Return To Cropredy Reviews

Recorded at the band’s enthusiastically-received Cropredy Festival set in 2023, it is astonishing to reflect that the release of this album marks forty years since the band’s debut album Silent Dance appeared in 1984 – by which time they were already a fixture of the burgeoning neo-prog scene, and seasoned veterans of the venerable Marquee venue in particular. Nowadays only guitarist Andy Glass remains from that first Solstice sunrise four decades ago, but it scarcely seems to matter as the ethos and values of the band have remained true to the Solstice vision throughout all of that time, through splits and reunions, peaks and troughs of popularity and shifting band line-ups – a testament in particular not just to Andy’s own strength of belief, but also his innate ability to find the right people at the right time to take part in that particular leg of the journey. This particular configuration, it has to be said, are among the finest he has assembled, certainly based on the evidence of this storming set. Since first encountering the band live at a show in 1982 or 83 (my mind becomes hazy on the exact date!), I have seen shows which have been triumphant and others which have been less focused, but I have never to this day seen what you could describe as a bad one. At that first show over 40 years ago, they were still fronted by Sandy Leigh on vocals, and I remember them playing a new song which I had to ask the title of as it was such a highlight. The track in question was at the time titled Guardian Of My Soul, and would not appear on record for another decade until it finally emerged in 1993 on the New Life album, under the truncated name of Guardian. Excitingly, that superb piece of music is still here today – but more of that in a moment. Let’s take a look first at what exactly made Solstice stand out from the neo-prog crowd back in those heady days, and indeed still does.

Jess Holland in commanding formIt is probably fair to say that what is still thought of as the stereotypical ‘neo-prog’ sound (or the ‘New Wave Of British Progressive Rock’ as we briefly knew it!) takes a lot from Genesis, and also to an extent the very polite and ‘English’ Canterbury sub-genre, with bands such as Caravan, Camel and National Health. Wordy and literate lyrical tracts abounded, drawing on folklore and classical literature, while keyboard-driven and angular musical passages were often to be found in the early work of the likes of Marillion, Pendragon, IQ, Pallas and Twelfth Night. Solstice, however, were different. For one thing, they always exuded a marvellously home-spun hippy-communal vibe which made their gigs a celebration from day one. Neil from The Young Ones would have loved Solstice – in a good way! More importantly, musically they drew more from Steve Hillage and to an extent Yes, with wholesale time changes and meandering compositions replaced more with an ever-present sense of groove, with a slight funky undertone from the bass and guitar which mirrored Steve Hillage’s fusion of ‘hippy-funk’ on albums like Motivation Radio and Green to a ‘T’, The propulsive edge of Yes, with Chris Squire’s visionary basslines and Steve Howe’s entirely atypical prog-rock guitar work is also still to be found snaking through Solstice’s material today – when they get into a ten minute track, it is far more likely to evoke Siberian Khatru or All Good People than it is Dancing With The Moonlit Knight or Supper’s Ready. All of this gave, and still gives Solstice a quality apart from most of their perceived contemporaries, which attracted me then and still does today. Their constant use of female lead vocals was also unusual in the neo-prog ’80s, and while many contemporary prog bands have taken that route brilliantly in the last 25 years or so, back then it was another thing setting them apart, placing Renaissance in their list of musical touchstones. The current band has also benefitted from the Celtic influence of Jenny Newman’s violin, which gives things just a twist of Horslips at times which is a perfect seasoning.

Guardian … can rarely have been played better: utterly belying its origins back in those very early ’80s days when the band (and audience!) were young and possibilities stretched before us like a sun-drenched highway. It is delivered with verve, passion and precision…

Back to this current album, which bears the name Return To Cropredy for a significant reason: 25 years earlier, in the late 1990s, the band had played the Cropredy festival just at a time when they were getting back into such large scale shows, and they had planned to release a live album commemorating the event. Sadly, the sound gremlins which can afflict such events were out in such force that the plan had to be abandoned. Not to be defeated, they reconvened to the studio and recreated the exact set ‘as live’ for the release The Cropredy Set, but it wasn’t quite the same. Now, they have indeed Returned To Cropredy, and in some style – as this is a beautifully played and recorded set from beginning to end, exactly as they would have wished that first visit to be a quarter of a century earlier. Better, assuredly, late than never! The general atmosphere of the show is celebratory, with the extra energy a festival crowd who are up for a good time and a day out can generate, and the band clearly feed off this. Opening with a lengthy run through Shout from the Sia album, the eight-song, 65-minute set covers a pleasing mix of the old and the new. With the most recent album, Light Up, having garnered much praise, it would have been easy, and very tempting, to lean heavily on that – but in fact only two of the tracks are provided by that record, the energetic and sprightly Mount Ephraim and an absolutely definitive version of the Light Up closer and highlight Bulbul Tarang. Two tracks come from Sia (an excellent A New Day being the other selection), and there is even a preview of a song earmarked for the upcoming new studio album – the band are in such a creatively fertile patch at the moment that it is a quite astonishing late-period renaissance for them, which is reflected justifiably in public and press interest. This new track, Firefly, certainly whets the appetite for the album, being an uplifting and melodically strong keyboard-driven piece which fits into the set like the proverbial glove.

Andy Glass, cutting looseHappily, there is also room for a three-song dive back into Solstice Past, with the closing Sacred Run dating from 1997’s Circles, and two of the finest tracks here coming from the New Life record of four years before that. One of these is the aforementioned Guardian, which can rarely have been played better: utterly belying its origins back in those very early ’80s days when the band (and audience!) were young and possibilities stretched before us like a sun-drenched highway. It is delivered with verve, passion and precision, and the unsuspecting listener would have no clue that it is not something dating from the same modern crucible as those more recent highlights. A track which has belatedly found its true place as a Solstice benchmark, and long may it be so. The other track from that album is a sublime rendition of Morning Light, which has the added bonus of featuring ex-Jethro Tull (and also, more briefly, ex-Solstice) drummer Clive Bunker playing on it. At just under four minutes this may be the shortest song in the set, but it is an example of four perfectly constructed minutes with barely a second wasted. It’s marvellous stuff which sees a band once again so in tune with their past as well as present that they can tackle this older material without even seeing the join.

This album was first released in a limited double vinyl format, though it can now be obtained as a CD/DVD set, giving the great bonus of a filmed performance as well as a documentary about the band. A word must still go to the vinyl edition however, which is a beautifully put together release. Pressed in translucent orange vinyl, evoking the ‘sunrise’ element of the band name, it is an old-school, heavyweight vinyl gatefold spread work which brings back those halcyon days of opening up the vinyl packaging on an album back in the 1970s, while the vinyl spun on the turntable for the first time. The pressing was very limited, but the small amount of remaining stock has been held back to be sold at Solstice shows in the new year – so if you can possibly make it to a Solstice 2025 show, you may just find one of these beauties still calling to you from the merchandise desk!

All in all, this absolutely confirms a band at the peak of their powers. They have featured some excellent singers in their time, but current lead vocalist Jess Holland complements this with exuding an air of joyful enthusiasm which is palpable. Solstice – a veteran band as good as they have ever been? On this evidence, they just might be…