Brian's Progressive Rock Music Blog

Nik Kershaw at Oran Mor, Glasgow 6 March 2010

There is a common saying about great songs being able to stand up to a simple arrangement ie no matter how heavily orchestrated, produced or arranged a good song will still be a good song when sung with a simple accompaniments (eg acoustic guitar or piano) or even with a solo voice.

Nik Kershaw proved this point on Saturday 6 March when he performed an acoustic set at Oran Mor in Glasgow’s West end. In a set of old and new songs Nik Kershaw demonstrated exactly how to deliver his songs using his masterly songwriting and performing abilities.

Although most of his material has more colourful arrangements  he played a range of songs from throughout his career using just an acoustic guitar occasionally accompanied by a Roland sequencer which he records live parts to and played/sang over.

OK  a lot of people may not consider Nik Kershaw Prog Rock but here is an artist who, for me, knows no boundaries, has a unique approach and can write great songs, play and perform: that’s good enough for me.

Most of his eighties material contained synthesisers and drum machines he gave them all a new life in the ‘No Frills Tour 2010′. His songs are so well written and constructed that every single one of them sounded awesome and some even excelled beyond the original in terms pure emotional delivery (Have a Nice Life is a classic example whereby he mentioned that it often has grown men in tears).

Don Quixote is an awesome song which has a very distinctive rhythmic character and orchestration but with only a simple bass drum pattern backing he gave the song a whole new life.

Wounded has a very intricate Latin arrangement on record and also stood up to the unplugged treatment while Human Racing sounded miles better with guitar with all the chords and stark key changes being really emphasised in the bare sound.

In a style reminiscent of Neil Finn, Nik had some great banter and introductions to songs. Sure this always works better in a smaller gig and more intimate environment but a lot of musicians would do well to watch the likes of Nik Kershaw and  Neil Finn and learn how to provide an engaging performance with the audience.

With the ability to make fun of himself and his career ups and downs he gave an excellent performance on songs old and new. Highlights for me included Oh You Beautiful Thing,  Fifteen Minutes, Billy, …..erm in fact the entire gig was a highlight and every song was excellent.

Having said all that I would still love to hear all these songs with the ‘Festival Band’. As the songs can easily stand up to simple acoustic arrangements they would be equally powerful with a full and and some nice new fresh arrangements.

Oh and I would also love to get the keyboard gig in the band for that tour!

Requests for the next tour would be Wounded Knee, Radio Musicola, Can’t get Arrested, Show them what you’re made of, When a Heart Beats…..and your entire repertoire.

It seems that the Keith Emerson and Greg Lake North American 2010 Tour dates are now somewhat finalised (stay awake though, anything can happen on planet ELP. Details are available at Pollstar

It Bites at Manchester Academy 6 March 2010 (until someone posts a Glasgow video)

The John Beck Grand Entrance
I don’t know if John Beck consider himself to be the ‘leader’ of It Bites. His grand entrance after the three other members of the band on to the stage of O2 ABC2 in Glasgow  on Friday night would certainly suggest it.
Especially when he did it twice!

After the into sequence broke down and had to be restarted  he walked off stage again to make the second big entrance, by which time the moment was gone. Truly bizarre. !

He continued some more bizarre behaviour by going to John Mitchell during the show to whisper is his ear to announce that they were running out of time. C’mon John you have mic in front of you  – just talk to the audience, we are happy to listen , I mean we all  wanted to attend the gig!

The Show
Anyway apart from that the show as once again an awesome show of playing and performance by the leading ‘prog’ band in the UK (if not the word in my opinion).

Opening with 1 or 2 favourites Bullet in the Barrel, All in Red some of the highlights for me were Underneath your pillow, Old Man and the Angel (full version) Oh My god, Fahrenheit (first time live) and, at last Glasgow gets to hear Once Around the World, since we missed out on that tour last Autumn.

The remainder of the set did consist largely of tracks from The Tall Ships which is fine as it is an all round excellent album

It Bites is always a great gig with a powerful display of great singalong songs, superlative playing and enough great ‘prog element time signature oddities to keep the proggers happy. A great balance between melodic songs, innovative arrangements and interesting forms.

The players
Lee Pomeroy is a player who clearly enjoys his time on stage. In addition to being an excellent bass player he bounds around the stage enjoying the gig which always provides a good feel good factor for the audience. Bob does his job at the kit mainly poker faced and concentrating hard on his drumming and backing vocals

John Mitchell has certainly settled in and is well accepted as part of the band and seems very comfortable in the band , even announcing that he was changing the words in Underneath your Pillow (Frankie don’t mind…)

It is always a hard gig when you follow such an iconic front man in a band. Witness, the following (any others which I have not mentioned?)

