People always travel considerable distances to Mostly Autumn’s York gigs, and Cloud Atlas took advantage of many fans making a weekend of it to put on a gig of their own the following night at The Post Office Social Club, and they succeeded in pulling a respectable sized crowd containing a lot of familiar faces.

Sadly the advertised support, one-time Seahorse Chris Helme, had to pull out as short notice, but former Stolen Earth guitarist Adam Dawson was able to step into the breach as a late replacement. He played a mixture of originals and covers, ending with Stolen Earth’s “Mirror, Mirror” and “Silver Skies”, and finally the never recorded “Harlequin” recorded as a duet with Heidi Widdop.

Stolen Earth themselves began with an extended drone of keys, whistles and E-bowed guitar before launching into the distinctive riff of “Searchlight”. The proceeded to deliver one of the best performances I’ve seen them do, helped by an excellent sound mix. Dave Randall on keys was particularly impressive with swirling colours and textures, as was bassist Stu Carver; the band have a very tight rhythm section.

Set-wise it was much the same as at Bilston in August, drawn from the album “Beyond the Vale” plus Heidi’s solo acoustic cover of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” and the Stolen Earth oldie “Soul in a Jar”. One change was a rearrangement of the middle section of “Let the Blood Flow” with an electronica element that worked far better than the original. This time the band remembered to save one song for the encore, ending the evening with the epic “Stars”.

Cloud Atlas have one more gig scheduled this year, supporting Lifesigns at York’s Fibbers, after which they will be working on their second album.

Cloud Atlas don’t play live that often, especially outside of York, so it’s well worth catching them when they do. On Sunday 16th August they came to one of the temples of the grassroots rock scene, Bilston Ronin 2

Support was singer-songwriter Howard Sinclair. He normally performs as a solo acoustic artist, but this gig was a rare opportunity to see him with a full band, which included Morpheus Rising’s Paul “Gibbo” Gibbons on drums.  The result was a highly entertaining set, the songs fleshed out with the addition of a rhythm section and some bluesy lead guitar but still retaining a stripped-back singer-songwriter flavour.  One highlight was “Bedsheets & Bad Luck” with Howard on piano and a great guest vocal performance from Wednesday S on the song sung by Touchstone’s Kim Seviour on record.

Cloud Atlas began with by playing live what many other bands would have run as an intro tape, a long intro of low whistle and e-bowed guitar before Martin Ledger lauuched into the riff of “Searchlight”, the rock epic that defines Cloud Atlas’ sound; a huge guitar sound, soulful vocals, a strong rhythm section and great use of atmospherics. There were many moments where Martin Ledger’s melodic and fluid effects-laden guitar recalled the playing of Marillion’s Steve Rothery.

The set consisted of the album “Boyond the Vale” in it’s entirety plus the Stolen Earth oldie “Soul in a Jar” and a remarkable solo acoustic cover of Michael Jackson’s “Billy Jean” so radically reworked that it wasn’t instantly recognised. The material comes over powerfully live, played with fire and passion, and benefitted from the sort of clear sound we’ve come to expect from this venue.

They finished with an impressive “Stars” with its guitar-shredding climax, after which the crowd weren’t willing to leave without hearing more. But the band had no more songs, so Martin Ledger put it to an audence vote on what song we wanted to hear again. The choice was “Soul in a Jar”.

So finished a great gig by a band who really deserve a wider audience. They’ve probably reached the stage when they need more material if they’re to play headline-length shows. At some point there will be a follow-up to “Beyond the Vale” and there will be new songs in the set. In the meantime, perhaps the band should consider rehearsing an interesting cover or two to play as encores?

The splendid Cloud Atlas headline Bilston Robin 2 on Sunday 16th August. It’s also a rare chance to see Howard Sinclair with a full band as support.

Cloud Atlas will be playing a home town headlining gig at The Post Office Social Club in York on Saturday 14th November. The support act will be Chris Helme of Seahorses fame.

This is the day after Mostly Autumn’s showcase gig at The Grand Opera house, which is all the more reason for travelling fans to make a weekend of it.

