Folk heroines go large for a show at NCH
The Unthanks are among Britain’s finest and most popular folk groups and although they only performed here at Vicar Street in May, they make a welcome return on October 30, for a show in the National Concert Hall’s Tradition Now series.
The band will play songs from their fantastic new album Sorrows Away and selections from their eclectic back catalogue.
They are fronted by sisters Rachel and Becky Unthank who hail from just outside Newcastle. I remind Becky that the last time we spoke, it was to talk about the album The Songs and Poems of Molly Drake, who is perhaps better known as the mother of legendary singer-songwriter Nick Drake. They’ve also
‘We choose to be in the band together. Nobody is making us do it.’
recorded albums celebrating the work of Emily Brontë and the rich history of Tyne & Wear’s Shipyards, as well as soundtracking the BBC’s 2019 Worzel Gummidge reboot.
‘Yes we’ve been very busy, making lots of music. I’ve got a four year old now as well and he gets me up out of bed early I can tell you,’ she laughs. Her son is called Wren Arden. Becky is married to BAFTA-winning animator and filmmaker Ainslie Henderson.
‘We did an unaccompanied tour a few years ago when my lad was seven months old. Niopha Keegan, who plays fiddle and sings with us, also had a baby six days after me. So it was me, Rachel and Niopha, two babies and two babysitters.
‘Poor Rachel, she had nobody to go the pub with!’
Older sister Rachel was married to band manager and member Adrian McNally but they divorced a few years ago. Although insisting she speaks for neither party, Becky says despite that parting of the ways, they successfully focus on the music.
‘Well, we’re a bit like a dysfunctional family, the lot of us.
‘But we choose to be in the band together, nobody is making us do it,’ Becky says.
‘Yes, It must have been difficult for Rachel and Adrian to go through that. They’ve got kids but they also made beautiful music together and that’s a dynamic worth treasuring as far as Rachel sees. So as long as it works, it works.’
Our last conversation was in the aftermath of Brexit. There has since been three different occupants of 10 Downing Street (at the time of writing!), Queen Elizabeth has passed away and we are still trying to get used to saying King Charles. How have these various seismic changes impacted on her?
‘I was totally devastated by Brexit. I still can’t believe that people made that choice,’ she says.
‘I am actually still shocked by it. I think all we can try to do is keep those bonds that we have always had with each other.
‘I do feel English but being from the north-east is a stronger identity for me.
‘Because of my upbringing in Folk music, I feel an affinity with Scottish and Irish people.
‘You go through life and you find the groups of people that you relate to,’ she adds.
She says people in Britain need more than ever to ‘sit down with each other and see each other’s point of view and have hope.’ She pauses before expressing an opinion on the monarchical change.
‘I am only speaking for me, not anybody else in the band but it didn’t affect my life hugely,’ she says. ‘Somebody has died that’s really sad for their family. I am interested to see – well mildly interested to see – what happens next. It’s not the cornerstone of my life. I didn’t watch any of the coverage. I don’t even have a TV!’
She says she is more concerned with all things Unthanks and making it viable to sing their truths and that of others to as many people as possible.
‘We are an independent business. We do everything we can ourselves. The last time we played the Concert Hall was with a ten piece band. This time we’re bringing 11. But we decided that. We do this because we love to sing.
‘I mean singing anywhere is so therapeutic, whether it is singing on your own or in harmony like we do. In folk songs, we sing about life and death and birth, relationships falling apart and work and politics. Singing for us is how we process things.’
■ The Unthanks play the NCH on October 30, as part of the Heritage Now series. Their latest album – Sorrows Away, is out now
‘Because of my upbringing, I feel an affinity with Scottish and Irish people’