THE UNTHANKS LIVE AT THE QUEEN’S HALL, EDINBURGH
John Scott checks out The Unthanks at The Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh.
It has been a wee while now since an Unthanks tour has stopped off in Edinburgh and so unsurprisingly, fans of the Northumbrian folk band are out in force tonight. Rather disappointingly though, only one of them has made the effort to cycle some 212 miles here from Orkney. The Unthanks are touring in support of a new album, Sorrows Away, due to be released later in the year. “We’ve finished it.” bandleader and pianist Adrian McNally tells us. “We have finished it?” He asks the band, just to be sure. General consensus suggests that they probably have. Whether they have or not, the songs they play from the album indicate that it will be an album well worth waiting for.
The opening song The Great Selkie Of Sule Skerry, a traditional Orcadian folk song, eases us into the evening. Becky Unthank’s lovely vocal is supported by sister Rachel and Niopha Keegan. Rachel, Becky, Niopha, Adrian and multi-instrumentalist Chris Price form the core of an 11-piece band: string section, drums, bass, guitar and trumpeter Lizzie Jones who, on the evidence of tonight’s performance is a rising Unthanks star.
Pre-publicity for the tour suggested that Sorrows Away would reflect moving back into light from the darkness of the last couple of years. “It’s us, though,” says Rachel, tempering expectations. “You know what you are getting.” It’s true that the songs in the Unthanks repertoire are short on laughs but there are deeper emotions to be mined – as The Bard Of Salford, Dr John Cooper Clarke observed: there’s more to life than fun. Take Dave Sudbury’s song The King Of Rome which celebrates the realisation of dreams and the triumph of dignity over circumstance through a simple tale of pigeon-fancying. No laughs, but a profound, deeply moving sense of joy.
That celebration of the power of the human spirit runs through the songs in the set tonight. We are invited to sing along to the refrain of Sorrows Away (the show is being filmed, so no pressure there). As the song builds in power with the simple repetition of the title, there truly is a feeling of cares being eased, burdens being lifted. This is a song that is set to become an Unthanks classic.
Adrian’s pre-interval sales pitch on behalf of the merch stand has become something of a feature of Unthanks gigs. Clearly, the lack of a new album to promote is not sitting easily with him. “We do have a T-shirt.” he offers, slightly forlornly. I don’t think he will have to worry about sales of the new album when the time comes though.
The second set opens with firm favourite Felton Lonnin, Rachel’s foot-tap accompaniment augmented by brooding bass and soaring strings. Niopha Keegan who has flitted between vocals and a place in the string section, providing value for money that surely must fill Adrian with a deep sense of satisfaction, takes the lead on My Singing Bird before being joined by Rachel and Becky. It’s another deeply beautiful and moving song in an evening full of beautiful and moving songs.
Mount The Air provides a showcase for Lizzie Jones whose trumpet playing has been outstanding throughout and is topped off by Rachel and Becky’s effusive clog dance, bringing the evening to a triumphant close. There is, of course, an encore: another opportunity for an audience singalong to Farewell Regality and a reprise of Sorrows Away that brings the audience to its feet in an absolutely deserved ovation. Ladies and gentlemen, The Unthanks: Transcendence – with clogs on.
Setlist
The Great Selkie of Sule Skerry
The Bay of Fundy
The Sandgate Dandling Song
The King of Rome
Magpie
The Month of January
The Old News
Sorrows Away
Felton Lonnin
A Whistling Woman
Lucky Gilchrist
The Isabella Coke Ovens
Royal Blackbird
My Singing Bird
Mount the Air
Fareweel Regality
Sorrows Away (Reprise)
John Scott
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