Autumn in York

Saturday 19th November: I sometimes get the feeling that Mostly Autumn’s annual Christmas concert at the Grand Opera House is a sort of “comfort” gig for both the band and the audience. For most of the former, it’s a hometown appearance, with an audience which seems to consist largely of long-term fans and more than a few friends (and family). For the audience, or at least some of those who review the gigs (and who, collectively, travel hundreds of miles to see the band at various venues), there almost seems to be a lack of expectation – not that they will put up with any old dross (and not that they would get that) but that, somehow, the band can be forgiven if the performance isn’t quite up to the standard of other gigs on the tour. From a personal point of view, I only ever see them play York so can’t compare the performances, but for the last few years the gigs, with their Christmas song finales, have formed an integral part of my festive season. Oh, and it’s one of the few gigs I go to that is completely seated so, arguments about the merits of seated gigs over standing ones notwithstanding, that makes it a bit more comfortable as well.

This year, I had offered Elizabeth – my nine-year-old daughter – the option of coming along to what was to be her first full-length gig (beating my record by about six years) and, being a girl of varied and, for the most part, very good musical taste, she readily accepted.

With no studio album to promote this year (although the new live album – Still Beautiful 2011, which contains much of the set from tonight, taken from a performance earlier in the year – was promoted quite heavily) the set list had been tinkered with to present a sort of “best of” tour using material from the full thirteen year history of the band.

The set opened with the ambient instrumental Distant Train before launching into Answer The Question, which gave us our first taste of Livvy’s vocals. Last year I commented that I thought she had yet to hit her stride in the live performance. This time around she was, for the most part, quite simply stunning. Vocally stronger and looking a lot more relaxed – “She’s having a good time, “ pointed out Elizabeth as she watch Livvy smiling and dancing around the stage – as well as throwing the odd quip Bryan’s way and appearing a lot more comfortable (there’s that word again) with the audience, she seemed to own the stage a lot more than last year. Evergreen followed, again showing how much improved Livvy’s vocals were but also highlighting the incredible job Anne-Marie Helder does as backing vocalist. The more macho Deep In Borrowdale and Something Better, with Bryan taking over lead vocals, changed the tone of the set for a while but the former still showcased Livvy towards the end. Then it was back to Livvy for an impassioned rendition of Passengers. (I realise that I seem to be going overboard on Livvy’s vocals, but that’s an indication of, to me anyway, how much she had improved since the last time I saw her perform.) The set continued with the brilliant Ice, my personal favourite from the last album, which gave Iain Jennings, on the keyboards, a chance to shine then moved on to The Last Climb, which saw Anne-Marie front and centre for a lovely flute solo. Questioning Eyes, previously a Breathing Space song and a very personal one for Livvy provided a powerful end to the first half of the evening.

By this time, it was obvious that Elizabeth was flagging a bit, despite it being nowhere near her normal Saturday evening bedtime. An ice cream was a reward for her being dragged along to the merchandise stall so that I could pick up a copy of the latest album and she promised that she would try to stay awake for the second half, which started with Fading Colours and continued with Caught In A Fold, The Dark Before The Dawn and Nowhere To Hide. Then Bryan announced Spirits Of Autumn Past, before leaving the stage to allow the band’s unsung hero, Liam Davison to open the track with a wonderfully varied guitar piece, alternating between crashing power and delicate intricacy. “You should buy his album, it’s incredible,” extolled Bryan as he returned to the stage for the main part of the track. I have and I agree, it is. The somewhat overblown Go Well Diamond Heart followed and, once again, the dedication to our fighting forces was greeted with applause. Half The Mountain was followed by Hold The Sun and by now Elizabeth was actually nodding off – twitching at any loud bits of songs and waking up to applaud what she had only heard in dreams. I’m fairly certain that her sleepiness was nothing to do with the performance, which was superb. The set drew to a close with The Last Bright Light, Forever Young, which again brought forth a powerful performance from Livvy, and And When The War Is Over…

I managed to rouse Elizabeth for the encore which began with the band’s anthemic Heroes Never Die. Livvy, with just Iain on keyboards, then performed a beautiful version of Somewhere Over The Rainbow before the whole band donned red cowboy hats for the traditional Christmas ending, this year trimmed to just one song – I Believe In Father Christmas – due to the earliness of the gig. “We couldn’t get a gig here in December due to the pantomines,” complained Bryan.

