Mostly Autumn at Rhyl

Last Friday I saw the magnificent Mostly Autumn play the Welsh seaside town of Rhyl. For those not familiar with the place, Rhyl is an old-fashioned British seaside resort, where all the shops sell sticks or rock and Donald McGill postcards. This is the first time I've seen them since the departure of keyboard player Iain Jennings.

The Pavilion Theater seats about a thousand, and is a big venue for a band more used to playing clubs. While they didn't fill it, they did manage to attract a fair-sized audience, both fans like me who'd travelled a fair distance, and plenty of locals who'd not seen them live before. When you used to seeing the band crammed into a tiny club stage with hardly enough space to move, it's strange to see the eight of them spread out across the enormous theatre stage. There were one or two occasions where I feared Bryan would do a Frank Zappa and fall into the orchestra pit.

It's also strange to see them in a seated venue. From my seat facing Bryan's side of the stage, the sound mix had a little bit too much guitar, and not quite enough keyboards, which seemed to emphasise Iain Jennings' absence. This does mean that flautist/keyboardist Angela Gordon has a much bigger role on stage, sharing Ian's keyboard parts with new boy Chris Johnson, as well as playing a lot of flute. She's also out front rather than being half-hidden at the back.

The two and a half hour set concentrated on old favourites. They started with the lengthy Floydian "The Last Climb", which always seems to me to be a slightly odd choice for an opening number when the band have plenty of uptempo rockers in the setlist. The first half of the set was good enough, with the flute-driven rockers "Caught in a Fold" and "Dark Before the Dawn", and a lengthy solo spot from Liam Davidson before "Spirit of Autumn Past". Things really caught fire after the interval. After "Heart Life", the 'rocked-up celtic jig' section finally got a large part of the audience out of their seats. (I think most of the people who criticise the band for 'those awful jigs' have never seen the band live). Then came an absolutely storming version of "Never the Rainbow", with Heather and backing singer Olivia Sparnenn singing alternate lines, followed by the call-and-response between Olivia and Bryan's guitar. In complete contrast, it's nice to hear "Shrinking Violet" restored to the set, which had been absent the last couple of times I've seen them. The one real surprise was "Close my Eyes" from the band's debut album. They closed the main set with a magnificent "Carpe Diem". Encores were "Heroes Never Die" and, of course, the epic "Mother Nature".

While it was sad to hear about Iain's departure, his absence hasn't diminished the band's live performances. If you get a chance to see them live, go. You won't be disappointed.