Mostly Hand-delivered...

Wednesday 30th April: I couldn't go out at the weekend, hadn't bought any new CDs or finished any new books. Things to write about were looking sparse. Then, at 9 o'clock on Monday evening, there was a knock at the front door. It had to be somebody who didn't know us - the front door is never used. I stuck my head out of the house to see a woman with a package. "Mr Massey?" she enquired. A-ha, thought I, a mis-posted parcel. Although I didn't recognise her and parcels only tend to get mis-delivered within a few doors of their destination. "It's your Mostly Autumn CD," she said. "We were packing them today and, as we lived close by, thought we'd drop yours off." Wow! Not only did she hand me a copy of Glass Shadows, the eighth studio album from my newest favourite band, but it appears that I live close to somebody connected to the band. If only I had thought to ask who she was...

Anyway, it was too late to listen to it on Monday (Elizabeth, 5, was in bed) and I was on a night out yesterday. So I had to wait until tonight to see whether the anticipation was worth it.

Just a bit of background... I have lived in York all my life and, until last year I had never heard of Mostly Autumn. Then I borrowed a "greatest hits" compilation, fell in love with the music and, straight away, bought the first two studio albums. Those albums have an mythical, epic feel to them - full of songs about the great outdoors and heroes. They fit my musical tastes like a glove - modern prog rock at its very best.



So, what's the latest album like? The short answer is pretty good. The long answer is, well, a bit longer.

Even without hearing the intervening albums, it is obvious that Mostly Autumn, as a band have been through a transition. The music of Glass Shadows isn't quite as raw (although that may just be better production values, I don't know enough to comment) and not so much influenced by the likes of Hobbits and mountains, although much of it was written in the Lake District.

The band has changed slightly as well - Henry Bourne has come in on drums and delivers powerful beats throughout the whole album. New mother Angela Gordon has been replaced by Anne-Marie Helder on flute and harmony vocals. The mainstays are still Bryan Josh and Heather Findlay and between them they wrote or co-wrote all the tracks.

Glass Shadows has slightly lost the epic feel that I know from the earlier albums. This is a much more grown-up album than the others I have heard. The first track, Fireside, is a powerful riff-driven song which starts quietly and explodes with the second verse. The vocals are effective, with Bryan almost relegated to backing vocals and it also contains brief glimpses of his trademark guitar solos.

The Second Hand (and track) sounds more like earlier stuff - a gentle rock ballad with a strong keyboard background. Flowers for Guns is, I think, going to turn out to be my favourite track. You can tell from the title that it is a serious, message song but the upbeat guitar-playing, flute and backing vocals lend it a playful air that, for me, give it an almost hippies-by-the-campfire feel.

Unoriginal Sin starts off as a keyboard-led track and reminds me a lot of songs from Offerings (Heather and Angela's side project as Odin Dragonfly). Heather's vocals are at their best on this track while Henry's drumming and Bryan's mid-track guitar solo and superb. Another keyboard track, with Heather on vocals follows and Paper Angels could possibly have benefited from being moved away from Unoriginal Sin. It's an emotional song and possibly the closest thing to a standard love song that the band are ever going to record. Finishing up with another of Bryan's screaming guitar solos, it forms a perfect bridge into the second half of the album.

Next up is Tearing at the Faerytale - probably the most grand track on the album, dedicated to Livvy Sparnenn's dad, Howard. The style of the track changes over it's length and you get the feeling that this is going to form the backbone of live shows. It's another song about heroes but, rather than the mythical ones of previous albums, this ones hints of the likes of Clint Eastwood's "Man With No Name".

Compared to Faerytale, Above The Blue is a quiet song, emotional in a quite different way. It features Troy Donockley's string arrangements and pipes and is, quite simply, a tear-jerker. Yet another track that showcases Heather's amazing vocals it also hints at military drumming and has a slight Celtic influence.

The album's title (and "great outdoors") track seems to be written about Yorkshire, mentioning Whitby Abbey, a chalk white horse and an empty aerodrome and possibly encompasses Bryan's childhood memories. At least that's the impression it gives. Bryan's vocals are full of emotion and his guitar solos soar. This is the track that reminds me most of the earlier albums and, again, the instrumental section should be a joy to hear live.

