Bad Elephant Music announced themselves on the prog scene last year with the amazing Shineback album, brainchild of the one and only Simon Godfrey, and following on the success of that album they released in swift succession Godfreys acoustic Motherland album, and The Fierce and the Deads frankly astonishing Spooky Action, putting them at the forefront of contemporary prog labels.

They have continued their stellar contribution to the prog world this year with a trio of albums covered here that enhance their reputation as one of the most exciting labels releasing contemporary prog (the other being the Esoteric Antenna label) and if you’ve missed any of these albums then you’re missing out.

Emmett Elvin: Bloody Marvels

Keyboard player for Knifeworld and multi talented multi instrumentalist, Emmett Elvin releases his quite extraordinary solo album. Joining label mates like The Fierce and the Dead and Trojan Horse, Emmett Elvins unique musical take is firmly at home on Bad Elephant as he joins their talented musical family.

This solo journey is piece de resistance for Elvin, whose work with the frankly superb Knifeworld has laid down the benchmark for contemporary post rock prog.

With a diverse mix of sounds here from the fantastic opener of Artificial Pterodactyls Over Leytonstone which has to be one of the best song titles ever, Elvins knack for a sound and trick with a melody is spot on, as the album develops and as you replay it, you start to hear different sounds and get different things each time. The brilliant Witness Unknown, with its nagging guitar riff, and its echoed vocals evoke memories of early Hawkwind and manages to be both sinister and beguiling at the same time, a trick that very few artists can pull off. Whilst tracks like X Corpus, with its almost pensive tones and the closing majesty of Dustbowl Prizewinner are begging to be used in films. In fact the whole album has a widescreen soundtrack style to it, with music concrete elements and snippets of dialogue in the songs.

Freed from the band vision of Knifeworld, Elvin lets his musical imagination run riot, and the result is an eclectic, innovative and exciting triumph, an album of contrasts and depth, light and shade and some of the fantastic music I have heard this year.

Not many artists can claim to perform on two of the best albums of the year, with the Knifeworld album and now this Emmett is one of them.

The Gift: Land of Shadows

Another gem from Bad Elephant, The Gift are one of the third wave prog bands that made their name in the early part of the millennium, and return here with Land of Shadows an album of immense beauty and perception.

With the London based band now being made up of founder member Mike Morton co conspirator David Lloyd, new drummer Scott Tipler, keyboards from Samuele Matterucci, Franz Vitulli on bass and Gary Lucas on guitar, this is the follow up to arguably one of the prog albums of the 2000’s Awake and Dreaming.

With its contemplative spoken word intro I sing of changing leading into the 12 minute epic The Willows with its superb lyrics, its wonderful guitar work and its magnificent movements, this is contemporary symphonic prog at its finest. With some fantastic songs that tell stories of modern life mixed with the musical brilliance and intuition that only the best prog performers have, Land of Shadows is truly a masterpiece, songs like Road runs on til Morning and the rocking Too many hands are fantastic, whilst the 19 minutes plus magnificence that is The Comforting Cold (a song cycle that has been worked on since 2010 and encompasses the loss of Mortons Father in Law and Mother and other life changes) it channels so many emotions into one beautifully written and performed piece of music, with its mood changes, its symphonic widescreen sound and its musical interplay and emotionally honesty that picks you up, pulls you along in its awake and leaves you somewhere else emotionally and spiritually (the only other epic piece I can think of comparing it to is the equally superb This Strange Engine by Marillion). The musical performances here are peerless, the lyrics are so well observed and the interplay between keyboards and guitars are amazing, and with the coda of As finishing this album, Land of Shadows is as perfect a prog performance as you will hear all year and is a welcome addition to everyone’s record collection, and shows how damn magnificent those chaps at Bad Elephant are for treating us to music like this.

Trojan Horse: World Turned Upside Down

We have already been treated to The Fierce and the Dead, Emmett Elvin, Simon Godfrey, The Gift and now their unstoppable assault on the world of prog continues with World Turned Upside Down, the second long player release from Manchester’s Trojan Horse, self proclaimed noisy prog rock bastards.

