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Clodagh Simonds' collective, Fovea Hex has released a series of 3 EPs and is working on collaborations and a new album. Fovea Hex.
Fovea Hex's MySpace page is here.
Alison O'Donnell released an album entitled, Mise Agus Ise in 2006, and is currently working on an album with Greg Weeks, a solo album with a host of collaborators, and Static Caravan has recently released her EP, The Fabric of Folk with The Owl Service. A vinyl double A-side single for Fruits de Mer (Frozen Warnings/Day is Done) is due in November 08. She has a website.
Her MySpace page is here.
Galactic Ramble edited by Richard Morton Jack, Foxcote Books 2009. Extract of review by Charles Spencer in The Daily Telegraph, June 29 2009. "Galactic Ramble" is an epic tome that bills itself as the most comprehensive guide ever published to British pop, rock, folk and jazz albums issued between 1963 and 1973. Such a description seems like modest understatement. ... this endlessly fascinating work features some 3,000 albums, both famous and fabulously obscure. Better yet, it combines contemporaneous reviews with present-day assessments by a group of 10 contributors who are all experts in their field. ... and Mellow Candle, whose Swaddling Songs is a folk-rock masterpiece recorded by two Irish convent girls and one of the jewels of my collection.
December 08 Record Collector. The 200 Rarest Albums of All Time! (Between Pet Shop Boys 'Introspective' and Led Zeppelin's debut album, at Number 47 is 'Swaddling Songs' (Deram SDL 7 1972 £800). One of the fascinating facts about Mellow Candle is that they recorded a pop single for Simon Napier Bell's short-lived SNB label in 1968. At this time the band was a trio of Clodagh Smonds, Alison Williams and Maria White, so they qualify as an obscure, highly collectable 60s girl group. By 1970 - with White gone - there was a band behind them and they began touring with fellow irish bands like Thin Lizzy. A deal was secured with Deram and this, their sole album, was recorded. It is, of course, now hailed as an (Irish) folk-rock classic. Songs like Reverend Sisters, about Simonds' time in a nunnery and the harrowing Messenger Birds may have dealt with uncomfortable themes. Receiving mixed reviews, it sold poorly on release at that time despite Deram issuing a single Dan the Wing/Silversong (SDL 7, £45). Recently reissued by Cherry Red's Esoteric label.
The December 2006 issue of MOJO featured a special editorial showcasing the top 50 genre-bending folk albums of all time. “Folk rock at its most acidic and velvety. The highpoints of “Swaddling Songs” are amongst the most spine-tingling performances from anyone, ever. Given that they were on a major, this makes Mellow Candle's obscurity even more baffling. Irish duo Clodagh Simonds and Alison Williams' soaring harmonies on Sheep Season are backed by a full band and woodwinds, chasing back the centuries, creating something quite magical.”
The April 2007 issue of Record Collector listed the top 100 progressive rock rarities, complete with star ratings for quality and importance. Only 15 of the 100 gained five stars, including Mellow Candle. ”An extraordinary record and a folk-prog masterpiece, lead female singers Clodagh Simonds and Alison O’Donnell harmonise beautifully over dynamic, piano-led arrangements. They hailed from Dublin and were soon picked up by Skid Row and Thin Lizzy manager Ted Carroll (later head of Ace Records). Clodagh had sung backing vocals on Lizzy’s second album, “Shades of a Blue Orphanage”. Sadly, Mellow Candle’s only album died a death upon release.”
The Wire August 2007. "The inconvenient truth remains that singer-songwriters such as Nick Drake, John Martyn, Sandy Denny and Richard Thompson are writing out of their own individual experience, and groups like Mellow Candle, Comus and Incredible String Band were creating entirely new work, which is the diametric opposite of the idea of folk music as the natural cumulative expression of a people. The passage of time has dimmed these distinctions and we now lazily refer to all of it as 'folk': folk rock, acid folk, free folk, freak folk, wyrd folk, etc. For the expedience of this article, the term 'British psychedelic folk' best captures the frictions between conservation and progression, pastoral and metropolitan, acoustics and electricity, homespun and visionary, that define and invigorate this fertile decade of music in Avalon." ..."Mellow Candle formed part of a fertile Dublin folk rock scene including Horslips, Tir Na Nog, and The Woods Band, but their music sounds the least 'Celtic' of all their contemporaries. Singers and former convent girls Clodagh Simonds and Alison Williams wrote most of the material, and the Gothic rural landscape of Swaddling Songs has made it an iconic record to the current folk revival (a current London club is named after it). Its magic takes time to work: one suspects the live power of this group was dispelled in the studio, but the piano and rock group format ensure the songs meander unpredictably like sheep tracks on a windblown heath, and rock hard, as on "The Poet and The Witch", "Break Your Token" and "Lonely Man". Simonds' songs, especially, are riven with crepuscular pagan atmosphere, birds of ill-omen, fabular creatures, coffins and crows. For Mellow Candle, the wilderness offers an enchanted antidote to the crushing enervation of city life: the sole line of the last track read: "I know the Dublin pavements will be boulders on my grave."