I started by saying that I felt that expectations are never that high for this gig. Whatever the audience expected this year, they were treated to the best Grand Opera House performance that this relatively new fan has seen. (This was my fourth such gig.) The set was brilliantly put together, containing old and new favourites and a nicely varied mix of songs and the band not only played superbly but looked as though they were having a good time. Everything seemed to gel and the interaction with the audience – whether it was Bryan’s delightfully rambling stories behind the songs or Livvy’s more succinct introductions – was spot on. Add tonight to the blisteringly good performance from Heather Findlay last night and you get one of the best Mostly mini-festivals that I can remember.

And, thankfully, Elizabeth tells me that she enjoyed it as well, despite missing out on getting Bryan’s hat by just two people.

A Phoenix Rising

Friday 18th November: I had been looking forward to tonight’s visit to Fibbers for a while, mainly because of the headline act but also because of the pedigree of the support.

Shadow of the Sun are a relatively new band, put together shortly after guitarist Dylan Thompson had left The Reasoning. As well as Thompson, the band consists of Matthew Alexander Powell (guitar and vocals according to the website, vocals only tonight as far as I remember), Lee Woodmass (bass) and Rhys Jones (drums) and together they list influences from Pink Floyd to Motorhead by way of Tool, Alice Cooper, Muse and the delightfully named Snot, as well as a fair few bands that haven’t registered on my radar. Which might explain why I found it difficult to classify their music – not quite heavy enough to be metal and not quite light enough to be the sort of prog that I’m usually drawn to. Musically, the songs were intricate so I am leaning towards prog, but with a darker tone than what I’m used to. Powell’s vocals started off raw but very clear and he seemed a little nervous. By the end of the set, however, he’d shown a good range and seemed a lot more relaxed, even if his banter between songs sounded like little more than mumbling from where I was standing. Highlights for me were the set opener, which contained some very intricate time changes and Crimson Flags, which started with a rat-a-tat drum beat before Dylan cut loose on the guitar and built the song to a crescendo. Never Enough was heavier, faster (and, vocally less clear) and imbued with a dense bass line. I’m not sure whether it segued into the next song or whether it was itself a very complex number. This was followed by a much more mellow duet with Dylan taking an increased vocal role, although not coming across as powerfully as he did when he sang with The Reasoning. The rest of the set contained a mixture of rockier numbers and one song which was very understated musically, but had great vocals. (I wish I’d managed to get a set list, then I wouldn’t have to be so vague…) In all, it was an excellent set, well received by the crowd with enough content for what must be the inevitable album release.

Apart from an acoustic, limited ticket performance alongside Chris Johnson a few weeks ago and a couple of gigs at Kennedys, it’s been a while since Heather Findlay performed in York. I don’t think she’s played a gig here since she left Mostly Autumn back in early 2010 (and her last local performance with that band would have been in 2009). She still has her fans, though and Fibbers was very well attended tonight, with lots of familiar faces, including former band mates, in the crowd. This was just the second night of Heather’s tour with her new band – Dave Kilminster of Roger Waters’ band on guitar, Steve Vantis formerly of KT Tunstall’s band on bass, Alex Cromarty on drums and longtime friend and collaborator Chris Johnson on guitar, keyboard and vocals – although they did play a few of the Summer festivals.

