I’ve interviewed former Stolen Earth and Breathing Space frontwoman Heidi Widdop for Trebuchet Magazine. While the focus is naturally on her new project Cloud Atlas, we also talked about Stolen Earth and touched on the very early days of Mostly Autumn when Heidi was in the band.
Mostly Autumn came to Sub89 in Reading on Thursday. For a band I’ve travelled all over the country to see over the past few years, this was the first time they’ve played my local venue, and it felt strange to be able to walk to one of their gigs.
Support was five-piece The Room, playing a short but sweet set with one foot in the melodic rock camp and the other in neo-prog, showing strong songwriting and some impressive lead guitar work. I’d like to hear more from this lot.
Mostly Autumn put in a strong performance with Bryan and Olivia both on very good form, before a very enthusiastic and appreciative crowd. The setlist was more or less the same as earlier in the year, opening with “Winter Mountain” and “Never The Rainbow”, with the whole set emphasising the hard rock side of the band’s music. “Unquiet Tears”, first of the newer numbers came over very strongly. As has been apparent to anyone who’s seen the band over the past couple of years, Olivia has made older standards like “Evergreen” and “Passengers” her own, while the newer songs show the remarkable power and range of her voice. “Questioning Eyes” never fails to tug at the heartstrings, and she pulled out all the stops on “Wild Eyed Skies” and the final encore “Tonight”.
Hannah Hird’s backing vocals as the replacement for Anne-Marie Helder were excellent, although I can’t pretend I didn’t miss Anne-Marie’s flute playing and strong stage presence. The absence of the flute part was obvious in one or two places, and I can’t help feeling that it would have been better to rest songs like “The Dark Before The Dawn” in favour of newer songs from “Ghost Moon Orchestra” as long as the band are without a flute player.
Although it was still a very enjoyable gig, it didn’t quite reach the levels of power and intensity of some of their best shows over the past two years. The slightly mushy sound probably didn’t help, and the chopping and changing the lineup over the first half of this year may have cost the band a bit in terms of momentum. For this weekend’s run of three gigs the band’s regular drummer Gavin Griffiths returned to the drumstool because this year’s temporary replacement drummer Alex Cromarty had other commitments. Both of them are superb drummers, of course, but stability has it’s benefits.
The band should have a stable lineup for the remainder of 2013, and return with an ambitious programme of gigs over the second half of the year, with quite a few of the higher profile shows featuring the talented Chantel McGregor as special guest.
A few days ago I polled Mostly Autumn fans asking for songs to recommend for new listeners. I’ve collated responses from here, Facebook and the Unofficial MA forum (Nobody responded on Google+) to give this list of songs.
It’s significant that your responses span the band’s entire career, with songs from eight out the band’s ten studio albums represented, including several songs from the two most recent albums. So here are thirteen selected songs, along with some of your reasons for choosing them.
Unquiet Tears
“Showcases the amazing voice of Olivia and pulls of the trick of sounding modern and contemporary but instantly Mostly Autumn”
- Ian Almond, blog comment
Storms Over Still Waters
“One of the few to include lead vocals from both Bryan and Heather as well as typically powerful guitar solo. A long track, but any new fan would need to get over that”
- Paul E, blog comment
“I think you’d have to have a heart of stone not to be moved at all by it”
- HippyDave, blog comment
Shrinking Violet
“The live version from the Leamington CD is absolutely spellbinding and contains everything that makes Mostly Autumn special”
- Paul Gunhill, blog comment
The Gap is Too Wide
“Honestly, this works. I’ve shown this song to a few people and they have really got into it immediately. Of course providing they are the kind of people who have patience to start with a 10+ minute track. It has the emotion of the best of Mostly Autumn’s material, it has that build-up and a great climax”
- Wander, blog comment
“blew me away first time I heard it (and has reduced me to tears since)”
- Ian Massey, Facebook
Fading Colours
“Has a bit of everything without being too overwhelming for a newbie”
- Sam Lewis, blog comment
Passengers
“Not too long, not too short, an older track but not too far removed from their current sound”
- David Meadows, unofficial MA forum
The Last Climb
“Shows the epic nature of the music & the inspirational emotive lyrics”
- Ian Foster, Facebook
“Always been my favourite. I’m a sucker for a slow burner! There’s something very pure about that song which for me sums up the MA sound.
