Papillon, the acoustic duo of violinist Anna Phoebe and guitarist Nicholas Rizzi who supported Mostly Autumn on more than one occasion this year have a number of live dates scheduled across Spring and Summer 2017. They’re well worth seeing if you can catch any of these dates. Full datails on the Papillon website.

• Saturday, 4th February, 2017 The Art House, Southampton, UK
• Friday, 17th February, 2017 Canterbury Christ Church University, Kent, UK
• Sunday, 12th March, 2017 The Lighthouse, Deal, Kent, UK
• Tuesday, 14th March, 2017 Mrs Yarrington’s, Battle, East Sussex, UK
• Thursday, 16th March, 2017 The Bedford, Balham, London, UK
• Thursday, 13th April, 2017 Woodburner Live, Styx, London, UK
• Friday, 5th May, 2017 The Cellar, Cardigan, Wales, UK
• Saturday, 6th May, 2017 Acapela Studio, Cardiff, UK
• Sunday, 7th May, 2017 The Tithe Barn, Cheltenham, UK
• Thursday, 25th May, 2017 Discovery 2 @ Club 229, London, UK
• Friday, 26th May, 2017 Chapel Arts Center, Bath, UK
• Friday, 9th June, 2017 Otley Courthouse, Otley, Yorkshire, UK
• Saturday, 30th September, 2017 The Exchange, Keighley, UK
• Friday, 6th October, 2017 Farncombe, Godalming, UK

Last December’s Mostly Autumn mini-convention in Leamington Spa was such a success that the band decided to do it again. Like last year the show was billed to feature some special one-off performances, and again included violinist Anna Phoebe both guesting with the band and playing a set of her own material. With doors at 3pm and a curfew at 10, it promised to be a long day with a lot of music.

Things started with what had been billed as a Mostly Autumn acoustic set, but with Bryan playing Stratocaster from the very beginning it was to be more semi- than completely unplugged, opening with a slowed-down piano-driven arrangement of “Never The Rainbow”. Much of the set was solo spots for individual band members, with no fewer than five of the band taking turns at singing lead; Alex Cromarty reprised his superhero song, Chris Johnson sang “Gaze”, and Angela Gordon sang both her own “Given Time” accompanied by Chris and Bryan, and her cover Christy’s Moore’s “Ride On” fronting the entire band. They ended with full electric versions of two standards that haven’t featured in this year’s touring setlist, “The Last Climb” and “Evergreen”.

Next up was Papillon, the duo of Anna Phoebe on violin and Nicholas Rizzi on acoustic guitar. Playing as a stripped back duo made for a different experience to Anna Phoebe’s full band, less rock and jazz, more classical with a hint of folk. As expected, Anna Phoebe’s sometimes fiery virtuosity was the focus with Nicholas Rizzi, himself an accomplished player acting as a foil. What was notable was the way something which was a long way from rock had a rock audience completely enthralled; you could have heard a pin drop during the set. This year there was time for a decent-length set, ending with a folk number that strongly recalled the early days of Mostly Autumn when Bob Faulds with with the band.

Last year Mostly Autumn played a set of Pink Floyd covers, which was a little controversial when announced, but silenced the doubters in the end. Rather than repeat the same thing a second time they decided to play a set of covers by different artists that had inspired the band. And what an eclectic set it turned out to be. They started out with the Floyd standard, “Us and Them” following with Led Zeppelin’s “Rock and Roll” with Olivia singing lead, which some might remember from the Josh and Co gigs from many years ago. Then things took off in unexpected directions; Angela Gordon singing an emotive “Who Knows Where The Time Goes”, with Anna Phoebe on violin, Chris Johnson singing Neil Young’s “Like a Hurricane” and Radiohead’s “Fake Plastic Trees”, and Olivia singing Eric Carmen’s “All By Myself”. Supertramp’s “Take the Long Way Home” with Chris Backhouse guesting on sax was more predictable, and they ended as they began with a couple of obvious Floyd standards, “The Great Gig In The Sky” and “Comfortably Numb”.

