Delicate AWOL - Relocation and Split

Relocation and Split

In 2003, Delicate AWOL (minus Wright, although she maintained a connection with the band) had relocated from London to Huntly, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. This was apparently an attempt to escape urban pressures, to liberate their musical creativity and to get more involved in community activity and the band’s other love (visual art). In fact, the move led to the slow dissolving of the band. Donnelly, who’d been reluctant to leave London, soon returned to the capital and joined Rothko full-time. He was replaced for a while by the Aberdeen-based Philip Johnston (bass, flute, saxophone). In 2005 the Page brothers also left the band and returned to London - they would eventually join Donnelly in Rothko.

Ross and Version continued to make music together. A late version of Delicate AWOL is listed as having performed at the Tunnels club in Aberdeen on April 10, 2005, with a line-up cited as Ross, Version, Neil Scollay (drums), Danny Ashton (guitar), Kate Mutsaers and Martha Buckingham (vocals) The same lineup (plus Marian Nagahiro) performed at Forgue Kirk near Huntly on April 30, 2005. However, Ross and Version began to find that their new compositions were unsuited to the restrictions of a settled band. The demise of Delicate AWOL was never formally announced, but Ross and Version quietly put the band to rest in order to reform as avant-folk/experimental duo Tells. The projected third Delicate AWOL album - entitled Hope Your Wounds Heal - eventually materialised in 2006 as the first Tells album.