This inventive and eclectic quartet formed of the Duke Brothers (Nicholas, vocals, guitar, Hammond, keyboard, percussion. Lawrence, vocals, bass, guitars, percussion, Eden, vocals, keys, synths, bass) and Richard Crawford on drums, guitars, vocals, are a phenomenal live force of nature.

Their powerful and inventive live show carries over here on to this record, where they build on the power of their debut with some fantastic musical turns, the opening Juraspyche park for instances features them sparring with the ever inventive Kavus Torabi from Knifeworld, whilst live favourite Scuttle spreads its wings and impresses here. There is plenty of light and shade within this album, as tracks like the 12-minute epic Hypocrites Hymn simmers with the tension and righteous anger of the downtrodden. It’s no surprise the album title is taken from the 1646 revolutionary pamphlet, and the whole record bristles with anger at the austerity policies forced upon this country by the current Government. Songs like Death and the Mad Queen and the frankly amazing Paper Bells sum this up, both lyrically and musically. Who said protest song wasn’t dead?

Trojan Horse is a musical phenomenon, defying easy categorisation, and writing heartfelt lyrics and intense musical moments, combining to create one of the albums of the year.

For further information check out http://www.badelephant.co.uk

I have been back in Bristol for about 6 months now, and boy have I missed the place. It’s a vibrant City with so much going on that it’s very easy to get distracted and if you find willing conspirators you can be out every night.

One of the greatest things about a city this size is the number of venues that have live music on, and not just tribute bands, but proper bona fide gigs criss crossing genres and styles, so from the Fleece, The Louisiana, The O2, Colston Hall, The Old Duke to name a few there really is something for everyone.

One thing Bristol has got going for it is a talented and diverse musical scene, from bands like Portishead, Massive Attack, Hi Fiction Science, the Blue Aeroplanes and artists like Tricky and She Makes War there really is some fantastic music that has been produced and continues to come out of this area.

One such band is Schnauser, an exciting and eclectic English band, who are now signed to the Esoteric Antenna label (alongside local band Hi-Fiction Science, and the excellent Tin Spirits from just down the M4 at Swindon), hats off to Mark & Vicky Powell at Esoteric who find some amazing bands. With some fantastic bands in this area there must be something in the water (or the cider-just ask the Wurzels…)

Mark Powell brought Schnauser to my attention at the album launch for Hi-Fiction Science’s wonderful album Curious Yellow, when he mentioned that if I enjoyed Hi-Fiction Science I should keep an eye out for the new Schnauser album.

In one of those happy coincidences which keeps the world spinning the next day I saw the last Schnauser long player (Where Business meets Fashion) on the review list for the DPRP, and I was hooked.

If you can imagine a four piece performing music in a Canterbury scene vein, with a seam of quintessentially English surrealism and word play running through their oeuvre with overtures of Monty Python or the Bonzo’s and killer vocal harmonies reminiscent of the Beach Boys or early Yes, then you are getting warm as to the Schnauser sound.

However there is something indefinable at play as well, something truly original that sends tingles down the spine, and which puts a great big smile on the face.

Their latest album Protein for Everyone, is their fifth long playing excursion, and sees the debut of Jasper Williams on drums, joining founder member multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Alan Strawbridge, long term collaborator, bassist and vocalist Holly McIntosh and keyboardist extraordinaire Duncan Gammon (also on vocals) who joined in 2011.

Following on from the inventive and complex tracks on Where Business Meets Fashion, which is wonderfully layered album, containing some fantastic tracks like Walking Stick and Cat and Waterloo Teeth, Protein for Everyone is an evolution of the Schnauser sound.

With a striking cover, featuring Laura Kidd (She Makes War) and a real beefcake of a Gentleman all in tweed enjoying a day out at Clevedon pier, this is album art as part of the record, and is probably the best album cover I have seen so far this year (although it might put vegetarians off) the meat theme is carried over, with the CD itself looking like a piece of steak, and the credits written like packaging for meat. A wonderful concept, it works beautifully with the contents of the album.

