BOURNEMOUTH Folk Club is back with its first gig for more than a year later this month at a brand new venue.

Husband and wife duo Will Finn and Rosie Calvert will be appearing at St Ambrose Church in Westbourne on Thursday May 20.

The acclaimed north east-based couple will perform folk and traditional songs in a socially-distanced show at the spacious West Cliff Road church.

Tickets for the 8pm performance in the Grade II listed building are limited and available now.

Will and Rosie are graduates of the Folk and Traditional Music BA at Newcastle University and have been taking the festival circuit by storm with their acapella harmony quartet, folk scene favourites The Teacups for the past ten years.

Their duo work is met with accolades wherever they go, and their debut album, Beneath this Place (which was fully funded following a successful Kickstarter campaign) was critically lauded as 'distinctive’ and ‘excellent’.

Their voices complement in that way family performers do – aural choices made by gut before ear, instinctively knowing when to twist and turn for listener intrigue – honed through years of singing about the house and in the car.

Will and Rosie’s approach to orchestration is informed by their singing, too, seeking out the empty spaces and filling them, gently broadening their palette to a deceptively full sound.

Intriguingly, one of those instruments is a steel pan, an instrument so well known for another, sunnier genre of music played by steel bands.

Will said: “We like to do things differently sometimes – taking the folk traditions and pushing them on; feeling the songs and tunes and interpreting them with new and different tools to hand.”

Bournemouth Folk Club new co-organiser Jo Elkington said: “We’re thrilled not only to be putting on a gig at last but being able to present the beautiful harmonies of in-demand Will Finn and Rosie Calvert for our first show.

“St Ambrose Church has a lofty and spacious interior with excellent acoustics, making it a popular venue for musical performances and we are so pleased to be able to use the venue.

“Although we are staging the socially distanced show fully in line with the latest Covid-19 restrictions, we are sure it will be a magical night to remember with one of our top folk duos.”

Tickets are £12.50 from https://bournemouthfolkclub.com/ and are fully refundable should the show have to be cancelled.

Tickets must be pre-booked for your household or support bubble only, there will be a one way system in operation in the church and patrons will be required to wear a face covering.

There will be no interval, with music from 8pm to 9:15pm. No bar will be available but you can take your own refreshments.