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figures. There’s a terrific arrangement of
Annachie Gordon from the singing of Nic
Jones, Ewan MacColl’s Nobody Knew She
Was There, Anne Briggs’ Living By The
Water and Lal Waterson’s At First She
Starts, while Frank Higgins’ heartbreaking
The Testimony Of Patience Kershaw and
the evocative title track Here’s The Tender
Coming – a subtle colossus when they play
it live – are both big songs previously tack-
led by some of the folk revival’s big names.
“It wasn’t deliberate,” says Becky. “We
just look for songs that speak to us and
stimulate us. I’ve loved Annachie Gordon
since I was a little kid but I never dared
sing it because it seemed too long and too
big and too high and too low. But I loved it
so much I thought I’d learn it anyway.”
“When Becky sang it round the house
I kept crying every time she sang it and I
thought ‘We can’t put this on the album,
I’ll be in tears every time we do it live,’”
says Rachel. Niopha had a similar reaction
when they brought MacColl’s Nobody
Knew She Was There (or The Cleaner’s
Song, as Niopha calls it) to the table. Nio-
pha’s not the only one… especially when
you hear Rachel’s back story about it.
“We dedicated The Bairns to our Aun-
of the droll one-liner Belinda O’Hooley, in Becky: “We said to him, instead of try-
tie June, who died while we were making
the midst of the snowballing interest in ing to explain what you mean to another
it. When she was very ill and finding it dif-
The Bairns, caused another upheaval. “It pianist, ‘why not just do it yourself’. We
ficult to communicate, we started talking
was really weird,” concedes Becky. “Apart love his instinct and his ideas and I think
about that song and she said ‘Do you want
from the two of us singing together as a he gets the best out of us so we dragged
me to teach you a bit of it?’ And she
duo, she’d always been there when we him on stage with us.”
taught me the song and made me sing
started the band and it was quite a shock
every line back to her to make sure I’d got
It meant, of course, relinquishing their
when she left.”
it right. It made her forget she was ill and
all-female status… “Well we never deliber-
she just shone when she was teaching it to
O’Hooley played such a key role in The ately set out to be an all-girl band,” says
me, so the song means so much to our
Bairns – including writing two original Rachel. “You have to stay true to yourself
family. It just so happens it was written by
songs for it – that many wondered if they’d and it would have been stupid to look for a
Ewan MacColl.”
cope without her. Even the other band girl when the person we wanted on stage
members may have had their doubts, with us was a guy. We’re still very girl-heavy
The late Auntie June, who died on
though abandoning ship was never an with seven girls and three guys. We have a
Becky’s birthday, also used to sing The Testi-
option. “The passion in this band for tradi- boy corner of the stage at the moment.”
mony Of Patience Kershaw. “We’d go into
tional music comes from us,” says Rachel.
the hospice and sing to her and we’d say
In for a penny, McNally also recruited
“We love singing and we love traditional
‘We’d better stop, the nurse is coming’ and
his oldest friend, guitarist Chris Price, who’d
songs and that’s never going to go away.”
she’d say ‘Not until you finish the song’.”
started off with him in no-hoper bands way
Becky takes up the point: “It doesn’t matter
back in their teenage years in Yorkshire.
Becky: “She died before The Bairns
how many people come to see us. We just
Now living in Hitchin, Price had a day job
came out but we sang her the whole album
want to keep doing what we’re doing.”
working for HMV in London’s Oxford Circus
before it happened. She was a big inspira-
tion to us. Her ashes are scattered in Whit-
T
he first person they interviewed when Adrian took him out for a pint and
for the piano stool was Stef invited him to give it all up for life on the
by and we go to the flower bed and sing
Conner, and the way Becky tells road with The Unthanks (to which they
songs to her and scatter lucky heather.”
it, the moment they heard her decided to amend the name to give Becky
“I think,” adds Rachel, “it encapsu-
they knew there was life after equal billing and take the pressure off
lates our and a lot of other people’s rela-
Belinda O’Hooley. However, Stef – who Rachel). “I was already a massive fan of the
tionships with music. There’s something
was studying for a PhD in music at the band so I couldn’t turn it down,” says Price.
within us all where people define them-
time and is a classical musician at heart – “It’s brilliant. First time I’ve played on a
selves by the music they listen to, and for
was always going to be a stopgap. “She proper album and the first time I’ve toured
our family, music is the way we communi-
writes operas in Chinese for gamelan and I love it. It’s a far cry from HMV…”
cate and celebrate and commiserate.”
orchestras!” says Niopha in wonder. “And
Apart from his dad’s broad collection
Similarly close to their hearts is Lucky
she was trying to do that in the back of
of American folk music, Price’s strongest
Gilchrist, Adrian McNally’s poptastic tribute
the van on her computer while touring
early influences were prog rockers like
to Rachel’s old uni friend from Glasgow,
with us and as soon as we came off stage
King Crimson, Genesis and Yes, with Frank
Gary Gilchrist, who died suddenly from a
she’d rush to her hotel room to start writ-
Zappa, Led Zeppelin and Robert Wyatt
hereditary heart disease in Singapore. “He
ing again. She’s one of these people who
also dipping into the equation. Part of
was very camp but so heterosexual at the
thrives on being busy and getting chal-
McNally’s thinking in asking him to join
same time – it was a strange dichotomy. He
lenged, but it reached a point when she
was the same as his reasoning for previ-
was a skinny lad into drama, very innova-
realised that she needed to give that her
ously bringing Belinda O’Hooley into the
tive and creative and a larger than life
full attention.”
band – neither of them were imbued with
character. We wanted to reflect that in the
The way things work, the selection of traditional music and therefore weren’t
music, as well as influences like Sufjan
material is left entirely to Rachel and hidebound by established ways of playing
Stevens. The first time he ever saw me clog
Becky and once they’ve settled on which it. “They aren’t from folk backgrounds and
dancing he couldn’t believe what was
songs they want to record, the others pitch don’t know what a folk cliché is so they
going on. He just watched me with his
in with arrangements. McNally had long don’t play one. They don’t play in the
mouth open and when I finished he said
had a sound in his head involving brass genre, they play more by intuition in
‘How do you make your feet go so fast?’”
and strings and, even before Belinda response to the song rather than the
Which is why we see them breaking into a
O’Hooley’s departure, decided the next genre and hopefully we serve each song
frenetic bout of 7/8 time clog dancing
album would be far less concentrated on more truthfully as a result.”
when they perform it on stage.
piano. They still needed a pianist, howev-
The songs Rachel and Becky came up
There are no left-field contemporary
er, and the way they tell it, Rachel and
with for the Here’s The Tender Coming
songs by the likes of Nick Drake, Robert
Becky ganged up on McNally to bully him
album last year seem to represent a who’s
Wyatt, Bonnie Prince Billy, The Beatles or
into taking on the job.
who of the British folk world’s most iconic
Antony & The Johnsons on Here’s The Ten-
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