Living In Shadows, Music Spoken Here, The Marr’s Bar, Worcester, 20/09/2026.

Zoe Gilby – lead vocals, electronics, Andy Champion – bass guitar, bass pedals, electronics, backing vocals, Mark Williams – electric guitar, Ben Lawrence – keyboards, John Bradford – drums

Living In Shadows is the ‘prog rock project’ of the husband and wife team of bassist, multi-instrumentalist and producer Andy Champion and vocalist, lyricist and songwriter Zoe Gilby, two musicians best known for their work as jazz artists.

Based in Gateshead in the North East of England Gilby has established a national reputation as a jazz vocalist, having toured widely, playing venues ranging from major festivals to village halls. She has released four albums to date “Now That I Am Real” (2007), “Looking Glass” (2010), the excellent “Twelve Stories” (2013) and most recently “Aurora” (2021), which finds her singing her own ‘vocalese’ lyrics to melodies composed by the American trumpeter Tom Harrell.

Meanwhile her as yet unrecorded Pannonica project was inspired by the 1988 Carmen McRae album “Carmen Sings Monk”, which saw the vocalist putting her own spin on a set of Thelonious Monk tunes with ‘vocalese’ lyrics largely written by Jon Hendricks. It’s a highly influential album for jazz singers . Gilby’s project is also known as ‘ The Baroness and Monk’ and is a celebration of the ‘Jazz Baroness’ Kathleen Annie Pannonica de Koenigswarter (nee Rothschild), the friend and patron of Thelonious Monk and his fellow bebop pioneers. Both “Twelve Stories” and “Aurora” have been reviewed elsewhere on the Jazzmann as have numerous live performances by Gilby at a variety of locations.

Incredibly today’s gig represented the second time that I’d seen Gilby perform in the space of a week. The previous Tuesday she’d visited Brecon to play a show with a trio led by the Welsh pianist Dave Jones and featuring bassist Aidan Thorne and drummer Kevin O’Rourke. This was very much a jazz show featuring a selection of jazz standards, material from the Aurora and Pannonica projects and one Gilby original, the song “The Midnight Bell” from the “Twelve Stories” recording. My review of this highly accomplished and hugely entertaining performance can be found here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/zoe-gilby-with-the-dave-jones-trio-brecon-jazz-club-the-muse-arts-centre-brecon-15-09-2026

As well as performing in Gilby’s groups Andy Champion is a bandleader in his own right, a notable project being the jazz-prog ensemble ACV which released two albums “Fail In Wood” (2010) and the excellent “Busk” (2013), both of which are reviewed elsewhere on The Jazzmann.

Playing electric bass Champion is also part of the electro-improvising trio Shiver, also featuring guitarist Chris Sharkey and drummer Joost Hendrickx,  with whom he has recorded a series of EPs and the full length album “Night School” (2021). More recently the Shiver trio have released two albums recorded with pianist and keyboard player Matthew Bourne.

Champion’s growing interest in free improvisation has also resulted in “Shoes for Losers”, a wholly improvised duo session with saxophonist Graeme Wilson that was released in 2021.

In a more straight-ahead jazz context Champion is an in demand sideman on double bass and has recorded with many of the North East’s leading musicians, including the solo projects of Williams, Edis and Wilson. Gilby and Champion have also recorded the limited edition EP “Voice & Bass”, which does exactly what it says on the tin and includes a stunning version of Nick Drake’s “River Man”.

Champion is also a member of the Voice of the North Jazz Orchestra, led by the jazz composer John Warren.

Living In Shadows essentially began as a lockdown project. Unable to tour Champion and Gilby began experimenting in their home studio and found themselves creating material that didn’t tie in   neatly with Gilby’s  jazz career and which had  more of a rock, pop and electronica feel about it.
“We listen to lots of 70s and 80s pop and rock. It’s natural for us to write music that mightn’t fall under the jazz umbrella”  the couple subsequently explained.

Gilby and Champion decided to release their lockdown songs and the first, eponymously titled Living In Shadows album was released in December 2020. Champion performed most of the instrumental parts himself, taking full advantage of studio technology. However the album also includes contributions from guitarist Mark Williams, pianist Paul Edis, saxophonist Graeme Wilson, violinist Emma Fisk and mandolin player George Milburn, all close associates of Gilby and Champion and well known figures on the North East music scene. The “Living In Shadows” album is reviewed here.
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/living-in-shadows-living-in-shadows

The Living In Shadows project was well received by critics and audiences, appealing both to Gilby’s well established jazz fanbase but also reaching out to fans of progressive rock and alt pop.