These 7 tracks are superb, starting with the fantastic Grey or Blue, with its vocal harmonies, it’s great keyboard and guitar work, and of course that Schnauser trademark, the vocal harmonies of Alan and Holly that add so much to the sound, and with its lyrics about choosing optimism or pessimism, it’s a brilliant opener to a strong album. Since the band coalesced around the current line up, the confidence and power of the songwriting has grown, and this is a definite step along from the previous album. The title track Protein for Everyone, features more of those wonderful harmonies, some fantastic musical interplay between all four of the band and lyrics about selling body parts for me. The knack Schnauser have for mixing the dark and the light is sublime, the music is bright, airy and upbeat, then you throw in the lyrics, and it’s only as you’re humming or singing along, you realise that they’re covering quite dark subjects in a very clever way.

National Grid is another great song, and as the music works its magic, again very catchy and very clever, the lyrics deal with everyone being connected via social media.

Contemporary lyrical commentary in a pop/prog packaging, very few people can pull this off, even fewer can pull it off with such skill and aplomb.

Holly takes the lead on The Reason they’re Alive, a brilliant composed song, with another great performance by the band and some fantastic lyrics, again looking at the world in a slightly different way, this time celebrating the life of wasps of all creatures, again it makes you think about them in a slightly different way.

Split is a fairly conventional post-love song, with some heartfelt lyrics and a great performance from Alan, whilst Buon Natale is a fairly joyous if a tad incongruous Christmas song in Italian, whilst the lyrics are all sung in Italian, the music is wonderful, and I would love to be able to speak Italian to translate it, and find out what they are saying.

Then we come to the grand finale, and when I say grand finale it is the long one, Disposable Outcomes, a 16-minute plus epic of Canterbury style intensity and musical playfulness. In fact as it’s made up from a number of different songs it also has that Abbey Road side 2 vibe to it as it flips from mood to mood and song to song.

In fact the band are brimming with musical confidence here, it starts with an announcement about turning off your mobile devices and asking you to enjoy the song, with a lyrical introduction to the piece. In fact the spoken word intro is almost pure Stanshall. With some fantastic jazzy piano, great keyboard work and guitar interplay, the drum and bass of Holly and Jasper working in sync, this is fantastic as it weaves from mood to mood, it’s lyrics celebrating the joys in life, as it sneaks in a reprise from Buon Natalie, with some great guitar work. The band really stretch them out on this one, as the song fragments are all built and built with some of Duncans finest keyboard works and Alans brilliant guitar as suddenly a powerful driving keyboard and guitar riff comes in, Jaspers beat propelling it along at great speed.

This is a confident and intelligent piece of music, as it leads us back into some more of Schnausers story lyrics about Ordinary Ways, celebrating the joy of the usual, in a similar vein to McCartneys vocal interlude during A day in the Life.

Next we launch into Spleen Damage, a cautionary tale for all written and performed in a style that owes nods to the Bonzo’s or indeed Monty Python, with it’s blend or the real and the surreal, it provides a counterpoint to the musical intensity, as the story builds to its crescendo.

The finale returns to musical ideas introduced in Grey or Blue, and rounds the album off with aplomb and style as the finale builds and builds.

This is a fantastic album and shows a band at the park of their musical and compositional powers, and there is no weak track on it, proof of the pudding of course is, does it work live?

Yes, is the answer to that question.

The album was launched at the Lanes in Bristol on Saturday 4^th October, and having already heard the album, and having the joy of seeing them play (albeit a truncated set) supporting Knifeworld, with the addition of the saxophonist to the line up, this was not going to be a gig I missed. Especially it’s practically on the doorstep!

The venue itself, the Lanes, is as the name suggests a bowling alley/bar/multipurpose venue, and whilst I love the fact that quirky venues like this have a place in the world, and also are diversifying so they can maximise their space and make sure they generate revenue to stay open, I am not 100% sure that this works as a venue for live music.

The fact that the bowling was still going on whilst the band played was distracting, and the mixing on the sound left a bit to be desired as some of the magic of the vocal harmonies were lost in the mix.

