Breathing Space, Newton-le-Willows, 22 Jun 2007

Olivia Sparnenn

This was the first time Breathing Space have ventured west of the Pennines, and the third time I’ve seen them live. The Gravy Train is a new venue on me, definitely a club rather than a pub, with a proper stage, and a capacity of perhaps a couple of hundred. There were nothing like that many there, but a decent few had braved the monsoons that had flooded roads and railway lines to turn out.

This was one of those gigs where I saw a lot of familiar faces; I think I’d seen just about everyone in the audience at gigs before, and could put names to something like half of them. It’s been said the Mostly Autumn/Odin Dragonfly/Breathing Space fanbase is like an big extended family, and tonight certainly felt like that. The evening began with my being welcomed with an enthusiastic “Hi Tim” from Livvy. That’s not the sort of thing you get at the MEN Arena…

Livvy again

The already ridiculously-late start was delayed even longer by the support act getting lost en-route, so when Breathing Space finally took the stage it was almost eleven pm. They then delivered a flawless set, certainly the best I’ve seen them, without the techical problems that had marred their York show, and without meeding a stand-in for guitarist Mark Rowan as they did at Ringwood.

Having seen them a couple of times before I’m getting to know their set by now; naturally the bulk of the set came from album “Breathing Space”, with the live takes of the songs rather more rocky, with Mark Rowan’s guitar a little more prominent than on the studio versions. The Mostly Autumn oldie “Hollow” was fantastic; I’ve got so used to hearing Livvy sing it by now that I’m starting to think of it as a Breathing Space song. I wonder whether Mark Rowan feels imtimidated by having Bryan Josh in the audience. One high spot for me was “Rain Song”, a much reworked version of a number Livvy wrote a couple of years ago, and originally performed in the acoustic set with Chris Johnson supporting Mostly Autumn two years ago.

Mark Rowan and Paul Teasdale

The set was all over far to soon, which is my only real criticism of the evening. Breathing Space have more than enough material for a 90 minute set, so the shorter set the venue required meant several of my favourites got left out; there was no room for “Distant Train”, or the fantastic “Shades of Grey”.

So everyone spent another hour socialising in the bar afterwards, while the ‘special guest DJ’ was largely ignored.

Livvy again

This time I remembered to take my camera, so the pictures are mine. Just about all the stage lighting was on Livvy, so that’s the main reason almost all the pictures are of her. Iain’s side of the stage was so dark I couldn’t get any decent ones of him at all.