With just one solo E.P. – The Phoenix Suite - released so far, tonight’s set relied heavily on re-workings of Mostly Autumn songs alongside a couple of songs from Odin Dragonfly, Heather’s collaboration with Angela Gordon. At least three songs from the E.P. – Seven, Mona Lisa and Cellophane -  were peppered throughout the set and, while I admit I was more than a little underwhelmed by the release when first listening to it, the live versions are much better and the CD has been growing on me since I started playing it to get familiar with the tracks again. From the Odin Dragonfly release, we were treated to Yellow Time, a rocked up version of Magpie and This Game, which featured one of the few times you will see a drummer take to the front of a stage. But it was the Mostly Autumn songs that seemed to be getting the biggest response from the audience. Although I recognised all of the songs, I’m not enough of an aficionado to know all the titles. I do know that we got Caught In A Fold from Passengers, Half A World and Blue Light from Heart Full Of Sky, Black Rain from Storms Over Still Water and Unoriginal Sin and Paper Angels (as part of the encore) from Glass Shadows. Throughout the set Heather showed near boundless energy, seeming to thrive off the responses she was getting from the audience, whether it was the enthusiastic cheering and applause that came after every song (and before some) or the banter being directed her way from friends in the crowd. The band were quite simply superb, as you would expect from such accomplished musicians and there was a relaxed atmosphere on stage, with jokes aplenty about Fibbers’ variable temperature. Special mention must go to Kilminster’s brilliant guitar playing and to Chris Johnson who worked incredibly hard as the line-up’s own one-man-band. But this was Heather’s show and she was, all the way through, stunning vocally. Highlights were her performance of Blue Light, which retained it’s peculiarly distinctive vocal sound and the final song of the encore. Shrinking Violet has long been a favourite of mine (as well, I think, of many others) and hearing it always makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Tonight it was performed with such emotional power that it nearly brought a tear to my eye. There aren’t many performers that can do that.

Mad Dogs and Englishmen

Wednesday 19th October: I’m afraid this entry will be a bit brief because, I’m ashamed to say, I completely forgot to review tonight’s gig. That’s no reflection on the evening, though.

I arrived at the Duchess just as Mad Dog, a three-piece from London, were starting and the first thing that struck me was the fact that vocalist (and guitarist) Tommy Smith had more than a slight hint of Robert Plant in his voice. The lyrics were a tad repetitive, but Roj eventually pointed out that they reminded him of York’s own 98Pages so that’s possibly no bad thing. The music, however, was an excellent mix of rock and blues and certainly got the crowd’s attention. Each song was applauded and cheered as though the band were already a favourite, despite this being their first tour and the debut album not arriving until next year. A brilliant opening performance from a band who, apparently, only arrived at the venue just before they were due to go on stage. The van breaking down? Very rock and roll…

Fighting Wolves, on the other hand, seemingly failed to get the crowd’s attention. People were listening but the songs weren’t being greeted with as much enthusiasm. At one point, the vocalist (I’m not sure which one – the above link lists three) commented that it seemed that the crowd wished that they and Mad Dog had played in reverse order. It was a bit of a shame really. Despite, perhaps, being slightly too heavy and the vocals a bit too screamy, for tonight’s bill there wasn’t actually anything wrong with the music. In fact, they reminded me a little of Black Stone Cherry. The performance was a little less slick than that of Mad Dog, with a bit too much messing about and some barely audible jokes (I assume) between songs. I didn’t get many of the song titles but would say that Wait One Minute was a very good end to an under-appreciated set.

Last year, The Union’s debut release was one of my top five albums so there was no question about going to see them again. Touring to promote their second album – Siren’s Song – they gave a no-nonsense performance, letting the music do the talking. Very near to the end of the set, Pete Shoulder commented that he thought that he’d hardly spoken to the audience. Indeed it was so - beyond a “How are you all doing?” and a handful of song introductions, barely a word was spoken. And when the music is this good, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I didn’t buy the new CD until after the gig, so didn’t know most of the songs played tonight but, alongside those new songs were a handful I remembered from the first album. My memory of all the songs played has failed me but Lillies sat comfortably alongside the likes of Siren’s Song and Blame It On Tupelo. Near veterans of the industry, Shoulder and Luke Morley along with bass-player Chris Childs played and sang superbly but special mention has to go to drummer Dave McCluskey – he really does play brilliantly, slamming the sticks down from above head-height and seeming to put his whole upper body behind his performance. It was only two songs in that his incredibly energetic performance necessitated the removal of his top and a head dowsing from a handy water bottle. And he does all this with a near constant grin. Overall, a top notch performance from a band that I can only hope continue to grace York with their presence.