In Focus: Solstice

Published Thursday 5 March 2026

You might know our new team member Scott Rich from his blog Scott's Song-By-Song And Spotlights. Although it does not mean the blog ends, Scott decided to say yes when we asked him to write for us.

We thought a good name for this type of articles would be In Focus. It's putting the spotlight on a band, going over their history, describing their music without going into full-blown album reviews.

For his first article, Scott puts the focus on: Solstice!

Scott Rich

Today, I'll be putting the spotlight on the UK band Solstice. The roots of Solstice go all the way back to the beginnings of the neo-prog movement, in 1980. The band was founded by guitarist Andy Glass in the city of Milton Keynes, which is approximately 50 miles north of London. Glass has been the only constant member throughout the band's history.

The Peace Tape

The early years of the band are not very well-documented online, so I cannot tell you what the initial line-up was. I can tell you that those early line-ups included singers Sue Robinson and Shelly Patt. While considered a neo-prog band like Marillion or IQ, there is also a very distinct folk element in their music. Jethro Tull seems to have had an influence on their sound, and there will be some connections with that legendary band as the story unfolds. The band did get a lot of attention due to their unique sound and approach. The BBC gave them sessions, and the music received attention from the national press. They recorded two demos in 1982, one known as The Peace Tape in 1982 and another one also with four tracks but two overlapping with the other one.

Silent Dance

Their hard work culminated in the independent release of their first album, titled “Silent Dance” in 1984. On that album, the line-up consisted of:

Sandy Leigh / lead vocals
Andy Glass / guitar, backing vocals
Marc Elton / violin, keyboards, backing vocals
Mark Hawkins / bass, bass pedals
Martin Wright / drums & percussion

Silent Dance is available on the band's Bandcamp page . But also note there is a Silent Dance 2025 Remaster which includes three remixes by Steven Wilson that were first released on the Prophecy album in 2013.

Guest musician Margaret Phillips provided Fender Rhodes electric piano on two tracks. Standout tracks on this album include Peace, Earthsong, Brave New World and White Lady. Unfortunately, the band did not last very long following this album's release. Leigh and Hawkins left the band and were replaced by Barbara Deason on vocals and Ken Bowley on bass. The band fell apart entirely by 1985, although they were brought back for a one-off charity event in 1986. That would seem to be the end for Solstice. But everything is not always what it seems.

New Life

In 1991, a label called Progressive Records reissued Silent Dance on CD. This sparked a new interest in Solstice and led to Andy Glass and fellow early member Marc Elton resurrecting the band with an otherwise new line-up and releasing the appropriately titled New Life in 1992. The line-up now consisted of:

Heidi Kemp / vocals
Andy Glass / guitar, programming, backing vocals
Marc Elton / violin, keyboards, backing vocals
Craig Sunderland / bass
Pete Hemsley / drums

The album has a much more polished sound compared to the debut. After a brief opening track called Morning Light, the second track Guardian is one of the two 10+ minute songs on the album and concludes with an incredible guitar solo from Glass.

The next track, The Sea is a slower tempo instrumental, featuring Glass' guitar and Elton's violin; the track is a bit of a slow-burn, but your patience will be rewarded. The title track is an upbeat affair which reminds me, musically, of what Kansas' Power album might have sounded like with Steinhardt's violin playing and a female vocalist. The bass-line from Sunderland drives the song.

Pathways is also upbeat, but has some cool wordless harmonies along with wonderful soloing from Elton and Glass, along with the occasional bar of odd-meter; it's a very dynamic track! The album closer is the other extended track, Journey which begins slowly with a very dreamy tone and ethereal vocals from Kemp, includes some great soloing and goes through several tempo, feel, and time changes. I highly recommend this album.

Circles

At some point between 1992 and the next album's release in 1997, Circles, the line-up changed once again. Kemp and Hemsley exited and were replaced by vocalist Emma Brown and Jethro Tull drummer Clive Bunker (who also spent time with Pentangle and Gordon Gilrap's band). Around this same time, Andy Glass was Jethro Tull's live sound engineer.