Uncut May 2008 (Esoteric reissue)
***** Stunning folk-rock rarity
Back in 1963, Irish convent schoolgirls Clodagh Simonds and Alison O'Donnell began singing together, even recording a single for Simon Napier Bell in 1967. A five-piece band when Swaddling Songs emerged on Deram in 1972, rarely does an album tread so expertly between psych, gothic folk and progressive rock. The girls' vocal harmonies are exquisite, their songs have the mystical quality of the Incredible String Band and the band is as electrifying as Unhalfbricking-era Fairport or Trees, though without a trad song on show. "The Poet and the Witch", once covered by Stephen Malkmus, is astonishing - combining musical dexterity, dark lyrics and thrilling vocals. Mick Houghton
Mellow Candle recorded their first single while still at school, when Clodagh Simonds was just 15 and Alison Williams (now O’Donnell) 16 years old. The girls, together with third original member, Maria White, recorded the single, “Feelin’ High” for Simon Napier Bell’s SNB label in London. Despite being distributed by CBS, the track failed to create much impact and the SNB label disappeared. Having left school, Alison teamed up with Dave Williams, a Trinity College student, in a gig band called Blue Tint. Dave had also played with Tina and the Mexicans, and briefly with Curved Air. After a spell in Italy, Clodagh joined them, and together with bass player Pat Morris, they began their performing career. They made their live debut at Liberty Hall supporting The Chieftains. In 1971 they signed to Deram, and recorded the demos which many years later appeared packaged as “The Virgin Prophet”, before recording their sole album “Swaddling Songs” at Decca’s Tollington Park studio with new bassist, Frank Boylan, formerly of The Creatures, and Glaswegian drummer, William Murray, who had worked with Kevin Ayers. The band relocated to London shortly afterwards, where they struggled to make a living despite appearances in Ireland and the UK supporting artists such as Genesis, Thin Lizzy, Donovan, The Chieftains, Steeleye Span, Andy Irvine and Donal Lunny. The album, released in 1972, did not fare well. There was little promotion by the record company and Ted Carroll’s considerable efforts to gain work were hampered by the fact that the band was deemed too esoteric and non-mainstream for many promoters and agents. Disillusioned and dispirited, the group persevered for a while but they were unable to avoid the inevitable break-up in 1973. Thanks to an underground cult following in the late eighties and early nineties, and the unflagging efforts of a number of respected journalists, most notably John O’Regan and Colin Harper, the flame was re-ignited. A string of low-key reissues followed, collecting new fans and critical acclaim along the way.
Ted Carroll became a full-time record collector, setting up the legendary Rock On shop in Camden. He later formed the companies Chiswick and Ace. He continues to take an active interest in many of the artists he nurtured over the decades, Mellow Candle included. Clodagh Simonds remained in London for a time, working in music publishing and doing session work for Thin Lizzy, Mike Oldfield, and Jade Warrior. William Murray drummed with both Sandy Denny and Richard and Linda Thompson before he and Clodagh moved to America, where both worked for a while for Virgin Records’ NY office. They then formed The Same with Stephen Bray, whose lineup included Carter Burwell and ex-Lydia Lunch bass player Stan Adler, playing at CBGBs and The Mudd Club regularly. Though short-lived, the band attracted something of a cult following, with Andy Warhol among their fans. Murray went on to forge a successful career as a fashion photographer in New York and Dallas, before moving to Dublin in 1998, where, sadly, he died at the age of 48 from pancreatic illness. In 1986 Clodagh had moved from New York back to London, and subsequently back to Ireland in 1992. A mini-cd “Six Elementary Songs” was released in Japan in 1997 on the Evangel label, marking her return to full-time engagement with music. Now living in Dublin, she is working under the name Fovea Hex, and has released a trilogy of eps with German label Die Stadt, and sung with Current 93, Matmos, and Underworld. Frank Boylan played for a time with the Gary Moore Band, and is currently working with Cover Story and reformed beat group The Creatures. Aside from playing music, his main interests lie in computing and sound. Nothing is known of the whereabouts of the band’s innovative original bassist, Pat Morris. Alison O’Donnell and Dave Williams headed off to South Africa where they formed traditional/contemporary folk group Flibbertigibbet, releasing an album entitled Whistling Jigs to the Moon in 1978. Dave became a music producer and head of light music with the South African Broadcasting Corporation in Cape Town. He has also worked with young producers and musicians, most notably writing, playing and producing the MP3 hit Sheriff Bush and Deputy Blair by the Nukular Stompers. He plays fiddle, mandolin, and electric guitar and contributes vocals to contemporary folk band Shanty. In Johannesburg, Alison gained experience as a session singer for local singer songwriters and bands, most notably with Terry Dempsey’s (Daydreamer) Plastik Mak, Ellamental, and in advertising, theatre and cabaret. She returned to London in 1986 and spent some years in public sector administration before relocating to Brussels in 1997. Together with Flemish guitarist Philip Masure, she set up the traditional and contemporary band Éishtlinn, releasing the album éist linn in 2001 (Kissing Spell). She also worked as a voice coach before returning to live in Dublin where she sings and plays bodhran in sessions and gigs, and is a member of a number of traditional singing clubs. Alison is also a guest member of United Bible Studies and The Owl Service. She has written a book about her grandmother who was also a singer, both of them featuring in a BBC documentary, and recorded a cross-genre album of original music with Isabel Ní Chuireáin entitled Mise agus Ise (myself & herself, Osmosys 2006). Currently recording a number of ongoing projects with musicians in Britain, America and South Africa (The Owl Service, Michael Tyack and Will Summers of Circulus, Agitated Radio Pilot, United Bible Studies, Colin Harper, Greg Weeks, Mr Pine, Head South by Weaving & Syd Kitchen & Mike Dickman).
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