Reviews, The Black Swan Inn

Flossie Malavialle at The Black Swan Inn

It was a full house at the Black Swan Inn on Thursday, and probably a good thing too in a Tudor pub with single glazing and high wind levels outside. 

By Lizzie Shannon

 

Once the room was full and the lights were dimmed, the night kicked off with the Master of Ceremonies, Eddie Affleck and local performers John Cherry and Toni Burnell. The audience received a diverse taste of folk styles from traditional Scottish war tales, original ballads about the love of a pastoral haven, and the bawdy acapella pub singer encouraging the audience into a chorus about the pantomime elephant’s bottom.

The audience now thoroughly warmed up, it was time for the headlining act: Flossie Malavialle, a French born singer and guitarist living in the North East with a clean, strong resonant voice and an eclectic collection of covers at her hands. As Flossie put it: “there are so many beautiful songs in the world already, I don’t really feel the need to add to them.”

 

She began with a traditional Irish love song and moved across countries and styles including compositions from Teeside, to traditional South American folk sung in Spanish, a little Edith Piaf and even some Willie Nelson. She captured each song with the appropriate ‘va-va-voom’ and tenderness where required.

Alongside her music, she had the audience enchanted and laughing with her comedic interludes, mostly focused on her acclimatisation to life in the North East of England and her interesting accent which is probably best described as ‘Geordie with a hint of French’.

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Flossie Malavialle – photo by Lizzie Shannon

 

After the interlude, she took us back on our European acoustic adventure with some Jaques Brel, beautifully and lyrically sung in the original French, covered a little more Irish war history, before uniting the audience in choruses of Killing Me Softly,  What a Wonderful World and finishing, of course on Edith Piaf’s Non, Je ne Regrette Rien.

 

It was a wonderful evening with a witty and enchanting performer who could really capture and involve her audience. We look forward to catching her when she’s in this neck of the woods again.

Flossie Malavialle played at the Black Swan Inn on Thursday 15 January 2015