The Unthanks in Winter: Evening
Union Chapel19b Compton Terrace
Sat 19 Dec · 19:15 · £40
About this event
In their typical magpie style, The Unthanks collect and reimagine, at once unique and familiar, inventive but natural and effortless. Hear a Tyneside band playing a German Christmas song in the style of The Beach Boys; a Spanish carol performed by English folkies through the filter of Tom Waits; a French carol given desert-blues menace, a newly written tribute to the NHS to the tune of O Holy Night; a wintry opening piece inspired by A Ceremony of Carols by Benjamin Britten; traditional wassails and old stories coloured with folk noir and traces of Vincent Guaraldi’s Merry Christmas Charlie Brown. In Winter is a world in itself, capturing the warmth and nostalgia of the festive season, the chill and darkness of the winter months, and the reflective ritualisms of the turn of the year; the end and beginning of the circle of life. “While the gold standard remains The Watersons’ 1965 classic Frost and Fire, this album is beautiful, atmospheric and profound enough to take its place alongside it” The Times ★★★★★
Follow the thread
If this is your kind of night, these are other ways in: a collection this venue belongs to, traditions it works in, and similar music still playing in London this week.
This venue’s world
This venue sits in the collection, not this one title.
Traditions this room works in
Tags on the venue. Other London rooms carry the same lineage. Not a claim that this film invented the tradition.
Also playing this week
Same kind of night (music) in London. Spread across the week, not a ranking.
A different kind of night
Same city and close on taste. A different discipline, on purpose.






