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I went across to the Borders Book Festival in Melrose last night and saw Rory Bremner interviewing Nick Mason about Pink Floyd for an hour or so.  He tells a good amusing story and comes across as a very decent likeable chap.  He was good enough to have a quick chat and sign some stuff for me afterwards. 
Which rather got me thinking.  Like many of us, I've met quite a few musicians from prog bands over the years but, perhaps with the exception of Steve Hackett, I'd never previously met someone from one of the 'Premier League' prog bands before. 
So who have people met from the really big prog bands (I'm thinking more virtual household names like Peter Gabriel / Rick Wakeman than you know the cousin of someone who once played bass for Pendragon  ) and did they live up to your expectations - or was it a case of 'you should never meet your heroes'?!

Oh dear... 

"It Bites have been forced to pull out of Saturday's Holmfirth Prog Splash. Due to technical issues and a memory card malfunction John Beck's entire It Bites catalogue of keyboard programming - some 30 years worth - has been lost.

Under normal circumstances in the time between now and the gig John would have worked day and night to reprogram it but with him committed to other projects this week the task has proved impossible.  Therefore, rather than put on a sub standard show the band have taken the difficult decision to cancel the gig.

It Bites realise this impacts on both their fans and to other bands on the bill and sincerely apologise to all."

How awful for John (although what is it with keyboard players not backing up their data?! )

Wonder if this related to him also playing with Fish now - maybe he was putting new sounds in for that gig and lost all the IB stuff?  Hope he is either able to retreive it somehow or recreate all the patches from scratch if necessary.

Went to see a Genesis tribute band last night at the Glasgow Ferry. They're called Mama and unlike other Genesis tributes I've seen, such as the Musical Box and Regenesis who specialise in the Classic Gabriel-era music, they call themselves the all-era band.
What a talented lot they are. None are pro-musicians (all have day jobs) but you wouldn't know. They did material from Nursery Cryme right up to We Can't Dance but just the good stuff! They even threw in some solo tracks such as Solisbury Hill, In the Air Tonight and Spectral Mornings.
Highlight for me was a note-perfect rendition of the In The Cage medley from Three Sides Live - John the keyboard player totally nailed the solo.
Best fun gig I've been to in ages - almost lost my voice from singing along! 
Highly recommended if you like more than just PG Genesis - will certainly be looking out for them the next time they come across Hadrian's Wall.  They are in Kinross tonight if any other Scots are at a loose end tonight.
http://www.mama-genesis.co.uk

Inspired by Jem, I too decided to have a go at the RPM Challenge this February. 

https://soundcloud.com/david-suttie/rpm

There are 11 sections which are linked together to form a single piece of music which is 35 minutes and 12 seconds.

Congratulations to anyone who makes it through to the end in one go! 

Anyone know what's up with It Bites website and forum? For the last few days, I've just got a message saying the website can't be found...
Is it down for maintenance / an upgrade or did JM forget to pay the bill? 

Well, that was fun!  Back home after a quick trip to Surrey to attend 1 day of Celebr8.2.  As Jem himself said, maybe not the most polished Frost* gig ever but the fact that it went ahead at all when Jem was down to his left hand only was amazing.

Actually, that's not quite true.  He did use a few right hand fingers for Saline and his nose on BLM!  Obviously some alterations had to be made, such as JM doing a frenetic guitar solo in Dear Dead Days instead of the keyboard solo (whilst Jem just read a book on gardening).

In BLM, chords were just played instead of the solo.  Lantern was played to a sequencer track and Snowman was the PG Esoteric version (which was great to hear).  But having to reprogram everything and learn the right-hand parts using a left hand in such a short space of time is nothing short of jaw-dropping.  The crowd were really supportive as a result and any minor mishaps really didn't matter (like when the sampler didn't fire off properly in a new track and only the click was audible, there were shouts of "You got away with that - I don't think anyone noticed"!).
It was a very good humoured gig, with JM looking genuinely gobsmacked when Jem revealed his "John!" t-shirt during the intros.  It's not the best quality photo but this is one of my favourites - look at Nathan's face compared to his normal cool demeanour!

