top of page

ABOUT THE WAITE COLLECTIVE

The Waite Collective are a family harmony trio from Chester, comprising mother Mal Waite and her two daughters, Rebecca Holmes and Katrina Turner. They’ve been singing together for longer than Rebecca and Katrina can remember (often while washing up after the evening meal) but the group in this form dates from around the year 2000.

 

During the ‘80s and ‘90s, Mal did a lot of travelling around the folk clubs and festivals of the country, singing both as a soloist and later with Chris Pollington and Alison Younger as First Principles. As teenagers, the girls often joined Mum on stage so that performing together came to feel a natural part of family life. These days they try and meet up once a week for chat, catch up, practice – and cake. There is normally a lot of laughter involved too, together with loads of singing.

 

They each have solo quality voices so they take it in turn to sing the lead vocals. They have very similar ranges, so Mal usually arranges harmonies that often interweave. They sing a lot of acapella, although occasionally Mal will provide an accompaniment on her custom-built Terry Docherty ‘Doctor’ guitar of which she is inordinately proud. Mal still sometimes performs as a soloist while Katrina also sings with another Chester-based band, The Time Bandits.

 

While Rebecca and Katrina have always loved ceilidh dancing (cue the shared smile every time they sing "our hearts sing when we're dancing"!), their involvement in French dancing is a little more recent.  What started out as learning the dance to go with a French song about a girl's unfortunate encounter with a wolf has grown into the trio learning a wide variety of songs and dances, which they now perform at bals and French dance workshops.  The group will sing and dance wherever possible, although they will sometimes stand to the side of the dancefloor where the demands of the dance would lead to three hyperventilated Waites in a heap on the floor!!

​

Katrina, Rebecca and Mal dressed up for a family wedding
bottom of page