ONE OF the best bands to emerge in the South West are teaming up with one of the newest and most talked-about for a magical Christmas show at Carnglaze Caverns, near Liskeard, on Saturday, December 14.
As well as a headline set from Totnes' Matthew & Me, the evening will include a performance from very special guests Hockeysmith, two mysterious sisters from Cornwall who have set the music blogosphere ablaze with their dreamy and spellbinding songs.
Matthew & Me are known for their tight live sets where the gentle folk beauty of their records transform into an energetic, all encompassing beast.
They have also built a reputation for creating bespoke shows in specially handpicked venues where atmosphere and aesthetics are as pivotal as the music itself.
Matthew & Me have performed at Elizabethan glasshouses, country estates, great halls and, this summer, during sunset at Lusty Glaze beach, Newquay, and at St Pancras Old Church, London.
But the venue for their Christmas show should surpass all others.
The Carnglaze Caverns are historic and otherworldly underground caves in the heart of Cornwall. The first of the caverns, The Rum Store, was used by the Royal Navy in the Second World War to store rum supplies, before being converted into a stunning 400-seater auditorium where Matthew & Me are set to perform.
In recent years it has hosted memorable concerts by Embrace and British Sea Power and was the setting for the iconic cover of Echo And The Bunnymen's Ocean Rain album.
Cornish sister-duo Hockeysmith have made some of the year's most intricate, entrancing and somewhat saucy music. Although they do their best to duff up the pop hooks under swathes of swooning noise, they fail.
You can seek out their latest epic, Meanwhile, online now.
Their single Let's Bang / Now I Want To was acclaimed on the Rough Trade shops' website earlier this year and they are now managed by a member of the 4AD label's A&R team. Apparently, there's a bit of a label bidding war for their signatures.
It looks like 2014 is going to be a big year for Annie and Georgie Hockeysmith – head to Carnglaze and say you saw them before the NME gets its claws into them.
The gig starts at 7.30pm and tickets are £12 – see www.matthewandme.co.uk
