Grateful for my beloved wife, son, daughter-in-law, grandchildren and siblings. Also a lover of theology, music, history, philosophy, classic novels, science fiction, fantasy and Looney Tunes.
We are delighted to announce that Robin Armstrong will be joining the live line-up of Big Big Train for our shows in 2018 and beyond.
Robin is a multi-instrumentalist and the leader of progressive rock band, Cosmograf. Nick, Rachel and Greg have played as guest musicians on Cosmograf albums and we are looking forward to performing with Robin at our shows at The Anvil in Basingstoke and at the Night of the Prog festival in Loreley, Germany.
Will the good Dr. Birzer’s head explode anticipating all the proggy goodness to come?
Tune in tomorrow … same prog-time … same prog-channel!
Marillion at 20 Monroe Live, Grand Rapids, Michigan, February 18, 2018.
Waiting for Marillion to take the stage, my thoughts drifted to the rest of those gathering in this well-appointed concert club. Why were they here?
Doubtless, there were locals who, when they heard Marillion was returning to Grand Rapids after 20+ years, anticipated pure nostalgia — “Kayleigh,” “Incommunicado,” “Hooks In You,” “No One Can,” fixtures of local rock radio in the early 1990s. After all, why else would a band with no more than a cult following tour the States, if not to play the hits?
Then there were the hardcore fans, the ones I’d hung with in Facebook groups for a couple of years now. People from GR, Kalamazoo, and Detroit who’ve traveled nationally and internationally to see the band since their last Michigan stops — some 30, 40 or more times. The folks who converged on this mid-size Midwestern city from (for example): Bangor, Maine; Hillsboro, Oregon; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Baja, Mexico; and Stoke-on-Trent, England, telling stories of their first Marillion experiences, sometimes stretching back more than four decades. Not to mention “The Nine,” as they named themselves, who’ve seen every show on the current US tour. They all have their favorite songs — but they knew that much more was coming than a rote run-through of career high points.
And then there was me — a Marillion fan since Seasons End, but only on my fourth show (still way behind King Crimson and Rush), bringing my wife and two friends for their first experience of the band, ten minutes away from my house. I couldn’t help but wonder: what connects us? Why this band? What’s at the heart of this experience?
March 23: Unplugged at the Walls (1999) and Tumbling Down the Years (2010)
May 25: Smoke and Mirrors (both 2006)
July 6: Happiness Is Cologne (2009) and Popular Music (2005)
September 21: Live in Glasgow (1993) and Brave Live (2013)
Merch copies of the “Limited USA Tour Edition” of FEAR (which includes a sampler of the live reissues) sold out at Marillion’s recent Grand Rapids show, but it’s still available from Amazon at this writing.
For the first time in 32 years, performer/producer Todd Rundgren is reuniting his band Utopia for an extended tour of the United States.
Founded as a progressive septet specializing in synthesizer-heavy, instrumentally-oriented wigouts, Utopia served as both Rundgren’s dedicated live band and an outlet for his more experimental music. However, as Rundgren’s solo albums kept getting wilder, Utopia went a different way, shedding two of three keyboard players, picking up Kasim Sulton as bassist and co-vocalist, and morphing from the proggy hard rock of Ra (including the tongue-in-cheek epic “Singring and the Glass Guitar — An Electrified Fairy Tale”) to sleek power pop with cooperative songwriting, tight harmonies and a high-tech sheen.
With Roger Powell on keyboards and Willie Wilcox on drums, Utopia hit a commercial peak on the albums Oops! Wrong Planet (including “Love Is the Answer,” later a pop hit for England Dan & John Ford Coley) and Adventures In Utopia (intended as the soundtrack for a Monkees-like TV series that never happened). The band’s highest visibility may have been as the backing group for Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell album, which Rundgren produced.
True to Rundgren’s restless musical tastes, Utopia then veered off into the commercial dead ends of Deface the Music (an album of Beatles pastiches) and Swing to the Right (a concept record slamming early Reaganism). Rundgren’s pioneering video work for the band gained extensive play on the fledging MTV, but the quartet petered out in 1985, only reuniting for a 1992 tour of Japan.
