No sleep until Kingston: it's time to Celebr8.2..

British prog fans are a hardy bunch of rockers who tend to follow the music wherever it may lead. So while hundreds of prog fans were enjoying the warmth of the Mexican sun at Bajafest and others were basking in the afterglow of the Cruise to the Edge in the Caribbean, a select gathering got a taste of prog in a cold climate.

Let me explain. The weekend before last saw the inaugural staging of Hard Rock Hell’s (HRH) Prog Festival.

It was running alongside the first ever AOR Festival so, effectively, it was two festivals for the price of one. Both were being held in a former Yorkshire steel mill, now Magna, a science adventure center which is one of the UK’s flagship Millennium projects opened in 2000.

There had been a certain amount of hoo-ha over here last year when the festival was first announced, due mainly to some clumsy messaging by the organisers which gave the impression it was the only festival happening for proggers. Of course, we are blessed with great prog festivals over here, among them the established and much loved Summer’s End and the newer kids on the block, Danfest and Celebr8. However, to cut a long story short, another brand new festival, Y-Fest, which was due to be held just along the road in Sheffield a month before this new behemoth took place, had to be cancelled.

It was not our intention to go, the festival being a good four hours’ drive up country but when we were offered a couple of tickets by a competition winner, well, it would have been rude not to! First and foremost, it presented an excellent opportunity to come and observe how the new bad boy on the prog block would perform.

Well, for the benefit of those not familiar with the venue, it is a huge black monolith, a catacomb of interlinking areas which, in some places, look like something from a sci-fi film set from where some may have not successfully escaped at closing time! http://www.visitmagna.co.uk/science/

As the families arrived to do the usual adventure tour, the various musical tribes began appearing to enjoy two days of non-stop music from a stellar cast of bands. Now, the reason why I say prog fans are a hardy breed is because in the great scheme of things within Magna, while the AOR crowd had a lovely warm arena with a large stage and good acoustics in which to enjoy their music, our “space” was an area adjacent to the loading bay through which instruments and other nefarious musical accessories were being delivered and retrieved throughout the day, resulting in the bay doors being constantly left open. Add to that the very high industrial cathedral-like ceiling and the concrete floor and it soon became obvious that this was going to be a weekend for thermals, scarves and woolly hats.

However, such was the good natured humor, one of our number, Richard Thresh, turned up in a Hawaiian shirt but had not gone as far as A N Other who was bravely sporting a pair of shorts. And whereas the lady members of the bands appearing would usually opt for something skimpy and appealing, thick tights, overcoats and furry boots were the order of the day.

Continue reading “Prog in a Cold Climate” →

For those of us who are “old-timers,” still somewhat stuck in the 1970’s, band personnel changes can be among the most significant events in music-making.  Perhaps this is still true, but my sense is that it has become much more taken-for-granted as part of the “prog” landscape.  I’ve been taking it slow with my forays into Spock’s beard, and singing the praises of patience, of not being hasty.  I haven’t yet commented on X, though I have listened once, and the post will come.

But a quick “first impression” moment for the newest release, number eleven, Brief Nocturnes and Dreamless Sleep (2013), is too hard to resist.  While I will need another careful listen to decide completely exactly what I think of the addition of Ted Leonard’s vocal stylings to the mix, the impression there is by no means a seriously negative one.  And more importantly, everything else seems to point to the ongoing vitality of SB’s musical ethos.  That ethos pulsates here with an entrancing blend of hard-edged rocking and soundscape sculpting, with what seems just the right amount of fealty to the “tradition” (a weighty word that I hope is not too burdensome) of progressive rock.  Both composition and lyric-writing come across, on my first listen, as quite consistent with the high standards set by (sorry for the persona-centric specificity of historical reference) the “NdV era” Beard.

I will listen again.  But that first listen was no disappointment.  If you have had that nagging, subtle fear of change, as I have in this case, and if you’ve found value in the judgements that I’ve rendered so far, then you should definitely listen.  The Beard still grows.  These guys still rock!

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