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== Personal lives ==
== Personal lives ==
Rachel and Becky Unthank are sisters, born eight years apart. Their father is a well-known local Northumberland folk singer in a group called the Keelers, named after the boatmen who sailed the Tyne.<ref>{{cite news|url =http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/3672680/Rachel-Unthank-swapping-clogs-for-high-heels.html|title= Rachel Unthank: swapping clogs for high heels|author= Peter Culshaw |publisher= ''The Telegraph'' |date= 17 April 2008 |accessdate= 28 April 2011}}</ref>
Rachel and Becky Unthank are sisters, born eight years apart. Their father is a well-known local Northumberland folk singer in a group called the Keelers, named after the boatmen who sailed the Tyne.<ref>{{cite news|url =http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/3672680/Rachel-Unthank-swapping-clogs-for-high-heels.html|title= Rachel Unthank: swapping clogs for high heels|author= Peter Culshaw |publisher= ''The Telegraph'' |date= 17 April 2008 |accessdate= 28 April 2011}}</ref>
<ref name= miserable>{{cite news|url =http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/feb/27/unthanks-folk-northumberland-interview
|title= The Unthanks: 'We're miserable buggers and not afraid of it'|author= Tim Adams |publisher= ''[[The Observer]]'' |date= 27 February 2011 |accessdate= 28 April 2011}}</ref>


Rachel is married to group member Adrian McNally who is also the group's manager, musical arranger and producer.<ref name= journal></ref>
Rachel is married to group member Adrian McNally who is also the group's manager, musical arranger and producer.<ref name= journal></ref> <ref name= miserable></ref>



== Discography ==
== Discography ==

Revision as of 13:57, 28 April 2011

The Unthanks
The Winterset at TFF.Rudolstadt, 2009

The Unthanks (previously called Rachel Unthank and the Winterset, until 2009) are an English folk group from Northumberland. They made their debut performance at Towersey Village Festival in August 2004 and, on 11 May 2005, launched their debut album Cruel Sister at Holmfirth Folk Festival. Cruel Sister received support from a number of DJs on BBC Radio 2 and was subsequently awarded Folk Album of the Year by Mojo magazine.[1]

Their 2007 follow-up album, The Bairns, was nominated for the Best Album award at the BBC Folk Awards 2008 [2] and also nominated for the 2008 Mercury Music Prize.[3] The album debuted in the UK Top 200 Albums Chart at number 178 in the week after the Mercury prize award ceremony.[4] Reviewing The Bairns for BBC Music, Mel Ledgard described it as "an album with a cinematic quality, huge in dramatic atmosphere".[5]

The band were nominated for three further BBC Folk Awards in 2008 (Best Band, Best Live Act, Horizon Award), and were successful in one category, receiving the Horizon Award at the ceremony in The Brewery, London.[6]

Their third album, Here's The Tender Coming, was released in September 2009. Sid Smith, of BBC Music, described it as an "astonishing record" which was "beautiful”, “haunting”, and “beguiling".[7] For The Guardian, Colin Irwin said: "This album may not be quite as bleak as The Bairns, and the sound is more sophisticated, but they still sound like nobody else... Tracks build slowly and mysteriously, but all are in service of the song. Their arrangement of the title track − a traditional song about the emotional devastation wrought by press gangs − brilliantly encapsulates the story's fraught desperation. Their version of Nobody Knew She Was There, one of Ewan MacColl's lesser-known songs about his mother, painstakingly paints a similarly dramatic backdrop with more atmospheric brass, and they put their own stamp on the Nic Jones classic, Annachie Gordon."[8]

Their fourth album, Last, was released on 14 March 2011 and was well received by the critics. Sid Smith, for BBC Music, said that "Proving once again that sad songs are very often the best, their fourth album is brimming with material that is as haunting as it is beautiful." [9] Robin Denselow, for The Guardian, described it as "a bold and highly original set".[10] Thomas H Green of The Telegraph said it was "string-laden and luscious but also delicate, wistful and melancholy".[11] Writing in NME, Anthony Thornton said that the album "proves the mix of Rachel and Becky’s voices to be one of the true wonders of 21st-century music".[12]

In a departure from their usual practice of showcasing material from their studio albums, the Unthanks performed two concerts at London's Union Chapel on 8 and 9 December 2010 consisting entirely of material written by Robert Wyatt and by Antony Hegarty of Antony and the Johnsons.

In February 2011 they performed live, at Newcastle upon Tyne’s Tyneside Cinema, a soundtrack they had composed to accompany a the showing of a film about the history of shipbuilding on the Tyne, Wear and Tees.[13]

Personal lives

Rachel and Becky Unthank are sisters, born eight years apart. Their father is a well-known local Northumberland folk singer in a group called the Keelers, named after the boatmen who sailed the Tyne.[14] [15]

Rachel is married to group member Adrian McNally who is also the group's manager, musical arranger and producer.[13] [15]

Discography

Album Release Date
Cruel Sister 2005
The Bairns 2007
Here's The Tender Coming 2009
Last 2011

References

  1. ^ "The MOJO Club: Rachel Unthank & The Winterset!". Mojo magazine. 3 April 2008. Retrieved 28 April 2011. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); Text "author-Ross Bennett" ignored (help)
  2. ^ "Nominations for BBC Folk Awards 2008". BBC. Retrieved 29 January 2008.
  3. ^ Bearded magazine
  4. ^ "Official Album Chart for the week ending 20 September 2008". ChartsPlus (369). Milton Keynes: IQ Ware Ltd: 5–8. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  5. ^ Mel Ledgard (30 July 2008). "Folk song is all about connection and communication – gifts that are second nature..." BBC Music, BBC website. Retrieved 28 April 2011.
  6. ^ "Winners of BBC Folk Awards 2008". BBC. Retrieved 20 February 2008.
  7. ^ Sid Smith (2 0ctober 2009). "Here's the Tender Coming raises the group's standard higher still". BBC Music, BBC website. Retrieved 28 April 2011. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ^ Colin Irwin (6 September 2009). "The Unthanks: Here's the Tender Coming". BBC Music, BBC website. Retrieved 28 April 2011.
  9. ^ Sid Smith (3 March 2011). "Brimming with material that is as haunting as it is beautiful". BBC Music, BBC website. Retrieved 28 April 2011.
  10. ^ Robin Denselow (10 March 2011). "The Unthanks: Last - Review". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 April 2011. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  11. ^ Thomas H Green (11 March 2011). "'Last' by The Unthanks' is luscious and delicate". The Telegraph. Retrieved 28 April 2011. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  12. ^ Anthony Thornton (16 March 2011). "The turning cogs below the surface of English folk". NME. Retrieved 28 April 2011.
  13. ^ a b Tamsin Lewis (24 February 2011). "Unthanks soundtrack brings life to shipyards film". The Journal. Retrieved 28 April 2011. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  14. ^ Peter Culshaw (17 April 2008). "Rachel Unthank: swapping clogs for high heels". The Telegraph. Retrieved 28 April 2011. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  15. ^ a b Tim Adams (27 February 2011). "The Unthanks: 'We're miserable buggers and not afraid of it'". The Observer. Retrieved 28 April 2011. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)

External links

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