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I can't get excited about this at all.

No.

Not at all.

Really.


Oh, who am I kidding

Order placed 

Trembling with anticipation.  A plain chocolate hob nob (or two) is called for I think

Ah, that was you in the bog then.

I confess I did have to make space for some additional liquid intake  

It has taken me a while to get caught up after returning from the N. Yorkshire, but now I ccan post my version of crap photos of the Wesley Centre gig:

   

   

Sorry about the white heads.  The contrast was too great for my poor little Canon camera to cope with (or maybe it was just the numpty behind the camera - me).

Regardless of picture quality, it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening and I enjoyed my little chat(s) with Matt.    

I also inaugurated my TPE T-Shirt - so it was quite an event  

From the Nearfest web-site

UK TO HEADLINE SOLD-OUT NEARFEST APOCALYPSE
Tuesday, May 29, 2012

 
We are delighted to announce that the legendary progressive rock supergroup UK will be joining the NEARfest Apocalypse lineup as the Sunday night festival headliner with a four-piece lineup. By some streak of amazing fortune, the members of UK had simultaneous availability in their busy schedules, and were able to assume the mantle of festival headliner with less than a month to spare before the event.

Revolving around two iconic musicians, keyboardist/violinist Eddie Jobson and bassist/vocalist John Wetton, UK was the last of the 1970s progressive rock supergroups. UK seamlessly melded dazzling instrumental virtuosity, incredible compositional prowess, classical and jazz influences, and memorable song-craft into two classic studio albums that have endured the test of time and earned the band legions of fans. In the second decade of the new millennium these two luminaries have once again joined forces to bring UK's timeless music back to the stage, thrilling audiences around the world at sold-out concerts. With an expanded four-piece lineup including celebrated rock/fusion drummer Gary Husband and noted fusion guitarist Alex Machacek, UK will feature music from both of its albums and classic-era King Crimson songs not able to be performed with the 3-piece lineup that recently toured the USA.

NEARfest Apocalypse will occur June 22-24, 2012 at Zoellner Arts Center, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA. Co-headlining with UK are Van der Graaf Generator (Friday night June 22) and Renaissance (Saturday night June 23). Although the festival has been sold out for some time, UK fans seeking to attend may look for second-hand tickets at the NEARfest website discussion forum Ticket Board or Progressive Ears.

This follows on from Eloy having to pull out due to medical issues with guitarist/singer Frank Bornemann after he was knocked off his bicycle.  Let's hope that Frank has a speedy and complete recovery.

A terrible misfortune for Eloy, but the end result is some good fortune for UK.  Good luck.  

Tickets purchased for Mrs Nev and I  

We'll have a day out in either Leeds or York and then go on to the gig in the evening.

I'm looking forward to this      

King Crimson

How could I forget the mighty Crim - My top ten just became a top 11  

Here's my attempt.  This could vary on a daily basis (I'm so fickle  :? ).  In no particular order

Frost*
Tinyfish
Matt Stevens
UK / Eddie Jobson
Pink Floyd
Genesis
Yes
Jethro Tull
The Aristocrats
Spock's Beard

Others high on the playlists include
Steve Hackett
Frank Zappa
Kotebel
The Enid
Hawkwind
ELP
Rick Wakeman

... and so on, and so on....

Sigh ... sounds like I am missing out after all. Not sure I'm up to hanging out around the venue for touts to flog me a ticket; indeed, I suspect that's rather unlikely, since probably only genuine fans will have bought tickets, not speculators.

Apparently it was sold out, so you would have been at the mercy of the touts  :?

Two review blogs of the London show:

//http://blackenedgass.tumblr.com/post/23758167210/u-k-under-the-bridge-london-24-05-12

//http://astoundedbysound.blogspot.com/2012/05/uk-under-bridge-chelsea-london-24th-may.html

wow realy great show last night,i cant beleive its thirty years since i last saw them well worth the wait though, eddie was brilliant and johns voice was just superb a truly fantastic night, one of the best gigs ive been to for ages.  

Glad you enjoyed it.    

I'm not jealous at all   :evil:   :evil:   :evil:  

Go, GO, GO!!!!!!

Although you may not be a fan of the violin, the way Eddie plays and it and mangles the sound, it is an entirely unique experience.

his infamous momentary joining of Yes and appearance in the OOALH video

There are not that many people (I guess) that are aware of his appearances in the video.  they are very brief and the one the top of the building is with his back to the camera.

I'm kicking myself for not being able to go last night, but the combination of funds (or lack of) and distance made it unfeasible.

If nothing else it will probably be the last time to see this.  Although some of the last UK songs pointed in the direction of Asia (yes, 'Nothing to Lose', I'm looking at you).  They hold up brilliantly after 30 years (I play both of the studio albums often and they still sound great).  I know I am a bit biased, but all reports have been glowing.  It's a chance you can't miss... so....

Go, GO, GO!!!!!!

By pure coincidence I will be in N. Yorkshire that week.  I'm wondering if I can sneak away and get here.

It seems like too good an opportunity to miss, but I also feel bad about abandoning my parents (and possibly Mrs Nev) when we are only visiting them for a short time.

This possibly calls for some sneaky diplomacy  :twisted:

I love the look of those VAX 77s.  Quite apart from the fact that they do poly aftertouch, the fact that they FOLD IN HALF to pack away is awesome.

That and the fact that they've worked with Apple to seamlessly integrate with mainstage.

Hans responded to a comment on the Facebook page over what key weighting Eddie uses with his VAX 77s

Hey Hans... just curious, is Eddie using the new heaviest-weighted actions in any of his boards? I had a chance to play one of the new actions, and I *love* it... just curious which action(s) Eddie prefers.