Anne-Marie's flute-playing introduces and comes to the fore in Until The Story Ends an unremarkable track except for the burst of Gaelic instrumental towards the end.

And so the album ends with A Different Sky, a piece of almost 60's pop, reminding me of the likes of The Seekers. A strange departure from their normal style but one that somehow works.

Overall, Glass Shadows is a very good album with just the placement of Paper Angels and the unremarkable Until The Story Ends letting it down. It is just different enough from the earlier releases to maintain interest without being repetitive but just samey enough to be enjoyed as a Mostly Autumn release.

This limited edition copy comes with a ninety minute DVD chronicling the recording of the album, which I haven't had time to watch yet.

All I have to do now is get hold of the albums I don't yet have and bide my time until the end of November, when I will be seeing the band live at the Grand Opera House in York.

Classic Science Fiction

Monday 21st April: A few years back, Gollancz started their SF Masterworks series - reprints of classic science fiction novels ranging, in time, from H.G. Wells to Greg Bear. Being a science fiction fan of some years, I started buying these from the beginning, thinking that this was the kind of stuff I should be reading in order to call myself a proper fan. Sadly, a lot of the books written in the 60's and 70's were, for me, hard-going. For example, some were either commentaries on society at the time they were written (and I was not clever enough to understand what the authors were trying to say) or, more specifically, based on Hindu stories and totally beyond me. Some, especially anything written by Philip K. Dick, were very enjoyable even if I didn't understand everything that was going on.

Recently, however, I have dipped in and read four more, all of which were more standard stories.

The Forever War (Joe Haldeman, 1974)
This thinly-disguised Vietnam War analogy sees William Mandela drafted into an interstellar war in which the huge distances travelled between missions mean that, although only a few years of his life pass, centuries go by on Earth, while advances in military technology for both sides seem to come from nowhere. Meanwhile, on Earth itself, the war is becoming more and more remote and humanity is evolving, sometimes with a little self-help, in order to avoid an over-population crisis.

Although only a short novel, the number of references to, I assume, the feelings of soldiers during the Vietnam war (in which Haldeman both served and was injured) are numerous - the inadequacy of military leaders and the subsequent feelings of the grunts to those leaders; the underhandedness of the military command; the ultimate futility of war - but the novel also succeeds in being a straightforward narrative, as well as a brilliant satire. In the background, a devastated Earth's population is first controlled by encouraging homosexuality, then almost forcing it and finally by cloning suitable subjects. However, as a fail-safe, a few heterosexuals, including Mandella, are allowed to continue "as is", even though they are now seen as freaks and, interestingly, Haldeman also says that, in this future, homosexuals can be cured if they wish to be.

Perhaps the best idea of this book, however, is that the developments in defence technology eventually lead to a final battle that is fought with medieval weapons - bows and arrows, spears and swords - until the last gambit, which uses what is essentially a doomsday weapon.


Gateway (Frederick Pohl, 1977)
Time dilation and homosexuality, albeit of the latent kind, is also apparent in the story of Robinette Broadhead who, in alternate chapters, comes to, lives on and eventually leaves Gateway and undertakes therapy (with a computer psychiatrist) for something that happened there.

Gateway itself is an asteroid orbiting our sun perpendicular to the planetary orbits. It was left by the now-vanished Heechee and contains hundreds of ships each with their own pre-programmed destination. People come to Gateway to take these ships out in the hopes of finding more Heechee artifacts (and, thus, riches). Some do, others don't, still more never come back. The rest come back dead or seriously injured. It is the ultimate gamble.

Being of the "mysterious artifacts left by ancient race" sub-genre of SF, this was always going to be a winner with me, but Pohl partly builds his novel around the way that the Gateway Corporation runs its operation. The novel is sprinkled with classified ads, parts of classroom lectures, mission reports and other bits and pieces that build up a picture of life in and around Gateway itself.

