BBC - Celtic Connections Festival 2012

Bridget St John

Glasgow Royal Concert Hall - Strathclyde Suite

Gill Davies reports

Having first heard Bridget St John ooh-lah-lah-ing with Kevin Ayers on 'The Oyster and The Flying Fish' on his 'Shooting at the Moon' album, it was a real treat to see her make a rare live appearance in Glasgow.

It was a shame saxophonist extraordinaire Lol Coxhill, who also played with Ayers, had to pull out due to ill health. Composer and musician Bill Wells (another Ayers' collaborator) more than ably stepped up to the mark, opening the show with his resurrected original trio featuring Belle and Sebastian guitarist Stevie Jackson on harmonica and Robert Henderson on trumpet.

Wells' National Jazz Trio of Scotland were not what you would expect. They weren’t a trio, nor did they play conventional jazz. Wells was joined on stage by Teenage Fanclub's Norman Blake, vocalists Lorna Gilfeather and Kate Sugden and Aby Vulliamy on viola and vocals. The music they played is hard to define, but it’s definitely original. The harmonies were exquisite. Set highlights included Norman Blake's version of Bonnie Mary of Argyll 'This is What You Could Have Won' and 'Trying to Escape You'. Lorna Gilfeather sang in Japanese on what might have been the track Mizu Tori (correct me if I'm wrong!) from Well's Lemondale album (http://www.dominorecordco.com/uk/albums/05-10-11/lemondale), recorded in one day in Tokyo with Japanese musicians. Give your ears a treat and listen to this. It's magic.

Bridget St John joined the The National Jazz Trio of Scotland for their last two tracks and they ended their set with a Wells’ version of The Beatles, ‘For No One’. St John’s vocals on this track were outstanding. Dubbed 'the best lady singer-songwriter in the country' by John Peel, her voice has lost none of its magic. In her own set, St John played a mixture of old and new tracks, including the classic 'Ask Me No Questions', the title track of her first album, produced by Peel and released on his own Dandelion label.

St John is also an accomplished guitarist and the influence of her 'musical brother' and friend, John Martyn is evident in her style. She paid homage to another 'musical brother', Michael Chapman, in a version of his 'Rabbit Hills'.

St John claimed to have co-written the track 'Fly High' with Robert Louis Stephenson – an impressive piece of time-travel - but she admitted that it was only the first two lines she'd taken from RLS, whose estate still receives royalties for the song.

Like the woman sitting next to me, I was hoping she would give the nod to Kevin Ayers (yes, him again) and play 'Baby Won't You Please Come Home' – St John duetted with Ayers on this track from his 'Unfairground' album – but it wasn't to be. She more than made up for that small disappointment by ending her set with a spine-tingling version of the John Martyn track 'Back to Stay' from his London Conversation album. Her musical brother would have been proud.