Frankie Archer / ATFK

Pop Recs, Sunderland

31 January 2025

First time at Pop Recs. They've been spamming me for ages with bands I've never heard of, but finally booked someone (two someones) I want to see. And it's a great venue. It's a converted industrial building, and it's much bigger than I was expecting. There's a big standing area with a few seats around the outside, a high stage for great views, and a bar that miraculously doesn't generate enough noise to interfere with the music. Reminds me a lot of the Cluny, but it's much easier for me to get to. I think every band that plays the Cluny should come here from now on (sorry, Cluny).

First time seeing Frankie Archer too. Well, not strictly true, I first saw her playing fiddle in Joshua Burnell's band, but this is the first solo show I've seen. And honestly, it's not what I expected. She still plays violin, but not extensively. Her main instrument is her voice, which is a fantastic voice for traditional songs but can also belt out a tune when she needs to (for example, a powerful version of The House Carpenter/The Demon Lover/the whatever you call it in your part of the world). She also has a huge bank of electronic switches and dials: effects, loops, samples, synthesized percussion, tone generators. And these are used throughout every song to produce a really deep, powerful, encompassing, one-woman sound. She even plays guitar on one or two songs.

She's also a dynamic performer, particularly later in the set, when Amy Thatcher and Francesca Knowles (keyboard and drums respectively) join her for the last few songs. With them providing instrumentation, she's free to dance around the entire stage. As she wrote before the show: "there's a lot more expression and flouncing about I want to do ... a bit more movement, a bit more drama, and probs some pogo jumping for the bop songs." Well, that pretty much summed it up.

Her music is entirely traditional (there's only one song I didn't recognise, and I think she wrote the tune herself), but the presentation is nothing like traditional. It's sitting somewhere between progressive folk and experimental electronic music, I guess. It's hard to categorise. I'm not sure what the audience for this is, I feel it's too experimental for the traditional folk crowd. Maybe the same audience that listens to people like Kerry Andrew or Burn Ellen? I'm not sure, but the venue is comfortably full, so she certainly has found an audience. And it ranges across all demographics, mostly younger people but I'm not the oldest person there by a long shot.

So ... stunning gig. It exceeded my expectations in just about every way.

Frankie Archer isn't the headline act, though. She's followed by ATFK, or Amy Thatcher (accordion, keyboard, voice) and Francesca Knowles (drums, keyboard), officially launching their new album. I've been listening to Amy Thatcher in various bands since forever (since she was a student at Newcastle Uni), but this is the first time I've seen the ATFK duo. And it's a remarkable duo which, like Frankie Archer, have found their own unique sound. Francesca Knowles is a powerful and inventive drummer, and a co-lead instrument with Amy's accordion, to the extent that you're concentrating on the shifting drum patterns as much as, or more than, you're listening to the tunes. People who know me as a prog rock fan will know that's exactly how I like my music. Both of them are top musicians, and they have a set of great tunes. I would definitely see the duo again. But ...

But tonight they honestly suffer from following Frankie Archer's remarkable and dynamic performance. For me, at least, she stole the show and has leaped into my "must see" list. Simply amazing.