 The success of that first album has resulted in Gilby and Champion continuing with the Living in Shadows project in addition to pursuing their individual jazz careers. The choice of a separate band name suggests that Gilby and Champion are trying to distance this project from their jazz output and are aiming, perhaps, at a different audience. Living In Shadows has a separate website and Bandcamp page, from which the following statement of intent is taken;
“Vocalist Zoe Gilby (Parliamentary Jazz Vocalist of the year 2019) along with multi instrumentalist Andy Champion has embarked upon a brand new project, Living In Shadows. Their distinctive sound, follows in the tradition of great English alt pop and progressive rock whilst also reflecting their background in jazz”.

The second Living In Shadows album “Neon Burning” was released in 2023, again essentially a duo recording with Champion again performing the majority of the instrumental parts – he is credited with  guitar, bass, keyboards, drums and programming. Mark Williams again contributes on guitar, as does the album’s producer Chris Sharkey. “Neon Burning” is reviewed here, my account forming the basis for much of the foregoing biographical detail.
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/living-in-shadows-neon-burning

Again the album was very well received and it was decided to put a Living In Shadows band together in order to tour the project. The young keyboard player Ben Lawrence was the first musician to be recruited, with Williams and drummer John Bradford, both members of Gilby’s regular jazz quartet, also coming on board.

Gilby and Champion took the decision to pitch the project in the direction of the prog rock audience and the quintet has appeared at a number of prog rock festivals,  including the recent Nene Valley Rock Festival. They have been warmly welcomed into the prog rock community and are beginning to build a following that is distinct from Gilby’s established jazz audience, although there must be others such as myself who are fans of both her jazz and rock personas.

This early evening gig was my second live sighting of the Living Shadows quintet after seeing them perform at the 2026 edition of EppyFest at the Smokey Joe’s venue in Cheltenham in July. LIS appeared on the second day of the Festival alongside solo performer Phil Mercy (guitar, loops, electronics) and the Pete Roth Trio, led by guitarist and composer Roth and featuring big name drummer Bill Bruford (Yes, King Crimson, Earthworks etc.). It was a superb afternoon of music with LIS going down very well as the middle act on Sunday’s bill. They seemed genuinely thrilled to be sharing a stage with the living legend that is Bill Bruford, a musician whose playing is just as sharp as ever, a stunning combination of power and precision. I attended Eppyfest as a ‘punter’ so there is no Jazzmann review, but it was a truly memorable day of music with LIS’s performance representing a very important part of that. It all culminated with a lengthy, interesting and very amicable conversation with Bill Bruford, a musician that I’ve been listening to since my teenage years some fifty years ago. Sometimes you really should meet your heroes.

I digress, so back to tonight’s early evening show. Following a four hour drive down from Newcastle LIS arrived with a huge amount of gear and the Marr’s Bar stage was a sea of instruments and wires. Both Champion and Williams deployed an impressive range of effects pedals and even Gilby had a number of electronic gizmos with which she could treat the sound of her vocals. Meanwhile Lawrence’s keyboard set up included a Roland RD-800 piano, a Nektar midi keyboard and a vintage Fender Rhodes, circa 1975. Champion also had an old school set of Roland bass pedals, similar to those deployed by two of his prog rock bass heroes, Michael Rutherford of Genesis and the late, great Chris Squire of Yes. These were used judiciously to create a synth bass sound at suitably pertinent moments.

The group took to the stage to the sounds of pre-recorded introductory music, all very prog and reminiscent of the heady days when Yes used to enter to the strains of Stravinsky’s “Firebird Suite”. Gradually the live music took over from the recording as the quintet launched into an opening segue of the as yet unrecorded “Point of Surrender” and “Cast Away”, the opening track on the “Neon Burning” album. Rock rhythms, albeit often in some pretty unusual time signatures, were combined with Gilby’s well enunciated but powerful vocals, the lyrics of “Cast Away” urging her listeners to “take risks, enjoy challenges and thrive”, with the line “embrace the change” seeming particularly relevant with regard to the new musical direction that Gilby and Champion have taken with LIS.

“We are Living In Shadows”, declared Gilby, before adding ominously “But Who Are You?”.This was the cue for “Who Are You?”, the second track on “Neon Burning” whose lyrics confront a narcissistic character. Accusatory words and vocals were combined with metallic guitar riffing plus instrumental solos from Lawrence on Rhodes and Williams on guitar.

The group reached back to the first LIS album with a performance of its opening track, “For The Day”. This was ushered in by an unaccompanied keyboard introduction from Lawrence that combined the ‘acoustic’ sound of the Roland with the vintage electric piano sound of the Rhodes. Gilby’s lyrics reflected on the experience of watching migrating birds in flight, and meditated on how those migratory patterns match the rhythms of human experience. Williams was the other featured instrumentalist with a suitably soaring guitar solo, taking over the role occupied by Graeme Wilson’s tenor sax on the recording.