There are no tracks over 9 minutes this time, but the title cut is around 8 and a half minutes. The song is about an incident that occurred in 1985 known as the “Battle of the Beanfield” where approximately 600 “New Age Travellers” clashed with approximately 1300 police officers a few miles away from Stonehenge. The "Travellers" had intended to set up for a festival at the historical site, even though a court order barred them from doing so. There is a long backstory that you can check out on Wikipedia.

The production on Circles is even more polished than its predecessor. Thank You is a standout track to me with excellent performances from Glass and Elton. The guitar solo on Medicine is quite nice, as well. This album didn't quite reach the heights of the previous albums to my ears. It's not bad, but not great either. It has its moments, though.

Check out Circles on Bandcamp .

Following Circles, founding member Marc Elton was forced to leave Solstice due to having a severe case of tinnitus. (I can relate as I have it too, but I don't think mine is severe). Additionally, bassist Craig Sunderland left. They replaced the two exiting members with three musicians: Jenny Newman (violin), Steve McDaniels (keyboards) and Rob Phillips (bass).

1998

This line up would play the 1998 Cropredy festival in the UK, and record it for a live album. However, for whatever reason, the recordings were deemed unusable. To remedy the issue, on the day following the concert, the band re-recorded the tracks “live-in-the-studio” in real time with no overdubs, but also no audience. The resulting album is called The Cropredy Set and was finally released in 2002.

Solstice went on hiatus for several years following this period while Andy Glass and Jenny Newman focused on the traditional ceilidh-folk band 3Sticks. Solstice began to emerge again in 2007 when a DVD of the Cropredy performance was released, along with remastered and extended reissues of the first three Solstice albums, on the Festival Music label.

Spirit

A new studio album called Spirit came out in 2010 with all but one member of the Cropredy line-up still in place, with the notable exception of Clive Bunker who departed and was replaced by his predecessor, Pete Hemsley. After two strong, fairly long opening tracks, Solomon's Bridge and Sky Path West, the third track Freedom really caught my attention. It contains excerpts of a speech by political activist Adam Kokesh, warning that the United States was on a path to fascism (remember this is in 2010!). This song is very relevant in this current day and age, and quite prophetic.

Flight is an upbeat track with a great opening fiddle part in the introduction. There is a really cool a cappella harmony section in the middle of the song followed by a fantastic Glass guitar solo. Oberon's Folly is a nearly 9-minute song that takes a while to kick in after a long mellow section, but when it does, it is a fantastic Celtic-folk prog bit of enjoyment. That is followed by the nearly 7-minute long Here and Now which has a middle-eastern flavour. It closes with the nearly 12-minute epic title track that features electric sitar.

Solstice followed this album up with the live album Kindred Spirits in 2011, also on Festival Music.

Prophecy

The next album, Prophecy appeared in 2013, and maintained the line-up from Spirit for the five new tracks, while the three bonus tracks are Steven Wilson remixes of songs from the 1984 debut Silent Dance. (As an aside, I listen regularly to Steven Wilson's Sirius/XM show, and he reminisced on one episode of going to see Solstice in their early days when he was a teenager.)

The album artwork is done by Marvel Comics artist Barry Kitson. The opening track, Eyes of Fire, is a very mellow 9-minute affair with a wonderful Andy Glass solo near the ending. Keepers of the Truth follows that with an acoustic opening that kicks into a nice riff before the verse. There is a 5/4 section which features solos from Glass, Newman and keyboardist Steve McDaniel followed by a wonderful harmony vocal section.

Up next, however, is the centrepiece of the album is the seventeen-and-a-half minute epic Warriors; the longest song in their catalogue, to date. It begins with Pink Floyd vibes, and then goes into a more Kansas-like riff. The verse section is full of shifting meters. At around 7:30, the riff reminds me a little of Yes classic Heart of the Sunrise. McDaniel has a nice keyboard solo in this as well. This is a wonderful epic.

