YORK holds a special place in the heart of folk-singing duo Chris While and Julie Matthews.

Their albums are released through Fat Cat Records, a record label that operates from Holly Terrace in the city, where Chris and Julie will be performing at the National Centre for Early Music on Monday evening.

"It will be the first time for us at the National Centre," says Chris. "We've been looking to play this venue for ages, because it is such a good reputation, but either we were busy or they were busy and couldn't fit us in.

"The last time we did a big gig in York must have been just before the Arts Centre in Micklegate closed down, when we played there with the Albion Band. Since then we've usually done the Winning Post."

This year sees the tenth anniversary of the While and Matthews songwriting partnership, and the duo will mark the anniversary with a special re-union show.

"On June 26, we'll have a one-day festival with all the groups we've been involved in, such as Daphne's Flight with Christine Collister; Blue Tapestry with Pete Zorn, Maartin Allcock and Neil Marshall," says Chris. "We'll be performing on a lawn that holds 500 people on a 1,000-acre farm on the Ridgeway at Bishopstone, near Swindon, and the festival has already sold out. In fact it sold out in January."

On Monday, While and Matthews will be promoting their latest album, Perfect Mistake, which was released earlier this month. The title comes from one of Julie's compositions, and she explains how she came to put the words Perfect and Mistake together.

"Sometimes when I'm looking for ideas, I look for opposites and there's nothing more opposite than perfect and mistake. At one level, how can anything be perfect... but then even a mistake can be a perfect mistake," she says.

"A lot of things that happened on this album were happy accidents, like having bass player Liz Frencham playing on there. She's from Australia but she was touring in London and that made it possible for her to record with us and she made an outstanding contribution.

"She turned one song, Now That Is Love Again, from a lament into a tango after she saw the accordion I'd been learning to play and said 'Let's make into a tango'!"

Looking to the future, Julie says there is plenty more fuel in the While and Matthews tank.

"I feel everything in my career led to this duo and I believe this tenth anniversary is not the end of one decade but the beginning of a new decade for us," she says. "We are only now discovering the full scope of what we can do."

While and Matthews Band, National Centre for Early Music, York, Monday (22nd), 7.30pm. Tickets: £12, concessions £10, on 01904 658338.

Updated: 08:50 Friday, March 19, 2004