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DAY 1...
It was at NearFest 2003 that I first heard about the
Progeny show in London. Another good friend and a lover of all things neo-prog,
Allen Gunnison, who I had first met at NF 2000 and subsequently at Baja Prog
in March of 2002 alerted me to this top notch lineup of mostly neo-prog or
neo-prog styled bands.
Allen Gunnison did a most excellent article in the Spring/Summer 2003
Progression Magazine on some of the essential neo-prog recordings of the past
20 years to the present. As a side note, as a lover of all things neo-prog I
realized I had all but three of the recordings Allen wrote about in his
article. I have since found the three long out of print releases from that
article that I did not have.
Anyway, Allen mentioned to me this event and I immediately got home and made
hotel reservations and ordered our tickets. We were even able to get pretty
good flight ticket prices.
Going to England for “just” the music show seemed like such a waste so JoAnn
and I planned an extended week long ‘vacation’. As I had never actually taken
a true vacation since I had graduated college back in 1976, this was going to
be it. No cell phone, no laptop, just a pocket full of Travelers Checks.
Speaking of which, the US dollar to British Pound exchange rate is horrible.
For every $200 in US funds exchanged you got around 125 British Pounds.
So we arrived early on November 11th and walked around London. On Wednesday
the 12th we took the train about two hours north to a beautiful little town
called Chesterfield. From there our friends picked us up and we drove to their
home in the hills above Ashover, near Derbyshire.
Their home was built in 1703 and while it had been modernized over the years
the feel was of a home with a tremendous amount of history.
We spent the night with Janet and Allan and had a wonderful visit. I walked
out into the fields around their house that night. The sky was so clear and
the stars were so bright and alive.
Over the next several days we went to a wonderful flea market in Chesterfield,
drove on the wrong side of the road, enjoyed comfortable rides on the trains
and even the tubes (their word for the subway). The cabbies were fun and
friendly and the food was not bad. I fell in love with this stuff called Brown
Sauce and English meat pies. The great beers were not bad either. In fact, I
soon learned that you do not drink beer as much as you eat it as most are so
wonderfully thick and full bodied.
Ultimately we met some wonderful people who had come in from different parts
of England just for this show. It seems that as far as London goes, prog shows
are far from common.
Anyway we met John, Jenny, David and Miles who were also neo-prog heads and
were also in town for the Neal Morse show on the Friday before Progeny.
Jo and I had walked to this little pub called Jack Horner’s to have a Guinness
and a snack before heading to the Neal Morse show and here was this table of
cool looking people. The first thing I noticed was one guy with a Steve
Hackett tour shirt, another with a Flower Kings tour shirt and Jenny had on a
Spock’s Beard tour shirt. Of course, noticing these shirts I asked if they
were in town for Neal Morse and Progeny and they were. As is typical of the
vast majority of prog music fans I have ever met, this group was immediately
friendly and invited us Yanks to sit down and visit. We had barely set down
before John had taken our beer orders and the evening was on.
In addition to this group of “locals” there were at least five friends we knew
from US prog shows that had flown across the pond for this event. Also, an
internet friend, Frode from Norway, was in attendance. As I’ve said in the
past about these music shows, it is really like a friendly family reunion.
Another quick point to make is that Progeny was in no way meant to be anything
like ProgDay, NearFest, ProgFest, ProgWest, or even Baja Prog. No, Progeny was
a weekend event scheduled a club. In/out was only allowed up to a certain time
of the evening, no food/drinks allowed in, and basically no real music
vendors, etc. Progeny was just a weekend of music.
The Astoria is a famous London venue that has played host to numerous prog
shows in the past and still manages to book a very eclectic group of bands
including Spock’s Beard, Porcupine Tree, and many others.
The venue holds at least 2000 people and this weekend event was well attended
as would be expected.
First up on Saturday was Magenta. A band from Wales that I had really wanted
to see, I was somewhat upset that even before the doors had been opened and
all the people waiting in line had made their way into the venue, Magenta had
already started. This band is excellent. A very fluid style of prog that while
not truly “neo-prog” it certainly has a melodic and symphonic sound that
should warm the heart of any prog lover who prefers melody and song structure
to noodling.
Magenta has a wonderful female lead
singer whose voice was as clear as a bell and heart wrenching. This was no
Annie Haslam want to be as her voice was truly her own. She wore a long
spaghetti strapped black dress and was barefoot during the entire set.
