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Written by Sheila Seacroft
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02 02 2012 |
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 Directed by Sean Durkin
It all looks so idyllic: a rustic tumbledown farmhouse where men chop wood and mend fences and women in plain cotton dresses plant and harvest, a kid runs happily across a rutted yard... but the disquiet soons sets in. What is this place, where men and women eat separately and early one morning a young woman is running away desperately through the woods? It's more than a commune, it's a cult, and Martha (aka Marcy May, personal cult name; Marlene, generic cult name) is escaping back to the ordinary world and her long-abandoned family. |
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I don't know if this was meant to be a ‘secret gig' or not but it certainly felt that way; especially as Saltburn by the Sea is normally off the beaten track as far as Roots music is concerned. First up was Tyneside's premier Western Swing outfit, Shipcote and
Friends, who gently eased us into the evening with half an hour of
delightful songs, interspersed with Mr. Shipcote's humorous anecdotes. 
Frankie and the Heartstrings love Sunderland and Sunderland love Frankie and the Heartstrings, as could be seen from the packed Independent this cold Christmas night. This was their homecoming concert after an impressive series of gigs across Australia, and then as tour support with The Vaccines, and the audience lapped it up. The venue was decked with Christmas decorations, the stage itself having
giant paper snowflakes hung from the ceiling, and intimate enough that
Frankie could lean on the ceiling when singing to the audience.