This is our world, we made it/These are our hands, these are our dreams

Saturday 23 February – is there a force in the Universe strong enough to drag me away from watching England who were 0-10 up against the French in the Six Nations? Well, apparently there is, and that force is Breathing Space (also available at MyFace). Despite turning up early, the venue was already heaving, and even our own ranks had been swelled to a record turnout of six people.

After a few warmup checks; the lights dimmed, the smoke machine cranked into life, and ambient keyboard noises started floating through the room. The gig had started and it soon became apparent that if we were to see any more than the tops of people’s heads, we would have to move closer to the action. And so we elbowed our way to the front of the area where the band were playing. Now I’ve heard snatches of their tracks but this was a full-on treat of songs from both their first album, Iain Jennings’ Breathing Space, and the second, Breathing Space’s Coming Up For Air. Breathing Space started life as a solo album project by Iain Jennings, ex-keyboard player and co-songwriter with Mostly Autumn that initially used some of his Mostly Mates before putting together his own touring band and retaining Mostly’s backing singer Olivia Sparnenn (Livvy)as vocalist.

Not the usual pub rock fare, BS delivered a blistering set of amibient/prog rock, and with the addition of John Hart on saxophone (If “A” is reading this that’s a woodwind instrument even though it’s made of brass) and Yamaha WX7 wind synthesizer, a jazz/rock fusion reminiscent of Pink Floyd’s Wish You Where Here. It really was that good! In fact the entire band were on top form with Iain and Ben Jennings’ cinematic keyboards, Olivia Sparnenn’s fantastic voice, Mark Rowan’s tight and economical guitar work, Paul Teasdale’s intricate bass fretwork, and bombastic drumming from Barry Cassells.

The crowd were extremely appreciative of the quality and performance of the band and in particular of Livvy’s delivery of Belief, dedicated to “someone who couldn’t be here tonight”. We all caught the reference and it brought a genuine lump to my throat.

There were a few fellow muso’s mingling with the crowd; Mostly Brian, Mostly Heather, and Mostly Andy “The Crow”. I was Mostly down the front with my tongue hanging out, and even parted with a handful of dead flies and some magic beans in exchange for a copy of Coming Up For Air. I was that impressed.

When I got home, I found out that we actually beat the French 13 – 24. Saturday’s don’t come much better that that!

Images are courtesy of I and D and you can get an I’s eye view of the gig here.