Way back in 2012 we went to see Kate Rusby’s concert at Warrington’s Parr hall during her annual Christmas tour around the UK. Since then we’ve been to see her perform several times, usually at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall when we would combine the concert with an afternoon looking round the Christmas market and a bite to eat. The past two years “you know what” meant that the tour couldn’t take place. Last year one was planned but Kate and several of the band came down with the lurgy at the last minute so it was truncated. She did arrange to perform on-line so we were able to watch from our living room, but it wasn’t the same as being at a real live event. So this year we were pleased to be able to book tickets to see Kate and her band perform at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall.
The Christmas concert is based around old traditional versions of carols as sung around the pubs in South Yorkshire . Some of the songs were well known carols but sung to a different tune, and she performed 3 versions in all of this well known carol, all set to different tunes.
As well as the Yorkshire versions of the carols she also sang a couple of Cornish carols – there’s a pub carol singing tradition there too – Cornish Wassailing being a favourite.
Other songs included the familiar carols, “O little town of Bethlehem” and “Joy to the World”, and some of her own Christmassy compositions.
Kate has a big stage presence and twinkling eyes and a smile almost as wide as the stage. She chats away between the songs and really does seem to be enjoy the Christmas celebrations. She was accompanied by her band of folk musicians and also by a brass quintet, which makes the performance particularly Christmassy for me.
As with other of her Christmas shows we’ve seen, the concert was in 2 halves, finishing, after the encore (where they all dressed up as Christmas presents!), at 10. So they were on stage in total for over 2 hours, but it didn’t seem that long. So another enjoyable night out – and great to see some live music. Christmas starts here!