June Tabor (born 31 December 1947 in Warwick, England) is considered one of… Read Full Bio ↴June Tabor (born 31 December 1947 in Warwick, England) is considered one of the foremost English folk singers of her generation. Aside from her highly-acclaimed solo music career, she has also combined her talents with greats such as Maddy Prior (as one half of Silly Sisters), Martin Simpson, Elvis Costello and Oysterband. In 2004, and again in 2012, she was named Folk Singer of the Year at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. In 2011 the album "Ragged Kingdom" by June Tabor & Oysterband was named "Album of the Year" in the fROOTS critics poll.

Tabor's earliest public performances were at the Heart of England Folk Club (at the Fox and Vivian pub) in Leamington Spa in the mid 1960s. In the late 1960s an appearance at the Sidmouth Folk Festival led to folk club bookings and she contributed to various records. One of her earliest recordings was in 1972 on an anthology called Stagfolk Live. She also featured on Rosie Hardman's Firebird (1972) and The First Folk Review Record (1974). At the time she was singing purely traditional unaccompanied material but in 1976 she collaborated with Maddy Prior on the Silly Sisters album and tour, with a full band that included Nic Jones. It provided the launching pad that same year (1976) for her first album in her own right, Airs and Graces. She later joined again with Prior, this time using the name Silly Sisters for their duo. Starting in 1977 Martin Simpson joined her in the recording studio for three albums before he moved to America in 1987. (Simpson has returned from America to be a guest guitarist on albums in the 2000s.) After his departure, she started working closely with pianist Huw Warren.

In 1990, Tabor recorded an album with the folk-rock band OysterBand entitled Freedom and Rain. She went on tour with OysterBand, and the Rykodisc label published a limited-run promotional live album the following year. Many of her current fans first discovered her through this tour and album with the OysterBand. In 1992 Elvis Costello wrote "All This Useless Beauty" specifically for Tabor, and she recorded it on Angel Tiger.

Since then her solo albums have included:
A Quiet Eye (1999)
Rosa Mundi (2001)
An Echo of Hooves (2003)
At the Wood's Heart (2005)
Apples (2007)
Ashore (2011)

Ragged Kingdom is a 2011 album by June Tabor & Oysterband.

Since 2006, Tabor has also been working with Huw Warren and Iain Ballamy as Quercus.

Website: www.junetabor.co.uk

Le Vingt-cinquième Du Mois D'octobre
June Tabor Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Le vingt-cinquième du mois d'Octobre
Le vingt-cinquième du mois d'Octobre
Pour Gilbatare j'allais partir
Par quatre-vingt navires de guerre
Par quatre-vingt navires de guerre

Ah, quand on vint d'un peu-s-au large
Ah, quand on vint d'un peu-s-au lar-ge

On aperçut d'un grand navi-re
Faisant sur nous en grand furi-e
Faisant sur nous en grand furie

Ils ont tiré trois coups de canon
Ils ont tiré trois coups de cano-ne
Le premier coup qu'ils ont tiré-e
Ils ont tiré sur notre arriè-re
Ils ont tiré sur notre arrière

Le deuxième coup qu'ils ont tiré
Le deuxième coup qu'ils ont tiré-e
Ils ont tiré sur notre grand mât
Sans jamais aucun mal nous fai-re
Sans jamais aucun mal nous faire

Le troisième coup qu'ils ont tiré
Le troisième coup qu'ils ont tiré-e
Le capitaine s'est écrié
Y-a-t-il quelqu'un d'nos hommes blessé-e?
Y-a-t-il quelqu'un d'nos hommes blessé

Ah oui, ah oui, cher capitaine
Ah oui, ah oui, cher capitai-ne
Il y a là-bas le contre-maître
Ah, contre-maître, mon grand ami-e
Ah, contre-maître, mon grand amie

N'as-tu pas le regret d'mourir?
N'as-tu pas le regret d'mouri-re?
Le seil regret que j'ai't'au monde
C'est de quitter ma chère blonde
C'est de quitter ma chère blonde

Ta chère blonde j'envierai t'la chercher
Ta chère blonde j'envierai t'la chercher-e
Par quatre soldats de la Marine
Qui s'en vont sur la mer jolie-e
Qui s'en vont sur la mer jolie

Le vingt-cinquième du mois d'Octobre
Le vingt-cinquième du mois d'Octobre
Pour Gilbatare j'allais partir-e

Par quatre-vingt navires de guerre
Par quatre-vingt navires de guerre

Overall Meaning

The song Le Vingt-cinquième Du Mois D'octobre tells the story of a sailor who is going to leave for Gilbatare on the 25th of October, with 80 war ships. As they set sail, they spot a large ship coming towards them at great speed. The larger ship fires three cannon shots, causing the sailor's ship to panic, but the large ship only hits their rear and main mast. The captain asks if anyone has been hurt, and the sailor replies that only their friend, the boatswain, has been injured. The boatswain laments that the only thing he regrets is leaving his loved one behind, and the song ends with the suggestion that some soldiers will go to look for her.

The song's lyrics have been interpreted as an account of a naval battle, specifically the Battle of Trafalgar, which took place on the 21st of October, 1805, in which Britain and its allies fought against the French and Spanish navies. However, some historians have argued that the song is actually based on a different naval conflict, the Battle of Martinique, which took place on the 17th of April, 1780.

Line by Line Meaning

Le vingt-cinquième du mois d'Octobre
On the twenty-fifth of October

Pour Gilbatare j'allais partir
I was going to Gilbatare

Par quatre-vingt navires de guerre
By eighty warships

Ah, quand on vint d'un peu-s-au large
Oh, when we came from a little off shore

On aperçut d'un grand navi-re
We saw a big ship

Faisant sur nous en grand furi-e
Coming towards us in great fury

Ils ont tiré trois coups de canon
They fired three cannon shots

Le premier coup qu'ils ont tiré-e
The first shot they fired

Ils ont tiré sur notre arriè-re
They shot at our rear

Le deuxième coup qu'ils ont tiré
The second shot they fired

Ils ont tiré sur notre grand mât
They shot at our main mast