The Weather Station
Gosforth Civic Theatre,
Newcastle
Thursday 1st September

Curiosity, I guess, is a big motivator for many of us when it comes to live music – a case in point was tonight’s offering at Gosforth Civic Theatre.
I’d read the glowing album reviews, listened to quite a few tracks over the years and was interested to see how it would all come together in a live setting.
The Weather Station then, having appeared the previous night in Edinburgh landed in Newcastle on the first day of September, apt in some ways as turning that particular page on the calendar always seems to me to symbolise cyclical change; much like The Weather Station’s most recent recorded output, which makes up the bulk of tonight’s set.

Emerging out of Toronto’s vibrant folk scene, Tamara Lindeman who is essentially The Weather Station debuted a moody, introspective sound in 2008 with her…

Jessie Buckley & Bernard Butler
Whitley Bay Playhouse.
Tyneside
26th August 2022

I don’t remember exactly when it was, but by chance, I first heard Jessie Buckley and Bernard Butler being interviewed on the radio.
Throughout, tracks from their soon-to-be-released collaborative album ‘For All Our Days that Tear the Heart’ had been played.
I followed that up with a couple of Youtube videos and subsequently bought the album.
Then, when I saw they were playing a show at Whitley Bay Playhouse, I thought ‘I’m in’ and I’m glad I did.

Confession time.
Despite what I now know of her substantial acting career, on first hearing that interview, I’d never heard of Jessie Buckley and all I knew about Butler was that he had been in Suede; a ‘Britpop’ band I had paid scant attention to.
Over the preceding weeks, I listened to ‘For All Our…