However that is my only criticism of the night, and with a few tweaks the venue would be perfect. However the audience didn’t seem to mind as the place filled up very quickly, and there was quite a crowd there ready to enjoy the debut of Protein for Everyone in a live setting.

The band played a couple of tracks from their previous album Where Business meets Fashion, including a wonderful version of Walking Stick and Cat, before launching into the album.

With the addition of Deano on Sax to the band, this was the first time the audience got the full five-piece Schnauser effect, and boy is it impressive.

The addition of the sax to the band enhances the live sound, and the way it weaves into the tracks from Protein is superb.

Watching a band live is always better than listening to the album, and the beauty of Protein for Everyone is that every track on the album translates well into a live setting, and when you see them live, you realise just how powerful a drummer Jasper is, throwing himself into everything and driving the songs along, whilst Holly on bass plays to perfection, more than a match for jasper, and the way they work together anchors the whole sound, and is as important to the band as Alans wonderful guitar work and vocals, and Duncans keyboards and his theremin, which when thrown in with the vocal harmonies adds to the fact that at times there is a Beach Boys vibe about them. The vocal interplay between Alan and Holly, which has been a Schnauser trademark for as long as there has been a Schnauser band is vitally important to the sound, and on tracks like The Reason they’re alive and Buon Natale, is at the forefront of the bands sound. The highlight of the set for me, and indeed the highlight of the album, is the immense epic Disposable Outcomes, which works even better live than it does on record (bear in mind on record it is flawless) and with the addition of the sax to the mix, it lifts it even higher, and with its quick fire mood changes, its changes in key, and tempo and style, it comes off with aplomb, showing that Schnauser are absolutely on fire as a live act, and easily the equal of any band you might have seen before. With some fantastic stagecraft and peerless musicianship from all 5 of the band, this was one of those gigs you leave and realise you’ve just witnessed something special. If you get the chance to see Schnauser do so.

I also spoke to multi-instrumentalist and keyboard player Duncan Gammon about the new album, and Schnauser in general, first however we got talking about Duncans 2009 solo album Lord Gammonshire’s guide to Everyday Sounds, a piece of fantastic prog pop, which features guests like Maria Charles from Bristol’s Hi-Fiction Science, and is a rare treat which deserves investigation.

‘It took ages to record, as it was ideas I’d had for a long time, and there was stuff bubbling under from about 2001 when I had started playing in Bristol bands, I started recording it at my home studio, and a friend of mine Gaz Williams, whose a producer here in Bristol helped me out with it, and it came out in 2009. It got some good reviews and reasonable sales, and then I should have promoted it more and toured with it, but I didn’t!’

Then you joined Schnauser,

‘I joined Schnauser in 2011, I had seen them supporting Euros Childs as I’m a bit of a Gorkys (zycotic Mynki) fan and was blown away by seeing them. I bought Sound of Meat and got chatting to the band. I am very into photography so I offered to do some pictures for them, and we got chatting about music. I sent a copy of my album to Alan (Strawbridge) who was raving about it, and then he asked me to join the band on keyboards. I wasn’t really a keyboard player, my main instrument is the guitar, but having switched over to keyboards there’s a different area of songwriting that has opened up for me, and it’s like a blank canvas composing in a way you wouldn’t even consider with a guitar’

Had that informed your input on Protein for Everyone?

‘When I joined the band the majority of Business meets Fashion was already recorded, so I overdubbed all the keyboards and we recorded one song, Pigeons, which I contributed. This time round we were writing in the rehearsal studios, and the process was more organic. It reflects more of what we sound like live, and of course it’s the first album with Jasper on drums.’

‘John (Fowle) the previous drummer had a great sound, right on the mark, he was very precise, Jasper is so different, he’s very much into jazz and so he plays the drums very much like a lead instrument. So the songs came very easily from the jam sessions, and there was a real spark with the writing.’

‘We’ve been playing these songs a long time, they were well rehearsed before we recorded them, and they’ve been in the set list for a while, so we’re used to performing them and know what we’re doing each time’.

