Mellow Candle
Encyclopedia
Mellow Candle were a progressive
folk rock
band
. Principally Irish, the members were also unusually young, Clodagh Simonds
being only 15 and Alison Bools
(later O'Donnell) and Maria White 16, and still at school, at the time of their first single
, "Feelin' High", released in 1968 on Simon Napier-Bell
's SNB Records.
By 1972, the lineup had expanded to include Dave Williams on guitar, Frank Boylan on bass, and William Murray
on drums. With this lineup in place, the band released their only album, Swaddling Songs
(Deram Records
), which was commercially unsuccessful at the time. Over the years, however, the lone album by the band has received considerable critical acclaim and original vinyl copies are now very valuable. Boylan was later replaced by Steve Borrill (ex-Spirogyra
), but shortly afterwards the band split up.
, Jade Warrior
, and Mike Oldfield
. Boylan played with Gary Moore
, while Murray contributed to albums by Kevin Ayers
, Amazing Blondel
, Mike Oldfield
, and Paul Kossoff
.
In 1991, "Silver Song" was covered by All About Eve
as a B-side
to some versions of their single, "Farewell Mr. Sorrow
".
1996 saw the release of The Virgin Prophet, a collection of previously unreleased material by the band, including early versions of many of the songs later released on Swaddling Songs. Some of these sessions featured Richard Coughlan
of Caravan
on drums, although his sessions do not feature on The Virgin Prophet.
In 1996, Simonds recorded Six Elementary Songs, released in 1997 on the Tokyo-based Evangel Records.
In 1999, Simonds recorded a version of Syd Barrett
's setting of the James Joyce
poem "Golden Hair" for Russell Mills
' album, Pearl and Umbra. 2006-7 saw the participation of Simonds in a musical project called Fovea Hex, alongside Brian Eno
, Roger Eno
, film composer Carter Burwell
, Andrew McKenzie of the Hafler Trio
,
Steven Wilson
, Colin Potter (of Nurse With Wound
), Robert Fripp
, Percy Jones, and others. The project was favourably reviewed by Pitchfork Media
. Also in 2006, Simonds performed a version of "Idumaea" for Current 93
's album Black Ships Ate The Sky, and a version of "Cockles and Mussels" for Matmos
's EP "For Alan Turing
".
In 2006, O'Donnell was reunited with Dave Williams and Frank Boylan on the album Mise Agus Ise. She followed this with the 2008 EP The Fabric of Folk on Static Caravan (a collaboration with English folk/rock band The Owl Service), and her debut solo album, Hey Hey Hippy Witch, released at the end of 2009 on Floating World.
Progressive folk music
Progressive folk or prog folk was originally a type of American folk music that pursued a progressive political agenda, but in the United Kingdom the term became attached to a sub-genre that rejects or de-emphasizes the conventions of traditional folk music and encourages stylistic or thematic...
folk rock
Folk rock
Folk rock is a musical genre combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...
band
Band (music)
In music, a musical ensemble or band is a group of musicians that works together to perform music. The following articles concern types of musical bands:* All-female band* Big band* Boy band* Christian band* Church band* Concert band* Cover band...
. Principally Irish, the members were also unusually young, Clodagh Simonds
Clodagh Simonds
Clodagh Simonds Clodagh; , is an Irish musician, songwriter and singer. She was born in Banbridge, Co. Down, Northern Ireland, UK and raised and educated in Killiney, Co...
being only 15 and Alison Bools
Alison O'Donnell
Alison O'Donnell is an Irish musician, solo and band singer and songwriter. Born Alison Bools in Dublin to an English mother and Irish father, raised in Dalkey and educated at Holy Child, Killiney, County Dublin.-Childhood:...
(later O'Donnell) and Maria White 16, and still at school, at the time of their first single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
, "Feelin' High", released in 1968 on Simon Napier-Bell
Simon Napier-Bell
Simon Napier-Bell has undertaken many jobs in the music industry, including bandboy, manager, producer, songwriter, journalist and author and gourmet...
's SNB Records.