The only disappointing thing about reading this novel was that the structure of alternating chapters, as the main story and the therapy converge towards one event, led me to believe that there was going to be a twist ending, one which I thought I had worked out (although not very far from the end). Ultimately, though, there was no twist and what I was reading was actually what happened.


Man Plus (Frederick Pohl, 1976)
No homosexuality in this novel, although there was lots of extra-marital (and even zero-gee) sex. In fact, it is extra-marital skulduggery that leads to the life of Roger Torraway being changed forever. As fourth-in-line for the Man Plus experiment, which aims to transform a man to be able to live virtually unaided on Mars, he suddenly finds himself thrust into the forefront when the current recipient of the surgical procedures suddenly dies of a stroke and the next two are ruled out. Torraway starts to undergo the procedures, as the team working around (and on) him try to solve the problems which contributed to he predecessors death.

So, Mars-forming man, instead of Terra-forming Mars, provides the main thrust of this novel and the increasing isolation of man, in the shape of Torraway, is the main effect of the experiment. The reason for the Man Plus experiment is, again, that Earth is falling apart (figuratively, not literally - small asides describe acts of terrorism, war and general discomfort with life on the planet) and the U.S. President is supporting the project as a future way of colonising Mars and thus relieving the effects of over-population. Every so often, the writing slips into a first person plural style ("we" did this, etc - I had to look it up), which leads you to think that there is something going on that is wider than the story you are reading and the last few pages reveal this to be true. To say any more, however, would be to spoil the ending.

This book is an easy, interesting read, if a sometimes uncomfortable one when you realise the lengths that the government is willing to go to its people in order to get what it wants.


Earth Abides (George R. Stewart, 1949)
I normally only review books when I have finished reading them. However, this morning, I realised that my copy of Earth Abides has an undetermined number of pages missing from the end (they have been replaced by a second copy of the beginning of the novel), so it may take me some time to finish it.

Although definitely science fiction, this story of an Earth whose population has been all but wiped out by plague was set in the time it was written. Because of that, although a few details are now dated (valves in radios, attitudes toward black people, etc) it doesn't read quite as dated as some future-looking SF (no ray-guns or flying cars...)

Isherwood Williams returns from a camping trip to find that plague has devastated America. After a road-trip between his native San Francisco and New York and back, during which he finds other survivors but feels neither the need to settle with them or ask them to go along with him, he settles back into his parents house and prepares to live a solitary existence. After a while he notices other signs of life and finds Em, who becomes his wife and they are eventually joined by a handful of others. A small community is formed and Ish tries to continue the aspects of civilisation that he remembers from the past. Unfortunately, it turns out not to be as easy as he expects.

It's a shame that I'm going to have to wait to finish this book - it has been a fascinating read and one I could quite happily add to a list of books to re-read every year (if I had such a list). The writing is subtle, easy-going and although there is a sense of doom pervading the novel, there is (at least so far) a degree of hope.

Stewart peppers the main narrative with side-writings explaining how things will change now that man is no longer dominant, but these never detract from the main story. Superstition, religion, knowledge and law in a small community which by desire or otherwise has cut itself off are explored in detail. Although Ish is the main character and is seen throughout the novel as the educated man (he actually makes a list of attributes to show why he shouldn't commit suicide early on) compared to the rest of the cast, the other members of the community are equally as interesting.

It sounds as though it should be boring. It's anything but. I just hope the ending lives up to the rest of the novel.

Give Me An Inch And I'll See The Yards

Thursday 10th April: ...and we are joined by an American contingent - The Rook (don't ask. We all have and there is, apparently, no answer.) and his wife Cheryl - for a trip to the Post Office Social Club , where The Yards are topping the bill.

Firstly, though, a big "Thank You" to Andy of either version of The Runaway Sons (it will all become clear, I promise you) for responding so quickly to my email and sorting out exactly how was playing when for the support acts.

First up was Mike Newsham and his acoustic guitar. Mike reminded me a little bit of a cross between country music and Bruce Springsteen and was pretty good. As I've mentioned before, I think it must take a load of nerve to stand up on your own in front of an audience and belt songs out and the only time Mike let himself down was between songs when his mumblings into the microphone were pretty unintelligible. Having said that, of course, we didn't pay to hear any of these guys speak.