• Alan Reed following Euan Lowson in Pallas,
• Benoit David following Jon Anderson in Yes
• Phil Collins following Peter Gabriel in Genesis
• Andy Sears following Geoff Mann in Twelfth Night
• Paul Rogers following Freddie Mercury with Queen

The Venue (and the bloody curfew)
In the It BItes forum the band are getting a little stick for paying a really short set. This, of course, may not always be the fault of the band due mainly to being a curfew set by the venue.

Given that this happened last year too you would think that the band (or at very least the promoter) would have spotted this failure and either ditch the support (maybe the band need the money from the tour ‘ buy-on’) or get a better venue, or start earlier.

There are a lot of options for venues in Glasgow than having to put up with a shitty 10 pm curfew.

I think Oran Mor would be a great gig for It Bites. Right size, better layout, good sound and good locations for pre/post beer. The Classic Grand would also be an option for a crowd of this size.

Still, all in all  a brilliant gig for the leading lights of British Progpop. Lets get the new album out and play Oran Mor next year!

According to Pollstar Keith Emerson and Greg Lake have announced another date in April – the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco on 26 April.

Sunday       04/11/2010    Lynn, MA
Saturday    04/24/2010    Las Vegas, NV
Wednesday    04/28/2010    Colorado Springs, CO

Guy Babylons debut alum ‘The Best of Guy Babylon’ was released on 15th Feb 2010 as a download only on iTunes.

Featuring 10 tracks of total brilliance, keyboard mastery and composition the album includes a remixed version of the classic track ‘Babylon Bleu’ (the track which won Guy the Keyboard Magazine readers competition in 1987).

Check back here soon for a full review of the album.

A trust has been set up for the family of Guy Babylon at the following. Please do your best to buy the album, popularize the trust and give something back to Guy and his family for his gift of music.

Thanks must go to Jan who runs the main website and source of information on Guy at www.guybablyonfan.net

Keith Emerson is shown with Les Mercy after attending their show at Santa Monica.

The opening act for The Watch consisted of a mellow flute and piano set by respected names John and Hackett and Nick Magnus which was excellent but a little quiet for a Glasgow crowd on a Friday night. It perhaps would have suited more of a chamber orchestra venue.

The Watch opening set continued in the same vein with John Hackett guesting on some old Genesis tracks as well as a few of their own. The crowd were as polite as Glasgow audiences can be (only shouting some ‘words of encouragement’ to the band in between songs in Scots which I’m sure was totally lost on the Italian band) but they soon got what they came for when the band launched into some Genesis classics.

This video shows them plying The Musical Box (not at Glasgow) but it shows how adept they are capturing the early Peter Gabriel-era Genesis

I just stumbled across the website of photographer Al Ligammari 11 (Alimar) with some great backstage an concert photos of ELP from several shows by Al himself.

1. Backstage at Toronto in 1973 (Maple Leaf Gardens?) with a few stage shots (black and white)
2. On stage in Buffalo NY (Rich Stadium?) in 1974 (black and white)
3. On stage in Buffalo NY in 1978 (colour)

Can anyone confirm the venues?

Great shots Al – thanks for sharing
Al also has others personal photos of Yes, Genesis, Led Zeppelin, Steve Hackett and Gentle Giant

The Watch are an Italian band who, it seems, sometimes perform as a Genesis covers/tribute band. They seem to have a good reputation for doing what they do quite well so I am interested in seeing them at The Ferry in Glasgow on Friday 12 Feb 2010. Genesis are not an easy band to cover so they gotta be on the ball.

The last Genesis tribute I saw was the French Canadian band called The Musical Box at the Clyde Auditorium a few years ago. They were very good and are very proud of the extremes to which they go to capture a Genesis show. The front man has studied every little body movement  and voice of Peter Gabriel to re-present the early Genesis gigs in minute detail.

They use the original stage set used by Genesis in the 70’s (made out of crepe paper and orange boxes I reckon) to deliver as close to the original gig as humanly possible and regard their gig as ‘theatre’ rather than being a covers band. Memorable moments were (I guess obviously the ones with a clear costume) such as Watcher of the Skies, the Musical Box, I know what I like and Suppers ready