A most excellent opening band that should have been given more time to play.
The Carl Palmer Band who was scheduled to play had to drop out as one band
member had developed a severe case of tinnitus (ringing in the ears) and had
to be away from music for a period of time.
To my mind and others the promoters should have added some time to Magenta and
to Pallas but that did not happen. I’ll explain more later.
Each band used their own gear so the stage was packed and layered with rig
after rig. I was sure that there was no way they would be able to change bands
along the time line they had set forth but they sure did. All weekend long
they moved from one band to the next in seamless fashion.
Next up was Richard Sinclair. I had not really realized exactly who this guy
was until I heard his voice. Then I realized he was the original singer in
Camel (I believe he sang on Camel’s first two releases) then he moved on to
play and sing with Caravan.
His set was very mellow and laid back. Just him on acoustic guitar and one
other person playing flute and sax. Not a bad set just not enough energy to
get the crowd worked up. It was clear that on this day the crowd was here to
see two bands. Those were Pallas and IQ.
Following Richard Sinclair was the Canterbury/Fusion band called In Cahoots.
In Cahoots is exactly the type of music I do not like. The band is full of
extremely talented musicians who simply prefer noodling to song structure.
A band that feels it’s more important to
see exactly how many notes they can cram into a three minute song as the more
notes the better right?
They left me and a vast majority of this ever increasing crowd cold. I was
very glad when their set ended.
Next up was Pallas. Ah Pallas. This is one of the bands I was coming to see
even though I knew they were only going to get to play a shortened set due to
allowing more time for the Carl Palmer Band prior to IQ.
To make it worse, The Carl Palmer Band
had to drop out as one band member had developed a severe case of tinnitus
(ringing in the ears). Rather than ask Pallas to play longer, the promoters
asked Kevin Ayers to add a set on Saturday.
Pallas ROCKED THE HOUSE. They reminded the very loving crowd exactly why it is
called Prog ROCK. Pallas was so tight; they played as if they had not missed a
day of playing in twenty years. They played songs from The Cross and The
Crucible, they played classic songs from both of their earliest releases and
as the icing on the cake they concluded their abbreviated set with Sanctuary.
Man, they rocked the house. I could have listened to them for hours.
After another rapid set change, on came
Kevin Ayers. Kevin Ayers was a member of the original Soft Machine but was
only on their very first LP. I suppose that is the link that got him invited
to play this gig.
 But
why oh why was he ever invited to play? I’m sorry, but this guy did not deserve
to be part of this event. His music was pure and simply what I would call
“rockabilly”. It was just so out of place at this event. To make it worse, all
of the songs sounded exactly alike. The only real difference was the lyrics
that were in each song. The one song that really got me was one he called
“Super Salesman”. In this song one of the lines was “…I’m a super salesman, I
can make you buy all the crap I am selling.” Yep, he was selling crap but most
of the crowd was back at the bar with only a handful standing anywhere near
the stage.
His only saving grace was the most beautiful Electric Blue Fender Stratocaster
he was playing. Like it was the prettiest guitar I’ve ever seen, of course I’m
very partial to blue. Also, his band had another lead guitar player who could
have passed as Phil Lynot the late guitarist from Thin Lizzy. Not that he
could play that good but he sure looked like Phil.
Certainly there was no call for this guy to be asked to fill in on Saturday.
The promoters should have extended both the Magenta and the Pallas sets.
The final band on Saturday was IQ. These guys were given a full two hours and
used it to the hilt. They brought their full on show including projectors,
film, and special lighting.
IQ came to impress and did exactly that.
They played old familiar sings from The Wake, Subterrania, Seventh House and
even a few new tunes. John Jowett rocked as usual; Peter Nichols (while
fighting a cold) sang his heart out and was a clear and powerful stage
presence. Martin Orford showed why he is the Master keyboardist that he is.
Paul Cook rocked on drums and Mike Holmes with his trademark “Monty Python”
salute simply ripped on guitar.
What a great evening of neo-prog music.
After the show Jo and I were hauled off to a lovely little Indian restaurant
just around the corner from the venue. The Pallas guys were also there and we
enjoyed a wonderful meal of loud taunts and warm beer.
As Pallas was leaving they did tell us that the promoters had done well
financially and that there would be a Progeny II in 2004.
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