Friday’s gig at the Bury Met was the first time I’ve seen Mostly Autumn since Rhyl back in May. Just like everyone else I had great difficultly in actually getting there; for the second day running the trains were farkled by a broken down train, and a plethora of road accidents had gridlocked the entire road network in Lancashire; the number 130 bus took an hour and a half to get into Manchester, which scuppered my plans to get anything to eat before the show.
The gig was well up to MA’s usual standards. Most MA gigs I’ve been about halfway back, but this time I met up with a bunch of regulars from the Mostly Autumn Forum, and ended up right up at the front. The downside of this is that you don’t get a perfect sound mix, since most of what you hear is from the monitors rather than through the PA. I ended up with a lot of lead vocals, flute, and Liam Davidson’s guitar, and not quite enough keyboards or lead guitar. The upside was that I was only six feet away from Heather and Angela! It was also interesting to hear exactly what Liam plays; while his guitar parts make a contribution to the overall sound, he’s not usually that prominent in the mix.
There were absolutely no surprises in the setlist, although we weren’t really expecting any. I think the only change from Rhyl was that they played “Passengers” instead of “Answer the Question”. High spot was a sublime version of “Carpe Diem”, although “Shrinking Violet” ran it close. The jigs, which some people love and some people hate went down well with the crowd, as did the call-and-response between Bryan Josh and Olivia Sparnenn on “Never the Rainbow”.
The only time they really stumbled was “Nowhere To Hide (Close My Eyes)” which exposed the limitations of Bryan’s vocals, and is precisely the sort of oldie that really ought to be retired from the setlist.
They closed with the perennial epics, “Heroes Never Die” and “Mother Nature”, the latter ending with Bryan playing a few bars of Pink Floyd’s “Echoes”.
While I’ve been critical of the rather conservative setlist, this set does strongly showcase Angela Gordon’s flute playing, and she was on really good form last night. But what was it that she found so amusing about DEMU T-shirt?
She was no doubt thinking “Crikey! The Heep T-shirt is in the wash AGAIN!”
I think I did wear the Heep T-shirt last time I saw them
“I ended up with a lot of lead vocals, flute, and Liam Davidson’s guitar,”
…But that’s a *good* thing
I wasn’t saying that was a bad thing. But there were moments (especially during the first half) where Bryan’s solos were getting drowned out. A lot better in the second half, though. Perhaps he turned the monitors up?
When did it get to be November???
Paul, it was all the traffic problems! It took everyone an entire month to get there
Seriously, I see you have discovered my deliberate mistake, which I have have now corrected.