- Adam Dawson, Facebook
Evergreen
“The structure and style of it just seem to sum up the band for me. Also, I have never heard them perform a bad rendition of it live. It always hits the spot. Not my personal favourite, but the most iconic I guess?”
- Ian Hodgetts, Facebook
And When the War is Over
“Powerful lyrics, amazing power in the vocals (both Livvy and Bryan) . Raw emotion and wonderful melody. Guitar just rips through the track and just builds this up into a brilliant piece of music”
- Ian Redfearn, Facebook
The Night Sky
“It’s the first song I ever heard from the band. Still outstanding”
- Rob Jarvis, Facebook
Wild Eyed Skies
“The pick of the new material – great guitar and vocals and Anne-Marie’s wonderful harmonisation which is the making of the track”
- Tom B, blog comment
For All We Shared
“There’s not one particular aspect I like as such, just the overall feel and sound of the song. I find it uplifting”
- Mike Foley, blog comment
Mother Nature
“A good one for the prog crowd, I think. It’s got a bit of everything the band do best.
- HippyDave, blog comment
Over the past few months, The Guardian have been running “Beginners Guides” on their music blog. For each one, they select an iconic artist with a substantial body of work, and ask readers to recommend one song with a few words to justify the choice. Then they collate the ten best responses and publish them on the music blog.
They’ve covered artists such as Led Zeppelin, Neil Young, Black Sabbath and Bob Dylan to far; they have yet to include any major prog artists, thought I’d suggest King Crimson, Rush, Van der Graaf Generator or Marillion as excellent choices for the future.
But what about the smaller bands that feature heavily on this blog? Let’s try our own version of the same thing.
We’ll start with the band I’ve written far more about than anyone else, Mostly Autumn. With ten studio albums over a decade-and-half they I think they meet the “substantial body of work” criteria.
So. Which Mostly Autumn song would you recommend to a listener unfamiliar with their work, as a good and accessible introduction to what you love about the band? Leave your response in the comments.
Assuming I do get sufficient responses, I will collate the responses here and on various social media sites, and post them, with your reasons as a blog post.
Anne-Marie Helder has written a lengthy post on Facebook explaining why she won’t be performing on stage with Mostly Autumn (bar one gig) for the rest of the year. It’s too long to quote in it’s entirety, but I’ve highlighted this section, which clarifies one or two misconceptions.
I have seen some comments written about myself or Gavin having ‘left’ Mostly Autumn, which I think it’s important to say was Never actually said…
The truth of the situation is, while other commitments keep us 2 exceptionally busy, Mostly Autumn have (rightly) drafted in new and highly-talented folks to fulfil their line-up, and for this year’s shows that’s what the live line-up will be.
But as for future tours, nothing is decided yet; and as ever, Bryan and his team will only do what is 100% right for the band, on a tour-by-tour basis!
So, I would urge you to show nothing but support and love for Mostly Autumn – both the band members and all the team – as they now dive into the next set of tour dates and pursue lots of great opportunities throughout the year!
)
I will be on stage with Panic Room, and sometimes solo, and maybe with the new acoustic project Luna Rossa (at some point!)…. But I will also have one eye looking out from the wings onto the Mostly Autumn stage, and watching them with immense pride and love, for they are some of my closest and loveliest friends! And I know they’ll Rock as hard as ever this year.
