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Bio:
Mellow Candle began life as three schoolgirls, Clodagh Simonds, Alison O'Donnell
(later Williams) and Maria White, originally known as The Gatecrashers.
Exasperated at not being taken seriously at home, they sent a demo tape to Radio
Luxembourg DJ Colin Nicol. This led to a one-off single
deal with former Yardbirds manager Simon Napier-Bell's SNB label (distributed by CBS), the delightful
"Feeling High" / "Tea With The Sun", which was well received but didn't trouble
the charts (SNB not being ideally placed for breaking a new artist, it must be
said).
The band was on hold for a year or two while the girls left school and pursued
different options but by 1970 Clodagh & Alison were rehearsing again as
Mellow Candle, now a drummerless folk-rock quartet with Dave Williams (guitar)
and Pat Morris (bass). Their material was complex and intricate and imaginatively
arranged, featuring strong vocal harmonies from the two girls. They slowly made
inroads into the Dublin scene. Ted Carroll became their manager. They made their live
debut at Liberty Hall supporting The Chieftains in 1970.
Previously unreleased demo recordings from this period (1969-1970) were released
on the Kissing Spell label as "The Virgin Prophet".
In 1971 Pat Morris left and was replaced by Frank Boylan (bass, ex Creatures)
and William Murray (drums), from Glasgow, who'd played with Kevin Ayers.
With a proper rhythm section their music became more robust. They relocated
to London but continued to play gigs in Ireland including several notable
festivals such as The Headland Festival at the RDS (Alan Price, Georgie Fame,
Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come) and the Wexford Festival (Fairport Convention,
Tír na nÓg) and played support to Genesis, Thin Lizzy (also
managed by Ted Carroll), Donovan and Steeleye Span (at the National Stadium, Dublin
on June 26) among others.
The band was signed by Deram Records.
In December 1971 they recorded their debut album "Swaddling Songs" at Decca
Studios in Tollington Park in London with producer David Hitchcock.
Much has been written about this album in the last few years. Suffice it to
say that it is a masterpiece, one of the best progressive folk records ever
made.
For some reason it was poorly received in some circles on it's release,
something that seems incredible now. The reviewer in the NME was so incredulous
at its contents that he referred to it as a tax loss (reputedly! haven't actually
seen this for myself). For whatever reason it simply did not sell and despite Ted
Carroll's efforts the band didn't make much headway.
Frank Boylan returned to Dublin. His replacement was Steve Borrill (ex-Spirogyra,
another folkrock band who made little headway though they did manage to record
three LPs). Mellow Candle changed their name to Grace Before Space around
October 1972 and continued into 1973 before finally disbanding.
Clodagh Simonds turned up on Thin Lizzy's Shades of a Blue Orphanage (1972),
and appears on Mike Oldfield's Hergest Ridge (1974), Ommadawn (1975) and Amarok (1990),
and Jade Warriors' Kites (1976) but otherwise seemed to disappear until a solo CD
in 1997: "Six Elementary Songs", recorded in 1996, released on the Japanese Evangel label.
Since then she's made guest appearances on several recordings (including Current 93) and began her own project
Fovea Hex.
Update: I've read elsewhere that Clodagh worked for Richard Branson/Virgin Records for
a while and also for the US office of Virgin in New York in the early 80s where she and
William Murray formed a band called The Same.
Alison & David Williams moved to South Africa where they recorded as Flibberigibbet
and David worked for the South African Broadcading Service. Both were very active in the
local scene. Alison has continued to perform with various groups and recorded sporadically.
See her website for full details.
Frank Boylan joined with the Gary Moore Band, a trio with drummer Pearse Kelly.
They did two mini tours in the UK in 1972 (in May & July). Frank
appears on some tracks on the Grinding Stone LP (CBS Records, 1973), the rest
featuring his replacement John Curtis, who joined the band in 1973. In September 1973
Frank was reportedly collaborating in new group with Philip Donnelly.
He later became interested in computers. He's played on and off
with several Dublin bands, including the recently reformed Creatures.
William Murray did session work for several artists including Sandy Denny and
Richard & Linda Thompson. In the 80s while working for Virgin Records he
and Clodagh Simonds formed a band called The Same who were popular in New York
but never recorded. While in New York Murray began a successful career as a
fashion photographer. He died in Ireland in 1998.
Mellow Candle played the Foxrock Folk Club, where gigs were regularly
recorded on reel-to-reel,
on 20 February 1972.
It is not yet known if this gig was recorded.
Notes:
Recorded in London in 1968 with a full orchestra; backing vocals Cliff Richards' backing
singers by The Breakaways.
A note on different editions:
From being one of the rarest major label albums of the 1970s, "Swaddling Songs" is now
regularly in print on a myriad of different labels. Unfortunately many of these are best avoided.
The only vinyl edition worth considering is a Deram original or the Si-Wan reissue.
The best sounding CD editions are the early Japanese editions on
Edison and Polydor, and the Korean Si-Wan edition. All three have the exact same mastering.
The UK See For Miles edition is also recommended. More recent CD editions are problematic,
including the Japanese replica sleeve editions on Universal. These suffer from
too much compression. Ignore the SHM "Super High Material" hype and seek out an earlier
edition.
Notes:
Previously unreleased sessions recorded 1969-1970.
Help!: We need your help to complete this entry. If you can tell us more about this band then please do! We welcome any corrections, missing details, connections to other bands, where are they now, etc. We also need photos, scans, copies of releases or live or demo recordings, and any other memorabilia gathering dust in the attic.