While Chantel McGregor has made a name for herself playing guitar-shredding electric blues-rock, there’s also a gentler acoustic side to her music. Here’s her beautiful cover of Bruno Mars’ “Grenade”, a version which will be familiar to anyone who’s seen her play live recently, since it’s been a regular feature of her set.
Chantel has also launched a new blog.
Promo for Shineback’s Rise Up Forgotten, Return Destroyed, the new project from Tinyfish’s Simon Godfrey, a concept album with lyrics by Rob Ramsay. It takes a very different approach from Tinyfish’s guitar-based sound.
“For reasons I’ve never understood, electronica seems to be shunned by a lot of prog bands. They’ll play seven-string guitars and think they’re right on the cutting edge of music, which is nonsense. I decided to put away my guitar and not use it at all on the Shineback album. Instead, I play keyboards, computers and some synth. There are moments of guitar work, but not from me. I thought I’d get in people who could really play.”
The album features contributions from Matt Stevens and Henry Rogers, along with plenty of other names from the prog scene.
Accounced on the Stolen Earth Facebook Group.
We would like to announce the arrival of our new Keyboardologist! We are excited to welcome Dave Randall in to the fold!! He’s a bit of a wiz on the keys and we are all looking forward to recording the second album and plenty of live dates with him on board! Hurray!
All at Stolen Earth x
Great news to see that band back up to full strength, and it will be very interesting to see how the new-look Stolen Earth sounds live when they’re back in action in the second half of the year.
It will be a very different band from the Stolen Earth that recorded 2012′s “A Far Cry From Home“, but if “Searchlight” is anything to go by, it’s looking like exciting times for Stolen Earth fans.
New song from Chloë Alper, former bassist/vocalist from Pure Reason Revolution. It’s something of a departure from PRR’s sound, but they were never exactly a band to stand still musically.
Fish’s forthcoming album “Feast of Consequences” is now ready for pre-order at the Fishheads Shop, as a special edition including a 100-page hardback book and a bonus DVD. Fish and his band will be entering the studio to record the album at the end of their current tour, during which they’ve been playing a lot of the new material, with the album due for release in the Autumn. Having heard some of the new songs live, the material is very strong, and this is going to be an album to look forward to.
Guitar looping maestro Matt Stevens has signed a deal With Esoteric Antenna, home of Panic Room and a great many other modern progressive artists.
When Panic Room signed their deal last year I was a little apprehensive, and hoped they knew what they were doing. But it seems to have worked very well for them so far, with the band playing to noticably bigger audiences than a year before. Hopefully the same will happen with Matt Stevens. He’s really quite unique in what he does; using looping technique as a means to an end rather than an end in itself, and making music anchored in solid tunes.
Great guest post by Gregory Spawton of Big Big Train on the National Railway Museum blog about the inspiration for the song East Coast Racer, from their latest album “English Electric Part 2″.
I really need to get round to reviewing that album for this blog. Like it’s predecessor it’s steeped in English history and landscapes, telling stories of the heroes in the industrial revolution, all set to music that evokes the spirit of 70s English progressive rock in a way that no neo-prog bands comes close to achieving.
Classic Rock Magazine is reporting the death of Trevor Bolder at the age of 62 after a long battle with cancer.
Trevor Bolder was part of David Bowie’s Spiders From Mars in the early 70s, but for most of the past three and a half decades he’s been an integral part of Uriah Heep. A great bass player, as anyone who’s seen Uriah Heep in recent years will attest, and taken from us far too soon. He’d stepped down from Uriah Heep due to ill-health earlier this year, with Arena and former IQ bassist John Jowitt standing in for him, but had hoped to return to the band in the summer.
I’ve seen him with Uriah Heep many times, and I will never forget that barnstorming performance at the 2009 Cambridge Rock Festival, when the band came on something like two hours late because of technical problems, and just blew the doors off. His powerful bass playing contributed a lot to the huge energy of Uriah Heep’s live performances.
I only ever met him the once, and only briefly, at the Uriah Heep acoustic show in London back in 2000, but he came over as a lovely guy. He will be greatly missed.
Anne-Marie Helder has written a lengthy post on Facebook explaining why she won’t be performing on stage with Mostly Autumn (bar one gig) for the rest of the year. It’s too long to quote in it’s entirety, but I’ve highlighted this section, which clarifies one or two misconceptions.
I have seen some comments written about myself or Gavin having ‘left’ Mostly Autumn, which I think it’s important to say was Never actually said…
The truth of the situation is, while other commitments keep us 2 exceptionally busy, Mostly Autumn have (rightly) drafted in new and highly-talented folks to fulfil their line-up, and for this year’s shows that’s what the live line-up will be.
But as for future tours, nothing is decided yet; and as ever, Bryan and his team will only do what is 100% right for the band, on a tour-by-tour basis!
So, I would urge you to show nothing but support and love for Mostly Autumn – both the band members and all the team – as they now dive into the next set of tour dates and pursue lots of great opportunities throughout the year!
)
I will be on stage with Panic Room, and sometimes solo, and maybe with the new acoustic project Luna Rossa (at some point!)…. But I will also have one eye looking out from the wings onto the Mostly Autumn stage, and watching them with immense pride and love, for they are some of my closest and loveliest friends! And I know they’ll Rock as hard as ever this year.
Reading the original announcement, it’s easy to see why many people interpreted things the way they did, even though as Anne-Marie correctly points out, that’s not what the announcement actually says. And while nothing has been decided yet, I know I’m not the only one hoping that Anne-Marie does return to the band at some point. Indeed, I’d love to see the new singer Hannah Hird retained as well, resulting in a return to the eight-piece lineup with the big vocal harmonies, which is one thing I’ve missed since Olivia Sparnenn took over as lead singer in 2010.
Latest news from Mostly Autumn, from the official site.
There is indeed a wedding celebration concert in York on June 22nd and we are delighted to announce that it will be held to celebrate the marriage of Olivia Sparnenn to Bryan Josh. The actual marriage will take place on June 21st and both Bryan and Olivia felt it would be very appropriate on the day after, to open up the festivities to whoever can make it – and what better way to do it than to perform a Mostly Autumn concert in a room full of friends. We are also pleased to say that Anne-Marie will be performing with us at this event.
Come along and raise a glass, it will be a very special evening – see live dates section for details.
Congratulations to the happy couple to be!
This is shaping up to be one of those great gathering-of-the-clans evenings that draws fans from far and wide. And it’s nice to see that Anne-Marie will be playing at this gig as a one-off appearance; a few people appear to have the impression that she’s leaving the band permanently, though there’s nothing in the band’s earlier statement that says this.
The band have some quite ambitious tour plans for the remainder of the year, including a lot of dates with Chantel McGregor as special guest in the second half of the year, plus what amounts to a two-day mini convention based around the annual York Grand Opera House Christmas show.