If you can’t wait until then to see them, they’re also playing an acoustic show supporting the always excellent Jump at the Wesley Centre in Maltby on 25th April, and headline shows in Norwich and Bilston Robin 2 in July and August. Full details of these on the Cloud Atlas gigs page.

Here’s “Stars”, one of the standout songs from the album.

Cloud Atlas – Beyond the Vale

Yet another York-based band (Is there something in the water?), Cloud Atlas is the band put together by Heidi Widdop following the dissolution of Stolen Earth. Their impressive début album is big widescreen rock with an epic scope, with Heidi’s distinctive bluesy vocals setting them apart from many of their obvious peers. But this album’s sound is as much about Martin Ledger’s soaring melodic lead guitar, with strong echoes of Marillion’s Steve Rothery.

Gazpacho – Demon

Norway’s Gazpacho have come up with one of the darkest and most sinister-sounding records of 2014. It’s what Talk Talk’s Spirit of Eden might have sounded like if Mark Hollis had spent a lot of time listening to Black Sabbath. Sinister violin-led pastoral soundscapes with are intercut with bursts of hard rock, motifs recur across the album, and there’s even an irruption of accordion-led central European folk at one point. An ambitious album which is by no means an easy listen, but one where you can keep finding new layers after many listens.

Knifeworld – The Unravelling

A major step forward for Kavus Torabi’s eight-piece band, and reflects their current live sound far more than any of their previous recordings. It’s a record that takes psychedelia, jazz, hard rock and all kinds of other things, and puts them in a blender to produce something that sounds quite unlike anyone else. Fans of the late, great Frank Zappa should find a lot to like about this record, as should anyone who thinks there should be more bassoons in rock.

Luna Rossa – Secrets and Lies

Luna Rossa started out as a side-project from Panic Room emphasising the acoustic side of Anne-Marie Helder’s and Jon Edwards’ music, but seems to have taken on a life of it’s own. Their second album is a logical progression from the first; perhaps not quite as eclectic, but with a slightly clearer musical identity. Luna Rossa still defy easy genre pigeonholing, though the album does show occasional hints of artists as varied as Goldfrapp and Renaissance. There’s some very raw heart-on-sleeve emotion, with the music revolving around and complementing Anne-Marie’s always remarkable vocals.

Steve Rothery – The Ghosts of Pripyat

This Kickstarter-funded project is Steve Rothery’s first proper solo album in more than three decades as lead guitarist of Marillion. It’s an instrumental album with a band including Panic Room’s Yatim Halimi and Mr So and So’s Dave Foster, Rothery’s lyrical and emotional playing both soars and rocks, the numbers building in intensity from slow-burning beginnings. The whole thing shows just why Rothery is one of the best guitarists of his generation, one of the few players good enough to pull this sort of thing off without descending into self-indulgence.

“Stars”, one of the standouts from Cloud Atlas’ debut album “Beyond the Vale”.

For those who’s tastes run towards progressive rock and metal, Sunday was always going to be the day to be looked forward to the most.

The weather turned nasty at the beginning of the day courtesty of Hurricane Bertha. Amidst some doubts over whether this would go ahead the main stage marquee didn’t open up until the first band were already standing on stage waiting for the audience to file in. They were Norway’s The Windmill, and they proceeded to play some epic symphonic prog. There were echoes of Renaissance and fellow Norwegians ÄnglagÃ¥rd, and their music went from pastoral atmospherics to heavier guitar-led passages. It featured heavy use of flute, and some great three-part vocal harmonies, their set climaxing with the swirling twenty-minute epic “The Gamer”.

Credo followed that with another entertaining set With ornate synth runs, fluid overdriven guitar solos and a singer with a touch of Fish’s vocal mannerisms they tick all the neo-prog boxes. But even through they’re not doing anything stunningly original, the strength of their songcraft and the passion of the performance meant they went down well with the crowd.