After a short interval they were back with this year’s usual set opener, the folky instrumental “Out of the Inn”, then the Blackmore-like lead runs of “In for the Bite”. With the length of time they’d already been on stage we could have expected a shorter festival length set, but no, they proceeded to play the full two hours plus touring set from the early part of the year, played without a further break. Less frequently played classics like “Silver Glass”, “Wild Eyed Skies” and the epic “Mother Nature” sat alongside regular standards like “Spirit of Autumn Past”, “Passengers”, “Deep in Borrowdale” and “Questioning Eyes”. Even though it didn’t quite have the fire and intensity of the best headline shows earlier in the year, probably because of the sheer length of time they’d been on stage, it was still a hugely enjoyable set, and a reminder of just how good a songbook Mostly Autumn have built up over the years.

Anna Phoebe again joined the band for the first encore, the welcome if predictable “The Night Sky”, after which Bryan told us they’d run out of time and they could only do one more, which of course was “Heroes Never Die”. It was seven hours since the doors opened.

It all made for a great day, and like the Panic Room weekend earlier in the year was an event that amounted to far more than just another regular gig. The acoustic and covers sets were a reminder that there’s a lot of musical talent in the current incarnation on the band beyond the two front-people; in particular hearing Angela Gordon singing lead was a revelation. Let’s hope there’s another similar event in future years.

Mostly Autumn have announced detials of the Leamington Spa show in October

We have a very special gig coming up at The Assembly, Leamington Spa on Sunday 9th October. This will be from 3pm until 10pm and will feature a Mostly Autumn acoustic set, where there will be performances by individual members, as well as the full band. This was received extremely well last year at the same venue – who knew Alex could play the guitar and sing?

We also have the absolutely amazing Papillon (Anna Phoebe and Nicolas Rizzi) – they captivate us every time we hear them, as I’m sure all of you who have seen them will agree.

Mostly Autumn will play two sets, the first being a set of songs which have inspired the band members – guaranteed some Pink Floyd and who knows what else!!! The second, a set of their own music in their own inimitable style, with Anna Phoebe as guest on a few numbers .

There will be an hour or so interval, during which there will be some time to say hello to the band.

Please join us for this festival of Mostly Autumn – back following the overwhelmingly positive feedback from last year. We’re looking forward to seeing you.

For their final live appearance of 2015, Mostly Autumn came to The Assembly in Leamington Spa, scene of that emotional farewell to Heather Findlay five and a half years ago. With a four o’clock start they promised a very long evening for what was to be their only Christmas show of the year.

Things began with an extremely varied acoustic set. It started out conventionally enough with unplugged versions of regular live standards “Nowhere to Hide” and “Never the Rainbow”. We had a couple of Olivia Sparnenn vocal showcases in the shape of “Rain Song” and a spine-tingling “Silhouette of Stolen Ghosts”. Far more unexpected was Angela Gordon stepping up to the microphone to sing lead on a spellbinding cover of Christy’s Moore’s “Ride On” which showed a new side of her as a performer. There were also solo performances from Alex Cromarty with a song about superheroes, a piano number by Hannah Hird, and Chris Johnson singing “Gaze”, a song he’s often performed solo but did appear on the bonus disk of “Heart Full of Sky”. To end things off the band regrouped with a very rarely-performed song, “Through the Window”.

Next was an all-too brief set from violinist Anna Phoebe. Seeing her accompanied by a classical pianist rather than an electric rock band it was a quite different experience compared to her festival appearances earlier in the year. As anyone who has seen her will know, her playing was both fiery and lyrical, the piano accompaniment giving it more of a classical feel than the folk and rock flavour of her full band. The only thing wrong was that her set was over far too soon.

The main event of course was Mostly Autumn’s two electric sets, Dressed in Voices and Mostly Floyd. The songs were the same as at the Grand Opera House a few weeks earlier, although this was an even more powerful and intense performance of both. One thing which did become clear was that Mostly Autumn have a better rhythm section than Pink Floyd did and that makes them a rock’n'roll band in a way Pink Floyd never really were. The original version of “Sheep” never grooved quite like their version. And Bryan Josh was very clearly enjoying himself during that Comfortably Numb solo.

