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Chris While and Julie Matthews: Britain’s longest-lasting female duo




Twenty-nine years into their career, Chris While and Julie Matthews are the longest-lasting female duo in Britain and have played more than 2,500 gigs and written hundreds of original songs.

Folk duo Chris While and Julie Matthews
Folk duo Chris While and Julie Matthews

The folk singer-songwriters run their own label and publishing company, record and produce their albums from their own studio, and perform all their own material.

Speaking to the Cambridge Independent from her home in a small village near Sheffield, Chris reveals that the pair had returned from a holiday in Greece the day before.

It hasn’t been their only trip abroad this year. In March and April, they were in Australia during the festival season – “which is something we do every two or three years,” notes Chris, “which is fantastic.

“We’re so lucky there because we’ve been going for 25 years now, every two or three years, so we’ve built up a really nice following there. The festivals all like to have us and it’s brilliant.”

Chris and Julie also have a loyal following in the UK. As well as working with each other, they have collaborated with many other artists and this year released a new album as part of the folk quintet Daphne's Flight.

“It’s called Love Is the Weapon of Choice and we toured that in September,” says Chris, who has performed at the Cambridge Folk Festival “two or three times” as part of While & Matthews, “so it’s been quite a busy year.”

When the duo, who were both former members of The Albion Band – an off-shoot from Fairport Convention – come to Cambridge, the audience can expect to hear songs from their 13 studio albums, the most recent of which is 2022’s Women of the World.

“Next year’s our 30th anniversary as a duo,” says Chris, who reveals that requests are “pouring in” from fans on social media for songs to be played on the current tour, which kicked off on October 25, “so we’ll have a brand new album then – we’re starting to write for that now.”

On how they first got into doing music as a career, Chris says: “Well Julie’s never done anything else – in fact she went to Nashville to do some writing at the age of 18, with her manager.

“Then she worked abroad; she did quite a lot of entertaining abroad at a piano bar. Then when she came back to Britain, she started up a duo with a woman called Pat Shaw, and they became a really great duo.

“Then she joined The Albion Band and when she left The Albion Band – which is kind of a legendary folk band – I joined, and I’d been singing in folk clubs since I was 13.

“I think sometimes it’s a foregone conclusion with people that that’s what you’re going to do.”

A picture on the duo’s website shows them with American folk icon James Taylor, who has also been rather complimentary about While and Matthews.

“He’s lovely,” says Chris. “We’re both huge fans of his and we met him at the Folk Awards when we won our Best Duo award.

“He was getting a Lifetime Achievement award and we just happened to meet him in the daytime and got chatting with him.

“When we won, he was so complimentary when he heard us play – and then he stood up and led the standing ovation, which was just amazing. It was a pinch yourself moment.”

Chris While and Julie Matthews will be appearing at Storey’s Field Centre on Thursday, November 9, presented by Cambridge Folk Club.

Tickets, priced £16 (no booking fee) in advance and £17 on the door, are available at storeysfieldcentre.org.uk. For more on the duo, go to whileandmatthews.com.



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