Bryan's Company and Chris's Parade

Friday 4th December: The Countdown to the festive season has started and tonight is the beginning of a weekend of three gigs in three days for me. All of them are related in some way to York's most famous prog-rock giants Mostly Autumn, so this weekend can only be described in one way - Mostly Awesome!!

Tonight there's three of us (just not quite the usual three) attending the Duchess for one of a very limited series of shows for which Mostly's Bryan Josh has put a band together to perform his 2008 solo(ish) album Through These Eyes. More of that later.

First up, however, were Parade. Chris Johnson has been a busy boy since the last time I saw him perform. Not only has he put together this band, featuring Anne-Marie Helder, Gavin Griffiths, Simon Snaize, Patrick Berry and Chris himself (basically the band seems to be one possible outcome of a crash involving the tour buses of Panic Room and Hazzard County) but he has also managed to write, produce and release the band's debut CD, The Fabric. This is the band's second live show together (the first was also supporting Josh and Co) and I'm going to set my stall out straight away and say that they were superb.

The music was guitar-and-keyboard rock and the influences were probably many but while certain things were vaguely tugging at the dark recesses of my memory, very little results were forthcoming. Roj described the ending of one song (The Diamond, I think) as "like the dark chocolate version of Fleetwood Mac, while the lyric style of Cut reminded me a little of something by The Beautiful South. What was impressive was the diversity of material - no two songs sounded the same and they all sounded brilliant. With Anne-Marie and Chris switching around between lead vocals, guitar and keyboards (for one song both played keyboards, for another they both played guitar) and with Bryan Josh himself replacing Simon for one song, there was enough variety to keep even the most jaded music fan happy.

There's no doubt that the band is made up of some very talented musicians and the songs showcased that those talents - Simon produced some excellent guitar work, Gavin was brilliant on drums, it goes without saying that Anne-Marie's voice was stunning and, it has to be said, Paddy's bass-playing was leagues above what he ever did with Hazzard County. I have implied in a previous posting that Chris Johnson might have thought himself too good or too big for some of the acts he has previously worked with. I suspect he may have found his place as frontman for Parade. Not only does it allow a release for his undoubted creativity but, if they can perform this well so early in the band's career, there is a good possibility that the band can go on to bigger things. The only problem is, possibly, the commitments some of the members already have. While Paddy had dropped off my radar since the last time I saw the Hazzards, I believe that Simon is working on an album of his own. Gavin is drummer with Panic Room, Fish and played on the first Josh & Co album (of which there are supposed to be more to come) and Anne-Marie already performs with Panic Room, Mostly Autumn and solo (and there really should be a solo album sometime soon).

Personally, on the strength of tonight's performance, I hope they manage to find time to work together again. This was a very entertaining opening act and one that I would have been more than happy with if they had been the headline. I even bought the CD. On first impression, although I've only managed to listen it through once, at varying volumes and in the car, the live act seems to do what it should do with the recorded material. That is expand it and give the musicians a chance to cut loose. Hopefully, a fuller review will follow if and when I get time. In the meantime, however, it is my fervent hope that this Parade managed to avoid the rain for quite some time.

Strangely, when Josh & Co took to the stage, there was very little change in line-up. Ian Jennings had replaced Anne-Marie on keyboards, Bryan Josh had replaced Simon Snaize on guitar and Livvy Sparnenn was there to provide backing vocals. On the album, Bryan plays everything but the drums (and flute on one track).

The album itself, which came very close to being my favourite release of last year, deals with the idea that you can push your dreams back out through your eyes and step into the resulting dimension to meet the inhabitants of your dreams. Verging on a concept album, the songs relate Bryan's adventures in that dimension until he finds the one person who can bring him home (Livvy, I assume...)

That being the case, it's hard to perform the album without doing it all the way through and in the order the tracks were released on the album. So, as an introduction and as the band took to the stage we got what I assume was a recording of Merry She Goes. Then Bryan introduced the ideas and launched directly into Land Of The Gods and The Appian Way. What followed was an almost word for work performance of the album from beginning to end.

I say "almost". There were some small differences like different words during Through These Eyes (the original doesn't have a reference to Lee Van Cleef sticking his pistol up Hitler's backside...) and the "super-band" introduced at the end of that track was missing John Entwhistle and Freddie Mercury. However, Jimi Hendrix and John Bonham were introduced, which led to cover versions of All Along The Watchtower and Rock and Roll (the latter with Livvy on vocals, harking back to her guest appearances with Freeway). There was an extra song, which I didn't recognise from the album and, in hindsight, I think one or two tracks may have been left out of the performance. We did, however, get a second (sing-along) rendition of The Appian Way by way of a sort of encore (the band didn't actually leave the stage).

The songs themselves showcase Bryan's unquestioned poetic heart and, while there is undoubtedly a resemblance to the output of Mostly Autumn, his solo work shows what can happen when his creativity isn't tempered a bit by Heather Findlay, producing in places a harder edge to the songs.