As Marillion tours the United States (stopping at my home town this coming Sunday night! SQUEEEEE!!!), I’ve found the mechanics of marketing this band in a country where they’re at best a cult act fascinating. How do you sell albums beyond your core fanbase, especially at retail, when your last album came out 16 months ago? And, what else might that core fanbase want, or have missed? As Marillion manager Lucy Jordache commented in the group’s North American Fan Page on Facebook, “Many retailers wanted something ‘new’ to sell and therefore advertise the tour and also press didn’t really want to cover any tour dates unless they had a ‘new product.'” So Marillion and their retail distributors earMusic (the rock division of Germany’s Edel Group) have responded with a twofold strategy.
Yesterday I had the immense pleasure and privilege of talking by phone with Steve Hackett as he prepares for his 2018 Tour de Force. Over the course of 30 minutes, Steve was genial, gracious and forthcoming. He talked about life on a prog rock cruise, his busy agenda for this year, the musicians he works with, his take on where progressive music might be heading, and much more. Steve’s words (slightly edited for clarity and organized by topic) follow!
About this year’s Cruise to the Edge:
“Absolutely marvelous. I think this was our fourth Cruise, as was the case for many of the acts, and I think everyone said this time they felt that it was the best of the lot, because so many people knew each other, familiar faces. They have a boatload of about 3,000 people. In the end, when you’ve done this thing before, people just keep coming back, and saying, ‘Oh, hi, Steve.’ ‘Hi, Fred.’ All that is just wonderful, it’s mind-boggling, it’s like a sort of brotherhood on the briny, on the high seas. It’s wonderful that these cruises have become such a success. I get to hook up with all sorts of extraordinary pals, such as the guys from Marillion and all the Yes guys, of course, and Martin Barre of Jethro Tull, and so many. So there’s a great camaraderie amongst everybody, so we all got time to hang out together, see each other’s shows, and it’s become a great tradition.”
About sitting in and collaborations:
“I sat in with Dave Kerzner on the Cruise, I’ve played on a couple of albums of his. In a way, I think there’s this thing about helping each other out, as I say, this brotherhood feeling. And he’s tremendously hard working, he’s done so many things recently, and it’s great. He often says, ‘Ooh, I’ve got such and such, do you feel like using that?’ in his studio. Between all of us, we’ve got a ton of contacts and we help each other. It’s a great time in rock & roll, it’s very much everyone’s feeding everyone else, it’s really very good.”
“We played a version of this thing called ‘Stranded,’ which was on his first album. It was a poolside thing where we did that at night, but it really took off. I’m hoping we see a film of it at some point.” [Here’s Steve’s solo from the end of ‘Stranded,” as played on Cruise to the Edge 2018. Thanks to Dave Kerzner, guitarist extraordinaire Fernando Perdomo, and Fernando’s friend Cyndi for supplying the video!]
“I think perhaps it’s a case of having been in the industry for a certain amount of time, where the people remember me via Genesis or GTR or solo stuff, or whatever it happens to be. Over and above that, I’ve worked with a tremendous amount of artists, showing up, doing the solos. Not always guitar – sometimes it’s harmonica or other strange things that I get asked to do, and if I can fit it into the schedule, I like doing it. I’ve worked with all sorts of artists. It hasn’t always been rock; sometimes it’s been other stuff – Evelyn Glennie, which is avant-garde stuff, a Hungarian band called Djabe. I do stuff with them and meet musicians all over the world.”
Following last year’s sell-out Genesis Revisited tour, prog icon and former Genesis guitarist, Steve Hackett, announces a 6-date UK tour in October. Treating fans to many favourite Genesis and Hackett numbers, this time Steve and his band will be accompanied by a 41-piece orchestra.
The decision to undertake this tour was cemented following the critical success of last year’s one-off US performance of the Genesis Revisited music with his band and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by the charismatic Bradley Thachuk.
It went down a storm with the audience and sounded amazing, with the orchestra adding even more texture and colour to these classic tracks, prompting Steve to want to perform more shows in this way. Such was the gusto and verve brought to the performance by conductor, Bradley Thachuk that he will fly over to the UK to conduct the October shows. This show promises to be a transcendent experience!
Accessible, but not mainstream. Simple, though hardly simplistic. Unfolding methodically but organically, without feeling confined to strict verse/chorus/bridge templates. Ambient, but by no means aural wallpaper. And definitely prog — but prog that can’t be pinned down with an easy label.
