Preview: Holly and the Reivers at Gosforth Civic Theatre
Independent Venue Week kicked off on Monday (Jan 27) with almost 20 North East spaces signing up to the seven-day celebration of ‘purpose over profit’ music and arts venues across the UK.
Gosforth Civic Theatre in Newcastle is among them (visit the IVW website for the full list) and has programmed a gig with Holly and the Reivers tonight (Jan 31) as part of its involvement.
Classified as ‘a class act from start to finish' by folk luminary Nancy Kerr, the band: Holly Clarke (vocals, guitar), Merle Harbron (vocals, fiddle) and Bertie Armstrong (vocals, banjo) met on the Folk Degree course at Newcastle University.
“I had been offered a support slot supporting the Rachel Hamer Band and I said to Bert and Merle 'Fancy doing this gig with me?' and the rest is history,” says Holly, who was happy to share the influences which have shaped their sound.
“Our biggest influences are Lankum and Furrow Collective, two bands who essentially centre everything around singing together and telling really good stories,” she says.
“Using voices, banjo, fiddle and guitar we like to create deeply emotional and almost filmic sounding music, music that helps to tell the story and create an atmosphere.”
It’s an atmosphere which very much leans towards the darker side.
Expanding on their ‘folk-horror trio’ Instagram bio, Holly says: “Folk Horror films utilise a lot of folk music and customs that help to tell the story, and are used in a way to help build a sense of dread in the audience.
“We love the darker more supernatural, folklore based songs that can often have really deep metaphors, or even deep political messages. And like Folk Horror, we like to face the darker parts of humanities past delve into the older songs and really present to our audience the Folklore and stories of our island.”
While each of the band has their own projects in the offing - Holly and Bert are recording solo albums while Merle has started a duo with local fiddle player, Sam Baxter, there is a future band project in the early and “very exciting” stages.
We will watch this space.
For now though, there’s the Gosforth Civic gig to look forward to - and Holly is quick to stress the importance of supporting independent venues.
“We have essentially gigged mostly in independent venues, and they are incredibly important to the grassroots music scene. The future as we speak is really uncertain, and really we don't trust the people in power to help with this situation.
“The music industry is in a dire situation. But I think all we can do right now is to support each other and support places like Gosforth Civic Theatre. If you don't use it, we lose it. simple as.”
There’s still time to grab a ticket for tonight’s performance from the website.