Music News Blog

What’s happening in the world of prog and other related scenes. News about gigs, record releases, new videos and band changes.

Fish cancels May tour

Posted on May 6, 2014 by Tim Hall

Fish has sadly been forced to cancel the remaining dates of his May tour. As he says on the Fish website:

It deeply saddens me to announce that I have to cancel the entire UK tour in May.

The shows at Norwich 8th May, London 9th, Cardiff 10th, Exeter 11th, Brighton 13th, Bristol 15th ,Northampton 16th, Holmfirth 17th and Glasgow on the 18th will be rescheduled in September and December and I will give you more information as soon as I have it.

Robin Boult is still seriously unwell with chickenpox and he was incapable of performing to anywhere close to his abilities. His condition has been worsened by a suspected blood infection from aggravated sores on his back chaffed by his guitar strap in rehearsals and he has also picked up an ear infection as his immune system is on the floor.

Everything has happened so fast it’s impossible to bring in and rehearse a replacement to cover the shows and I am left with no other option but to cancel the entire tour.

Disappointing news I’m sure for anyone planning to attend any of those gigs, but unfortunately unavoidable. I wish Robin Boult a speedy recovery, and hope to catch the band for at least one the rescheduled shows in September or December.

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Cosmograf – The Fear Created

Posted on May 5, 2014 by Tim Hall

A track from the forthcoming album “Capacitor” by multi-instrumentalist Robin Armstrong. This track also features Colin Edwin on bass, and Nick D”Virgilio on drums.

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Cambridge Rock Festival 2014 News

Posted on May 5, 2014 by Tim Hall

Cambridge Rock Festival 2014 poster

Bands announced so far for the main stage on the Cambridge Rock Festival 2014. Not yet on the poster is one major addition:

CRF is pleased to announce Leon Hendrix & his band are attending CRF14 on Saturday 9th August.

Leon and his band will play many of Jimi Hendrix’s classics, plus some of his own material.

A new intimate meet and greet area is being set up specially for this as Leon wants to meet and chat to as many CRFers as possible during the day and then perform with his band on mainstage. This will present all of us with an amazing opportunity to get a unique insight into ‘the man’ and the brothers relationship.

While the bill is more varied than last year, there’s still a strong blues-rock emphasis on Friday and Saturday, though there is a very impressive lineup of progressive rock on Sunday.

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Crippled Black Phoenix – Northern Comfort

Posted on May 4, 2014 by Tim Hall

From their superb album “White Light Generator”, which really deserves a proper review.

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The Road Of Bones

Posted on May 3, 2014 by Tim Hall

The official video for the title track of IQ’s new album “The Road Of Bones”.

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Forwardman – Twenty-Six

Posted on May 3, 2014 by Tim Hall

“Alternative rock” is a bit of an unfortunate descriptive term that conjures images of all manner of potential horrors and evil, but this song from Helsinki’s Sakari Viittala is worth a listen. It’s released in May 16th, and an album will follow in the autumn.

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Bloom.fm bites the dust?

Posted on May 2, 2014 by Tim Hall

Bloom Gameover

Sad news on Bloom.fm’s blog

We’ll keep this short because we’re pretty shell-shocked.

It’s game over for Bloom.fm.

Our investor, who’s been along for the ride since day one, has unexpectedly pulled our funding.

It’s come so out of the blue that we don’t have time to find new investment. So, with enormous regret, we have to shut up shop.

This is a poetically crappy turn of events as our young business was showing real promise. Our apps and web player are looking super-nice and we had 1,158,914 registered users in a little over a year. Yep.

A massive thanks to everyone that helped us get this far. We’re absolutely gutted. But it’s been a real pleasure.

A later blog post states that the application will remain running for a few days while they make last ditch attempts to find a buyer.

Coming so soon after the demise of last.fm’s streaming radio, it does make you question the viability of legal online streaming services. Are the labels and collection agencies being too greedy when it comes to licencing? Or do they want startups like Bloom to fail so as not to cannibalise download sales?

Update: In an interview today, Bloom’s Oleg Formenko suggests that all may not be lost, and there are a number of potential buyers in the frame,

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Blind to the Beautiful

Posted on May 1, 2014 by Tim Hall

The new single by Fish!

Available as a download from iTunes, Amazon, Google Play and others. Buy it now and get Fish in the charts!

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Haken and Leprous announce co-headline tour

Posted on April 24, 2014 by Tim Hall

Haken, Leprous and Maschine

Haken and Leprous have announced a tour of the UK and Ireland in late October and early November, taking in London, Bristol, York, Manchester and Edinburgh, among others, with Maschine as special guest.

While there’s a still time and a place for two-and-a-half shows with room for everyone’s favourite songs, shows with two or three bands each playing tight focussed sets and pulling out all the stops makes for a great gig, and gives audiences value for money.

Here’s a taste of Haken. Yes, they really do look like that…

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The Reasoning tour in the Autumn

Posted on April 18, 2014 by Tim Hall

The Reasoning have announced a short tour in late October and early November, which represents their first live shows apart from a couple of one-off appearances at festivals since their “Adventures in the City” co-headline tour with Touchstone back in 2012

Six dates are announced so far, with the possibility of further dates to be announced.

  • Talking Heads in Southampton in Friday 24th October
  • Venue 2 in London on Saturday 25th October
  • The Duchess in York on Thursday 30th October
  • The Railway in Bolton on Friday 31st October
  • The CFM in Cardiff on Saturday 1st November
  • The Robin 2 in Bilston on Sunday 2nd November

Support for all these dates will be Hekz.

The Reasoning will also be playing a support for Lifesigns on Sunday May 11th at The Robin in Bilston, as well as their previously announced slot at Trinity Live at Leamington Spa a week later on 18th May.

Sebastien Flynn-Goze

The band will be augmented on stage by vocalist Sebastien Flynn-Goze, which answers the question “How will they do the older material justice” since the departure of Tony Turrell who had handled the male vocals originally recorded by Dylan Thompson and Gareth Jones on stage.

Though their email newsletters speak excitedly of activity behind the scenes, The Reasoning have kept a low profile of late compared to some of their peers, with just a single gig in the whole of 2013. This tour, and the forthcoming as-yet-untitled fifth album ought to go some way towards regaining forward momentum.

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