Spirit
David Meadows - 20 April 2025
I learned two things tonight. First, that I can't clap in 7/4 time. Second, that Solstice are an astonishingly good live band.
I don't remember Solstice from when they started out in the 80s. I don't even remember the name. They must have completely passed me by. So I haven't spent the last 40 years saying, "Whatever happened to Solstice?" They came to my attention completely by chance just four years ago when I read a review of Sia, the album recorded during lockdown after recruiting new singer Jess Holland, the album that seems to have reinvigorated the band's career. It was a period when I was buying a ridiculous amount of albums. Denied live music for far too long, I was looking for anything that might satisfy me musically. I bought Sia based on a single review, without having heard a single note. Whoever the reviewer did a great job of selling the band. Though, honestly, I think they had me as soon as they said "violin". And when I heard the album, I realised that this could be my next favourite band. I just needed to hear them live to be sure.
Four years and two further albums later, I had yet to see Solstice live. There's always been some reason to skip their gigs, whether it's travel distance, or bad timing, or whatever, I was starting to think I would never see them. Until this gig, when suddenly everything worked, and I'm here for an early start in the basement of The Dome (the venue is literally called "Downstairs at The Dome"), a small room that fills comfortably with what are clearly hardcore fans of the band. The room is great, the sound is great, the lights are amazing for such a small venue. The only thing I would say is that this eight-piece band needs a much larger stage to move about on.
Support is supplied by Ebony Buckle (who will also be a backing vocalist for Solstice's set) and Nick Burns. I already know her music, but it's a revelation hearing it performed live in this format. The duo vocal arrangements are magnificent, and there's no sense that the music has been at all "stripped back" to just two instruments (keyboard and guitar). If anything, it's massively more powerful in this format than in the album arrangements.
When Solstice take the stage after a very short changeover I am ... "underwhelmed", is perhaps the best word here. Maybe it's because I have built up my expectations so massively, or maybe it's because I've just come from a stunning afternoon gig by one of my absolute favourite bands, giving Solstice a lot to live up to. But for the first song and a half, I'm just not clicking with it. The band play flawlessly, and with great passion and energy, but I'm not feeling it like I should. Then they get to the slow middle passage of Shout, and the four female vocalists deliver breathtaking harmonies over beautiful but restrained instrumental solos ... and it goes ... click ... this is the best thing I've ever heard. (Coincidentally, or maybe not, it was the exact same moment in Sia that convinced me this was a band to pay attention to.)
From that moment, I was completely lost in the gig, which just got better and better with each new song. Almost every song is drawn from their last three albums, with only couple of older things which I don't recognise.
Every member of the band is on fire. Drums, bass, keyboards, all get their moments to shine within the sprawling and complex song arrangements, all of them standing out loudly and clearly in in the room's excellent sound mix. Andy Glass, a guitarist who deserves much wider recognition, rolls from one melodic solo to another, and is matched solo-for-solo by Jenny Newman's violin—and honestly, it's this which makes Solstice stand out from the glut of modern melodic prog bands around at the moment.
But the show is stolen by the wealth of vocalists on stage: five of them (including Andy and Jenny), with Jess Holland taking the bulk of lead vocals but the two backing singers each getting a song of their own to show that they're far more than "just" backing singers. The potential of all these voices is fully explored and exploited, and it's beautiful.
And there's so much energy on the stage. Everyone is bouncing around as much as the cramped space allows, and it's mirrored in the crowd, where I see 60-year-old men partying like it's still 1985. I'm exhausted, and I don't dance!
Andy Glass handles most of the between-song chat, with the easy demeanour of a man talking to a room full of friends, and an obvious joy in what he's doing. He knows he's got the crowd in the palm of his hand, but there's no rock-star arrogance about him, just humble thanks and an obvious feeling of pride in his band, an incredulity that there are actually young people here to listen to this unrepentantly unfashionable music, and a well-deserved happiness in being in this position after 40 years. You hear him speak, and you watch the happiness of the whole band, and you can't help but love them.
