Just posted this to the Official Mostly Autumn forum, but I think it’s worth reposting here.
I think I can post something a bit for reflective and forward-looking now I’ve had a few days to think things over.
I’m sure Mostly Autumn will remain a superb live band with Livvy singing lead. Having heard her sing “The Gap Is Too Wide” several with Breathing Space, I admire her ability to take a song and make it hers. I’d expect the band will drop Heather’s deeply personal songs from the setlist (can you imagine anyone but Heather singing “Above the Blue” or “Unoriginal Sin”? I can’t), but I’m looking forward to hearing her sing things like “Fading Colours” or “Carpe Diem”, which she is more than capable of doing justice. She deserves nothing less than our full support.
I think the band do have something to prove with the new album, which is how the new Mostly Autumn will be judged by the armchair critics who don’t go to gigs. People expecting a Bryan Josh solo album in all but name, don’t forget that Livvy is a songwriter as well as a singer. She co-wrote most of Breathing Space’s “Below the Radar”, an album I personally rate more highly than “Glass Shadows”, and has the leading credit for “Questioning Eyes”, the Classic Rock Society’s song of the year.
As for Heather, it’s not as if she’s retiring from music and we’ll never see or hear her sing again. I think there is a feeling that the time was right to leave; maybe her creative partnership with Bryan had simply run it’s course - 13 years and seven albums is a longer than average run for any band. The absolutely electrifying live shows throughout 2009 meant her time with the band ended on a high, which is the way to do it, nothing worse than a band going through the motions once the creative spark has died. While I have no idea what direction her solo album will take, I’m confident she’ll come up with something that retains the magic from her years with Mostly Autumn.
Finally I do have to say that a few casual fans (not necessarily on this forum) just don’t understand the sense of loss many of us have felt over the past few days. I’ve read comments ranging from the cluelessly insensitive to the mean-spirited and downright nasty in some places. Makes me appreciate the fact that this forum is moderated.
I appreciate not all readers of this blog really care about an obscure York progressive rock band, but they’ve been a major part of my life over the past few years, and it means a lot to me.
I never heard or saw Mostly Autumn, but I was kind of stunned when my favourite band broke up a few years ago (three years this March), even though all the people in it were still going to be playing music. (The band was the Rheostatics, Canadian rock gods.)
You have my sympathy but I think you’re looking at it in a healthy way.
I’m still smarting from the news Tim.
“the town remains, but it’s not the same anymore”
Yeah, I know. But think how much worse it could have been. The band could have folded without explanation leaving everyone bewildered as to what had happened. Heather could be retiring from music like Angie Gordon appears to have done. Or it could have been a bitter split with fans with feet in both camps getting caught in the crossfire (Been there, done that, got the t-shirt; it’s not pleasant)