I mentioned how I’d seen them supporting Knifeworld recently in Bristol,

‘That was a great gig, I love what Kavus does with Knifeworld and of course the Cardiacs, the music Knifeworld are making is amazing. Unfortunately on the night of that gig, with it being in a small pub, it took ages to set up, so we had to play a shorter set, but we still managed to get the 16 minuter in.

It was out first gig playing with the sax player Deano, who’s now a permanent member of the band. He brings that extra package, another ingredient to the mix and a different sound.’

What about the album launch gig, how did that go?

‘The launch gig, that was the first time we’d played all the songs live and in order as a whole. The sound was a bit muddy, some of the harmonies got lost, but it was a lovely place to do a gig, it’s a great venue.

We launched the last album at the Cube, which unfortunately this time round was booked up, the Cube is an old cinema so we had more films, which this time round we were unable to show.

We did have a good time performing, and it’s good to see the songs went down well with a lot of the audience’

Protein for Everyone is their first album on the Esoteric Antenna label,

‘Mark & Vicky (Powell, label bosses at Esoteric) have done so much for us, they’ve both been so enthusiastic about the record, and I count them as friends. The press has also been very supportive we are getting great reviews. There was a good one in Prog, another great one in Shindig and Record Collector, there’s been some radio as well, and we’re getting orders from other countries

We were nominated for the Limelight award at the Prog Awards this year, we chanced it when we sent off Where Business meets Fashion, and they latched on it and have been supportive of us, and it’s taken off from there.’

How do you feel about being part of the new prog scene?

‘It seems to have come at the right time for us, with all the magazines calling us prog. I am a massive prog fan and listened to things like Ummagumma, Zep III, and Piper at the Gates of Dawn when I was growing up, so it’s where I come from. Up until recently prog has been a dirty word, but now there’s bands like Syd Arthur who aren’t afraid to say they are prog’

Has prog influenced you as a songwriter?

‘Personally I listen to a lot of music, the Canterbury Scene, Caravan, the Soft Machine, Egg, I also like a lot of new bands. We went to see White Denim as a band and they sparked in us the idea of doing the 16-minute track. White Denim have released 4 albums and live they cut it up and mix it with tracks from each album being chopped and changed, its high energy entertainment with a cut and paste style.

Al & Holly are into Todd Rundgren, Al and I like 10CC with their element of songwriting. I consider the work of 10CC to be prog but in a pop sound. Like Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci they had a prog approach with a more commercial sound.

We like to think we have that same sort of approach.

The last track we recorded for the album was Disposable Outcomes, we’d been writing a lot of jams and had ideas for verses and choruses that were unfinished, and then we decided to segue them in a way that seems perfectly natural.

They all came from sessions going back to about 2012 and we’d had bits and pieces recorded when the last album came out.

It became more of a cohesive piece as we did it live in the studio, then overdubbing bits and pieces to give it more energy, we must have rehearsed it several times before recording it, then we broke it into chunks, did 4 takes of each and then mixed it and nailed it. Then when we toured Italy we wondered what we could do live, and honed it there.’

I mentioned the striking album cover, which harks back to classic album covers of the 70’s,

‘We had the album title already, and Johnny who runs Rocket recordings, is a great graphic designer, was knocking ideas around with us. At first we thought about making a meat-processing machine out of an amp, but that didn’t quite work, we wanted something unexpected. So Johnny came up with the idea of the man made out of meat, which ties in with the title track and selling body parts for meat.

We took the photos at Clevedon pier, and Laura Kidd (solo artist She Makes War) another friend from Bristol, volunteered to be our cover star, which works out great because she has a pet Schnauser Benji, and so he’s in some of our promo material as well. Johnny has an eye for detail and is a big fan of Barney Bubbles, and he wanted to make this one like a Hipgnosis cover.

Down to the disturbing shrink-wrapped faces?

That was Johnny’s idea; he covered our heads in cling film, and told us not to breath in otherwise we would suffocate. That was a surreal afternoon. The things you do for your art!’

How has the band evolved?

