Gig reviews 
 
Mostly Autumn Spring Tour 2007

29th June 
Drill Hall, Lincoln

30th June 
The Met, Bury 

First Set: Fading Colours, Dark Before The Dawn, Caught In A Fold, Science And Machinery, The Last Climb, Spirit Of Autumn Past, Silver Glass, Evergreen.

Second Set: Close My Eyes, Broken Glass, Pocket Watch, Never The Rainbow, Further From Home, Dreaming, Carpe Diem.

Encores: Broken, Heroes Never Die.

A healthy turn-out travelled to Lincoln (and it seemed at least half of the crowd shipped across the hills to Bury the next night) for the last two dates on the annual MA spring tour and they were rewarded with two cracking shows.
These shows marked the last for drummer Gavin Griffiths, who joins Fish for his album and tour for the next few months, and this entire tour has been notable for the his solid work on the skins. Gavin brought a lot of experience to the stage and with the band taking a hiatus from touring for the next few months the general hope is that Gavin will be able to return when the band commence touring again. By the time you read this Gav will be well into the work with Fish and we all wish him and Chris Johnston, who is also joining that tour, all the best for that.
In a weekend of goodbyes this also marked the last touring date (there is one more show to play) for a while for Angela. The wonderful news of her and husband Mark expecting their first baby that was announced during this tour means she will be replaced temporarily for any winter dates. I have heard who the replacement is likely to be but that is an announcement for the band to make and again by the time you read this that may have happened.
The set has not changed much throughout these spring dates promoting Heart Full Of Sky and it drew heavily from that album with a good few classic “oldies” thrown in to please more long time fans who have given HFOS a bit of a mixed reaction.
I still like it and Fading Colours, Further From Home and Dreaming which in my opinion is really brilliant are becoming staples of the live set and they are likely to remain so for some time. That can also be said about Silver Glass and Science And Machinery, which allows Chris to take centre stage and he is performing better every time I see the band. Particularly as the dates I was able to see on this tour were weeks apart.
Heather’s performance at both these shows and Hull a few weeks ago was especially good, arguably the best I have seen her in some time, showing all of her range and bringing the power and emotion to the songs that gives them that touch of magic that we all love about this music.
We have become used to this kind of show in these venues and have been here for some time now, what is our hope is that MA can take this to the larger venue and bigger stage later in the year and beyond. Paul Turner 

MA at Murrayfield & Breathing Space reviews