The first encore of “The Gap is too Wide” was probably the high point of the entire evening, especially when they hit the choral section. The triple vocals of Olivia Sparnenn, Angela Gordon and Hannah Hird comes close to replicating the full choir and more than do the song justice. They followed that with a really powerful “Questioning Eyes”, which replaced Evergreen (When did Mostly Autumn last play a full set without playing Evergreen?).

After the obligatory “Heroes Never Die” they bought out the Christmas covers; “A Spaceman Came Travelling” with Chris Johnson singing lead, “I Believe in Father Christmas”, and “Fairytale of New York” with Anna Phoebe on violin, which seemed to work far better than a couple of years back. They finished an extended and largely improvised “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” with everyone playing a solo, including an impressive country & western style guitar solo from Chris Johnson. Those final songs had the atmosphere of an end of term party, a contrast to the emotional intensity of the earlier part of the evening. It was past ten o’clock, which meant the audience had been on their feet for six hours. Not that it seemed anything like that long.

So ended Mostly Autumn’s 2015. Playing a single Christmas show in a central location rather than a tour of half a dozen dates appeared to have paid off in terms of turnout. In a year when too many gigs by too many bands had depressingly low attendances, it was great to see a big crowd in a larger venue. And the band rose to the occasion with a performance that’s a candidate for gig of 2015 in a year that’s included Steven Wilson and King Crimson.

Mostly Autumn’s annual York shows had traditionally taken place at the beginning of December, and had come to represent the start of the run up to Christmas, though they skipped last year because the venue was fully booked. This year they’ve done things differently; a show in York in mid-November and a separate Christmas showcase in Leamington Spa in December. For both shows they’ve advertised a couple of special guest musicians in the shape of Anne Phoebe on violin and Chris Backhouse on saxophone.

The first set, like the majority of shows this year, was the 2014 album “Dressed in Voices” played in full as a continuous piece. It’s their strongest album for many years, full of soaring guitar and swirling organ, and the band delivered an intense performance.

It diverged from previous shows during the folk-flavoured “Skin on Skin”, when Anna Phoebe joined the band on stage, first following Alex Cromarty’s drum solo with some spectacular violin pyrotechnics, then adding some more delicate textures to “The House on the Hill”.

Right through to the acoustic coda “Box of Tears”, this set was one of the most powerful live versions of “Dressed in Voices” to date. Of course nobody knew at the time the band were played a concept album with a narrative told the the point view of the victim of a senseless massacre at the same time as the tragic events were playing out in Paris.

The second half was billed as the “Mostly Floyd” set, reprising a selection of Pink Floyd covers the band had performed a decade or so ago. The announcement bought the band criticism from some quarters; not everyone thought the idea of a band with a substantial body of work of their own playing what amounted to a tribute set; for a few it bought back bad memories of the band’s misplaced promotion during the ill-fated Classic Rock Productions era.

But they did start with one of their own numbers, an atmospheric and evocative version of “The Night Sky”, a song last performed at the 2007 “Heart Full of Sky” launch gig at The Astoria, when Peter Knight played the dramatic violin solo that forms the centrepiece of the song. This time it was Anna Phoebe on violin, and it was a joy to hear such a rarely played song live, especially since it’s one of the best songs from the band’s early years.

For the Pink Floyd songs another guest joined the band, backing singer Hannah Hird, who had toured with the band during much of 2013. They began with “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” and “Time”, but the set  really caught fire with “The Great Gig in the Sky” featuring Olivia Sparnenn on that famous vocal workout, and a very hard-rocking “Sheep” with Chris Johnson singing lead.  They played the obvious standards “Wish You Were Here”, which featured vocals from drummer Alex Cromarty, and Comfortably Numb with Chris Johnson and Olivia Sparnenn combining as the creepy doctor.

But the strongest highlights were “Us and Them” enhanced with Chris Backhouse’s sax, and a superb “On the Turning Away” with Bryan Josh completely nailing the solo. By the end, the tight and passionate performance and the rich layered sound by what for some songs was a nine-piece band evaporated any scepticism about the set.

