It Bites at ABC Glasgow. They played here in March 2009 and had a stupendous gig. This will surely (after ELP) be one of the highlights of the year and in a small intimate setting too.
Transatlantic at Manchester. I gotta head south for this gig
Emerson Lake and Palmer at High Voltage Festival. This promises to be the best gig since …er…. the last ELP gig I saw in 1997 at Elbufer in Dresden (not counting the Keith Emerson band gig at Astoria in London which also was awesome )
Whitney Houston at SECC, Glagsow (Yes, yes I know she is not technically a prog rock artist but she is still an awesome singer with an awesome backing band and great show)
ELP archivist Tony Ortiz reports that the video of the 95.5 KLOS Christmas Show featuring Keith Emerson is soon to be made available as a free download somewhere (presumably on the KLOS website) in January 2010.
They describe themeselves as ‘a group of daring Los Angeles studio musicians with a mission: to boldly go where no orchestra has gone before. {They}..blend every musical style imaginable in a style that is artistic, introspective, fearless, visually stimulating, shocking and always entertaining.’
Perhaps we can get to hear the outcome on the Orchestre website soon.
In my ongoing attempt to get a wider picture of whats going on the world of Prog Rock I ventured to listen to Morow.com. It’s a ‘web only’ radio station run by three French blokes and is excellent. They play a wide range of progressive rock both old and new from right across the spectrum.
They admirably mention that they are commercial free and that their agenda is purely the dissemination of Prog music.
It was also good to see some support from Prog artists who will definitely benefit including Mark Kelly of Marillion, Devin Townsend Project and Porcupine Tree.
Carl Palmer’s Christmas photos 2009. It seems a bit bizarre, given that ELP are doing a ‘big one-off’ gig in 2010, that his message focuses on Asia and The Carl Palmer Band. Who can ever tell?
Keith has posted a Christmas video message on his website/You Tube. It consists of a short rendition of Gershwin’s ‘Summertime’ with Jingle Bells appended. The scene is inside a country house with his grand piano (I’m not sure about the make – any one know?) with a big Christmas tree and a view out to the country – surely a scene which entices all piano players.
Keith was scheduled to appear along with Marc Bonilla, Travis Davis, Gregg Bissonnette, Steve Lukather, Lee Sklar, Ed Roth, Slash, Jason Bonham, Fee Waybill, Rob Halford on 16 Dec (Beethoven’s birthday, for all Peanut’s fans)
It would be neat to hear Luke and Emo playing together as I think they are both the absolute best in their respective fields
The online chat with Greg Lake was actually fairly interesting. Whilst there were the usual stupid questions and comments there were a few sensible ones too which revealed some good information.
Perhaps we can get some more of these and get a bit more infromation from Greg about his musical plans, songwriting and collaborations.
Sods Law. Talk about luck or lack of it. It was bad enough that Yes were playing in Edinburgh on the same night as Steve Hackett plays The Ferry in Glasgow but the weather contrived to make it even harder to get to either gig. My buddies (both Yes fans) opted to go for the Yes gig at the Usher Hall but, given that I had seen Yes many times recently and that I hadn’t seen Steve Hackett live since about 1981 I opted to go to see him at The Ferry in Glasgow.
Arriving in Glasgow at 8.45 I literally got to teh show as the band came on which was excellent news. The gig was very busy (a lot of people crammed on to a wee ex-car Ferry with a shitty view). The first half of the gig was taken up largely by newer Steve Hackett compositions including some from current album ‘From the Mouth of the Tunnel’
The crowd took little encouragement to ‘go mental’ (a Scottish colloquialism for being loud and appreciative) and of course with Nick Beggs wearing his customary leather kilt we all felt at home. After the break the band launched into a bevvy of old Hackett favourites including The Steppes, Spectral Mornings and also threw in a few old Genesis favourites such as Firth of Fifth and Horizons.
Overall it was a great gig by the band and the crows loved it too. Lets hope it not a another 20 years before he comes back to Glasgow
You can see some video of the Glasgow gig courtesy of Defector Mornings on YouTube as well a load of other video shots from the 2009 Steve Hackett Tour.
Having only just recovered from the news about Greg and Keith writing together again and the Emerson Lake and Palmer gig in summer 2010 we get even more good news. Greg Lake’s new website has finally been launched.
Some neat stuff on it including the Museum, Greg Lake Speaks and a new video of the Mandoki Soulmates featuring Bobby Kimball, Paul Carrack and Greg Lake.
If you fancy a wee chat with Greg there is also an opportunity for a ‘chat’ with Greg on 15 Nov 2009 at 10pm GMT (5pm ET). Lets hope people ask sensible questions.