Also from the debut “Postcards” drew inspiration from the 1947 novel “Alone In Berlin” (sometimes also referred to as “Every Man Dies Alone”) by the troubled German author Hans Fallada. The novel tells the tale of a family that resisted the Nazis and tried to undermine their authority. The bass and drum intro from Champion and Bradford helped to establish an atmosphere that was both imposing and threatening, this accentuated by needling guitar and keyboard arpeggios plus a vocal that was both emotionally and politically charged. Instrumental solos came from Champion and Williams, on this occasion replacing Wilson’s baritone sax.

The first set concluded with the as yet unrecorded “Shades of Green”, a song about romantic jealousy introduced by the sound of chiming keyboard arpeggios, with bass, drums and vocals subsequently added. Williams subsequently cut loose with a guitar solo underpinned by the sounds of electric bass and twinkling keyboards. The performance was also notable for Gilby’s extraordinarily powerful wordless vocals in the closing section, really giving it “The Great Gig In The Sky” treatment, to use a suitably ‘prog’ analogy.

The second set began with a world premiere, the first public performance of “Nowhere World”, a tune by Lawrence featuring a recently written lyric from Gilby and subsequently developed by the band as a whole. The singer frequently draws inspiration from the world of literature and this latest song featured lyrics based around the 1939 novel “The Mask of Dimitrios” written by Eric Ambler, best known as a writer of espionage fiction. Gilby’s writing for her jazz quartet has also included the superb original song “The Midnight Bell”, inspired by the writings of the 1930s author Patrick Hamilton. Tonight’s performance of the new song culminated in an impressive drum feature from Bradford.

There was a return to the “Neon Burning” repertoire for a segue of the songs “Silently Dancing” and “Wide Open Sky”, which are also sequenced together on the album.  The lyrics of “Silently Dancing” seemed to describe some kind of pagan moonlight ritual while inviting us to re-connect with nature. The hippy sentiments of the lyrics were offset by a sophisticated electro-pop arrangement, rich in terms of colour and texture. LIS songs are characteristically rich in terms of sonic detail with all manner of complexities occupying the space between Gilby’s soaring vocal melodies and Bradford’s driving beats.
“Wide Open Sky”, with its buoyant grooves and soaring vocal melodies felt like the morning after the moonlight ritual described in “Silently Dancing” and the fact that the two songs were performed as a medley helped to confirm my theory that they are intrinsically linked.

Written during lockdown but recorded for “Neon Burning” the song “Leaving Light” is a paean to love and the indomitable nature of the human spirit, as exemplified by the lyrics  “In our lives we have tried, Learning how to survive, With you here by my side, Shadows pass, leaving light”. A tip of the hat to Joni Mitchell in that last line, maybe? Initially reflective, but subsequently becoming more anthemic, the performance included a Rhodes solo from Lawrence and a soaring, spacey guitar solo from Williams that sounded positively Floydian.

Also from “Neon Burning” Gilby described “Satellites” as a song about an addiction, which from the song’s lyrics I take to be alcohol, getting out of hand. The performance was suitably feverish with Gilby deploying electronics to manipulate the sound of her voice as Champion and Williams featured as instrumental soloists.

The second set concluded with “Page By Page”, the penultimate track on the “Neon Burning” recording. Another song inspired by Gilby’s love of literature this hymn to the power of the written word saw the singer imagining herself being locked in a library. Although it’s one of the lengthiest tracks on the album it’s also one of the most accessible, with a memorable melodic hook and an infectious groove. The piece also makes effective use of dynamics with a quieter mid tune episode prefacing the rousing and powerful closing section. Gilby’s lyrics exhibit a mantric quality and tonight’s performance was also notable for a searing Williams guitar solo.

All in all this was a very enjoyable performance from Living In Shadows, and we got to hear rather more of the band than we did at Eppyfest, where they only played a single set. Today’s show was undeniably powerful and also notably LOUD, maybe a bit too much so at times with Bradford’s drums arguably too prominent in the mix. However Gilby’s vocals, arguably the most distinctive component of the band, were well forward in the sound balance and I could hear her very well. However some of the often complex instrumental detail was a bit fuzzy, but that tends to happen at rock shows in general, and LIS is essentially a rock band,  despite the complexity of the music and the impeccable jazz credentials of its members.

Sadly the audience turnout was disappointingly small, understandable perhaps in a month with no fewer than four MSH gigs and with the event taking place on an unusual day at an unusual time – MSH gigs are usually at 8.00pm on Thursday evenings. The early start did however ensure that the band got back home at not too ungodly an hour. Also on a positive note merch sales as a percentage of audience size were remarkably high, those that liked it liked it a lot.

My thanks to Zoe, Andy and Mark, who I’ve come to regard as personal friends over the years, for speaking with me before and after the show and to John Bradford too. I’m afraid I didn’t get to speak with Ben.

Gilby and Champion seem to be running two parallel musical careers very successfully and have been warmly welcomed into both the jazz and prog camps, a tribute not only to the quality of their music but also to the warmth of their personalities. They’re adventurous musicians doing what they love – and long may they continue to do so.

 

 

 

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