The encored with another iconic early song, “The Gap Is Too Wide”, again featuring Anne Phoebe’s violin. It had been a regular encore in the later years of Breathing Space, but Mostly Autumn themselves hadn’t played themselves for many, many years, and it was great to hear it live once more. Olivia has always nailed the emotive vocal, and the arrangement was quite different from with Olivia, Angela and Hannah singing in harmony for the choral version. After that, the traditional set closers of “Evergreen” and “Heroes Never Die” close what had been one of Mostly Autumn’s most powerful shows this year.

Many thanks to Howard Rankin for thie use of his photos to accompany this review.

They have also announced that they will be joined by Anna Phoebe on violin and Chris Backhouse on sax for their showcase gig at The Grand Opera House in York in November, as well as at the December Christmas show in Leamington Spa. The latter will also include a support set by Anna Phoebe.

But before then, the band hit the road this coming weekend, with shows in Crewe on Friday 23rd, Wath upon Dearne on Saturday 24th, Norwich on Sunday 25th and Southampton on Monday 26th. Full details on the Mostly Autumn website.

Pwllheli is a long way from anywhere, at the far end of a winding single-track railway line, and the train stops many, many times at little request stops where the train might only stop if you know how to pronounce the station. So by the time I finally got there after a whole day’s travelling I missed the opening band. But I did catch most of The Dream Circuit’s set, with a space-jam sound that owed a lot of Ozric Tentacles.

Knifeworld were the most eagerly anticipated band of the Thursday night. They opened with a brand new song which Kavus Torabi dedicated to his great friend, the late Daevid Allen of Gong. With his white and gold Gresch guitar, Torabi looks most un-prog, but with it’s Zappa-style horn orchestrations, psychedelic soundscapes and layered vocal harmonies the music is as progressive as it gets. There were one or two who didn’t ‘get’ what they do, implying they’re not “proper prog”, but it’s their loss. Knifeworld are the real thing.

Thursday headliners The Skys, hailing from Lithuania had a far more traditional prog sound, but were very good at what they did. They displayed some strong Floydian atmospherics at times, with a harder-rocking edge at others. They had a great keyboard sound with big washes of Hammond, and one guitar solo in particular was brain-melting.

Friday kicked off with Kitten Pyramid, a foursome playing psychedelic rock with two bassists and therefore a lot of bottom end in their sound, with moments of bluesy guitar that come up as meld of “Albatross” and “War Pigs”. As the sole completely unfamiliar act on the day’s bill, they made a good first impression.

Next up was Sanguine Hum. Despite their reputation on record, with intricate arpeggios and layered atmospherics that have drawn comparisons with Porcupine Tree, they’d previously failed to convince live, at times coming over like Thom Yorke fronting the Vision On gallery theme. This time they were much better, with a set drawing heavily from their latest album “The Weight of the World”, a meatier sound with a bit more passion. Their stagecraft still needs work, but they’re now orders of magnitude better live than when they started.

A couple of weeks before the festival Touchstone announced that frontwoman Kim Seviour was leaving the band, and they were going on indefinite hiatus while the remaining members worked on other projects. This festival was to have been the band’s final live appearance, though popular demand saw the band announce a couple of headline farewell shows later in the year. Farewell or not, it was a roof-lifting performance, with hard rock focussed set that emphasised their shorter, punchier material rather than their epics, ending in a monstrous version of “Wintercoast”. Even though they were only third on the bill, this was a headline quality set.

Lifesigns, fronted by keyboard player and singer-songwriter John Young were the closest band on the bill to the archetypal neo-prog sound, with swirling harmonies, keyboard flourishes, and melodic overdriven guitar lines. They delivered a tight and passionate set of strongly song-focussed material drawn largely from their self-titled album. After decades as a sidesman for some far bigger names, it’s good to see John Young getting some recognition fronting a band himself.

