Author: John Simms

Retired Methodist Minister, prog rock aficionado, cricket nut

The Train now arriving…

On By John SimmsIn progressive rock3 Comments

Two years ago I was privileged to attend the first two nights of Big Big Train’s live shows at King’s Place, London, and a delight they were, as anyone can witness by watching their Blu-ray release of the shows, Stone & Steel. So when they announced last year that they were planning some more shows in the capital, in a larger venue, I snapped up tickets as soon as possible for the opening night (well, actually my son snapped up the tickets, as I was in the US when they went on sale!).

Since the announcement of the concerts the band have not been idle, releasing ‘Folklore‘, ‘Grimspound‘ and (much to the delight of their growing band of supporters – the ‘Passengers’) the surprise Summer Solstice-released album ‘The Second Brightest Star‘, and the epic conglomeration of ‘London Song‘. This gave them much new material to bring to the live arena, as well as their extensive back catalogue.

I wrote my reflections on the 2015 concerts at the time, and one thing that struck me about that occasion, as well as this year’s events, is that these were so much more than just a series of concerts by a rock band. These were a gathering of family, from the four corners of the world, united by a common love of each other and of exceptional music, played with skill and passion.

My son and I travelled from the Midlands to London by train on the morning of Friday 29th September, and made our way, via Marylebone Road, Baker Street, Oxford Street and Hyde Park, to Kensington, where we met with around 50 other Passengers for curry. The camaraderie was amazing, as old friends were reacquainted, virtual friends became real, and new relationships were sparked. From there, suitably replete, we then proceeded to overwhelm The Antelope, a hostelry local to the gig venue, before leaving for Cadogan Hall and the principal reason for our gathering. Merch was purchased from the ever-obliging Nellie Pitts and her Merch Desk crew, and then we took our seats, ready for the show.

The anticipation was tangible as the lights faded, and Rachel Hall took the stage alone to begin the overture to the opening number, ‘Folklore‘, being gradually joined by the brass section and the other members of the band: Andy, Danny, Nick, Rikard, Dave, Greg and finally David. The set continued with mostly material from the recent albums, but with the delightful inclusion of a track from 2009’s ‘The Underfall Yard‘, ‘Last Train‘. Accompanying the songs were images on the screen behind the band which enhanced the total experience wonderfully. The first half set was: Folklore, Brave Captain, Last Train, London Plane, Meadowlands & A Mead Hall in Winter.

Sadly, for those of us at the Friday concert, there were a number of issues with the sound, particularly for those of us in the gallery, which did mar the experience a little, but these were addressed during the break, and things were better in the second half. The interval was further enlivened by the sighting of none other than Tony Banks in the gallery!

The second half drew more on the band’s older material as well as the newer stuff, with four songs that had been played at King’s Place making the set list again. The full second half set was: Experimental Gentlemen, Swan Hunter, Judas Unrepentant, Transit of Venus…, East Coast Racer, Telling the Bees and Victorian Brickwork, with an encore of a drum solo from Nick d’Virgilio later enhanced by the brass section, and a final show-stopping rendition of Wassail. A truly moving, ecstatic experience for all who were there, I think.

For many the night was not over, as the band then mingled with Passengers to chat, sign programmes, and pose for selfies. Sadly I had to leave to catch the Last Train (!) home. For many, too, the weekend was not over, and reports of the two further concerts, on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon, testify to the sound issues having been resolved and to the band relaxing into their task a little more, to astounding effect. I’m only sorry that I wasn’t able to be there for the further shows, but a DVD/ Blu-ray is, I believe, on the cards, for which I rejoice!

The members of this band have managed to create not just heart-wrenching, soul-stirring and joy-bringing music of the highest quality, in both the studio and live settings, but also, around that music, a global community of like-minded people that I have rarely seen anywhere else. It was a pleasure to meet up with some of them last Friday in person, and to continue that relationship virtually. This is music, and community, that needs to travel the world: here’s hoping that it will continue to do so!

(There are no photos, as we were requested not to take them)

Modern Prog Classics

On By John SimmsIn progressive rock musicLeave a comment

Over the past week Progzilla Radio has been broadcasting the choice of its listeners of the top 100 Modern Prog Classics – that is, songs released in the past 25 years (since 1990). The full list can be found at www.progzilla.com, but the top Ten, as voted by the listeners, were:

10: Pink Floyd – High Hopes

9: Porcupine Tree – Anaesthetize

8: Transatlantic – The Whirlwind

7: Big Big Train – Victorian Brickwork

6: Marillion – Neverland

5: The Flower Kings – The Truth Will Set You Free

4: Frost* – Black Light Machine

3: Big Big Train – The Underfall Yard

2: Frost* – Milliontown

1: Big Big Train – East Coast Racer

An Evening with Andy Tillison

On By John SimmsIn progressive rock music1 Comment

For any of our readers in the UK, particularly in the north, this is something that I’ve been working on for a while now, and it’s finally coming to fruition. Ever since we hosted Jon Gomm in our church four years ago, I’ve been wanting to arrange some more gigs, and now it’s happened! I hope as many of you as possible will be able to share in this event: it promises to be a blinder! Tickets will go on sale after 13th April – £8 in advance, £10 on the door.

