Where Worlds Collide

Two articles in The Guardian last week discussed whether or not critics serve any useful purpose. The original articles were about classical critics, which I don’t know enough about to comment meaningfully on. A lot of the resulting comments shifted the discussion towards rock critics.

In my opinion, rock criticism is completely and fundamentally broken, to the point where I’m much more likely to trust the opinion of an amateur blogger or web message board poster than most so-called professionals. Partly it’s because I know my own tastes in music are 180 degrees in opposition to the collective groupthink of mainstream rock critics, which seems to date from the punk era of the late 70s.

They pretty much all seem to toe the following party line:

• Music and artists are supposed to be ‘of the moment’ and aren’t supposed to last.

• Image and attitude are more important than substance

• Raw passion is infinitely more important than craftsmanship

• Any diplay of instrumental ability beyond the most rudimentary is self-indulgence of no interest to anyone other than musicians.

All of those are highly subjective premises, but they’re presented as inerrant gospel truths. That might be valid if it was just one of many schools of music criticism, but unfortunately it has come to represent the mainstream consensus. So you end up with ridiculous amounts of praise directed at anyone that conforms to the above template (Can you say ‘Pete Doherty’? Yes, I though you could), and marginalisation for anyone that doesn’t. Entire genres of music get dismissed with a sneer.

Then there’s the fact that when the critic do pay attention to content rather than image they only seem to be interested in the lyrics rather than the music. And it often appears that they’re reluctant to listen to any record more than once, so anything that takes several spins to appreciate will have trouble getting a fair review.

Another big problem with the British music critic establishment is that they’re so obsessed with finding ‘the next big thing’ (so that they can bask in reflected glory, perhaps?) that they tend to overlook the sort of artists that don’t start producing their best work until several years into the careers. Then we have the dreadful “build ‘em up and knock ‘em down” attitude. The result is all too often massive hype directed at some fresh-faced hopefuls who have yet to do anything much. The moment they fail to live up to the unrealistic expectations thrust upon their shoulders the inevitable backlash begins. Then you get the archetypal ‘difficult second album’ followed by a quick exit to the ‘where are they now’ file.

As I said, mainstream rock criticism is broken.

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.

It’s not far short of 25 years since the very first time I saw Marillion live, at the 1982 Reading Festival. I’ve seen bands this year with members that weren’t even born back then. The Marillion of today are a very different band, of course; unlike many of their generation they’ve steadfastly refused to become a nostalgia act, keep moving with the times, and continue to put out challenging and relevant music.

This was the second of two nights at the Forum in Kentish town; last time I was there was for Uriah Heep something like eight years ago. It’s a converted cinema, with a capacity of about 2000, standing downstairs with seating upstairs, a rather grander venue that most of the places I’ve been to in the past couple of years, certainly far better than the grungy and run-down Astoria. The gig was a sell-out.

I’ve read a lot about ‘jaded London audiences’ by people claiming provincial gigs have a far better atmosphere. Well, this year I’ve done gigs in London, Manchester, Crewe, Preston, Cardiff, Swansea and York, in venues ranging from pubs to enormodomes. This was by far the most enthusiastic audience I’ve seen all year in any city and any size of venue. Perhaps this wasn’t a typical London gig; Marillion aren’t hip and trendy, so instead of poseurs and liggers it was filled with hardcore Marillion fans who had descended from all over the country and probably beyond. I myself had come down from Manchester, my brother from Swansea, and I bumped into Psychochicken who’d come all the way down from Glasgow.

Although it was being filmed for a DVD, the cameras didn’t get in the way of the enjoyment; they were well positioned so they weren’t blocking people’s views. There was once camera on a massive boom that kept swinging alarmingly low and fast over the audience; I kept wondering if it was going to take someone’s head off. Fortunately it didn’t. And the sound was superb; just about the right volume, not too loud, but clear with good separation.

And Marillion’s performance just blew us away. I’ve seen them at Manchester on the past three tours, those gigs were good, but this one was in a different league altogether. They opened with a dark and intense “Splintering Heart”, which began with Steve Hogarth alone on the stage back by the drum loop, before being joined by the rest of the band mid-song. From then on until the anthemic final encore of “Neverland” two-and-a-quarter hours later there was no let up in the intensity. Even the material from the somewhat patchy new album “Somewhere Else” came over strongly live.

The setlist was a great mix of old and new; Marillion have a great depth of back catalogue with very few ‘standards’, so you never quite know what to expect. Tonight we got a superb “Ocean Cloud”, a very atmospheric “Estonia”, and an absolutely barnstorming “Between You and Me”. One big surprise was “Sugar Mice”, an oldie from the ‘Scottish heavy metal band’ days, for which H sang the first line, and left the audience to sing the rest. We also sang “Happy Birthday to You” to Ian Mostly, to celebrate his fifty-splodgth.

Certainly in my top three gigs of the year so far, and the best Marillion gig I’ve been to in the past 20 years.

Breathing Space will be recording a new album in the coming months.

As announced by guitarist Mark Rowan on the Mostly Autumn Forum

Mark here from Breathing Space, we’d just like to officially announce that the new Breathing Space CD will be entitled ‘Coming Up For Air’ and we start recording at Fairview Studios in Hull for a couple of weeks starting on July 23rd.

We don’t as yet have a release date but we would hazard a guess that it will be around Aug/Sept.

This news is probably one of the worst-kept secrets of the “York/Swansea nu-prog scene” - I’ve known (from Livvy) that they were planning an album for a late summer release since February.

No word yet on whether or not they’ll be doing a pre-order.

In just a few hours, I’m going to be seeing the mighty Marillion for the first time since 2005, for the final date of the UK tour, a sell-out show at the Forum in Kentish town. It’s being filmed for a DVD!

This tour has been getting rave reviews on Marillion forums, even from people who have been underwhelmed by the somewhat patchy new album.

I have to say I’m really looking forward to this one.

Crewe Limelight is my ‘local’ Mostly Autumn venue, so for once I wasn’t travelling a long distance to see them. It’s actually the first time this year I’ve seen them that hasn’t been an overnighter.

Heather and Andy

Like The Point in Cardiff it’s a converted church, and there’s always a great atmosphere in the place. It’s been said that going to a Mostly Autumn gig is like a night out with your mates. That was certainly true this time; when I got to the venue there were about thirty-odd people in the downstairs bar, and I realised I recognised just about all of them! They weren’t the first familiar faces of the evening; As I was waiting to cross the road a black Subaru came round the corner, and I thought the occupants looked vaguely familiar. Then I realised it was Andy Smith and Chris Johnson; I’m pretty sure Andy recognised me.

If the previous show belonged to Heather to the extent that I was only dimly aware of the presence of six other people on stage (OK, I exaggerate a bit), tonight really belonged to entire band. It’s noticeable how much tighter they are now the current lineup has gelled. I don’t know how much is down to Gavin Griffiths on drums, easily the best drummer than band has ever had, and how much is down to spending longer in rehearsal before going on the road. They’re easily 200% better than they were this time last year. The setlist was almost identical to that of Cardiff, except that they didn’t play ‘The Night Sky’, perhaps because of a slightly delayed start.

(Livvy’s glockenspeil solo)

I’m probably not the best person to judge the sound; I was right down the front getting stage sound rather than the PA; where I was it was far superior to the muddy sound at Cardiff the previous weekend. The big wall-of-sound symphonic numbers in the second half such as the Bryan’s guitar showcase ‘Further from Home’ and a superb ‘Carpe Diem’ came over very well indeed, with just the right balance between Bryan’s Stratocaster and the multi-layered vocal harmonies, something that doesn’t always happen.

The big news at the end of the show was Heather’s announcement that there was an eighth person on stage. Angie Gordon is expecting! This prompted someone from the audience to ask Bryan when his was due, which got the response “It’s been due for the past 74 months”.

From left to right: Bryan, Andy, Heather, Livvy, Gavin, Angie and Chris

As gigs go, that was a good one. The band were in the ‘the zone’ for much of the time, and the atmosphere was great. Just one MA gig left in my diary now, the final date of the tour at Bury Met at the end of the month.

My thanks to Martin Kessel to allow me to some of his excellent photos. There are a lot more from the gig on his site. I’m sure the back of my head must be visible in some of them.

Yet again I’ve travelled a considerable distance to see my favourite band. Not quite as far as Bournemouth this time, and I was staying for the weekend with my brother in Cardiff.

The Point, a converted church in Cardiff Bay, is a new venue for me. It still retains a lot of features from the original building, especially the stained glass windows, which give it a lot more character than a lot of featureless boxes I’ve seen bands perform in. As is usual for an MA gig I bumped into a lot of familiar faces like David Taylor, Peter the Great, Roger N, Jerry Bloom and Matt and Rachel from The Reasoning.

The very beginning was spoiled somewhat by a muddy sound mix, with an overloud mush of bass all but drowning out the lead vocals, which reduced the impact of ‘Fading Colours’. Fortunately after the first two or three songs it got better, and although tolerable was never quite perfect. The 2+ hour long setlist was similar to earlier dates on the tour, except that “Half a World” and “Ghost” were dropped in favour of the old favourite “The Last Climb”. I can understand why Heather might not want to sing “Half a World” at the moment.

The night really belonged to Heather, who was absolutely fantastic. This was her first public appearance after the very traumatic events of the previous few days, so this was always going to be an emotional show. While it might not have been the best performance I’ve ever seen from the band on a purely technical level, nothing else has quite matched this one for emotional intensity. Heather poured her heart and soul into the performance, especially on “Evergreen” and “Carpe Diem”, which were the outstanding moments of the evening.

Only three more days and I seem them again in Crewe.

Andrew Elias has some photos of the show.

This is the announcement from the official Mostly Autumn website about Heather Findlay and Fish

Though we don’t usually like to comment on personal issues of the band, we feel here at MA that some announcement should be made with reference to Heather and Fish, in that their marriage will no longer go ahead. Heather is very upset at having to call off the wedding but she had no option as she felt the man she fell in love with had changed considerably. We had been worried about Heather over the last few weeks, she should have been walking on air, but was unsupported and alone up in Scotland and was having to deal with things which have no part in romance. Fortunately, by coincidence, her brother was in the Scottish borders to answer her call after a horrendous argument which ended badly, and she was safely back to the comfort of her family and friends very soon after. The nature of the argument and it’s ending makes it impossible for Heather to consider any sort of reconciliation.

Heather has made it clear that she would not like this to have any influence on Chris and Angie recording and touring with Fish, though Odin Dragonfly will not now be supporting Fish on his forthcoming tour.

She would also like to say thank you for all the supportive messages she has already started to receive from fans of both Mostly Autumn and Fish.

We all wish Derek every happiness in the future and of course wish our lovely Heather well in her own very bright future.

Suzie Bielby
For MA

When the news broke I was very sad for both of them. Unfortunately after the self-justifying postings that have been appearing on Fish’s own website, my sympathies for him are wearing increasingly thin. Washing dirty linen in public is never pretty. And then he goes and tells his side of the story to the tabloids.

I really, really didn’t want to have to take sides in this. I’ve been a fan of Fish and his music since Heather was six years old. At the time of their engagement they were tied as the two rock musicians I’d seen live the most times (nine each). But now I’m wondering if I really want to go to Fish’s Manchester gig in September, despite already having a ticket.