MA are from York in England and initially displayed 70s prog in their songs, most notably Pink Floyd with a bit of Rainbow and Jethro Tull influencing them. The pick of the early albums for me was The Last Bright Light, after which they started to steer away a little from the folky influences. With revolving door line ups, particularly drummers, they built up a terrific live following and regularly headlined the outdoor Blakey Ridge festival at the Lion Inn on top of the North York Moors, as well as often playing the Cambridge Folk Festival, and tours into Europe, particularly Holland. My then girlfriend and I saw them quite a few times and loved the ethereal image that Heather brought to their performances, as well the searing quality solos Bryan seemed to pull off (he's a great writer too). Certainly they can rock, although I have lost touch with them a bit now that I live in Shanghai (and Heather has left). So I haven't seen them for over 10 years now. Still, Livvy is a terrific singer and I understand their more recent albums have been almost, if not as good as, the days when Rick Wright praised them on BBC Radio 2. Nowadays they are pretty much a cottage label band, which is a bit of a shame as great things were hoped for them for a while. However they kept control of their sound and direction, which was very important to Bryan as the founder. I hope they can get further recognition but after more than 20 years it's a little late now.
Topic: Mostly Autumn (Read 967 times)