Hans Tobeason:  He's using the "Heavy" action - not the new "Ultra Heavy". We've never tried the Ultra Heavy - though Eddie has always felt the action could be a little more "substantial". Van's original design (which was, and is, genius) had only the plastic keys, which were super-lightweight. The keysprings came in two stiffnesses, with three attachment points, allowing for six different "feels". When we first got the prototype VAXs, Eddie was adamant that the keys needed to have more mass - so we began experimenting. I cut up some bits of wood and stuck them under the keys, etc. Van quickly agreed with Eddie's assessment, and started sending us versions with metal weights added under the front edges of the keys. The current "Heavy" weighting was the maximum Van was comfortable with given the strength of the keyspring at the time - he has since been able to source a slightly stronger keyspring, which allowed the "Ultra Heavy" key weight. Once this current tour is over and the dust has settled, I wouldn't be surprised if Eddie tried out the "Ultra Heavy" weight.

There is an interesting post on the Eddie Jobson/UK Official Fan page on Facebook this past Thursday from Hans Tobeason, a keyboard tech that has helped Eddie develop his live rig over the past few tours.  I have copied it out here for those who don't FB

Tech Talk re: Eddie's Touring Rig

Eddie's current keyboard/violin has been developed over the past three years to give him the ability to get the sounds he needs and still fit everything into a minimum of checked luggage-sized cases (currently six), plus some carry-on. The configuration for the present 2012 tour is as follows:

Three VAX77 MIDI keyboards (infiniteresponse.com). Eddie and I worked with the inventor, Van Chandler, testing and iterating early pre-production models of the VAX. We helped Van tune the action and weighting, as well as debugging the velocity response (and various other tweaks and suggestions). This is, quite simply, the best MIDI controller keyboard available today - plus, it folds in half. We carry it in custom flight cases as checked luggage - it's 50lbs in its case.

Three 17" MacBook Pro laptops running Apple's MainStage software. The laptops have 8GB RAM, and 512GB SSDs. They are loaded with Arturia, Native Instruments, Spectrasonics, Line 6, and Apple plug-ins. Eddie primarily uses CS-80, minimoog, Prophet V, B4 II, Omnisphere, EXS-24 (piano and organ patches), and PODFarm.

The two VAXs in Eddie's main stack each feed their own laptop via Gefen USB extenders. The third laptop is dedicated to violin processing and some specific sample/sequencer feeds. The third VAX simply feeds through one of the two main VAXs, acting as a "clone" keyboard for when Eddie is playing downstage center.

The three laptops are networked together through an ethernet hub, so that each can "see" signals going to the others. This is needed, for example, in order for Eddie to use what we call the "B Pedal" - which is one of the three "volume" pedals on the floor under the VAX stack. The B Pedal (and the Panic pedal, which is a modified Yamaha sustain pedal) feed into a custom stomp box I built around a Teensyduino board (pjrc.com/teensy/teensyduino.htm). The stomp box translates the pedal inputs into MIDI, which is then sent to one of the laptops, again via a Gefen USB extender. That laptop then distributes the MIDI signals, via Audio MIDI Setup, to the other two laptops. The stomp box also houses two stomp switches, for patch changes "up" and "down". The box sends a MIDI signal when a stomp switch is "stomped", which is again distributed among the three laptops via AMS. MainStage is programmed to respond appropriately when it receives any of these MIDI signals. That's how, for example, Eddie uses the B Pedal to do pitch bend - the B Pedal MIDI signal is simply patched (in MainStage) to the pitch bend of, e.g., the minimoog.

At Eddie's violin position, there's another of my custom stomp boxes, again with two stomp switches for patch "up" and "down", and with two pedals (here it's volume and wah). It's identical to the other stomp box, and just sends MIDI to another one of the laptops. All the pedals are customized Ernie Ball volume pedals - I replaced their log pots with linear pots and consolidated the jacks down to a single TRS jack. Each of the VAXs in the main stack has one of these custom Ernie Ball pedals plugged in acting as a MIDI controller (usually for volume). Each VAX also has a sustain pedal plugged in (usually sustain, but sometimes Leslie speed). The VAXs have one sustain input and three expression inputs available - and they do the MIDI translation internally. I could probably use one of the unused expression pedal inputs for the B Pedal, but it could get a bit complicated sorting out the MIDI channels in that case - so I just use the stomp box, which sends on a distinct MIDI channel.

We're also using two small Lilliput monitors - one at the violin position, and one on top of the keyboard stack - to mirror a portion of the MainStage window so that Eddie can see which patch he's on (I use an app called CamTwist to do the mirroring). The violins use Line 6 G-50 digital wireless units, into an Apogee Jam, into one of the laptops.

The laptops' headphone outputs feed into Whirlwind pcDI boxes, which feed the FOH mix, and also loop through to feed three myMix units (mymixaudio.com), which feed Eddie's in-ear monitoring (Sensaphonics via Shure wireless) as well as record the shows. A myMix IEX-16 unit takes various feeds from the FOH console so that all inputs (drums, bass, vocals, etc) are available to the myMix heads.

That's pretty much it. Obviously, I've left a ton of detail out. Happy to respond to any questions. I hope everyone's enjoying the tour!

Not much to it then!! :shock:    :shock:  

A couple of videos have been uploaded to youtube.  I don't know how long they will last but they give me a taste of what is going on:

At Chicago; "Alaska / Night After Night"

In New York; "The Only Thing She Needs" I love Terry Bozzio's energy on this  

The last pertinent tweet (from PlanetFrost) was yesterday (11th May)

Been writing Frost riffs a plenty these last couple of days. Like last time, it must be the constant spring rain.