Last week I mentioned we were off to see a band on Thursday evening. The whole trip went smoothly, with a nice pub dinner ahead of the gig. We chose a pub just around the corner from the venue and had some fun pointing out people we thought were going to see the band: mostly paunchy, grey-haired, bearded men in their sixties... hey, that's me!
I hit the merch desk early and picked up a copy of a live CD/Blu-ray that I didn't have of a live Solstice gig from a coupe of years ago. I thought I'd leave the new album as there would be other opportunities. Back in our seats, we were surprised to see that the venue had removed the back curtain — maybe it was the band needing more room, or the lighting set-up — and you could see the stained-glass window. The venue (Colchester Arts Centre) is a de-consecrated church and an amazing venue for live acts. The last live band I'd seen was years ago, probably Mitch Benn and the Distractions wa-a-ay back in 2007, although I watch a lot of live gigs, either on DVD/Blu-ray or on YouTube when money is a bit tighter.
Back-up band was Ebony Buckle and her husband Nick on keyboards and guitars respectively singing only a handful of songs, but ranging from something old in 'Disco Lasers' to something new in '900 Swans'. The songs are fun, often quirky, harmonious and tell a story, all delivered with catchy, sometimes soulful melodies. A delightful start to the evening.
Mel had said that she wanted one of Ebony's albums beforehand, so she went merch hunting and bought both albums and was then chatting to Ebony while I was thinking through this radical notion of buying more than one album... what sort of witchcraft and deviltry is this? I mustn't succumb...
Thankfully it wasn't long before Solstice were on stage and ripping through... I want to say 'Firefly' but I didn't write down a set list and I didn't know all the songs from the new album (a couple have been released with videos on YouTube if you want to find them). I do know they played the whole of the new live album, which is daring as a lot of people go to see bands wanting a "Greatest Hits" set. Not this audience, it turns out. They grooved along to everything — and it really was music to groove to, with rock solid performances from everyone.
I've been a fan of electric violin since the days of Hawkwind and UK, and one of my current favourite bands, Big Big Train, has a violin. Having the fiddle driving the music isn't anything new, but here it sets up the riffs, backed by bass, drums and keyboards, so that the guitar can just soar over the top. Three- and four-part vocal harmonies bring out the best in the lyrics, which are for the most part songs of freedom, hope and joy. And why not! The band are clearly enjoying themselves on stage, switch around for some songs, and having a good time interacting with the audience.
Some fans have been following the tour closely, so the front row is well known to the band. It's a front row fan's birthday and to celebrate, someone has bought cakes — for everyone in the venue! We pass around trays as Andy Glass (guitars) jokes about what's in them. Oh, and a hedgehog puppet makes an appearance. Like I said, the band are having a lot of fun.
It's over too soon. But the band don't run off. Within five minutes a few of them are milling around the merch desk, signing. My willpower crumbles and I buy the new album to get it signed by anyone with a sharpie. I tell Andy Glass that this is the first time I've seen the band but I hope they come back to Colchester again. Only later do I realise that's not true.
You see, Solstice have been around since about 1980, and have come and gone like a tide. The latest version of the band has been around since 2019 or so and they seem to be finally breaking through. But an earlier version of the band played Reading Festival in 1983 and I was there!
I must have seen them, although I can't remember a thing about most of the bands that played that whole weekend. But they played on the Friday alongside Pendragon, Pallas, Man, Big Country and The Stranglers. What a line-up! The Saturday was Magnum, Marillion, Suzi Quatro, the infamous Anvil, and Black Sabbath, and the Sunday included Twelfth Night, The Enid, Cockney Rebel, Ten Years After and Thin Lizzy. Just about every Prog band that was finding an audience in the early 1980s despite being told that Prog was going the way of the dinosaurs thanks to punk.
If you've got this far and you're thinking, "But, Steve, where's the connection to British comics?" Well, in 2013 they released an album called Prophecy, with a cover by none other than Barry Kitson. You knew I'd get it back to comics somehow!
Talking of which... while I'm still waiting on Rebellion (contracts due next week), I've started work on the main text for the Air Ace Companion. I managed to dig out some old letters and interviews I did back in 2006 when I was writing the introduction to The Fleetway Libraries volume covering the war libraries. I've found old letters from writers like David Satherley, Ian Kellie and Gordon Brunt which will help give some first hand insight into Air Ace and other libraries. I've also managed to gather some background on a number of writers who had been stubbornly elusive back then, including the story of Ellis Evans, who was a P.O.W. during the war, and details on many others, which speaks to the authenticity of the stories as they were written by people who had actually gone through the Second World War themselves, often on the front lines of Europe, Africa and the Middle East, or flown missions deep into enemy territory.
I'm also interviewing some of the surviving artists, which is taking time and pushing Google Translate to its limits. The floor around me is strewn with old photocopies of artist biographies from overseas from my correspondence with fans in Italy, Spain and Argentina. And some artists, too. I have to hand letters from Ferdinando Tacconi and Solano Lopez and I'm looking for a letter I had from Gino D'Antonio, which I've buried somewhere. But every time I look for something, I find something else interesting: a letter from David Motton, a copy of an obituary for Tony Weare I wrote in 1994, a photocopy of some previously unpublished artwork by Eric Bradbury (which I need to clean up a bit as there's a fold across the two pages)... who knows what else I might find before the book is finished.
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