‘We’re all working full time or part time, and so we can’t do this permanently because at this level it doesn’t pay the bills, and so we fit Schnauser in round family life, and we’re lucky to have such supportive families who allow us to do this.

We feel we’ve evolved from the previous album, and we have a few songs left over from this album that we’re not sure what to do with yet.

Now we’re starting to jam and the riffs we’re doing are different again from ones we’d have done two or three years ago. The song is paramount; it’s all about the pop hooks. The playing might be a bit sharper, particularly with the sax. Now we have the sax we are revisiting the back catalogue to mix the set list up a bit. We’ll even be drawing on the first album that Al did as Schnauser back in 2005, Kill all Humans.

It started out as Al’s baby and it’s evolved as we’ve been playing the new material and stuff from the 4 previous albums.

Has any of the Lord Gammonshire material made it’s way into the set list?

We’ve played Everyday Sounds, so it has been known to happen, as we play Bristol quite a bit, we like to have very different set lists at each gig.

We’re looking for a few more gigs across the UK and start to get out there. Its difficult without a manager, and there’s no idea if there’ll be an audience for us if we get gigs. We’re playing Birmingham, Bournemouth, Swindon fairly soon, then Italy in February.’

Italy seems to figure quite heavily in the bands story

‘Al is obsessed with Italy; in fact he’s out there at the moment. He’s been learning Italian for a long time and I think he’d move there at the drop of a hat.

Buon Natale for instance means Happy Christmas, but Al felt that if he’d sung the lyrics in English they would come across as mawkish, as it’s a jolly tune with quite melancholic lyrics about missing his Dad and other people at Christmas.

It took a while to get the lyrics right on the recording, as we recorded it as live in Weston Super mare, the same sessions that we recorded Grey or Blue, Protein for Everyone, National Grid and Buon Natale. It must have taken about 40 takes to get the vocal right for that. The fact we’ve been playing most of these songs for two years means when we were able to get them done pretty quickly in the studio.’

Buon Natale features another example of the Schnauser harmonies,

‘I’m not needed that often to get involved with the harmonies, one of the Schnauser sounds is the vocal harmonies with Al singing a higher vocal than Holly, there’s only a few songs where I join in and we all harmonise.

Has the band thought about performing further a field?

‘Hopefully we’re looking to set some gigs on in January, we’d like to go up North as we’ve been selling albums in Hebden Bridge, and I have family up North as well, so hopefully we can play up there’.

What about festivals?

‘We played Eppyfest last year, which is a great gig, a superb venue, however we nearly didn’t make it as we broke down and were stuck at Thornbury for three hours, luckily we made it in the end.

We are looking to do more festivals; we usually get on Bristol’s Dot-to-Dot festival. We’ve also played a festival in Dorset, it was the first time we ever played a big stage like the one they have at Glastonbury with a big PA. We played with the Pretty Things and Hugh Cornwall that was good fun. We’d love to do the Green Man festival, and it’s all about getting the momentum behind you’.

And having the record label helps,

‘It was ironic Esoteric signing Hi-Fiction Science and us at the same time, as we’re both good friends. There’s a great scene in Bristol with loads of bands and the live scene is good and supportive, it’s nice to know that there’s bands and venues for everyone.

We wouldn’t have labelled ourselves prog, we think we’re nearer a pop band, and prog people and the prog scene picking up on what we’re doing have labelled us, and it’s great to get exposure as part of the scene.

What about the final story in Disposable Outcomes?

The story, Spleen Damage, it came from a night when I’d had some Speckled Hen. A big influence of mine is Viv Stanshall, and Al had this piano piece that he didn’t know what to do with, and it sounded a bit Rawlinsons end, so I got the notepad out and went nuts. The lyrics throughout Disposable Outcomes are all about celebrating the ordinary. No-one writes about going down the shops, and it’s what people do everyday, so why not write about it and celebrate it.’

Thanks to Vicky at Esoteric for arranging the interview with Duncan, and thanks to Duncan for his time.