These dichotomies come to mind listening to Of Course It Must Be, the second album by this pair of Progarchists (including Our Beloved Founder). It’s a gentle, subtly delightful listen: without ever getting in your face, it builds, minute by minute, from a spacey drone that kicks off “Adrift” to pumping acoustic guitar riffs on “Calm,” paralleling a lyrical journey from desperation to acceptance.
The nameless protagonist of Brad Birzer’s “lyrical prose” drifts into the picture disoriented, grasping for connection (“Adrift”), vaguely remembering a moment of crisis (“The Void”). Though there are tantalizing hints, we’re not really sure what’s happened. And you could argue that nothing further really “happens” as the album continues. The hero’s vision gradually comes into focus (“A View”), observing the good and the bad of a world turning below (“There” and “There Again”), accepting “the beautiful and hideous … messed up, glorious” (“Yes”). Whatever fate awaits him, he’s convinced that “humanity will continue/A beautiful mess/Made complete by love.” And as “Calm” winds down, the narrator’s meditations simply fade out … like a still, small voice. Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Another cool thing: you could conceivably follow this storyline even if the lyrics weren’t sung. Dave Bandana’s music is understated, yet cinematic throughout. Using a restrained, gradually brightening palette of tone colors, he deftly unfolds Birzer’s scenario with a precise balance of riffs, grooves and tunes, while leaving plenty of space for the music to breathe. His singing is always committed and solid, and his work on guitar, keys and drums is consistently tasty (with occasional, appreciated echoes of Rick Wright in the synth solos). Guests Kenny Miller on acoustic guitar and Olga Kent on violin light up the tracks they play on with gracious, melodic work. There’s a cumulatively powerful growth to the music as a whole; on the last three tracks, the busier, somewhat poppier soundscapes are somehow the perfect complement to the hero’s breakthrough. Musically and lyrically there’s contentment and quiet joy, even while looking darkness in the face.
Of Course It Must Be — what?? Something like you’ve never heard before? Probably not. A genre-defining breakthrough? Not really. A well-crafted, classy, worthwhile album that deserves an hour out of your life to hear it, as well as some of your hard-earned cash? Yep, that’s the ticket.
Shed a tear for the hardcore prog collector — actually, don’t. This week has been absolutely crammed with articulate announcements looking to part fans from their hard-earned cash or pull them deeper into debt. And no, I’m not talking about the upcoming Derek Smalls solo album. Check out what’s coming our way as winter (hopefully) gives way to the spring of 2018:
Dave Kerzner’s fine second album Static wound up on multiple Progarchists’ Best of 2017 lists (including my honorable mentions). In addition, Kerzner took Static on the road to great reviews — including my raving about his two sets at Progtoberfest III.
Yesterday, Kerzner announced the Kickstarter project for the next logical step: Static Live. Recorded and filmed at the 2017 ProgStock festival in New Jersey, Static Live will be available in multiple formats, as explained on Kerzner’s Facebook page:
Static Live 1CD: just the album Static live (Static is a full CD)
Static Live Extended 2CD: 2nd CD has songs from New World featuring Francis Dunnery plus some Genesis, Kevin Gilbert, SOC and Pink Floyd covers.
Blu-Ray: All of Static Live plus the New World songs with Francis and maybe the SOC songs but probably not the other covers unless I’m able to get “sync rights” from the publishers of those songs. I’ll explain how that works in an update.
For the Kickstarter project, the audio will be available as physical CDs or downloads (mp3, FLAC and HiRes 24/96 in FLAC or WAV). The video will be available as a BluRay with 5.1 surround sound. As you travel further up the 20+ (!) pledge levels, you can add audio downloads and/or BluRays of Kerzner’s band live at the 2017 RoS Fest and live in Miami in 2015, as well as items from his back catalog (New World, New World Live and Static itself).
Kerzner admits that he’s had to learn from previous Kickstarter campaigns where release dates were pushed back multiple times; with all these live shows already in the can, his goal is to finish “mixing, editing and post production, manufacturing and shipping” by May 2018. In less than 24 hours, he’s already raised nearly $6000 of his $10K goal; anything above that amount will go toward further touring in Europe and the U.S. The Static Live Kickstarter project ends on February 14. So, I’m off to sell some old CDs …
(P.S. No official word, but I wouldn’t be surprised if audio and video purchase options for Static Live turn up on Kerzner’s Bandcamp page once backers get their copies.)
Progarchy 