The Yellow Rattle Band presents: Holly & The Reivers

The Yellow Rattle Band is M@HoT's new folk band for 15 - 25yr olds, based at The Forum in Darlington.

As part of our first year of delivery, we wanted to programme some of the finest folk musicians in the UK to perform as headline artists alongside our own homegrown talent, flying the flag for the value and importance of celebrating traditional music within contemporary culture!

HOLLY & THE REIVERS
Forming in 2017 with a shared love and inspiration from groups such as Lankum and The Furrow Collective, Holly & The Reivers came together through a love of singing together. Their music came to the attention of The Glasshouse International Centre for Music and in 2019 they supported Billy Bragg at Folk on The Tyne festival.

Though firmly rooted in the folk song tradition the trio’s signature sound is comprised of their individual roots within old time music, Welsh song, supernatural ballads, political songs and Scottish fiddle. and it is in these border lands of the folk genre that they thrive creatively without boundaries, bringing forth their own compositions that have been deeply influenced by traditional music.

Holly Clarke (voice, guitar), Merle Harbron (voice, fiddle) and Bertie Armstrong (voice, banjo) weave their arrangements around these old songs and bring their voices together, to create a soundscape that accompanies these old stories. This soundscape approach comes from the prolific influence of folk horror cinema, that the band views as a muse for their sound, both in a metaphorical sense as well as musical. The Reivers lean toward the songs with a darker narrative tapestry, where the songs reveal the more sinister stories from humanities past. Whether it be a murmuring fiddle heralding the arrival of a vengeful ghost or the powerful voices rising that embodies the message of a political song, Holly & The Reivers are a band that holds the story at the centre of what they do.

THE YELLOW RATTLE BAND
First launched in September 2023, together over the last 7 months, the group have developed a collection of tunes together, building arrangments and ideas with guidance from M@HoT tutors Tom Kimber & Rupert Philbrick.

Their sets draw material from England, Scandinavia and the lesser known digital realms - weaving inspiration from comupter game music, Tik Tok and more besides to create a unique sound together.

WEAR'D ALIENS

Founded in January 2019 after the discovery of The Collingwood Collection - a family tunebook originating in Upper Weardale dating back to the early 1800's, the group is led by Saul Rose & Rupert Philbrick.

Together with an ever-expanding group of young musicians, they breathe new life into distinctly local music that had lain hidden in a dusty corner of the Beamish Archives for over 60 years.

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