Summertyne Americana Festival 2019 (3): 'A Band on Ship!'

Rachel Harrington

Massy Ferguson

Summertyne River Cruise

21 July 2019

From Americana to punk and back again...and this time a river cruise was added to the equation.

This was another first for me; I had seen the Summertyne cruises advertised in previous years but they had always either clashed with other headliners I had wanted to see or sold out too quickly. Indeed, this year's had sold out when I first looked but the status changed as the event drew nearer.

It was great to have the opportunity to see Rachel Harrington again, less than 24 hours after the previous occasion. Seattle band Massy Ferguson were on board too. They were new to me and I was looking forward to an introduction to their music.

With my ears still ringing thanks to Sham 69 the night before, we set sail along the Tyne and I took to the top deck with a fine cup of tea.

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No sooner had I finished when I heard a familiar singing voice; Rachel had started, without any our form of announcement! (This is the only improvement I could suggest for river cruises of future years). Time to swiftly head below deck, where I was able to catch the remainder of Little Pink and then to settle properly for the rest of the set. There was not a lot of space; it was an 'up close and personal' gig (I think the music was eventually piped throughout the boat) and very enjoyable to was too.

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Rachel played for around 50 minutes and there was hardly a gap at all before Massy Ferguson came on to play a very interesting and engaging set which I liked very much.

They even did some sightseeing while playing.

I was about to take another cup of tea to the top deck and watch the world go by, thinking the musical entertainment had concluded, but - no! Rachel returned almost immediately with another killer set of songs and then it was straight back to Massy Ferguson, who played almost until the very moment we arrived back at the Gateshead Quayside.

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Three hours of non-stop entertainment! The river cruise was certainly excellent value for money and proved to be a fitting finale to my frantic weekend. Everyone was in a good mood, nobody was talking over the songs (we'd have thrown them overboard if they had). All in all, it was a perfect start to the Summer.