The album proper closes out with two strong 10-minute tracks West Wind and Black Water. This is probably one of their strongest albums, overall.

Some of the previous albums are not available on the Bandcamp page, but Prophecy is, and even in 24 bits from the original master files.

Sia

Following Prophecy it seems that Solstice took another hiatus until 2020, when they re-emerged with a new lead vocalist named Jess Holland taking over from long-time singer Emma Brown, and a new album called Sia, which is a Gaelic word meaning six, being their sixth album.

The cover art has a logo very reminiscent of Roger Dean's style, but was actually done by Barry Kitson with a painting by Shaun Blake based on a photograph by Phoenix Roberts.

Some standout tracks are the nearly thirteen-minute Shout, the upbeat Stand Up, and funky eight-minute Seven Dreams.

The album, overall, seems to be a bit more mellow than its predecessor. That said, Jess Holland really makes her mark on Solstice's sound with her strong vocals.

The album was released on Giant Electric Pea and when looking for a digital version, look here for Sia on Bandcamp .

They followed this one up with another live album, 2021's Sia Live .

Light Up

There would not be a very long wait, by Solstice's standards, for the next album, 2022's Light Up. This album is considered the second part of the Sia Trilogy. The band added two new members between albums, taking them up to an eight-piece:

Ebony Buckle / vocals, supplemental keyboards, percussion
Jen Sanin / background vocals, supplemental acoustic guitar, percussion

The album opens with the energetic title track which is in a meter of 7. The second track “Wongle No9” is very funky and begins with a drum groove by Pete Hemsley. There are lots of rhythmic twists and turns in this track, which I like, along with a stellar solo from Glass. “Mount Ephraim” takes a Celtic feel and alters it to a very proggy 5-8. The eight-plus minute “Run” begins with an ethereal mellow sound, before amping up at around 5:30 for an extended Glass solo. “Home” has more of a moderate tempo in an odd-meter which gets more and more intense as the song proceeds. The 10:24 closing track “Bulbul Tarang” is one that I have enjoyed, that has an “Eastern” mystical feel to it.

Released on Giant Electric Pea again, check the GEP site for Light Up on Bandcamp

They, once again, followed this album with a live album, released later the same year, called Live in Veruno. .

Clann

Solstice's most recent album is titled Clann and it was released in 2025. The only one change to the line-up happened with Jen Sanin exiting and Dyanne Crutcher joining on vocals, maintaining the vocal trio concept started on Light Up.

Firefly is an energetic opening number followed by the equally energetic Life. Plunk is a funky 7/4 song, with a solo that delivers on what we have come to expect from the awesome Andy Glass. Frippa continues in a similar vein.

The closing epic, Twin Peaks (sans a remake of Earthsong from the first album) starts its nearly 14-minute run on a mellow note. At around 4:25 the song explodes and becomes huge. They really make the most of the three female voices in grand fashion with beautiful harmonies. Of course, Andy Glass' guitar playing is as fantastic as it's always been. There is a quiet section after 7 minutes led by a synth sequence. After a time, chant-like vocals with both male and female vocals begin to emerge in harmony. Eventually they return to some themes from earlier in the song, and Glass gives us another glorious round of his awesome playing as the song reaches its final crescendo.

This is another wonderful album from Solstice!

Available from the band's own Bandcamp site, note that there is a Clann 16 bits version as well as a Clann 24 bits version .

Conclusion

With only eight studio albums over a 45-year career, no one would accuse Solstice of being overly prolific. But while all albums offer some worthwhile listening, in my opinion, they really began a trajectory after Jenny Newman joined that led them to where they are now.

The female vocal trio concept that has emerged in recent years gives them a unique place in the prog pantheon. Let's hope they can maintain the momentum that they've had in this decade and keep making great music.