussion
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...
*
Melanie Harrold
Melanie Harrold (born 5 May 1951) is a British singer-songwriter, best known for her 1970s albums for DJM (''Fancy That'' and ''Blue Angel'') plus recording with Gerry Rafferty, and singing with Hank Wangford.In her early career, and even for ...
-
vocals
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or witho ...
,
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...
,
piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a musica ...
*
Julie Matthews
Julie Matthews (born 1963) is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. She has been a member of some of the most influential British folk duos and groups and is acknowledged internationally as a major songwriter ...
-
vocals
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or witho ...
,
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...
,
piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a musica ...
,
mandolin
A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...
*
Helen Watson,
vocals
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or witho ...
,
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...
,
harmonica
The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica in ...
*
Chris While
Chris While (born 1956) is an English songwriter, singer and musician, known particularly for her vocals and live performances. She has worked as a solo artist, a songwriter and as a member of a number of duos and groups. Her music is often cla ...
-
vocals
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or witho ...
,
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...
,
dulcimer
The word dulcimer refers to two families of musical string instruments.
Hammered dulcimers
The word ''dulcimer'' originally referred to a trapezoidal zither similar to a psaltery whose many strings are struck by handheld "hammers". Variants of th ...
,
bodhran,
darbuka
The goblet drum (also chalice drum, tarabuka, tarabaki, darbuka, darabuka, derbake, debuka, doumbek, dumbec, dumbeg, dumbelek, toumperleki, tumbak, or zerbaghali; arz, دربوكة / Romanized: ) is a single-head membranophone with a goblet-s ...
,
percussion
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...
Recordings
Daphne's Flight (1996)
# "Over and Over" (lead vocal: Melanie Harrold) (Written By M Harrold)
# "Ain't No Sunshine" (lead vocal: Christine Collister)
# "Another Year Another Day" (lead vocal: Chris While) (Written By C While)
# "The Calling" (lead vocal: Julie Matthews) (Written By J Matthews)
# "Gone" (lead vocal: Helen Watson) (Written By H Watson)
# "The Letter" (lead vocal: Melanie Harrold) (Written By M Harrold)
# "Father Adieu" (All)
# "Guilty" (lead vocal: Christine Collister)
# "Shake Out Your Silver" (lead vocal: Helen Watson) (Written By H Watson)
# "Circle Round The Sun" (lead vocal: Chris While) (Written By C While)
# "Rise Above The Tide Of Life" (lead vocal: Julie Matthews) (Written By J Matthews)
References
{{Authority control
1996 albums
Collaborative albums