Reading the original announcement, it’s easy to see why many people interpreted things the way they did, even though as Anne-Marie correctly points out, that’s not what the announcement actually says. And while nothing has been decided yet, I know I’m not the only one hoping that Anne-Marie does return to the band at some point. Indeed, I’d love to see the new singer Hannah Hird retained as well, resulting in a return to the eight-piece lineup with the big vocal harmonies, which is one thing I’ve missed since Olivia Sparnenn took over as lead singer in 2010.
Latest news from Mostly Autumn, from the official site.
There is indeed a wedding celebration concert in York on June 22nd and we are delighted to announce that it will be held to celebrate the marriage of Olivia Sparnenn to Bryan Josh. The actual marriage will take place on June 21st and both Bryan and Olivia felt it would be very appropriate on the day after, to open up the festivities to whoever can make it – and what better way to do it than to perform a Mostly Autumn concert in a room full of friends. We are also pleased to say that Anne-Marie will be performing with us at this event.
Come along and raise a glass, it will be a very special evening – see live dates section for details.
Congratulations to the happy couple to be!
This is shaping up to be one of those great gathering-of-the-clans evenings that draws fans from far and wide. And it’s nice to see that Anne-Marie will be playing at this gig as a one-off appearance; a few people appear to have the impression that she’s leaving the band permanently, though there’s nothing in the band’s earlier statement that says this.
The band have some quite ambitious tour plans for the remainder of the year, including a lot of dates with Chantel McGregor as special guest in the second half of the year, plus what amounts to a two-day mini convention based around the annual York Grand Opera House Christmas show.
Announcement from Bryan Josh of Mostly Autumn.
As you will have noticed if you came to any of the gigs, there was a different drummer – in order for Mostly Autumn to progress and move forward freely I have had to take the decision to choose the line-up on a tour by tour basis, as members sometimes, quite rightly, have their own commitments. For the rest of the year, barring 3 concerts, Alex Cromerty from the Heather Findlay Band, will be drumming with us in place of Gavin. Hannah Hird (most recently seen harmonising with Ellie Golding on her recent tour) will be fulfilling the rest of the year on harmony vocals and keys in place of Anne-Marie.
We sincerely wish Anne- Marie and Gavin the best of luck with anything they do and look forward to embracing the many talents of Hannah and Alex. The rest of the band will be as normal.
After many years of a constantly changing band Mostly Autumn had finally had achieved some stability by keeping a lineup together for three years, and this has been reflected in some increasingly powerful live performances. So it’s sad to see the 2010-2013 incarnation of the band coming to an end.
Anne-Marie’s stage presence and flute playing will be greatly missed from Mostly Autumn’s live shows, and the apparent dropping of the flute from the band’s sound severs the last ties with the celtic-folk sound of their early albums. Admittedly there has been very little flute on recent albums, but I can’t imagine older songs like “The Last Climb” appearing in the set for the rest of this year at least.
As for Anne-Marie, her own music must come first, and this year might see a lot more opportunities both for Panic Room and her solo work. It was amazing hearing her voice fill the mighty Hammersmith Apollo on Friday night opening for Steve Hackett. Her solo acoustic appearances have been few and far between over the past few years given her commitments with both Mostly Autumn and Panic Room, and I’m hoping we see a few more of these this year.
Mostly Autumn played their first headline appearances of 2013 with four shows over the May bank holiday weekend. On the Sunday night they came to The Brook in Southampton for the last of those four dates.
The seven-piece band kicked off the two hour show with couple of oldies, beginning with the electric folk-rock tinged “Winter Mountain”, then rocking out with a very high-energy version of “Never the Rainbow”. “Unquiet Tears”, the first song from their most recent album “Ghost Moon Orchestra” was extremely powerful, building from a quiet but ominous beginning to an epic that recalls the symphonic metal of Nightwish. The moment where the full band come in and Olivia pulls out all the stops vocally is simply jaw-dropping.
