Flossie Malavialle

One thing, amongst others, you can say about Flossie is that she’s a real trouper. Faced with a non-functioning folk club PA system, she – hey-presto- produces her own mini-PA from the car and saves the day. It sounds good too!

And checking her website, I see 29 gigs in the diary for 2025, pretty rock ‘n’ roll for someone who has eschewed music as her main source of income and now only gigs on her holidays. Respect!

Flossie isn’t a songwriter; she offers a smorgasbord of carefully curated ‘covers’ for the discerning palate - songs you know and songs you should know.

We’re in familiar territory with opener, Tracy Chapman’s ‘Baby Can I Hold You’ then straight into Dolores Keane’s ‘Never be the Sun’. It’s now revealed what Flossie is all about – what a great voice! Rich tones, beautiful sustain, note perfect, and … a masterclass in microphone technique, when she hits the power notes, she backs off from the mic… like a real pro; floorspotters… watch and learn!

And of the songs we don’t know but should… Ewan Carruthers’ ‘Paris’ is waltz-time chanson… Gauloises hanging from the lower lip, a little après-midi vin and a dog-eared copy of Sartre sticking out of the pocket of your imperméable. It’s very cool and convincing, I’m transported.

And, not missing a beat we’re straight into Piaf’s ‘La Vie En Rose’. Simply stunning.

Richard Grainger’s ‘My Love is on Board’ is touching and beautiful.

I loved her version of Consuelo Velázquez’s ‘Bésame Mucho’. I have to admit that the only version of the song I’m familiar with is by the Beatles… well, my excuse is that there’s a big world of music out there and I only have two ears!

Flossie moved to England, from France in 2002 where she landed in Darlington. She moved back to France in 2019 but has charmingly retained notes of North of England in her English – which she entertainingly plays on, at one point stating something was ‘proper mint, like’. If you could imagine Charles Aznavour cloned with Jimmy Nail, but speaking with a woman’s voice you might get close.

Jacques Brel’s ‘Amsterdam’, like all of his songs, demands commitment, a degree of dark energy and power - Flossie gives it that, the stamp of her foot on the final chord is assertive, a no-nonsense door slamming on what you’ve just heard. Wow!

 And the encore… well, I suddenly realised I was surrounded by Flossiephiles. ‘What will I play?’…  ‘Hey Jude’ comes the called response. Huh, that can’t be random, and sure enough she launches into her interpretation of ‘Hey Jude’. We all sing along and the closing ‘na nana nanananas’ lift the roof.

Another marvellous evening and au revoir to Flossie, come back to Crail soon!

Words by Callum MacLeod photos by Peter Salkeld.