By 1972, the lineup had expanded to include Dave Williams on guitar, Frank Boylan on bass, and William Murray
William Murray (musician)
William Murray was a drummer and photographer from Glasgow, Scotland.- Career :As a drummer in the early 1970s Murray played with acts including Richard and Linda Thompson's 'Sour Grapes' band and Irish progressive folk band Mellow Candle...
on drums. With this lineup in place, the band released their only album, Swaddling Songs
Swaddling Songs
Swaddling Songs is the only studio album released by Irish progressive folk band Mellow Candle.-Track listing:#"Heaven Heath" – 3:00#"Sheep Season" – 5:01#"Silversong" – 4:26...
(Deram Records
Deram Records
Deram Records was a subsidiary record label established in 1966 by Decca Records in the United Kingdom. At this time U.K. Decca was a completely different company than the Decca label in the United States, which was then owned by MCA Inc. Deram recordings were also distributed in the U.S. through...
), which was commercially unsuccessful at the time. Over the years, however, the lone album by the band has received considerable critical acclaim and original vinyl copies are now very valuable. Boylan was later replaced by Steve Borrill (ex-Spirogyra
Spirogyra (band)
This article refers to the British folk band. For the American jazz fusion band, see Spyro Gyra.Spirogyra are a British folk/prog band that recorded three albums between 1971 and 1973, with further original albums in 2009 and 2011.-History:...
), but shortly afterwards the band split up.
After Mellow Candle
After the band's dissolution, Simonds worked with Thin LizzyThin Lizzy
Thin Lizzy are an Irish hard rock band formed in Dublin in 1969. Two of the founding members, drummer Brian Downey and bass guitarist/vocalist Phil Lynott met while still in school. Lynott assumed the role of frontman and led them throughout their recording career of thirteen studio albums...
, Jade Warrior
Jade Warrior (band)
Jade Warrior are a British group that were formed in 1970, originally evolving out of a band named July. The founding members were Tony Duhig , Jon Field and Glyn Havard...
, and Mike Oldfield
Mike Oldfield
Michael Gordon Oldfield is an English multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, working a style that blends progressive rock, folk, ethnic or world music, classical music, electronic music, New Age, and more recently, dance. His music is often elaborate and complex in nature...
. Boylan played with Gary Moore
Gary Moore
Robert William Gary Moore , better known simply as Gary Moore, was a Northern Irish musician from Belfast, best recognised as a blues rock guitarist and singer....
, while Murray contributed to albums by Kevin Ayers
Kevin Ayers
Kevin Ayers is an English singer-songwriter and was a major influential force in the English psychedelic movement...
, Amazing Blondel
Amazing Blondel
Amazing Blondel are an English acoustic progressive folk band, consisting of Eddie Baird, John Gladwin, and Terry Wincott. They released a number of LPs for Island Records in the early 1970s...
, Mike Oldfield
Mike Oldfield
Michael Gordon Oldfield is an English multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, working a style that blends progressive rock, folk, ethnic or world music, classical music, electronic music, New Age, and more recently, dance. His music is often elaborate and complex in nature...
, and Paul Kossoff
Paul Kossoff
Paul Francis Kossoff was an English rock guitarist best known as a member of the band Free.Kossoff was ranked 51st in Rolling Stone magazine list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" -Early days:...
.
In 1991, "Silver Song" was covered by All About Eve
All About Eve (band)
All About Eve were a British rock/pop band. The creative core consisted of the Coventry born Julianne Regan , and the Huddersfield born Andy Cousin , with other members changing over the years...
as a B-side
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...
to some versions of their single, "Farewell Mr. Sorrow
Touched by Jesus
Touched by Jesus is the third studio album by All About Eve. It was the first album to feature Church guitarist Marty Willson-Piper on guitars. Despite this, the album fell short of the commercial achievements of both the first album and Scarlet and Other Stories only reaching No. 17 in the UK charts...
".
