BELTANE FIRE – WHITE STAG
WHITE STAG brings together the recordings that complete a remarkable chapter in the story of BELTANE FIRE – and finally gives these songs the opportunity to be heard.
Since emerging from the mists of 1983, BELTANE FIRE have left a lasting impression on those who discovered their music or experienced the band live. For decades, people continued to ask what became of the band whose Different Breed album and distinctive live performances suggested that something much bigger might follow.
WHITE STAG provides part of that answer.
The album is drawn from a collection of demo recordings made between 1986 and 1989, originally intended to form the foundation of BELTANE FIRE's second album.
Following the release of Different Breed and the band's departure from Sony Records, BELTANE FIRE continued writing and recording in anticipation of finding a new label and taking the next step in their career.
Pre-production and demo work began after the band completed the Marillion tour in 1986. Every track was produced by the band and the recordings were subsequently transferred from the original analogue master tapes.
Inevitably, the sound quality varies from track to track, but that is also part of what makes WHITE STAG so fascinating. These aren't modern recreations of songs from the period. They are the recordings themselves – preserving the sound of BELTANE FIRE as the band continued to develop.
And that development is immediately apparent.
The addition of keyboards gave the band greater scope to experiment with texture and arrangement, while Carlo's distinctive guitar sound remains unmistakably at the heart of BELTANE FIRE. That guitar sound is a huge part of the band's identity, giving the recordings a character that immediately connects WHITE STAG with the music that came before it.
Most importantly, these aren't simply interesting archive recordings.
There are some great songs here.
Tracks such as Living Days demonstrate just how strong the material had become. Across WHITE STAG there is a band growing in confidence and ambition, developing its songwriting and exploring where the sound established on Different Breed could go next.
That inevitably leaves one of rock music's great unanswered questions:
What might have happened if BELTANE FIRE had been given the opportunity to make that second album at the time?
Over the years, many who saw or heard the band have said that BELTANE FIRE should have become a major force in British rock.
The reality facing the band after losing major-label support was very different from the world musicians inhabit today. There was no internet community through which an independent band could maintain its momentum, no social media, no YouTube, no streaming platforms and none of the direct promotional tools artists now take for granted.
Without the right label and support, the songs that could have formed BELTANE FIRE's next album remained on tape.
Until WHITE STAG.
More than three decades after they were recorded, these songs capture the love, loss, optimism, frustration, anger and pride of BELTANE FIRE during a period of considerable musical development.
They also retain something deeply characteristic of the band: a fascination with these islands, their people, their landscapes and their history.
WHITE STAG is therefore more than a collection of demos and more than a historical curiosity.
It is a record of where BELTANE FIRE were going.
It preserves songs that deserved to be heard.
And, perhaps most importantly, it allows listeners to hear for themselves just how much music BELTANE FIRE still had left to give.
WHITE STAG – CD Edition
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Love or Justice
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White Stag (Version 2)
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Where My Father Walked
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Living Days
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Snow Leopard
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Southern Wilds
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The Rat
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Dust of the Modern Way *
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Long Road Home
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All Things Will Change
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Taste Our Fire / The Anger Within
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Running to the Light
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Following Ahab *
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White Stag (Version 1)
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Big Blue *
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Earth Mother
WHITE STAG – Vinyl (LP Edition)
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Love or Justice
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White Stag (Version 2)
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Where My Father Walked
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Living Days
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Snow Leopard
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Southern Wilds
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The Rat
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All Things Will Change
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Long Road Home
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Following Ahab *
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Running to the Light
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Earth Mother
WHITE STAG is available on CD and vinyl, with the full album also available digitally through the major streaming and download platforms.
BELTANE FIRE – THE WATER RATS INTERVIEW
Recorded at The Water Rats on 26 April 2019.
More than three decades after BELTANE FIRE toured with Marillion on the Misplaced Childhood tour, Paul Robins sat down with the band at The Water Rats to talk about what happened, where they had been, the music they had made – and whether there might still be more to come.
Where had BELTANE FIRE been hiding for 32 years? Had they recorded any new music? What happened after Different Breed?
Pull up a chair, grab a drink and enjoy the conversation.