Anna Phoebe was something completely different, a violinist leading an all-instrumental band that included Simran Ghalley on Tabla alongside more traditional rock instruments. Their kaleidoscopic sound cannot be contained within any traditional genre pigeonholes, seamlessly blending elements of rock, classical, celtic folk, jazz and world music. Anne Phoebe herself is not only a stunning virtuoso musician but has a dramatic stage presence to match.

The Enid are a national treasure. Over their long and illustrious career playing what often amounts to classical music played with rock instruments, they perhaps more than anyone else embody the spirit of everything progressive music is about. Their set perhaps wasn’t quite as rock-orientated as some of their recent festival sets, but they’re mesmerising if you “get” what they do, and Joe Payne has matured into a very impressive frontman. His falsetto showcase “The One and the Many” from 2012′s “Invicta” was stunning, and you could have heard a pin drop. With leader Robert John Godfrey likely to have to step down for health reasons in the relatively near future this is a band that needs to be seen while they’re still around in the current form.

It fell to Mostly Autumn to headline Friday’s show, and disaster struck fifteen minutes before they were due on. While setting up his kit, drummer Alex Cromarty fell and broke his hand. But powered by a combination of adrenalin and painkillers he managed to play a hastily-rearranged set one-handed. Even with three-quarters of a drummer, this was still a powerful set, starting with a low-key opening with Floydian ballad and flute showcase “The Last Climb” and ending with the emotional punches of “Questioning Eyes” and “Heroes Never Die”. Though by necessity they were only able to feature a couple of songs from their masterpiece “Dressed in Voices”, the set can only be described as a triumph over adversity.

Saturday started with the guitar-shredding metal of Collibus, just the thing needed to wake everyone up. Although their twin-guitar sound was more straight metal than prog, and quite old-school, a tight performance and some strong songs made a good impression. In contrast, Agent had a more streamlined modern sound with elements of metal and alternative rock.

Landskap were the discovery of the weekend, with a superb late 60s/early 70s vibe with elements of Black Sabbath, The Doors and Uriah Heep, with a guitarist worshipping at the altar of Tony Iommi and a singer channelling Jim Morrison. But after them came the low point of the whole weekend. Black Peaks were truly awful, alternating between very bad death metal and generic indie-rock. The singer was painful to listen to, and it’s difficult to decide which was worse, his cookie-monster-with-laryngitis screaming or his embarrassing out-of-tune clean vocals.

Things got far better with Jump, who played one of the best sets I’ve seen them do. They’re a hard band to classify, with elements of prog, hard rock and folk with a strong emphasis on John Dexter Jones’ storytelling lyrics. Tonight the played a rocked-up set with a lot of energy, with songs about real-life subjects ranging from shipwrecked sailors to Twisted Sister fans, with “Down Three Times” a particular highlight. They even threw in a few bars of “Whole Lotta Love” and “Running Free” thrown in for good measure.

Now back in action following Christina Booth’s cancer treatment, Magenta were simply stunning. They’ve always been a band for whom hearing them on record doesn’t prepare you for the intensity of their live performances. Christina was on superb form vocally, with the greatest emotional depth of any performer of the weekend; “Pearl” in particular bought a lump to the throat and a tear to the eye. And given the complex nature of their music, it’s always amazing just how tight they always are live. In true prog fashion, Christina followed the words “This is our last song” with “But it’s a long one”, before ending the set with the epic “Metamorphosis”. This was the performance of the festival.

70s folk-rock legends Steeleye Span took the special guest spot on Saturday, With Maddy Prior, one of the greats of the folk world, on excellent form and a virtuoso violin player in Jessie May Smart they delivered another thoroughly entertaining set. They went from traditional folk ballads about young innocents abducted by the Queen of the Faeries to more rock-orientated songs from the most recent album “Wintersmith”, inspired by the writings of the late Terry Pratchett. They did insist that they would only play their hit “All Around My Hat” if the audience helped sing it. When first announced they had seemed an odd band to appear high on the bill at a prog festival, but they ultimately turned out to have been an inspired choice.