1996 saw the release of The Virgin Prophet, a collection of previously unreleased material by the band, including early versions of many of the songs later released on Swaddling Songs. Some of these sessions featured Richard Coughlan
Richard Coughlan
Richard Coughlan is an English musician, best known as the drummer and percussionist of the Canterbury scene progressive rock band Caravan. He was one of the founding members of Caravan in 1968 and has remained with the band for its over 35-year existence...
of Caravan
Caravan (band)
Caravan are an English band from the Canterbury area, founded by former Wilde Flowers members David Sinclair, Richard Sinclair, Pye Hastings and Richard Coughlan. Caravan rose to success over a period of several years from 1968 onwards into the 1970s as part of the Canterbury scene, blending...
on drums, although his sessions do not feature on The Virgin Prophet.
In 1996, Simonds recorded Six Elementary Songs, released in 1997 on the Tokyo-based Evangel Records.
In 1999, Simonds recorded a version of Syd Barrett
Syd Barrett
Syd Barrett , born Roger Keith Barrett, was an English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and painter, best remembered as a founding member of the band Pink Floyd. He was the lead vocalist, guitarist and primary songwriter during the band's psychedelic years, providing major musical and stylistic...
's setting of the James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
poem "Golden Hair" for Russell Mills
Russell Mills
Russell Mills is a British artist who was born in Ripon, Yorkshire, UK in 1952. He paints, creates multimedia installations, designs stage sets and lighting and has produced record covers and book covers for Brian Eno, the Cocteau Twins,Michael Nyman, David Sylvian, Peter Gabriel, and Nine Inch...
' album, Pearl and Umbra. 2006-7 saw the participation of Simonds in a musical project called Fovea Hex, alongside Brian Eno
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
, Roger Eno
Roger Eno
Roger Eugene Eno was born in Woodbridge, England in 1959. He is known primarily as an ambient composer.He began euphonium lessons at twelve and at sixteen entered Colchester College to study music...
, film composer Carter Burwell
Carter Burwell
Carter Benedict Burwell is an American composer of film scores.-Life and career:Burwell was born in New York City, the son of Natalie , a math teacher, and Charles Burwell, who founded Thaibok Fabrics, Ltd...
, Andrew McKenzie of the Hafler Trio
Hafler Trio
The Hafler Trio is a conceptual and sound art collaborative between Andrew M. McKenzie, the only permanent member, and guest musicians. The project has seen the release of numerous albums and CDs in experimental musical styles ranging from electronica, cut-up, ambient, environmental soundscape,...
,
Steven Wilson
Steven Wilson
Steven John Wilson is an English musician, best known as the founder, lead guitarist, singer and songwriter of progressive rock band Porcupine Tree...
, Colin Potter (of Nurse With Wound
Nurse with Wound
Nurse with Wound is the main recording name for British musician Steven Stapleton. Nurse with Wound was originally a band, formed in 1978 by Stapleton, John Fothergill and Heman Pathak...
), Robert Fripp
Robert Fripp
Robert Fripp is an English guitarist, composer and record producer. He was ranked 42nd on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and #47 on Gibson.com’s "Top 50 Guitarists of All Time". Among rock guitarists, Fripp is a master of crosspicking, a technique...
, Percy Jones, and others. The project was favourably reviewed by Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
. Also in 2006, Simonds performed a version of "Idumaea" for Current 93
Current 93
Current 93 is an eclectic British experimental music group, working since the early 1980s in folk-based musical forms. The band was founded in 1982 by David Tibet .-Background:Tibet has been the only constant in the group, though Steven Stapleton has appeared on...
's album Black Ships Ate The Sky, and a version of "Cockles and Mussels" for Matmos
Matmos
Matmos is an experimental electronic music duo originally from San Francisco but now residing in Baltimore signed to the Matador Records label. M. C. Schmidt and Drew Daniel are the core members, but they frequently include other artists on their records and in their performances, including...
's EP "For Alan Turing
Alan Turing
Alan Mathison Turing, OBE, FRS , was an English mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, and computer scientist. He was highly influential in the development of computer science, providing a formalisation of the concepts of "algorithm" and "computation" with the Turing machine, which played a...
".
In 2006, O'Donnell was reunited with Dave Williams and Frank Boylan on the album Mise Agus Ise. She followed this with the 2008 EP The Fabric of Folk on Static Caravan (a collaboration with English folk/rock band The Owl Service), and her debut solo album, Hey Hey Hippy Witch, released at the end of 2009 on Floating World.