Pitmen Poets: sold out in person, but live online
June 04, 2024
Andrew Curry: The North-eastern folk supergroup that is the Pitmen Poets are on their final tour, and they have been playing to sold-out houses across the north of England. As part of the tour, they are streaming their last gig, at Kendal next Tuesday, 11th June on folkscape.live.
(Photo: Pitmen Poets)
Salut! Live is inevitably biased to things North-eastern, but even if we weren’t, any group that includes Jez Lowe, Billy Mitchell, Bob Fox and Benny Graham deserves some attention. (You can catch up with our previous coverage of them here).
But there’s something appropriate about seeing them this year, the 40th anniversary of the British miners’ strike, since they are all steeped in the songs and culture of Britain’s coalfields. As their website says,
With every member coming from coal mining stock, they represent the first generation of their families not to take up the tradition of working down the pit. Life working in the pit was tough and to reflect that our songs aren’t all happy tunes but there’s also huge doses of humour as well; that’s how families got through the bad times.
Tickets for the streamed show are available for £15 from Folkscape—free if you already have a subscription to Folkscape.Live. And here’s a flavour of them playing live a few years ago.
Colin Randall has been listening to their latest record, and enjoying it, but hasn’t quite written his review yet. Patience is a virtue.
And Show of Hands too
And looking at Folkscape also reminds me that we mentioned in our recent review of Show of Hands’ final tour that their last concert—the big gig at Exeter Cathedral—was being given the full live outside broadcast treatment, with eight cameras there on the night.
That gig is also now available on Folkscape—once you’ve bought a ticket you’ll be able to watch it as many times as you want to for 12 months.
They have posted a "behind the scenes" video that conveys a sense of the event.
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