Dream Show: Will Finn & Rosie Calvert

Photo by Mark-Brimacombe

Award-winning folk duo Will Finn & Rosie Calvert return to one of their favourite haunts for a special hometown show at The Cumberland Arms, Newcastle on Thursday 6th November. Known for their intricate harmonies, warm stage presence and genre-spanning arrangements, the pair blend traditional ballads with gothic Americana and contemporary folk flair.

Fresh from the release of their second album Fallow Alchemy—a thoughtful exploration of rest, renewal and the natural world—they’ll perform material from the record alongside new songs.

Ahead of their perfect gig, the pair tell us what their dream show would look like…

Our dream show would take place in a very fantastical kind of woodland clearing next to a lake! Arrival at twilight in autumn, so there’s that wonderful golden hour light, and lots of extremely comfortable, pillowy tufts of grass for everyone to sit on. The temperature is perfect for a full evening outdoors and there is none of the discomfort you might usually imagine out in the woods – no midges or ticks, it doesn’t get cold as the sun goes in, and there are twinkling were-lights floating around for ambience.

The audience would make their way there through a woodland path and then proceed to the main stage on little boats down a river before arriving into the clearing. A lot of our music features animal folklore so we would have birds, foxes, bees, dogs, herring, and possums (who can speak to humans at this event) accompanying everyone to enjoy the music also! We’d probably start the event with a big shared feast for everyone that can magically cater to everyone’s dietary needs. Think the descriptions of food in the Redwall books (cold fizzy strawberry cordial, damson shortcrust and cream, cowslip and parsley liquor, brown ale, cheese and mushroom pasties, and nutbread cake iced with clover honey) kind of thing! – and then once everyone has eaten and drunk deeply and well, we’d start the performance. 

We’d play for a 1 hour-long set, featuring some guest musicians (Coope, Boyes and Simpson, Melrose Quartet, The Bills) and then afterwards everyone can go for a refreshing late-night swim in the lake and a jam/session breaks out around a campfire! As the night draws to a close and everyone is starting to wind down, we all drift off to sleep amongst the trees and wake up at home in our beds, the “dream show” concept taking a very literal turn here! But really to avoid having to schlepp home at the end of such a wonderful evening. Everyone would also wake up with goodybags from the show including breakfast treats for the next morning, limited-edition vinyl pressings of all the performer’s best albums, and a talisman that means you can still speak to animals outside of the gig!