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.

O Holy Night

Posted on December 15, 2011 by Tim Hall

A sublime spine-tingling version of the traditional carol, with a wonderful vocal from Anne-Marie Helder. Christmas started for me this year when they performed this live in the first weekend of December. Now they’re recorded it and made it available as a free MP3 download – go to the official Panic Room website for details.

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Morpheus Rising – Lord of the North

Posted on December 10, 2011 by Tim Hall

First official video from York’s Morpheus Rising, from their debut album “Let the Sleeper Awake”. Look out for the post-apocalyptic Gherkin!

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Lirium – Fallen Fae

Posted on November 12, 2011 by Tim Hall

Lirium is the new project from Lisa Fury, formerly lead vocalist of Karnataka, who sang on the superb “The Gathering Light“.

It’s a very different musical style to Karnataka’s sweeping symphonic rock, but it’s great to hear Lisa’s fantastic voice again.

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Karnataka – The New Light Tour 2012

Posted on October 4, 2011 by Tim Hall

Atmospheric Celtic-tinged proggers Karnataka are back on the road in the new year with a new lineup. The New Light Tour runs through much of Feburary 2012. The 13 dates announced take in regular progressive rock venues like Montgomery Hall in Wath, Bury Met, and of course, The Robin in Bilston, as well as that strange little venue The Village Hall in Lowdham. A London date is also promised, with venue and date to be confirmed.

This tour marks the début of what is now the third incarnation of the band, with Hayley Griffiths as the new lead singer, and only bassist and leader Ian Jones and guitarist Enrico Pinna remaining from the band that recorded the superb The Gathering Light released in 2010.

It will be very interesting to see this version of Karnataka in action, and to see how well they manage to interpret the material from the two previous versions of the band. I’m hoping there will be some new songs in the setlist too!

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Heather Findlay’s November Tour

Posted on September 21, 2011 by Tim Hall

Announcement today from Heather Findlay

The Heather Findlay Band are excited to announce our debut headline tour will take place this November!!!

At just 5 carefully selected UK shows with an elite band formed from the upper echelon of the rock world; Dave Kilminster (Roger Waters, Keith Emerson, John Wetton), Chris Johnson (Halo Blind, Fish, Mostly Autumn ), Steve Vantsis (Fish, KT Tunstall, Horse) and Alex Cromarty (who has worked with the likes of Steely Dan, Groove Armada and Dodgy) will be hitting the road to perform a specially crafted set featuring songs both old and new!

The material we have chosen to perform will span my work with both Mostly Autumn and Odin Dragonfly, presenting revitalised versions of near forgotten gems and will of course feature my debut record The Phoenix Suite!!!

We are also delighted to tell you that awesome band Shadow of The Sun will be joining us each night as very our special guests!!!

17th Nov – The Brook, Southampton;
18th Nov – Fibbers, York;
19th Nov – The Classic grand, Glasgow;
26th Nov – The Borderline, London;
27th Nov – The Robin, Bilston, Wolverhampton.

For tickets and all information please visit: www.heatherfindlay.net

Tickets for the tour have been on sale for a while, and I’d recommend you order tickets early for the York and London shows – both are in smallish venues and could well sell out.

Shadow of The Sun is an unexpected but very appropriate choice as support. Formed by Dylan Thompson, formerly of The Reasoning, their hard-edged guitar-based sound isn’t a million miles removed from the musical direction of Heather’s The Phoenix Suite.

If The Heather Findlay band are anything like as good live as they were at The Cambridge Rock Festival, this should be a great little tour.

See you there!

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Shadow of the Sun

Posted on September 19, 2011 by Tim Hall

Shadow of the Sun now have an official website.

Shadow of the Sun is the new project formed by Dylan Thompson, formerly guitarist and vocalist from Reasoning. and singer/guitarist Matthew Alexander Powell.  The rhythm section of Rhys Jones and Lee Woodmass complete the four-piece lineup.

They’ve put a few demos on their website. Although there are a few echoes of Dylan Thompson’s songwriting for The Reasoning in places, the overall sound is a lot different, far rawer and almost punky in places. Follow the link and listen for yourself!

