Most of the entertainment provided by The Grand Theatre tends to be tribute bands along with comedy gigs and am-dram productions so it was a rare treat to have Rachel and Becky Unthank come to town with their full backing band.
The first few numbers were as a 4-piece of Rachel and Becky with Adrain McNally on piano and Niopha Keegan on fiddle and harmony vocals. The three of them singing together was just beautiful. Niopha then joined three other string players and one highlight was hearing The Testimony of Patience Kershaw with the string quartet accompaniment.
One thing I noticed is that they do like having a lot of trumpet solos and while Lizzie Jones is certainly a very good trumpeter, I did find that it got a bit excessive during the first set. The second set was more enjoyable partly due to it including Magpie / The Scarecrow Knows the latter song having been on the soundtrack of the Mackenzie Crook TV series of Worzel Gummidge.
Being used to June Tabor's recording of The King of Rome, it came as something of a (pleasant) surprise to hear The Unthanks perform it with their full band which also included Chris Price on guitar, Dan Rogers on upright bass and Martin Douglas on drums. I'm hoping I've got the names right - I couldn't make out much of the band introductions but the three of them all played on the Mount The Air album.
Throw in a bit of clog dancing and they got a standing ovation at the end, though the encore was spoiled a bit when the lights on the stage were directed right in our faces up in the circle. The lights had been very effective earlier when they shone on the theatre ceiling but the encore rather took the shine off things, so to speak.
The expanded line-up plays in Bristol tonight and then the four of them carry on with the rest of the tour.
https://www.the-unthanks.com/schedule/
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