I can't believe I wasted the last four years without seeing this band live. But I'll make up for it now, as often as I possibly can.
My new favourite band. That's all.
By Geoff Baillie, 31 March 2025
Around this time two years ago, the Solstice album Light Up came on to my radar. The album had already been in circulation for a while, and I was certainly familiar with the band name, who at that point, in my head, were a neo-prog / early Marillion style band who didn’t quite make it. I was wrong in pretty much every respect there and the Light Up album really grabbed me, ending up being one of my Albums of the Year. Light Up was the second in the trilogy of albums that the newly reconfigured band had released, and now we have Clann. Whether it’s albums, books or movies, the “third one in the trilogy” can be a dangerous place to occupy, so let’s see about Clann…
The great news is that the band line up who brought us the previous two albums is back, and the opening track “Firefly” kicks off with some studio chatter before kicking in with a shimmering keyboard riff, with all the band in full flow. It’s one of those tracks where, even if you’ve not heard the previous two albums, will give you a taste of the Solstice sound – and by that I mean that Solstice’s particular combination of styles has strong elements of rock (in Andy Glass’s fantastic solo towards the end of the song and his choppy, funky rhythm lines earlier), folk (in Jenny Newman’s violin playing), prog with a jazzy aspect (in the rhythms provided by Peter Helmsley, the intricate and supportive bass playing of Robin Phillips and the keyboard inversions and leads of Steven McDaniel) and, dare I say it, pop (in the strong female vocals and harmonies of Jess Holland, Ebony Buckle and Duane Crutcher, the latter a new addition to the band). The chorus refrain even has the ladies singing “Light up, light up” referencing the album that came before!
The next track, “Life,” starts with a poppy/ lounge type feel but, as is the case with many Solstice tracks, the mood shifts to a more mellow acoustic section, crowned by some great electric guitar work. The style shifts are very organic and completely flow with the music, so you’re never quite sure where it’s gonna go next… and the answer is… funk! Hammond and horns, with a funky guitar usher in “Plunk” which is up next. Andy Glass conjures almost Steve Vai sounds and styles in the solo here, and the whole track has the feel of a female-led Chicago! The playing here certainly justifies the 2024 End of Year poll plaudits that Andy received.
I can’t be sure but I am guessing that “Frippa” which follows is so-named on account of the guitar line which sounds very much like a Discipline-time Fripp/ Belew style… except very much done in the Solstice way – this is a very cool track especially when the violin joins on the main riff.
“Save the best ’til last” they say… well in terms of bringing the trilogy of albums to a close, “Twin Peaks” does just that. At almost 14 minutes long, the plaintive violin and electric guitar intro, with Jess’s voice is light and beautiful. The build is slow but the gradually rising instrumentation and the “Come away/ run away” vocals lead us to an explosion of a guitar solo that leaves you wondering, where do we go from here? Unexpectedly, a burbling synth/ arpeggiator melody starts to pass from speaker to speaker as Jess improvises. The vocals start to build as the rhythm section join, before a brief pause, when the band returns to the melodies from the start of the song, bookending this great piece. This is surely in the running for Epic of the Year in 2025!
A bonus track closes the album off, taking us back to the very beginnings of the band, with a new version of Earthsong which appeared on their first album, 1984’s Silent Dance. Newest band member Ebony Buckle takes the lead vocal on this version. It’s a mellow ending to this album, and a nice bonus addition.
With Clann, Solstice doesn’t just complete a trilogy—they elevate it. This is a band that has honed its craft, embraced its evolution, and delivered an album that feels both like a culmination and a new beginning. From the dazzling intricacies of Firefly to the epic grandeur of Twin Peaks, Clann proves that Solstice is a band at the peak of its powers. If this is where the journey so far has led them, the real question is: where will they take us next?
Scot Lade : April 1 2025
March 31 2025
Our thanks to Nathan on Shuffle fort his wonderful review!