Kathryn Tickell and The Darkening
This was certainly one of the finest folk performances I have been to in 2024
The return to Diss Corn Hall on Friday night of Northumbrian musician Kathryn Tickell and her band The Darkening served as a potent reminder of the high calibre of acts that this lovely venue, just a short drive or train journey from Norwich, is able to attract. Tickell, master of the Northumbrian small pipes and fiddle, twice winner of the Radio 2 Folk Musician of The Year Award, and the first ever folk musician to perform at the BBC Proms, has been an influential figure in folk music since recording her first album at the age of sixteen. In 2015 she was awarded the OBE for her services to folk music.
Accompanied on stage on this tour by Amy Thatcher (accordion, synth, clogs, vocals), Kieran Szifris (octave mandolin, guitar), Joe Truswell (drums and percussion), and Stef Connor (vocals, lyre, and sistrum), the setlist for the Corn Hall gig featured mostly songs and tunes taken from 'Cloud Horizons' and 'Hollowbones', the two albums featuring Tickell together with The Darkening.
There is almost a jazz feel to the opening reel of the set, a lively number with pipes and drums to the fore. But much of Tickell's writing is influenced and inspired by her Northumberland roots. Songs such as 'Colliers' (a miners' song, sung in the local pitmatic dialect), 'Highway to Hermitage' (about Mary Queen of Scots' secret journey in 1566 from Jedburgh to Hermitage), and two songs ('Caelestis' and 'Nemesi') inspired by the Roman history of Hadrian's Wall, really cement that North East tradition and history.
Amy Thatcher's clog dancing during 'Warksburn Waltz', and in the exhilarating 'Clogstravaganza' with its devastatingly devious 1-2, 1-2-3, 1-2, 1-2, 1-2-3 rhythm pattern, was a treat to watch, whilst Stef Connor's extraordinary vocals during 'Tune For Mina', and her playing of the Ethipian electric lyre, each had me completely captivated. This was certainly one of the finest folk performances I have been to in 2024.
But is is Katherine Tickell's Northumbrian charisma and charm, as well as her fiddle and pipes playing, that totally enchants the Corn Hall audience. Her heartfelt lament on the pipes in response to the felling of the famous tree at 'Sycamore Gap', and her fiddle-filled performance of the children's playground turned call-out song 'O-U-T Spells Out' ensured a richly deserved encore callback, and a lively stampede to the merch stand afterwards.
Keep your eyes on the Diss Corn Hall programme. With free town car parking after 6pm, and trains back to Norwich every 30 minutes until 1am, an evening in Diss is possibly one of the simplest alternative to a night out in Norwich. Check the venue listings at www.thecornhall.co.uk/whats-on
