Laura Marling, When The Bell Tolls Tour (From York Press)

Laura Marling, When The Bell Tolls Tour

12:02pm Friday 20th April 2012 in CD reviews By Charles Hutchinson

TRUE to her word, Hampshire folk singer Laura Marling has released a permanent record of last autumn’s When The Bell Tolls Tour evening performance in the Nave of York Minster.

“We’re actually recording it tonight as this is the big daddy of all the cathedrals on the tour,” Laura revealed to York Twenty4Seven on October 21, over a cigarette and a cuppa at the Evil Eye Lounge in Stonegate, after her matinee set in the Minster’s Chapter House.

“I think we’ll print it up on vinyl and sell it at shows, if all goes to plan, rather than releasing it formally,” she said at the time.

Three recordings with Marling’s seven-piece band in the Minster featured on A Collection Of Ten Of Laura Marling’s Standout Studio And Live Recordings From The Last Three Years, a CD given away with the Observer late last year.

Now Ghosts, Night Terror and I Was Just A Card have been joined by the remaining songs from last year’s concert on the Virgin Records reissue of Laura’s 2011 album, A Creature I Don’t Know.

Released this month, it now boasts a second disc entitled Live From York Minster, denoted by the pen and ink drawing of York Minster on the special edition CD cover.

And so it is a formal CD, after all, and not a vinyl disc for sale at gigs, but very welcome nevertheless, especially as it brings back memories of Laura whistling in a hushed church on Night Terror.