This was the big one; the biggest ever gig by the band I’ve been I’ve been following around the country playing to audiences in the low hundreds. Playing as special guests to Bryan Adams at Murrayfield Stadium is a huge step for a band used to playing clubs and small provincial theatres. Because Chris Johnson and Gavin Griffiths were committed to playing in Fish’s band at a gig in Calw in Germany, Mostly Autumn resorted to a one-off reunion of the 2005 lineup with Iain Jennings on keys, Liam Davidson on second guitar, and Andy Jennings on drums.
Unfortunately the weather forecast for Saturday afternoon and evening wasn’t good, with a lot of rain.
I arrived in Edinburgh on a bright and sunny Friday afternoon, which turned into a beautiful evening. Saturday dawned grey and overcast, but still dry. But at about 1pm the rain started, and didn’t stop.
On the band’s web forum we’d arranged a pre-gig meetup at the Roseburn bar, quite close to the stadium, where a lot of the usual suspects gathered, including Paul Hodgson, Paul Turner, Paul Quinton (Sometimes it seems that 50% of all Mostly Autumn fans are named Paul!), Steve and Maria, Doogle Fae Berwick, and several others. News filtered through that the start would be delayed, and there were even rumours that the gig might even be cancelled due to not having a fire certificate! But nearly an hour after the gates were supposed to have opened, we got word that whatever problems there were had been resolved, and they were finally letting people in.
Naturally the Bryan Adams hardcore had been queuing in the rain for hours while we were all in the pub, so they got to the front first. I was about 10-15 rows back, the furthest back I’ve been at a Mostly Autumn gig for a long time (the very first time I saw them, three years ago, there were only five rows!)
First support were a ska band called Cueball-8, complete with a brass section. Ska really isn’t my thing, but they weren’t actually that bad, and played with a lot of enthusiasm. I didn’t realise ska was allowed to have so many guitar solos! Their biggest weakness was that all their songs sounded the same.
Still it rained. We got colder and wetter.
The delayed start meant Mostly Autumn’s set had to be cut back to an hour, from the planned 75 minutes. Iain Jennings appeared on stage first, and appeared to be in the middle of checking his keyboards were working when they rolled the into tape and the rest of the band strode on stage and launched into “Fading Colours”.
(Photo by Chris Walkden)
It took a couple of songs into the set before they got the mix right, something that’s sadly to be expected for a support band at this sort of gig. So “Fading Colours” and “Caught in a Fold” lost a bit of their impact, with the former losing most of the guitar. By the third or fourth song, the mix was pretty good, with “Dark Before the Dawn” pretty much perfect. It wasn’t anything like loud enough, something which would become very obvious when Bryan Adams hit the stage, but it was extremely clear with very good separation, especially the vocals.
The band didn’t seem intimidated by the size of the venue, and gave a pretty good account of themselves. The performance was tight and energetic, and they seemed in good spirits, especially Bryan. It’s difficult to tell how well they went down with Bryan Adams fans with the incessant rain putting such a dampener on things.
Heather’s singing has been getting better and better the last few months, and she was absolutely fantastic at this gig, even by the high standards of the recently ended tour. Her outfit certainly raised a few eyebrows though! I find that her more risqué stage costumes aren’t really to my taste, and detract from the music a little.
And then there was Andy “The Crow” Smith equipped for the first time with a radio pickup on his bass, and let loose to roam the massive stage without risking tangling his guitar lead round the rest of the band. Time and time again I’d lose sight of him, and find he’d appeared right at the far side of the stage somewhere near Arbroath. It was also the first time I’ve seen this band projected forty feet tall on video screens beside the stage.
The setlist concentrated on the shorter punchier numbers rather than the longer atmospheric epics. Much as I love the magnificent “Carpe Diem“, it just wouldn’t have worked for an audience that had come to see Bryan Adams. High spots were a superb”Heart Life“, a song not played on the tour, a powerful version of “Broken Glass” and the perennial favourite “Evergreen“. They ended with a shortened version of “Heroes Never Die“. Sadly with the delays there wasn’t time for an encore.
Still it rained.
I’m not a Bryan Adams fan, but I’ve got to admit that he rocked hard. While a few dozen of us had travelled to see Mostly Autumn, 99% of the people here had come to see him, and he certainly delivered a strong set that rocked the crowd despite the weather. I was particularly impressed with his guitar player, He started the show playing a few numbers in the pouring rain on a small stage in the middle of the arena, to which he returned a second time for the encores. Presumably they have better circuit breakers these days so he didn’t risk electrocuting himself. For the record, I did go the beer tent during “Everything I Do“. Some things just have to be done.
The rain hadn’t stopped by the end of the gig two hours later, where a few of us met up again, cold and tired, at the Roseburn bar.
Update: There are a lot of Chris Walkden’s photos of the gig on the official site.
I’ve finally got to listen to the long-awaited album by Odin Dragonfly, the acoustic side project of Mostly Autumn’s lead vocalist Heather Findlay and flautist/keyboard player Angela Gordon.