Stone Angel News
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Stone Angel - Circle of Leaves
"The most ambitious work so far...." |
Recent News......
The band are currently spending time in the studio working on recording their next album.
The early days of Midwinter and Stone Angel are featured in a new book, Seasons They Change – the story of acid and psychedelic folk by Jeanette Leech. The publisher is Jawbone Press, ISBN 978-1-906002-32-9. Click here to buy it from Amazon.
Please note that the CD from Midwinter - Waters of Sweet Sorrow, is currently unavailable. We are awaiting contact from Kissing Spell. This album may stll be available on Amazon.
Future Dates......
Saturday 2 June 2012 – St Mary's Church, Stalham, 7.30 pm. Part of the Stalham & Happing Festival. More details later.
When there’s magic in the air
A review of Stone Angel’s 35th Anniversary Concert at the Assembly House, Norwich, 14 November 2009
It’s not many bands that are still going concerns after 35 years, even fewer who can claim to be more influential and critically acclaimed now than at any previous point in their history. Yet so it is with Stone Angel. Always, in the best sense of the word, a cottage industry with founder members Ken and Joan Saul at its heart, the band had modest beginnings in 1974 with a debut concert at Great Yarmouth Folk Club and then a self-made album the following year which they sold for £3.00 each at gigs. That original vinyl album now changes hands at hundreds of pounds each, and has been hailed as a classic of ‘acid folk’.
To celebrate their 35th anniversary, Stone Angel chose to mark the occasion with a special concert at Norwich’s prestigious Assembly House. Astonishingly, for this quintessentially Norfolk band, this was the first time Stone Angel had ever played in the city of Norwich. But then Stone Angel’s music has always reflected the big skies and wide open landscapes of broad, fen and coast rather than the urban sprawl. Maybe that’s the secret of their enduring appeal - one that transcends age, background and boundaries, and speaks to us of a strange, gothic, beautiful and sometimes sinister world that is now almost lost to us.
Over the years Stone Angel has acquired a dedicated following that has spread far beyond the county borders of Norfolk – even to South East Asia. And indeed, people had travelled from across the UK and as far away as Austria to be at Norwich’s Assembly House on the 14th of November. Yet, true to the Stone Angel ethos, it felt very much a family affair.
The band performed material from across their 35 year history, with their trademark mixture of mediaeval music, traditional folk song and original songs that fit seamlessly into that tradition, and all underpinned by Geoff Hurrell’s driving bass and Jane Denny’s percussion. The first set included three numbers from their eponymous debut album, The Bells of Dunwich, Black-Sailed Traders and The Skater. The Bells of Dunwich was the first song the band ever performed live, but it has not featured in a live performance since the mid-1970s. Let’s hope it isn’t a one-off reappearance, as the song was one of the highlights of the night.
Another was O Viridissima Virga from the Circle of Leaves album, a piece which amply illustrated just how well the band can weave the modern sound of Dave Felmingham’s keyboards and Andrew Smith’s electric guitars with mediaeval instruments into a unique texture – in this instance to create a backcloth for Joan Saul’s soaring, elegiac vocals. Joan has developed a remarkable depth and power to her singing over the years, to add to its high, pure clarity. And in The Skater, she demonstrated the art of multi-tasking, by singing lead vocal while simultaneously playing the bowed psaltery tucked underneath her chin. The first half closed with The Fourteenth of November, a song which, let’s face it considering the date, would have been impossible not to include.
It has to be said that enjoyment of the first half of the concert was slightly marred by sound problems, particularly to Ken’s microphone. Its effect was that Rise Up John was not the rousing concert opener it otherwise should have been. However, it seemed that almost everyone in the audience knew the lyrics anyway and were singing along to themselves.
One of Stone Angel’s greatest strengths has always been the quality of Ken Saul’s songwriting. However, on their latest CD Circle of Leaves, it is his other half, Joan, who wrote much of the original material. The concert’s second half opener showed just why the band can now boast not one but two exceptional songwriters. Green Ash, which Joan performed unaccompanied, segued into Meeting Hill from the Lonely Waters CD, a number which remains a band favourite.
With Ken’s mike back in full working order, the audience were regaled with some of his legendary song introductions. Famously rambling but always entertaining, his intros get reined in by pithy one-liners from Joan when they threaten to become monologues. She was forced to intervene on more than one occasion and much to the delight of the audience.
Stone Angel performed three as yet unrecorded songs in their second set, Saucy Ward, British Man o’War and The Wind Blows Cold – hinting perhaps at a nautical theme to their next CD which should hopefully see the light of day sometime in 2010. The concert closed with two of the band’s strongest and most emotional numbers. What Will Become of England is Ken’s poignant tribute to the source singers Harry Cox and Sam Larner, and an impassioned call to keep the tradition alive. Then, as an encore, Joan’s The Promise, the final track from Circle of Leaves, a song of promises broken and hope renewed.
Following Stone Angel has always felt a bit like being in on a secret – but after 35 years it seems that quite a few people are at last in on it, and I suspect the word will continue to spread – how about booking the Albert Hall in advance for the 40th anniversary?
- review by Richard Sturman
Links.....
Email: stoneangel@hotmail.co.uk
www.myspace.com/waveneyfolkclub
www.kissingspell.co.uk
www.themillstudio.co.uk
Recent News
The band are currently spending time in the studio working on recording their next album.