And of course, the Big Banana landed - more on another thread about that.
Great to meet up with lots of Frost*ies again - shame it'll be next year before the next chance.
Another couple of photos to finish.

http://www.progrockmag.com/news/spocks- ... o-tour-uk/

Spock's Beard UK tour
May 3: Sheffield Corporation
May 4: Glasgow Arches
May 5: Newcastle Academy 2
May 6: Bilston Robin 2
May 7: London Garage

Yay!    It'll be a Happy Stars Wars Day for me.  Last time I saw the Beard play at the Arches, I recall they had a rather good support band...  

Before finding I could go to the Jem & John House Concert, I bought a ticket to go and see Steven Wilson at the Glasgow ABC on 2nd March.  As I've yet to master the trick of being in 2 places at once, the SW ticket is now unneeded.  Rather than waste it, I'm happy to pass it onto an Frost*ie who could use it themselves.
Interested? Send me a PM.

Happy New Year! Quite a surprisingly Frost*ie start to the new year too.  Woke up to Radio 4's Today Programme just before 9am to hear Blunders playing live on the drums!   8-) Al Murray was the guest editor and had obviously requested Craig come along to explain and demonstrate the evolution of British drumming.  You can use the iPlayer to listen again at around 2 hours 53 minutes in.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... 1_01_2013/
Details and photo here too.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/ne ... 781029.stm

An observant daughter spotted this t-shirt in a recent episode of the E4 comedy 'The Midnight Beast'.

Hmm, think I have one like that

What a wonderful but surreal day I had yesterday!

Like many on this forum,I'm also a fan of the works of Imogen Heap and am on her mailing list.  At the bottom of the last email, there was a comment about the fact that Immi was going to be recording the video for the latest in her series of songs (Heapsong 7 aka 'You Know Where to Find Me') for her next album in Edinburgh on 30th June and she was looking to play it on as many different pianos as possible that day.  She requested anyone who had a piano in or around Edinburgh and was available that day to get in touch.  Well, my sister, Jen, who actually first introduced me to Immi's music a number of years ago, lives in Edinburgh.  And has a piano.  Email was forwarded.

Lo and behold, Jen got a text on Friday night saying that Immi wanted to come around! So daughter Kate and myself belted up to Edinburgh on Saturday as Jen quickly contacted a piano tuner!  Just after 1pm, a crew of 7 and Immi arrived and set up in Jen's living room and we were allowed to watch the filming of her playing and improvising around the new song.  I really had to pinch myself to believe that this really was THE Imogen Heap creating beautiful new music right in front of me in my sister's living room!  :shock:

After the crew were happy, we got to have a quick chat, grab some photos and get a few CDs signed before they were off to the next house.  We were invited to a restaurant in the evening were they were to be recording again.  Strangely, she actually wanted people to ignore her and carry on talking while they filmed (she later explained that this was to replicate her early days of playing in cafes, etc).

She came over and chatted for about quarter of an hour and gave us some DVDs.  Much to Kate's embarrassment, I got into a long technical discussion about live looping, the new musical 'gloves' she is having made and musical collaborations.  I suggested that I'd really like to hear what she and Jem could produce together.  She professed to not having heard of Jem or Frost*    but she has now!

They always say you should never meet your heroes but I have to say she was really charming and it was good of her to take the time to speak to us for so long.  Oh and she's very tall - I'm 6' 3" and I was almost looking her straight in the eye!

That's a lot of posts! Well done people.   8-)
Wonder what % are Pedro's?  
Edit - answer is 9.38% actually!  

You've maybe all seen this already and I just missed the thread but just stumbled across this!  :shock:  8-)  
Looks as if Jem only found it recently too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3LUq_cx ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWjgWlWm ... re=related

New update!  
http://jemgodfrey.blogspot.com/

Wow!  What a night!  For those of you going to see Rush in the next few days, you're in for a treat.  
We just laughed when we saw just how close our seats were to the stage - I thought they'd be good but this was like having Rush play in your living room!  
Some of my photos can be found here:-
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dajs1966/s ... 724021018/
and for the brave, there is Neil's 9 minute drum solo too!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LrOW0xUkqk
 8-)

I'd love to know what Jem's view on this is!  (he's probably bought and sold one already   )
http://www.rolandconnect.com/product.ph ... 80&l=en-GB

I see the talented Mr Tippett has join us now too!  Good evening and what-ho, Paul!  What's your favourite biscuit?
Looking forward to seeing the new t-shirts, etc.  8-)

Here's a little appetiser for the coming days or maybe a small consolation prize for those who can't go.