More information can be found at http://www.schnauser.co.uk

As other Progarchists have mentioned last weekend was the Classic Rock Society awards night at the Montgomery Hall, Wath Upon Dearne and as John Simms and Alison Henderson have already gone into great depth about the winners, I won’t elaborate too much more on whats already been said.

The Classic Rock Society is a special place for me beacuse as a 17 year old prog fan growing up in South Yorkshire nearly 20 years ago in a world full of Brit pop, Cool Britannia and girl power the one thing I was looking for was an organisation full of like minded individuals putting on prog gigs and writing about the music I listened to.

Less than 10 miles from home was the Rotherham Classic Rock Society, as it was then, rather like being in Wigan at the rise of Northern Soul, or Liverpool at the birth of the Beatles, I was in the right place at the right time. How lucky was I?

Since then I have had the immense pleasure of writing for their magazine, had the joy of interviewing some of my musical heroes, helped out at gigs, made some great lifelong friends and been introduced to some wonderful music all before the days of streaming, downloads and You Tube!

This makes going back to Rotherham for whatever CRS gig always feels like going home, as I bump into old friends and, with the internet having revolutionised socialising, meet people I consider friends for the first time in the flesh.

It was a Big Big night for Big Big Train, and their beer was something that I sampled (several times, I had to make sure I liked it!), whilst leaving with a copy of The Underfall Yard for the journey home, their victories were on the were recognition of their finest musical achievement so far, and a reflection that their English brand of prog has captured the hearts of many people, myself included. Magenta also triumphed with some well-deserved awards, as detailed elsewhere in Progarchy.

Having helped out at Awards nights in the past where there have been technical difficulties, or guitarists going AWOL, it’s quite nice to be a spectator rather than a participant, and I’m always glad when I’m not the one on the door trying to calm a prog crowd anxious to get to the bar!

Progarchys friend Mr Andy Tillison played a blinder,despite having minor technical issues earlier and his live version of probably my favourite Tangent song Perdu Dans Paris in his inimitable solo style, if the absence of a Tangent tour means more Tillison solo gigs then I for one won’t be disappointed.

I spent a great night meeting and catching up with fellow Progarchist Alison Henderson. I had a good chat with Steve Taylor vocalist with Strangefish who have reformed, and I heartily recommend that if you’ve never heard anything by them, give them a listen then try and get to one of their comeback gigs. On their night they were one of the finest live bands around and its good to have them back. I caught up with Bryan Josh from Mostly Autumn whose always a good bloke to chat to, and he reminded me, that it’d been nearly 15 years since Mostly Autumn first played Rotherham, my how the time flies.

One person I enjoyed chatting to was Jarrod Gosling (of I Monster and Henry Fool fame) who’s a Sheffield musical legend and who has a new prog opus out under the name of Regal Worm. If you like your prog quirky, playful, intelligent and ambitious then grab yourself a copy of Use and Ornament, you won’t be disappointed.

Going to a CRS gig makes you feel part of a big family, and you can go alone but still find people to talk to. I spent time with the talented Simon Godfrey of Shineback and Tinyfish fame, and Robert Ramsay wordsmith extraordinaire, both great guys and bad influences (I blame Mr Ramsay for suggesting I try the Big Big Train beer!!).

Clive Nolan’s Alchemy was an epic prog musical, and whilst I really enjoyed the stage show, I would like to see the full musical performance to really get the feel for the work. Clive Nolan never disappoints whatever he turns his hand to, and Alchemy was no exception with Andy Sears in fine form, and the band really tight and on it all night.

Highlight of the night however was having the pleasure of meeting Fish again, the first time I met him was at the 2005 CRS awards, when he last presented the awards, who was over the moon at picking up his best lyricist award, one he rightly deserved.

This was another fine awards night even though I didn’t win anything on the raffle and showcases the hard work the CRS has put into promoting prog rock since 1991.

For over 20 years they have been putting on fine quality gigs and the awards night at various venues, and it’s a great organisation to be a part of, has shaped my life and musical tastes in so many ways and the gigs are always a great atmosphere, so if you’ve never been before I recommend you try them out.