Andy Tillison gig

Playing the History

On By John SimmsIn progressive rock music1 Comment

About a year ago an album was released of re-workings of a number prog standards called ‘Playing The History’. It was principally the work of Marco Lo Musico, an Italian organist and composer, Carlo Matteucci of Dancing Knights, an Italian Genesis tribute band, and John Hackett. In the liner notes to the CD of the project, the three artists say that ‘the core of our idea is to give a place of honour to progressive rock music on the same level as the works of the great classical composers’, and in order to achieve this they have produced fresh instrumental interpretations, without vocals or drums, of a number of progressive pieces.

The arrangements are based around flute, bass guitar and organ or piano, with the addition (on the CD) of further guitars from Giorgio Gabriel (The Watch) & Steve Hackett  and saxophone from David Jackson (VdGG), and feature works by ELP, Genesis, King Crimson, Van der Graaf Generator, Pink Floyd, Anthony Phillips, Rick Wakeman & Steve Hackett, as well as original material by John & Marco. The sound is lyrical and haunting in places: Marco’s arrangement of Steve Hackett’s ‘Horizons for piano and flute particularly stands out, as does the re-working of King Crimson’s ‘I Talk to the Wind’, and one of the new pieces – ‘Bilbo’s Dream’ (come on, it wouldn’t be real prog without some Tolkien references!) is, I hope, destined to become a classic. (Check out the link below) Indeed, John Hackett writes in the liner notes: “With Bilbo’s Dream Marco Lo Muscio has written a masterpiece – it deserves to be heard in concert halls throughout the world alongside the few really good pieces for solo flute such as the JS & CPE Bach A minor sonatas and Debussey’s Syrinx.”

http://youtu.be/UIKzDm4PTro?t=34s

I beleive this is a highly commendable piece of work, and one that shows the durability and timelessness of many of the classics of progressive rock. The album is available from www.hacktrax.co.uk

 

Believe Again – new material from Yes

On By John SimmsIn progressive rock music7 Comments

A track from the forthcoming Yes album, ‘Heaven & Earth’ has appeared on Soundcloud. I think it sounds interesting, and it’s growing on me with each listen.

Find it here: https://soundcloud.com/thecheezmusic/01-believe-again-radio-rip

[UPDATE: It looks as though Yes management removed the song.  Apparently, it wasn’t supposed to be uploaded yet.–ed., Brad Birzer]

[UPDATE: Yes management has now created this page for providing audio excerpts: http://yesheavenandearth.com –ed., The Dr.]

[UPDATE: Excerpt of Believe Again and full lyrics now available at http://yesheavenandearth.com –ed., John Simms 6/13/14]

Black Vines – The Return of the Splendid Bastards

On By John SimmsIn progressive rock music1 Comment

Since moving to South Yorkshire around 10 years ago, it’s been good to discover the great musical heritage that abounds here. Of note must be the great Joe Cocker and one of Mike’s former Mechanics, Paul Carrack. The Classic Rock Society has two great venues here too, at Maltby and Wath-upon-Dearne, and within popular music of various genres the county has given birth to Human League, Heaven 17, Def Leppard, Pulp and Arctic Monkeys among many others.

To that list we can also add The Black Vines. They may seem like an odd band to be reviewing on this site, but as Brad has mentioned them in an earlier post maybe I can get away with it.

Image

This is the second album by this Barnsley four-piece, and the 10 tracks take up just over 41 minutes of your time, ranging from 2:40 to an almost epic 8:00 for the album closer. This is not ‘prog’ as we would understand it: this is honest, stripped-down, bluesy rock; “a hard-hitting dirty riff-based dirge, full of soul and dark matter” as the band’s own Bandcamp page proclaims. There’s nothing unnecessary or pretentious here: this is music taken down to the bare essentials and delivered with power and panache as only guitar, bass, drums and voice can.

That said, there are some quirks to this recording that give it a certain edge: for goodness’ sake, they use a mandolin on ‘Another Second Chance’! A number of the songs use audio clips of old radio shows in polished English accents as introductions. The opening song ‘Come With Us’ has the time signal (the ‘pips’) near the beginning, which is echoed at the end of the penultimate track ‘Wolves’, giving the impression that the ‘long song’, ‘In From The…Reign’, is some kind of coda, or even a summary of the whole collection. The clip that opens it speaks of ‘listening to Britain’ and urges us to ‘hear that heart beating’, and perhaps that’s what the rest of the songs have been seeking to help us to do.