This was, as expected, an excellent performance that was well received by the audience. Overall, a brilliant start to the weekend

Saturday Is A Sort Of Preview Of Next Friday

Saturday 22nd November: It's not that often that my wife and I can both say that we like the same band. It's also not often that you get to see fantastic original music, played live, for free. So, when the opportunity to see a fantastic band, that both my wife and I like, play live, original music, it's time to take advantage and organise a rare night out together.

So, after a good curry, we head off to the Roman Bath to see Breathing Space. It's as full a turn-out for the weekend gang as you are likely to see, with six of us squeezing into a rapidly filling pub.

This is our third time of seeing Breathing Space and, I think, their best performance to date. Not only were we treated to songs from the first (Breathing Space by Iain Jennings) and second album (Coming Up For Air by the now-steady line-up) but also at least one new song from the third album, which is currently being written. I'm sure that lead-vocalist Livvy told the story behind Butterflies but, it being the Bath, too many people were there just to try to be louder than the music and I missed what she said. It was a good song, though.

As were the rest of the songs played during a two-hour set. I can't remember whether bassist Paul Teasdale has contributed backing vocals before (and I can't remember which song he did for tonight) but he did so superbly. As which much keyboard-led prog rock, the songs seem to take on a life of their own when played live. It's always going to be hard to tell whether each song is played the same at each gig. The keyboard players, Iain and Ben Jennings are talented enough that they could be ad-libbing and you wouldn't know it. As usual, Livvy's vocals were excellent and the guitar playing, by both Teasdale and lead guitarist Mark Rowen, was superb. The whole thing was backed up by Barry Cassells on drums and added to by John Hart on sax and various electronica. As is traditional, the set ended with The Gap Is Too Wide, my personal favourite.

Next Friday, Livvy and Iain will be rejoining Mostly Autumn on stage at the Grand Opera House, as their tour restarts after being delayed to allow Heather Findlay to give birth. Which gives me a not-too-subtle link to...

Through These Eyes is the first solo album by Bryan Josh ("the heart and guitar of Mostly Autumn"). Apparently he has been working on this, the first of a series of albums, in secret and the first I heard about it was when an advertising email landed in my inbox earlier this week. Obviously, being the careful spender that I am, I ordered a copy straight away and, luckily, it arrived yesterday, giving me plenty of time to listen to it before taking it along to tonight's gig to get it signed by both Bryan and Livvy, who provides vocals on some of the tracks.

"Solo", in this case, means Bryan doing pretty much everything himself. He has written the whole album, performs almost all the vocals and plays almost all the instruments (except drums - Gavin Griffiths and Henry Bourne - and flute - Sarah Dean). He has also done most of the technical wizzy bits behind the scenes. Bryan is quick to settle fans' nerves by stating that this is not the end of Mostly Autumn, just a chance for him to explore other shades of music. However, on this album at least, it can be hard to separate the man from the band. Inevitably, much if not all of the songs have a resonance of the band's sound. That certainly doesn't detract from the quality of the release, though. Behind a welcoming front cover and brilliantly designed booklet, lies a top album.

I don't pretend to understand a lot of what Bryan has written about, although there is an undercurrent of loss and, perhaps, a yearning to allow friends, relatives and heroes to live again running through a lot of the songs. The CD opens with Merry She Goes, an eighty-five second instrumental track a little reminiscent of Dire Straits, which appears to be a tribute to a deceased pet. The title track (and my favourite on the album and again reminding me of Dire Straits but for another reason) appears to tell of a dream in which Bryan wanders around a gathering of his heroes (although quite why Hitler is there isn't answered) as they mingle with each other. At the end of the song the members of "tonight's band" are introduced - that's one band I would pay good money to see play. Not A Dream appears to be a message from Bryan to his father, telling him things that he couldn't tell him in life.

It's not all doom, gloom and memories, though. The Appian Way is this album's epic track if only in theme and not in length. It tells of a soldier forced to join the Roman army in their fight against the Gauls (although the Appian way actually led South from Rome so the Gauls could have been lost). As befits the song's story, the music reminds me of incessant marching which actually makes it sound boring. It is far from it. A "radio edit" of this song, with the one F-word blanked out, is included as the fourteenth track and, to me, is nothing but filler.

As I mentioned, many of the songs aren't too far removed from the sound of Mostly Autumn. Land of the Gods, Black Stone and Not A Dream could all sit comfortably on an MA release, with Bryan's trademark guitar playing, as well of the overall style of the songs, reminding me of the band's music.

This album contains some of the best use of Livvy's vocals I have heard. From the haunting voice on Slow Down, through the brilliant counterpoint to Bryan's voice on We Grow and through to the almost duet on Carry Me (which is also dedicated to her), her singing is superb and used well. Old Friends is sung entirely by Livvy - he only sing on the album not to feature any of Bryan's vocals.

Going Home, shows Bryan at his most poetic, with a gorgeous description of moonlight and the sun going down, while Only In The Loss is a short, spoken word track, almost a poem in its own right.

Which just leaves Into Your Arms. I think I would have ended the album with this track, rather than placing it in the middle. Its Queen-like guitar track and somehow familiar vocals (my wife suggests Oasis, I'm not sure and am still racking my brains) make it the most unlike Mostly Autumn track on the album and its soaring sound seems somehow out of place where it has been put on this release.

An excellent album.