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Mellow Candle were a progressive folk rock band. Principally Irish, the members were also unusually young, Clodagh Simonds and Alison Bools (later O'Donnell) being only 15, and still at school, at the time of their first single, "Feelin' High", released in 1968 on Simon Napier-Bell's SNB Records.

By 1972, the lineup had expanded to include Dave Williams on guitar, Frank Boylan on bass, and William Murray on drums. With this lineup in place, the band released their only album, Swaddling Songs (Deram Records), which was commercially unsuccessful at the time. Over the years, however, the lone album by the band has received considerable critical acclaim and original vinyl copies are now very valuable. Boylan was later replaced by Steve Borrill (ex-Spirogyra), but shortly afterwards the band split up. After the band's dissolution, Simonds worked with Thin Lizzy, Jade Warrior, and Mike Oldfield. Boylan played with Gary Moore, while Murray contributed to albums by Kevin Ayers, Amazing Blondel, Mike Oldfield, and Paul Kossoff.

In 1991, "Silver Song" was covered by All About Eve as a B-Side to some versions of their single Farewell Mr. Sorrow.

2002 saw the release of The Virgin Prophet, a collection of previously unreleased material by the band, including early versions of many of the songs later recorded for Swaddling Songs. Some of these sessions featured Richard Coughlan of Caravan on drums.

In 2006, O'Donnell was reunited with Williams and Boylan on the album Mise Agus Ise.

2006 also saw the participation of Simonds in a musical project called Fovea Hex, alongside Brian Eno, Roger Eno, film composer Carter Burwell, and Andrew McKenzie of the Hafler Trio. The project has been favourably reviewed by Pitchfork Media.[1] [2]

• Mellow Candle
• janetrecords.com, (Clodagh Simonds' website)
• Alison O'Donnell's website