One of the country’s most unique folk bands has announced they will be stopping off in Mossley on a 20th anniversary tour that celebrates the very best of the country’s intimate venues.
BBC 6 Music favourites The Unthanks will be at The Vale on Saturday 15 November 2025, and tickets, which are expected to quickly sell out, go on sale at 10am on Friday 9 May.
The Vale is to be the only Greater Manchester show on the 19 date tour, which marks 20 years of the multi-award winning, sibling-fronted Northumbrian act.
Posting on their Facebook and Instagram, the band, formed by sisters Rachel and Becky Unthank in 2004, said: “The Unthanks scale back for some intimate shows, supporting today’s best small venues and including memorable ones from their early days.”
In a fan pleasing moment, they added: “The shows will draw from all parts of their repertoire.”
Using the traditional music of England’s North East as a starting point, the influence of Miles Davis, Steve Reich, Sufjan Stevens, Robert Wyatt, Anohni & The Johnsons, King Crimson and Tom Waits can be heard across the band’s 16 records.
And it’s a back catalogue that’s earned them a Mercury Music Prize nomination (The Bairns) and a best album award (Mount The Air) from the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards along the way.
According to the band’s website, they are “like magpies, picking up undiscovered jewels, reframing history and drawing on the worlds of folk, jazz, orchestral, electronica and art-rock to create their own unique truth and beauty.”
Constantly evolving, they’ve created song cycles from Emily Bronte’s poetry, site specific theatre with Maxine Peake, soundtracks for Mackenzie Crook’s Worzel Gummidge and had music used on HBO’s True Detective, Peaky Blinders, Vera, and BBC TV’s The Dectectorists,
Internationally acclaimed, celebrity fans of the band, which was called Rachel Unthank and the Winterset until 2009, include Elvis Costello, Maxine Peake, Rosanne Cash (daughter of Johnny) and Robert Wyatt.
Johnny Clifford, programming manager, The Vale, said: “We’re absolutely delighted to be hosting The Unthanks at The Vale. It’s sure to be a truly magical evening “
It will be a seated show with unreserved raked and step-free seating and tickets are £30. A limited number of donate what you can tickets will be available.
The Unthanks are at The Vale, Vale Mill, off Micklehurst Road, Mossley, Tameside OL5 9JL on Saturday 15 November 2025 7.30-11.30pm
T: 01457 238 089
Tickets £30