Next up were Jim Gipson and The Runaway Sons. The Sons used to be a four-piece. Well, actually, they still are a four-piece, just not the same four. Mike Newsham used to be their drummer and they have also lost guitarist Mark Wynn. They are now original members Andy Gaines on guitar and Ben Cordrey on bass, joined by Jim Gipson (guitars and vocals) and Claude (drums). Jim has an absolutely brilliant, huge voice which was (I think) helped a bit by a touch of echo on the mike. Andy plays guitar with a manic style. Ben's bass-playing was accomplished and his backing vocals were very clear. I can't say much about the drumming. There is a style of music, which I particularly associate with The E-Street Band (there's a theme developing tonight...) where everybody seems to be playing different tunes using different rhythms but which all come together to sound good (think the end of Thunder Road) and a few of their songs reminded me of this style. Not a bad thing at all. Perhaps because this was this line-up's first gig together, there was a time when momentum was lost slightly as guitars were tuned on stage but, overall, this was a very good performance and included some tunes that I would gladly pay money for. Let's hope there is some recorded material soon.

And, finally, The Yards took to the stage. Most of our group had seen them before. Not me, although I had seen Chris Helme at Fibbers - a disappointing performance where he seemed more interested in messing about with the audience than playing music. Thankfully, as part of a group, he is much more focused. Normally, there are five Yards but, tonight, they were down to four - keyboard player Jon Hargreaves is off doing a Phd. They played a solid, entertaining set. Chris has an extremely distinctive voice and used it to good effect while Chris Farrell did his best to lose a couple of pounds through energetic guitar playing and novel use of effects pedals. I had listened to their (so far) only studio album a few weeks ago but could neither remember many of the songs, nor tell whether the lack of keyboards made a difference to the live sound. Tonight's performance was, however, good enough to entice me to visit the merchandise, errrr, table and hand over some hard-earned for both the aforementioned self-titled album and an earlier live one, recorded in York Minster. The latter, if only to see how such a brash, loud band could possibly have played such a venue.

The Yards 2005 album is strongly influenced by sixties and seventies rock, updated with a modern sound. There is a hint of psychedelia in the keyboard introduction to anti-Bush song Crime, while another dig at George Dubbya, The Devil Is Alive and Well and In DC, is a pulsating drum-led track. Lyrically, some of the songs come up a bit short - for example, Up 'Til Dawn is basically just a chorus sung twice - but the music makes up for that. There is a good mix of styles, from pounding rock to almost-ballad and, despite jumping on the musicians-as-messengers bandwagon perhaps a bit too early in their careers, is a very good listen.

Live at the Minster is from 2004, when The Yards were joined by Hayley Hutchinson (vocals and percussion) and James Lindsay (cello and vocals) for a charity gig in aid of Brazilian children. Obviously, because of the venue, this was a much softer, acoustic performance compared to tonight's. Even the audience's applause seemed more polite. Language was toned down in at least one of the songs (Crime) and, for some reason, The Devil is Alive... was not performed. However, from the ten songs on this CD, six appear on the studio release. It is another good performance, with Hutchinson's backing vocals adding to the softer sound. My only complaint is that the recording appears to have been heavily cut in terms of the bits between songs. I like my live CDs to reflect the concert as closely as possible, audience interaction included.

A CD, Some Books and the Return of the Doctor

Sunday 5th April: A leaving do on Friday evening (and the accompanying hang-over on Saturday...) together with working away in Walsall overnight on Saturday, prevented me from seeing any live bands this weekend. So, it's back to the old fail-safe... book and CD reviews.

Anne-Marie Helder: The Contact...