Rick Wakeman’s solo set was a strange way to end a festival, just him and a grand piano, alternating between anecdotes drawn from his fifty years in the music business and instrumental piano pieces. The stories included humping inflatable dinosaurs, escaping from Wexham Park Hospital to go to the pub, and Arthur Brown exclaiming “How can I be the bloody God of Hellfire if my helmet won’t light?”. The music covered both his solo work and the many artists he’d worked with over the years, pieces from “The Six Wives of Henry VIII” and “Journey to the Centre of the Earth” alongside Yes’ “Wondrous Stories”, Bowie’s “Life on Mars” and even “Eleanor Rigby” in the style of Prokofiev. It was all entertaining stuff but you couldn’t help wondering if Steeleye Span’s more energetic set might have been the better way to finish the day.

So ended HRH Prog 3. As a residential festival, most of the festival-goers stayed on-site in chalets that accommodate up to eight people, though if you’re not part of a group it’s cheaper to buy day passes, book a B&B locally and stay off-site. One quibble that remains is the lack of any of the excellent local ales in the bar; prog fans are known for preferring something other than Interbrew generic lager, and while Hobgoblin is better than nothing, there are plenty of local brewers who can do far better than that.

One odd quirk this year was the way the festival shared the site with a science fiction convention. This saw a lot of cosplayers wandering the site, and we even had the sight of Batmen and Judge Dredds in the audience. Someone really needs to have dressed as 70s Peter Gabriel just to mess with people’s minds.

Despite the remoteness it’s a great festival, and the organisers put together a hugely varied bill that showcased progressive music in all its varied forms. The quality was if anything more consistent than last year. The festival will be back at the same time and place with HRH Prog 4 in 2016.

The Resonance Festival held at the very beginning of August was a four-day charity event held in The Bedford in Balham, featuring bands from all aspects of the contemporary progressive rock scene, everything from the traditional and the neo to the avant garde. I couldn’t get to the first two days, the evening only events featuring Mostly Autumn, Also Eden and Lifesigns. But I did attend the all-day events of Saturday and Sunday where the three rooms played host to a wide variety of bands.

The biggest room, the magnificent circular Globe was booked for a comedy night on the Saturday, but it was still available during the afternoon. So that became the acoustic stage for the day. First up was looping guitar maestro Matt Stevens, conjuring tapestries of sound from a battered acoustic guitar and an array of looping pedals. He’s a familiar sight on the prog circuit having opened for just about everyone, but he’s still an entertaining performer no matter how many times you’ve seen him.

After The Far Meadow, whose competent neo-prog was spoiled by terrible sound, it was back to The Globe for a beautiful set from Luna Rossa, the acoustic duo of Anne-Marie Helder and Jon Edwards of Panic Room. They’re not “Panic Room unplugged”, but a completely separate side-project playing their own material rather than Panic Room songs. With Jon on piano and Anne-Marie adding some acoustic guitar and flute, their beautiful set featured songs from the album “Sleeping Pills and Lullabies”, a couple of interestingly-reworked covers, and one new number offering a tantalising glimpse of their second album that they’re currently part-way through recording.

Anna Phoebe and her band were the first all-instrumental act of the weekend. With lead instruments of violin and acoustic guitar for much of the set, they were the missing link between rock and gypsy jazz. Anne Phoebe is a stunning virtuoso musician with a dramatic stage presence to match.

Matt Stevens celebrated his birthday by returning to the stage a second time, this time in electric mode with a full band in the shape of The Fierce and The Dead. They’re not an easy band to describe, but their instrumental sound driven by interlocking guitars with a raw sound comes over as a kind of punk version of King Crimson. It was intense and Earth-shatteringly loud, and the audience staggered out of the room wondering exactly what had hit them.

Saturday ended with the symphonic majesty of The Enid. Much like their performance at HRH Prog back in March, the set mixed older favourites with newer material from “Invictia”, ending with a mesmerising “Dark Hydraulic” and a version of Barclay James Harvest’s “Mockingbird”. There is nobody else remotely like The Enid, and they, perhaps more than any other band embody the spirit of everything progressive rock is about.

So ended the first day, and that was just the highlights; there are also honourable mentions to Unto Us, who bravely playing their set with a laptop replacing their ailing drummer, and the avant-noise of Trojan Horse, a band with feet in enough different camps they do supports for the likes of post-punk veterans The Fall.

