INDIE band Tindersticks have found themselves raising their Northern profile with dates to play two Newcastle venues within four days.

And if you think that sounds a pretty demanding schedule then rest assured the band are more than up to the task, thanks to the fact they already have one gig in the bag.

The Brit favourites have provided the soundtrack to White Material, a film running as part of the Claire Denis season at Side Cinema next Tuesday. By sheer coincidence, they’re appearing that same week just across the river at The Sage Gateshead, this time in the flesh.

Tindersticks could also be heard earlier this week on the soundtrack of the film 35 Shots of Rum, also part of the quayside cinema’s season celebrating the French director known for her dramatic, visually striking and often surprising work.

Paris-based Denis’ choice of music in films is usually innovative, and she’s worked extensively over 15 years with Tindersticks, who can be heard in next Tuesday’s film White Material, which tells the story of a woman in Africa in the middle of a civil war who’s trying to hold onto a coffee plantation where a wounded rebel leader seeks refuge. It starts at 7.30pm.

On Friday at 8pm, the indie-rockers, led by front man Stuart Staples, play their distinctive music live to accompany a montage of scenes from six of Denis’ films screening in Hall One of the Sage, followed up by a live set. This live music and cinema project was actually set in motion by an invitation from the San Francisco Film Festival which has resulted in a UK tour, but it all serves to tie in nicely for a bit more Northern exposure for the popular Tindersticks.

For more details, visit the website at www.amber-online.com, call 0191 232 2208, and also at www.thesagegateshead.org, call 0191 443 4661.