If it is the heartbeat of Britain, then it is a frenetic one! A pounding beat pervades the music, driven by bass and drums that feature quite high in the mix in many places, though without completely overpowering the riffing of the guitar and the calm but powerful authority of the vocals. This album put me in mind (in places) of Black Country Communion, Wolfmother, Bad Company and The Temperance Movement, and even of some of Hendrix’s bluesier pieces.

There are some wonderful crowd-pleasing moments here, and I have no doubt that these guys will rock in the live setting (I’ve not seen them live, but can imagine that something like ‘Black Boots on Red Dirt’ would go down particularly well). If you like your rock ‘down and dirty’, and on the whole bite-sized, then this may be a band for you: this is what the band themselves call – in good Yorkshire style – “mucky Rock”.

Simon Godfrey – Motherland

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One of my most exciting musical finds of recent years has been the band ‘Tinyfish’. They have a wonderful Englishness about them, that is reflected in their music and also in the sense of fun and humour that pervades what they do, particularly in their live shows. At the heart of that is their ebullient front-man, Simon Godfrey. Having discovered this brilliant band it came as a great sadness to learn that, following their excellent ‘The Big Red Spark’, there would be a hiatus in the band’s playing and recording together. Thankfully this didn’t mean an end to the music: Godfrey went on to record a kind of ‘techno-prog’ album with Shineback – ‘Rise up Forgotten, Return Destroyed’, and recently he has released his first collection of work under his own name – ‘Motherland’.

Simon Godfrey - Motherland - cover

This is an album of short, simple songs (nothing over six minutes), but strong ones nonetheless: songs that, though simple, display a deceptive complexity. A collection of 11 tracks which total just under 43 minutes, this is song-writing from the heyday of the acoustic troubadours. Although dominated by the acoustic guitar, this collection displays a variety of musical textures accompanied by strong, distinctive and at times quite emotional and emotive vocals. For those familiar with Simon’s earlier work, this collection is, to my ears, more Tinyfish than Shineback.

That said, the album opens with a fresh rendering of a track from the Shineback album, ‘Faultlines’, which for the first minute or so creates an expectation for the album that is soon overturned, with a moody, ambient drone giving way to folky steel guitar. The mood of the songs varies from the thoughtful and slightly melancholic ‘Faultlines’ and the instrumental title track, (with spoken word from Godfrey’s long-time collaborator Robert Ramsay) through the upbeat sequence of ‘Tearing up the Room’, ‘God Help Me If I’m Wrong’ and Tinyfish classic ‘The June Jar’, to the slow, dreamy ballad ‘Sally Won’t Remember’, for me perhaps the most heartfelt song on the album.

From what I have seen and read of Simon Godfrey, he is a man who appears to enjoy life – perhaps more so now that he has secured his visa to enable him to live, work and marry in America; he is one with a great, and at times strange, sense of humour, but who shows here a seriousness and sensitivity alongside his fun side. If this is to be his parting gift to his ‘Motherland’, then it is a fine one.

 

Brand X – rare recordings

On By John SimmsIn progressive rock music3 Comments

As a teenager I was a big fan of Genesis (and still am), and as a budding, slightly obsessive completist I sought out the solo material and extra-mural projects of band members as well as the group recordings (as much as my limited income at the time would allow). It was through this route that I had my first real encounter with Jazz Rock Fusion, in the guise of Phil Collins’ solo project, ‘Brand X’.

I was quickly blown away by the virtuosity, energy and inventiveness of Messrs Collins, Goodsall, Lumley Jones & Pert, with later contributions from Robinson, Giblin & Clark. This was exciting music, which took me to places that Prog rock didn’t, and I loved it (and it took me into the multi-faceted realms of more conventional jazz, too). I even managed to catch the band on tour in 1980 at Bradford University, sharing the bill with Bruford, which was a particular joy.

I was delighted to discover that some of the band’s rarer material had become more widely available recently. One was a live recording of a show the band performed in September 1979 at the Roxy, LA. Most of the material here is from the ‘Product’ album (the first of their recordings that I bought, and which they were promoting at the time), and the recordings are of a slightly poor quality, probably being audience-recorded bootlegs. There is a good interaction between band and crowd, with some attempts at Pythonesque humour in places (the band had Michael Palin write sleeve notes for ‘Do They Hurt’ in 1980), though there are some slightly annoying ‘whoops’ from the audience at times: throughout, the musicianship is first rate, as one would expect.

The other is a collection of early session recordings from 1975 & 1976 with early versions of tunes from their first couple of albums, and other material which never made the official releases. So we have ‘Dead Pretty’, which became ‘Born Ugly’; ‘Why Won’t You Lend Me Yours?’ which emerges as ‘Why Should I Lend You Mine (When You’ve Broken Yours Off Already)’; and an early version of live standard ‘Malaga Virgen’, which begins life as ‘Miserable Virgin’.

An interesting couple of collections, which give some insights into the workings of this great group of musicians.