Sunday’s bill was a day of clashes between the various stages, made worse by timings going awry which made it easier to wander from stage to stage seeing what sounded interesting rather than planning things too much in advance. Early bands included Rat Face Lewey, a very young power trio, at times verging on punk, at others playing some more melodic guitar lines, and Hekz with their strongly song-focussed prog-metal. Vocals are often the weak link in prog-metal, but Hekz’ Matt Young had quite a remarkable voice.

Maschine were the first band on the main stage, now in its rightful place in The Globe, and started late because of technical problems. Although to some extent they’re a vehicle for Luke Machin’s virtuoso guitar playing, there’s some solid composition behind all the flash. They’re the missing link between prog-metal and jazz-fusion. Quite a bit of their entertaining set was new, as yet unrecorded material alongside highlights from their début “Rubidium”. They’re not quite the same without Georgia, though.

King Bathmat were actually three-quarters of King Bathmat, since they were without their keyboard player and played as a power trio. In such a stripped-down form they sounded like a completely different band than they do on record, but nevertheless did make a strong impression, dominated by John Bassett’s psychedelic lead guitar. Because the two sets clashed I only caught the end of Synaesthesia’s set, but what little I heard it seemed like their set was something special indeed, a remarkable combination of youthful enthusiasm and compositional maturity well beyond their years.

Mr So and So turned out to be one of the unexpected highlights of the weekend, with a really powerful performance. They’re a band representing the song-centric side of things with distinctive use of dual male-female lead vocals. Their set was tight and intense with both guitar crunch and soaring melodies, with Charlotte Evans giving a very strong vocal performance, and some tremendous shredding from Dave Foster.

Former Enid guitarist Frances Lickerish threw a complete curveball and had to be the strangest act of the weekend. He started out playing some solo instrumental pieces on, of all things a lute, before being joined by vocalist Hilary Palmer for some genuine medieval songs. It seemed like folk’s revenge for Prog taking over Cropredy this year, and made Blackmore’s Night look like the Dungeons and Dragons parody it is. He even played a few bars of Smoke on the Water. On a lute.

At this point things started to go really pear-shaped. Swedish proggers Änglagård, making a very rare UK appearance were due on the main stage at 6:30. But despite already being allocated a two-hour setup time, they were nowhere near being ready to go at the scheduled time, and were ultimately well over an hour late, throwing the rest of the timings into disarray. I appreciate that a band relying so much on temperemental vintage gear (including two Mellotrons) might suffer from technical problems. But I was told the exact same thing happened last year at Night of the Prog at Loreley, which makes we wonder if a band like this should really be playing festivals at all.

The delay did give the chance to check out the other two stages, with some in-your-face metal from Jupiter Falls, and an entertaining unplugged set from 70s veterans Gnidrolog. Änglagård finally did hit the stage very, very late with their largely instrumental and very retro classic prog sound. It was a swirling mix of flute, Hammond, Mellotron, Fender Rhodes, saxes and an array of percussion instruments including a massive gong. All very heady stuff, although there was always the nagging doubt at the back of the mind that this was all a Spinal Tap style parody of prog excess.

Headliners Bigelf came on very late, and played a truncated set despite the hastily extended curfew. But it all proved worth the wait, and they blew everyone away, sounding like a cross between The Crazy World of Arthur Brown and early Queen. Few people in the prog world have such a magnetic stage presence as frontman and keyboard player Damon Fox. He completely dominates the stage, playing a Hammond B3 with one hand and a Mellotron with the other while singing lead at the same time. With a setlist drawn heavily from “Cheat the Gallows” and “Into the Maelstrom” they bought the festival to a spectacular if somewhat belated close.

Resonance was an entertaining festival, and the variety of acts covered almost all corners of progressive rock’s increasingly large tent. The only failing was that the whole thing was probably a little over-ambitious with three stages and far too many bands to be able to see everyone. One thing that amused me was the way the bar kept running out of real ale; did nobody tell them what prog fans drink?