Four dates in and they’ve had more than enough time to blow away any cobwebs, and the performance was both tight and powerful. They’ve made quite a few changes since the previous tour at the end of last year, bringing back a few other old favourites such as “Simple Ways” and “Nowhere to Hide” that hadn’t been played live for a while alongside the usual standards and highlights from “Ghost Moon Orchestra”. An interesting change of pace was “Rain Song”, a song Olivia Sparnenn wrote long before joining Mostly Autumn, later to be recorded on Breathing Space’s “Coming Up For Air”. Here it took a stripped-down form accompanied by just piano and flute.
Though the set was a good mix of old and new, since “The Ghost Moon Orchestra” is less than a year old, I can’t help feeling that they could have included more than three songs from the retail edition of the album. But my biggest quibble was the inclusion of two songs from Bryan Josh’s solo album “Through These Eyes”. That album had a very different style and feel, and the songs don’t quite work in the context of a Mostly Autumn set. “Appian Way” in particular came over crude and over-simplistic compared with the more sophisticated material from Mostly Autumn (or Breathing Space) albums.
The main set ended with an intense version of the epic “Questioning Eyes”, another number that first appeared on a Breathing Space album, but which has always worked as a Mostly Autumn song. After the obligatory first encore of “Heroes Never Die”, they finished with one more spectacular Olivia Sparnenn vocal showcase, “Tonight”.
Olivia Sparnenn’s and Anne-Marie Helder’s voices work extremely well together. While Olivia has always been able to do the older material justice, she’s really come into her own since the release of “Ghost Moon Orchestra” and a setlist containing a higher proportion of songs written to take full advantage of the remarkable range and power of her voice. Anne-Marie harmonises superbly, singing counter-melodies to Olivia’s vocal lines, particularly effective on “Passengers” and “Wild Eyed Skies”, enhancing the songs while never trying to steal Olivia’s spotlight.
It’s hats off to Alex Cromarty, standing in for the unavailable Gavin Griffiths. Despite a very limited time to learn the songs, on only his fourth gig with the band he managed to completely nail the material, and played with a tremendous amount of energy. Best known as the drummer for The Heather Findlay Band and Riversea, he will be playing live with Mostly Autumn for the rest of the year.
Great as the gig was, it’s an event tinged with sadness, because, as Bryan said at the end of the gig, it looks like this will be Anne-Marie Helder’s last appearance in the band for quite a while. Anne-Marie has been a part of the band for more than five years, and her contributions as multi-instrumentalist and backing vocalist will be greatly missed. I suppose it was always on the cards that as her own band Panic Room grew in profile and status that it would get harder to continue combining her roles in both. Mostly Autumn have been fortunate in being able to retain the services of such a talented musician and singer in a supporting role for so long.
Mostly Autumn next appear live at the end of the month in Maryport, followed by extensive touring the following months, including several shows in the second half of the year with Chantel McGregor as special guest. Full details on their website at www.mostly-autumn.com.
It’s come round quickly. Mostly Autumn are back on the road again, with four gigs over the bank holiday weekend. They kick off on Thursday 2nd at The Komedia in Bath, followed by Friday 3rd at The Robin 2 in Bilston, Saturday 4th at The Citadel in St.Helens, and finally on Sunday 5th they play The Brook in Southampton.
The band return with further dates in June, and there are more to be announced. At the moment it’s not confirmed what the lineup of the band will be since a couple of those clash with Panic Room’s shows. But it’s my understanding that Anne-Marie Helder (above) will definitely be part of the band for the four shows in early May.
Chantel McGregor (above) will be supporting Mostly Autumn as a very special guest in October. So far two dates, at Holmfirth Picturedrome on the 4th, and Islington O2 Academy on the 5th have been announced by the venues, but I’m given to understand there are more dates in the pipeline.
I’ve always thought Mostly Autumn and Chantel McGregor would make a great double bill, two contrasting acts, but with enough in common to appeal to each other’s audiences. It’s not the first time Mostly Autumn have shared a bill with a blues-rock act, American band P.A.U.L supported them for a couple of dates in the West of England back in 2010.