A Clogstravaganza at the Corn Hall

Posted on 6th October 2024

The welcome return to the Corn Hall of musician Kathryn Tickell was met with a full house, eager to enjoy her very particular offering of Northumbrian pipe and fiddle music. As before, she was accompanied by the Darkening – just another word for Twilight in the North East, she assured us. This multi-talented band featured Amy Thatcher on accordion and synthesiser, Kieran Szifris on mandolin and guitar, Joe Truswell on percussion, and Stef Connor on lyre and latin, with all of them playing much more besides.

The songs featured were largely culled from the Cloud Horizons and Hollowbones albums, and while much of the music was clearly inspired from traditional Northumbrian origins, a quirky contemporary feel was evident throughout. The opening instrumental set out their stall, a lively reel that, but for our seating, might well have had the audience dancing from the outset. As it was, we had to be content with foot tapping and head nodding, while vicariously enjoying the clog dancing of Amy Thatcher. Collier’s Rant, sung in pitmatic dialect, and Nemesi, sung in Latin, showcased the vocal talent of Stef Conner and the breadth of the band’s ambition, while the audacious Clogstravaganza and whimsical O.U.T. Spells Out demonstrated a whimsical touch. When it came to the more historical offering of Highway to Hermitage or Caaelestis, songs respectively based On Mary Queen of Scots and graffiti on Hadrian’s Wall, we were left in no doubt what part of the country these tales were being drawn from. A particular highlight of the evening was Tickell’s haunting lament for the felled Sycamore Gap tree, a tune that firmly grounded her music in her home.

While musicianship was at the forefront of the evening, so was the delightful chemistry between the performers and audience, obviously delighting in each other’s company.