Apocalyptic weather swirled outside during Winter in Eden’s set, such that the wind speeds were getting the stewards worried. But inside the tent the most metal act on the main stage so far kicked up such a storm themselves that many people didn’t even notice. They rose above some rough sound early on with a powerful set, their British take on Euro symphonic metal eschewing choirs and kitchen sinks in favour of neo-classical keyboard flourishes and good old-fashioned lead guitar, with Vicky Johnson the first of several great female vocalists to grace the main stage on the day.

Heidi Widdop seems to make a habit of Cambridge Rock Festival debuts. Back in 2010 the main stage saw her first gig as the new lead singer of Breathing Space. The following year marked the very first gig for the short-lived Stolen Earth. 2014 saw her new project, Cloud Atlas, playing only their second gig. Despite having a stand-in rhythm section, they turned in another strong performance, with Martin Ledger’s evocative guitar tones dominating the band’s rich and atmospheric sound, and Heidi herself on great form.

Mr So and So just get better and better as a live band. Another regular act for the festival, they followed up their 2011 and 2012 appearances with one of their best shows yet. They’ve gone up a gear since the release of their fifth album “Truth and Half Lies”, far darker and heavier than what had gone before, and that album featured heavily in their set. The hugely melodic dual male/female lead vocals of Shaun McGowan and Charlotte Evans and shredding lead guitar of Dave Foster give them a distinctive identity. This gig marked the farewell appearance of drummer Stuart Browne with hints that the band may take a radically different direction without him. He certainly went out on a high.

Mostly Autumn have been on top live form this year, and their festival performance was no exception. Aside from the two standards “Evergreen” and “Heroes Never Die” from the band’s early years, the rest of the nine-song set all came from Olivia Sparnenn’s tenure as lead singer, drawing heavily from their latest, “Dressed in Voices”. They’ve evolved a long way from their celtic-folk origins towards a harder-edged rock sound, but there’s still a lot of emotional depth, as evidenced by Olivia’s signature number “Questioning Eyes”. Another highlight was “Skin on Skin” with Alex Cromarty’s spectacular drum pyrotechnics. Much like Chantel McGregor on Friday, this was a headline level performance.

Mostly Autumn’s set was going to be a hard act to follow, and the task fell to Norwegian metal act Jorn, fronted by Jorn Lande. Yes, the whole thing was as melodramatic as hell, and yes the songwriting did sound a bit too close to that of the late, great Ronnie Dio for comfort, but Jorn still put on a great show. At a time when a lot of metal bands are fronted by either cookie monsters or opera-trained sopranos, it was good to hear a top-class old-school hard rock vocalist. Though we could have done without the Tufnelesque solo spot from his guitarist; somebody needs to tell him it’s 2014, not 1982!

Headliners Wishbone Ash are one of those classic rock veterans down to one original member, guitarist Andy Powell. Weilding his signature Flying V he led the band through a mix of standards from their early heyday and newer blues-rock workouts. While it might have been nice to have heard more of their highly melodic 70s material, they kept, perhaps wisely, to the songs that Andy Powell could do justice to vocally, and the emphasis was more on the twin lead guitars, with highlights including “Engine Overheat” and the epic “Phoenix”. Even though they were nowhere near the best band of the day, that was more a reflection on the strength of the rest of the bill, and it was still an enjoyable performance.

And so ended the eleventh Cambridge Rock Festival. As is often the case the veteran acts topping the bill pulled in the punters while the newer acts lower down the bill ended up giving the best performances. One can’t help wondering if the festival might have worked better for those attending the whole weekend if the acts had been mixed up a little more rather than seperate blues, rock and prog days. But on the other hand that format may have sold more individual day tickets. Indeed, I was told that the Thursday night, which was very well attended, actually sold out with many people coming to hear the tribute acts, and that subsides the rest of the festival.

And finally, the beer! The festival began life as a beer festival, and was called the RockandBeerFest until a few years back. But real ale is still a major part of what the whole thing is about, and an awful lot of beer was drunk over the course of the weekend.

The song “Searchlight” from Cloud Atlas’ “Beyond the Vale” illustrated with photos from their launch gig in York last month.