I recorded almost all of the encore (The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway / Fly On A Windshield / The Other Me) at the Peel back in December 2008 but as it was 12.5 minutes long, it was too large to upload to YouTube which had a 10 minute limit at the time.  So I rather forgot I had it.

Anyway, stumbled upon it in the PC again tonight and, of course, now YouTube has a 15 minute limit so up it went!

Hope it brings back some good memories for those who were there.  Love the reggae bit ('Shabba!') just at the very end before my memory card gave up the ghost!   8-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhpcpTj3NoQ

[**Warning – Spoilers below!!**]

**Warning – Spoilers below!!**

Went to see Steve Hackett at a packed and very enthusiastic Glasgow Ferry last night.  I saw him last about 7 years ago when he was very good but this was in a different league!  Incredible band around him - I'd seen Roger King on keyboards, Rob Townsend on sax and woodwind and Gary O'Toole on drums and vocals with him before but the addition of Nick Beggs (yes, the Kajagoogoo bass player  :shock: ) on bass and Chapman Stick and Amanda Lehmann on guitar and vocals has really transformed the band.  I knew that Nick was an amazing player already but Amanda was the real surprise – far from being just eye candy   and a good singer, she can really play guitar and was adding harmony lines to many of Steve's solos.

Great selection of his solo material which didn't suffer from some old favourites being rested this time around (no Spectral Mornings and surprisingly nothing off Defector) and no solo classical guitar spot either (so no Horizons).  However, apparently at Steven Wilson's suggestion, he did Shadow of the Hierophant from Voyage of the Acolyte (SW is due to join him for this track at the London gig) and he also threw in a number of less often played tracks.

However, the big surprise to me was that last time I saw him, he'd played just instrumental sections of Genesis songs.  Not this time!   It was complete note-for-note versions (including the full keyboard intros) of classics such as Watcher of the Skies, The Carpet Crawlers, Blood on the Rooftops (a favourite of mine but one which Genesis themselves never played live), a spine-tingling version of Firth of Fifth and, of course, Los Endos with a bit of Dancing With The Moonlit Knight thrown in for good value.  Gary O'Toole may not be PG or PC in terms of vocals but he made a commendable effort and sang from behind the drum kit.

Not in order but the non-Genesis tracks I recall were:-
Ace of Wands, Shadow of the Hierophant, Every Day, Clocks, Sierra Quemada, Valley of the Kings, Golden Age of Steam, Fire on the Moon, Emerald and Ash, Tubehead, Sleepers, Still Waters

Basically, if you like Steve Hackett and / or Genesis, you need to see this tour!  We came away buzzing from it and the band also had big smiles.  The man himself was good enough to sign his excellent new live CD Rails for me afterwards.

Bumped into Ecky P (again!) and spotted a Frost*fest t-shirt in the crowd too.

Some photos...



Nick Beggs gives me the evil eye..  





All smiles!  


and a clip of The Carpet Crawlers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQYe3EehPUs

Just stumbled upon this little exchange from last May on Amazon (of all places), where it appears they have a progressive rock forum and someone had posed the question "Is there any good British bands in the noughties" (sic):-

http://www.amazon.co.uk/tag/progressive ... LAEFGPLZHX

"Mark Kibble says:
I have recently started checking out bands who are working along similar lines in the noughties, but as yet haven't managed to find anything british. The first two albums in my quest Snow by Spocks Beard and Milliontown by Frost are both Yanks, I've heard good reports about Riverside but they're jam rolls, are there any good local bands worth investigating.

W. Pollock says:
Hi Mark,
What makes you say Frost are Yanks, I've always thought they were British. John Mitchell plays with Arena, and John Jowitt with IQ, and they are certainly British. I am pretty sure that they recorded over here, but I cannot definitely say Jem Godfrey is a Brit, he could be an American who has crossed the pond."

Obviously they've not seen any Frost* Reports then... What-ho!  :lol:

(PS - Thankfully somebody set them straight a few posts below:-
"Starship Trooper says:
If you are interested in Frost*, find "planetfrost" on youtube, Jem Godfrey's monthly update on things Frost. He's definitely a Brit and seems to be an likeable "bloke" and enjoys his music and technology. It has to be seen to believed. Unfortunately his day job is producing the likes of Atomic Kitten and Shayne Ward, but I forgive him for that as he creates great prog. I saw them with Spocks Beards in Manchester last year, and they are doing a few gigs with Dream Theater next month (June). And I'll be there as well." )