A Quite Quiet Special

The Lake Poets, David Brewis, Isabel Maria, This Little Bird and Georgia Ruyi all play the Arts Centre Washington on Wednesday 4 November, from 7:30pm. It's part of the Quite Quiet series, which has been pairing established and emerging North East artists with the Crude Tarmac String Quintet. The strings play specially written arrangements of each act's songs in hushed sets in the city centre, and they'll be accompanying everyone on this bill.

There's a fair bit of ground covered across the five acts. The Lake Poets, fronted by Marty Longstaff, have been distilling Sunderland's heart and soul into song for more than a decade. David Brewis has recorded with his brother Peter as Field Music since 2004, with 21 albums to their name, including film soundtracks and the jazz-inflected The Soft Struggles from 2023. Isabel Maria is a rising North East star, who picked up the Alan Hull songwriting prize in 2024 and was named Newcomer of the Year at the North East Culture Awards. Beccy Young performs as This Little Bird, drawing on 70s female singer-songwriters and modern alt-folk. Georgia Ruyi rounds out the line-up.

The Crude Tarmac Strings have been the Brewis brothers' regular collaborators since Peter's 2013 Frozen By Sight project with Maximo Park's Paul Smith, and they'll be the common thread running through the whole night. The night is suitable for all ages, and tickets are £20.