I ordered this extended EP at the same time as Panic Room's debut album, but it took a couple of days longer to arrive, so missed out on the last round of reviews. Anne-Marie is the lead-singer (and co-writer) with Panic Room and is also, currently, performing with Mostly Autumn. This is her solo debut from back in 2004. An enchantingly powerful mix of six songs that hark back, in places, to Jethro Tull and forward, in others, to Odin Dragonfly, The Contact is a worthwhile addition any prog/celtic rock fan's CD library. I have already mentioned Anne-Marie's incredible voice and on this CD she also plays guitar, piano, flute and percussion (as well as programming and effects and photography for the insert). She is joined by Dave Kilminster on guitar and Adam Pain on bass, but, apart from that, this is very much a solo effort from a very talented lady.

Escardy Gap (Pete Crowther and James Lovegrove, 1998)

I'm not a big fan of horror (or, perhaps more appropriately in this case, dark fantasy) books, primarily sticking to Stephen King, who has the ability to scare the willies out of me. For some reason, though, back in 1998, I bought a copy of Escardy Gap, one of the first offerings from Simon and Schuster's new (at the time) imprint, the now defunct Earthlight. I seem to remember that it got good reviews and, I think, one of the reasons I bought it was that one of the authors (Crowther, if I recall correctly) lived in nearby Harrogate. The titular location is a typical small American town in the 50s or 60s. (There are enough references to work out exactly which decade it is set in, but I've now lent my copy out and forgot to take any notes.) One day a train pulls into the station. It isn't the regular train, that's not due for a few days. This train carries The Company, a bizarre collection of characters who promise the denizens of the town a show in return for hospitality. The show, however, turns out to the the systematic murder of the town, using methods which suit the various members of The Company. It is up to 12-year-old Josh and the town's mayor to try to get help. But, it's also the story of two writers and incorporates a breaking of the "fourth wall" as these two stories, one of which is initially seen as a framing sequence, start to overlap. Apart from a certain degree of perversity in some of the methods of murder, this was a thoroughly enjoyable book. Not frightening but certainly intriguing, full of strange characters, including the townsfolk, and with more than a hint of Ray Bradbury about it. It's certainly the book I've read fastest, so far, this year.

Ice Mage/Fire Music (Julia Gray, 1998, 1999)

Enjoyable, but not as much as Escardy Gap, was this duology from Julia Gray (Mark and Julia Smith, who also write as Jonathan Wylie). Set in the volcanic land of Tiguafaya, the first book, originally written as a stand-alone, tells the story of the Firebrands, a group of young men and women who believe that the use of magic is the key to ridding the land of the fireworms, vicious creatures who burn all in their path. However, the governing Senate is corrupt and are trying to use the fireworms in a bargain with pirates, a bargain that will see the pirates tricked and the Senate richer, and are trying to stop the Firebrands' plans, eventually criminalising and exiling them. The only widely-used magic in the land is that of telepathic links with birds that quite a lot of the population has (each person linked with one specific bird) and the authors even manage to imbue the various feathered helpers with their own individual personalities. The second book picks up the story after the corrupt members of the Senate have been defeated, the Firebrands have been seen as heroes and the neighbouring country is about to launch a holy war against Tiguafaya. The writing in the two books isn't brilliant and, being honest, I did find my mind wandering a few times while reading them. However, sticking with them was worthwhile as the ending of each was spectacular. Strangely, in this time of forest-destroying series, the first book is one of those rare creatures, a truly stand-alone story which has an ending. There really wasn't any need for a sequel but, in my opinion, this sequel is the better book.

Finally, I've just watched last night's Doctor Who. The return of David Tennant to the role he fills so well, the return of Catherine Tate to a role that's going to have to grown on me (she needs to stop slipping into her annoying "comedy characters) and an earlier than expected return of, well, that would be telling. Russell T Davies delivers a humourous script for the first episode of this series, with perhaps the cutest aliens you will see in he show. From the perfectly choreographed opening, with the Doctor and Donna continually just missing each other, through the priceless moment when they finally catch up, to the ending as Donna finally accepts his offer to join him in his travels, this was a perfectly paced episode. Sarah Lancashire puts in a fine performance as the villian of the piece and Bernard Cribbins returns as Wilfred Mott, his character from last year's Chrismas special who, as it turns out is related to Donna. Excellent.