Rich Hall: Chin Music

Chin Music has two meanings. One is idle talk. The other is a brushback throw in baseball or cricket to intimidate the batter. Both describe Rich Hall’s comedy. Idle but intimidating. Sharp, quick, splenetic, and sublimely improvisational.

If you’ve never seen him, you need to hustle down to your local venue and grab a seat because he never disappoints. Ever.

Rich(ard) Dawson

Rich(ard) Dawson has drawn so many long drafts from the whirlpools of elemental North Eastern archetypes that he may now be one himself. Fearless in his research and willingness to follow his inspiration, Dawson has created an impressive catalogue of music and storytelling, steeped in both ancient myths and contemporary dread. A fog of sickness, trauma and mute inevitability inhabits his records and is often expressed in the havoc with which Dawson’s hands produce sounds from his long-suffering guitar, an instrument as bruised, individual and indefatigable as its owner.

The Young Uns

One night in Stockton On Tees, three teenagers heard strange sounds coming from the backroom of a pub. They went in. They heard people singing songs they’d never heard before. Songs without instruments. Songs in their accents. Songs about places they knew. Folk songs. They joined in. Because they were the youngest ones there by several decades, they were soon labeled The Young Uns.