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The Globe in Cardiff

Posted on September 16, 2011 by Tim Hall

The Globe in Cardiff is back in business under new management. Their new official website is at www.globecardiffmusic.com. It’s true that the venue was closed for a few weeks for refurbishment, and many people feared the worst and assumed “refurbishment” was a euphemism for “conversion into a trendy wine bar”.

But the work is now complete, and the venue is open for live music again.

However, in a letter quoted on Matt Cohen’s blog, there are still one or two problems.

The previous owner of the Globe is refusing to give me access to the previously established website, we’ve tried everything and it’s become obvious that he has no interest in helping us, even though the website domain is of no use to him anymore.

This previous website is very cleverly worded, hinting towards us being closed and damaging the work I’m putting into promoting the venue. My management are chasing it up through their solicitors but I can’t afford to waste any more time on arguing with someone who wants to make my life difficult. As you can imagine this site is causing me and other promoters major problems with agents requesting their shows to be moved in fear of cancelation, something which I cannot by any means afford to keep happening.

So, if you stumble upon The Globe’s old website and see a message implying the venue has shut down, don’t believe it. It’s alive and well, and bands like Panic Room and The Reasoning will be playing there.

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The Sound of the World

Posted on September 5, 2011 by Tim Hall

It may be that social networking has killed the webforum, but HippyDave, who already runs the official Panic Room and Stolen Earth forums has started a new forum The Sound of the World, dedicated to Mostly Autumn and the extended family of side projects and related bands. It has sections for Mostly Autumn, Halo Blind, Morpheus Rising and for Heather Findlay’s solo career, as well as past projects such as Odin Dragonfly, Josh and Co, and Breathing Space.

It’s a matter of debate as to whether or not the world really needs yet another Mostly Autumn forum. As HippyDave himself explains, a great many people, including a lot of dedicated fans, have issues with the way the official forum is over-moderated. There is already an unofficial forum, but that suffers from the opposite problem in that it’s under-moderated and tends to get overrun by trolls. There isn’t a place online where you can have a serious discussion about their music without the constant feeling that you’re walking on eggshells.

Time will tell if the forum gets a critical mass of regular posters and hosts meaningful discussions about the bands’ music.

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Alun Vaughan – If

Posted on September 5, 2011 by Tim Hall

Alun Vaughan, former bassist for Panic Room has a new album out. If is live set of 100% improvised solo bass music, recorded during a streamed gig for the ImprovFriday network.

If solo bass is your thing, or you perhaps want to listen to something a bit different, you can download it in mp3, FLAC, or a variety of other audiophile formats from Alun’s bandcamp page.

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Upcoming Gigs at The Borderline

Posted on August 21, 2011 by Tim Hall

I have ordered tickets for three forthcoming shows at The Borderline. This is a small, cozy venue right in the centre of London, just round the corner from where the late lamented Astoria used to be.

First is Panic Room, on Sunday September 18th. As readers of this blog will know, I’ve seen this lot many, many times this year, and they’ve never been less than awesome. On their extensive September tour, for which I hope to be able to get to more than one date, they’re promising to air a lot of brand-new material for their third album, due to be recorded at the end of the year.

Second is Touchstone on Friday, October 14. This is billed as the launch gig for their third album, “The City Sleeps”. It’s a while since I’ve seen them live, and like Panic Room, and with their high-energy prog-rock with the emphasis very much on rock, I feel they’re poised for a major breakthrough. It may not be long before you won’t be able to see them in small, intimate venues like this. Not only that, they’re supported by Heather Findlay and Chris Johnson playing as an acoustic duo, who are well worth seeing; Heather has more than enough talent as a vocalist and songwriter for an acoustic set to work.

And finally, on Saturday, November 26, Heather Findlay returns to play a headline show, with a full band including Dave Kilminster on guitar, and Steve Vantsis on bass. Anyone who saw them at the Cambridge Rock Festival will know just how great they were.

Definitely three gigs to look forward to. Since The Reasoning managed to sell out their show at this venue back in July, it’s probably not worth taking any risks by leaving it too late to get tickets.

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