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2011 Calendar arrived in tip top shape today... Gonna look very fab on that particular spot I have in mind @ work. Hopefully this will become something of a tradition?

Didn't TBE do drums on Dark Matter - could explain the change........

Nope, TBE played on the last IQ album called Frequency. And the drumming is clearly in Paul Cook's style.

Can't agree more... To The Power Of Five was on the Prog mag Cd a couple of issues back and I ordered as soon as it hit GEP site, it's been on ever since (car, laptop and iPhone) .... very relaxing and a superb mix... hats off to Mike (and not forgetting Cookie) and shows off the keyboard skills too!

I agree... Paul Cook plays really well on To The Power Of FIve (I believe that is actually the only track he plays on). Except for Dark Matter where he also sounded pretty unleashed his playing since Ever seemed a bit too clunky and stale for my liking. Mind you, the rest of the music and performances really made up for it :-). I hope this new "passion" translates to any new IQ material that we might get in the future.

Am playing this disc now for the second time today after having received it through the mail. This is basically Mike Holmes (IQ) own project now (the first album was an IQ spin-off project recording tunes written by the pre-IQ band The Lens) indulging himself and asking the question: "How would the Lens have developed if they had still been together instead of IQ?". The answer is probably: we would have had a bloody great band that incorporates both elements from spacerock, prog and even dance-music into a cohesive whole.

The opening track Choosing A Farmer Part IV is one of the best tip-of-the-hats toward Pink Floyd that I have ever heard. It has a vibe similar to the intro of Us & Them and similar mellow slow jams by Floyd. Love the very effective use of NASA samples (lift-off sequence). And then we plunge straight into the second track To The Power Of Five which is as prog as it gets on this album... very close to the early IQ sound. Interestingly, for an album made by a musician who is primarily a guitarist there aren't a lot of guitarsolo's on it but I don't miss them a bit. Holmes is really one of the most accomplished allround musicians I know.

This one comes highly recommended        

For me, as a big Barclay James Harvest fan, this is a very very sad day:

//http://www.bjharvest.co.uk/

It is with great sadness that John Lees' Barclay James Harvest announces the passing of Woolly Wolstenholme. In recent weeks Woolly's mental health had taken a turn for the worse and sadly he took his own life on Monday 13th December 2010. As you can imagine, John, Craig, Jez and Kevin and everyone associated with the band are stunned that a shining light of Barclay James Harvest is no longer with us. In this difficult time our thoughts are with Woolly's partner, Sue. We would ask all of Woolly's fans to remember his incredible contribution to popular music and his unique presence on stage.

Book Of Condolences: //http://www.bjhforum.co.uk/woolly/guestbook.cgi

I am very grateful I got to see the John Lees' Barclay James Harvest last year both in Berlin and Essen (Germany) with Woolly Wolstenholme on the keyboards. He was one of those rare keyboard-players who really perfected the art of playing the Mellotron (yep, he was still playing a real one and it was in perfect shape and sounded glorious). Barclay James Harvest never really recovered from his departure after the XII album IMHO, so I was very pleased to see him reunite again with guitarist John Lees in recent years.

And there has also been talk of more giggs along the lines of the Esoteric/DOTR nights, apparently Pete suggested an Elizabethan theme!!!!! Jem then came back with a quote of, or 'in space'.

Oeoeoe... the whole band in Blake's Seven gear  8-)  :lol:

Managed to get the first one online. Its probably 2/3rds of The Dividing Line.
//http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swabZYyOXeg

Absolutely gobsmacked ... damn it.... this line-up should really do some gigs on the European mainland (Holland / Germany / Belgium preferably). Next year Night Of The Prog @ Loreley ?

Question: am I right in thinking that we got a few glimpses of our Nellie in this report?

So, how come Magenta can release this song and Frost*'s rendition of FFTCM has to languish in limbo?

Somehow this show worked it's magic because after I had finished listening to it earlier last week, I left for London for a week's holiday (incl. doing some record-shopping and going to gigs) and I ended up finding very cheap: G&C - Freeze Frame and Cornelius - Point. Actually I think I found both of them on the same in the same shop.

Just popping in that the Shepherds Bush gig was absolutely phenomenal. IMHO Hackett's got his best band ever to with some serious musicianship going on plus also some serious eye-candy as well. The epic Shadow Of The Hierophant brought us a nice cameo performance by Steven Wilson during the big build up finale and the whole band slowly but surely kicked up quite a few notches. I think I even noticed Wilson in the end helping Nick Beggs out on the basspedals. The whole thing sounded incredibly big and huge.....

What wasn't good though were a few members of the audience. There was this one bloke quite upfront (of the small, quite chubby and very drunk kind) that just kept on yacking throughout the songs especially during the quieter bits. And there was half of a Swedish duo that was standing behind us who had flown in just that day for the show and who kept on yacking to his friend during almost the entire show about how he was the biggest Swedish Hackett fan ....

What on EARTH is that you're playing the last 80 seconds?!?!  :shock:

It sounds an awful lot like the band Thought Industry.

Man, doesn't Jem have a voice fit for radio?

I am so looking forward to the London gig in little then a week from now .... Ordered the tickets for those a few months ago when it wasn't clear that it would become such a high profile gig with guest appearances by both John Wetton and Steve Wilson. It's gonna be a great week in London with also gigs by Strawbs and BJH. Sadly no Frost because I couldn't fit that one in my whole holiday schedule  

I would love to vote but I have one big problem: I think I haven't bought any 2010 prog album  :shock: