THE UNTHANKS FINISH WORLD TOUR IN HEBDEN BRIDGE

Monday, 14 February 2011

The Unthanks are back in Hebden Bridge on Tuesday 19th April. This time they’re playing sat The Picture House having grown too big for the Trades club, one of their favourite venues. They have been returning to Hebden Bridge since Rachel Unthank was bottom of the bill at a folk night in 2003. The Trades Club was one of the early venues that supported Rachel Unthank and the Wintersett. That was at a time when they were just getting established and younger sister Becky was still studying. In 2009 the band stayed for a full weekend with three gigs and a singing workshop at the Trades Club.  The band has now evolved into The Unthanks, providing equal status between the sisters. They love Hebden Bridge so much that Becky moved here last year.

The Hebden Bridge gig, presented by the Trades Club at The Picture House will be the last of the current tour, so should ‘see them on top form. They will be performing songs from their new album, Last, the follow-up to Here’s The Tender Coming, which featured in The Guardian and Uncut’s Best Albums of the Year and was awarded Mojo Magazine Folk Album of the Year. For all the acclaim for their three albums to date, the Mercury Music Prize nominated Tyneside sisters Rachel and Becky Unthank have become most legendary for their live performances. Empathetic stories of love, loss, birth, death, brawls and booze make for a rollercoaster ride through the human condition, as Rachel and Becky’s folk-club unaccompanied singing upbringing is set against otherworldly musical pictures, arranged by a band with influences from Steve Reich to Miles Davies, Martin Hayes to Robert Wyatt, Portishead to Sufjan Stevens. It’s hard to conceive how music could sound so traditional and adventurous at once. The Unthanks will play music from their new album, as well as from their previous recordings.

Tickets at £17 for Trades Club members and £19 for others are available at the Trades Club, Tourist Information Centre and www.wegottickets.com

 

"once in a blue moon type of every now and again, you hear music that is so complete, so wonderful, unique and yet familiar that it stops you in your tracks. They have that blue moon magic about them, and  they have it in spades"   BBC Music

“Music as tough as it is gentle, as ancient as it is modern, and as coldly desolate as it is achingly intimate.. a sensationally graceful sound that can be epic and subdued, dreamy and specific, as well as supernaturally ancient and defiantly modern”. Paul Morley, Observer Music Magazine

‘Intimate, epic, overflowing with feeling and musical intelligence’
The Independent

"They are like the morning dew that hasn't steamed off yet, they are fresh and new and I really don't think they know how good they are" Robert Wyatt

 

Watch now
Later With Jools Holland, BBC2
Here's The Tender Coming

 

See also
www.the-unthanks.com
www.myspace.com/rachelunthank
www.thetradesclub.com