LIVE REVIEW: Rianne Downey, Amelia Coburn @ Northumbria University, Newcastle (07.11.25)

Image by Tracy Hyman

Back in lockdown, Glasgow singer Rianne Downey recorded and uploaded her version of Rotterdam to social media. Five years later she is singing the song that changed her life before a packed, adoring audience in Northumbria University’s Reds Bar. Former Housemartin Paul Heaton was so impressed by her Rotterdam recording she ended up playing Glastonbury with him, before recording and touring with the great man himself. It has been a whirlwind but then again totally deserved for a richly talented singer songwriter performer who moves seamlessly through country folk and pop.

It is a total sell out at Reds Bar but then again it would be as the whole UK tour has sold out well in advance. Riannie is playing her brand new debut album The Consequence of Love, already a Top 20 smash and number one in the country charts. Rianne Downey is the hottest ticket in every town and so a great bill for Teesside’s own upwardly mobile songstress Amelia Coburn to leap on to. Amelia Coburn is another prodigious talent and so great to see her teaming up with young Darlington music maker Robyn Errico. Robyn’s keyboard wonders broaden out the ukulele and vocals of Amelia without taking away any of the power of intimacy. We get the Grimm Fairytales inspiration for the magical See Saw but Amelia is a feet on the ground Teesside lass, so she also has plenty to say against internet dating on Tinder.

There are plenty of Teessiders in the house when asked and Amelia feels confident enough among friends to sing of her love/hate relationship with home. A subject Rianne picks up later, the perils of touring away from family. There is just time for Amelia to promote a new song, Something Wild, co-written with Rianne’s guitarist Nat, before plunging into a typically quirky finale of Oh Captain! Guide Me Home. In the chorus we are all pirates for the night, going with the ebb and flow of a top performer.

Lights out for Rianne, she bustles on stage to an intro of 9 to 5 wearing a white outfit that Dolly herself might easily have rocked or frocked. Rianne glides about the stage as she sings of a Beautiful Night. And it certainly is. A wonderful, rich, country voice and a band including fiddle, keyboards as well as guitar. All in all it is a pitch perfect pop country fusion.

There is a roar of approval as we get folkier, away with the faeries with The Old Song of Glencoe. Because (of Your Smile) sounds like a cheesy love song but written from a place of cynicism, Rianne reveals. The Glasgow lass is every bit as grounded as Amelia. Consequences of Love the title track of the album is dedicated to her much missed grandmother. Nothing prepares you when you lose someone you love.. she sings from the heart. I soon realise that everyone knows all the words. It reminds me of a Beautiful South gig. No apologies are needed for wonderful renditions of two Paul Heaton songs, Silly Me and Quicksand. Soon she feels compelled to give us a powerful rendition of “the song that changed my life,” Rotterdam.

What a privilege to be part of the throng witnessing two exceptional talents blossoming and blooming and truly lighting up our wintertime.