Went to see Rachel Unthank and the Winterset at
The Round in Newcastle last night. A small venue, I got in sharp and had one of the best seats in the house literally 2 feet away from Rachel and sat next to her mum. Superb gig, hey Lontano you missed a treat when she was in Sydney. I was suprised that some of the most gorgeous songs were sung by Becky Unthank and not Rachel, particularly on
Blackbird. They were good fun too taking the rise out of themselves with typical
Geordie humour. They joked about the gig in Sydney where they were singing about
Hexhamshire and that many of the crowd thought they were singing about
Hexhamshaggers - well it is quite rural in that part of Northumberland

Part way through the gig Rachel announced she wanted some more water but no one obliged so I popped up to the bar and got them a bottle each (the Rider was non existent). Rachel thanked me and called me
the watercarrier which was embarrassing but fun.
I had a lovely chat with mummy Unthank who herself was a folk singer in choirs and her husband was in a north East group called the Keelers. The girls were taken to folk clubs and festivals from a very young age and she said it was Rachel's ambition to be a famous folk singer from the age of four - she seems to have got there by the age of 30

Mum goes to many of the local gigs and missed them when they were in Australia and still played the records. She was very proud of her daughters.
A wonderful gig, good company and a name check - hey, not a bad Sunday night out. If you get a chance and can stretch yourself to a little Folk -The Unthanks are marvellous - oh and they did a little clog dancing too
