Table of contents for Issue 92 in Prog

As usual, the Progressive Music Awards was one hell of a lot of fun. It’s always great to see a mix of prog musicians, young and old, mingling, chatting, and sharing a drink and a joke. This year was no exception at a packed Underglobe in London. Al Murray proved himself to be a top host, his passion for the music evident, despite the odd good-natured jibe at some of the attendees – myself included! And, of course, the party ran long into the night for some. You can read all about what happened and hear from the winners on page 34! Speaking of Mr. Murray, it’s a delight to welcome him as one of the contributors to this issue as well. Al had the enviable task of going to…

Great feature on Camel [Prog 90]. I never felt they got the recognition they deserved back in the day. It inspired me to dig out the Rainbow’s End box set and have a good listen. I think Dave Williams was right though – they lacked a good singer (possible exception of Richard Sinclair) and I think it’s an ongoing problem in prog: there are some great bands, old and new, who suffer in the vocalist department. Still, you can’t fault Andy Latimer’s guitar playing – he reminds a bit of Mr Hackett, and for me, the first four albums are up there with the best. I saw both the Moonmadness and Rain Dances tours and they were fantastic live. And yes, I remember the astrocamel… I had the badge! This…

Marillion have announced 13 UK shows with a difference next year. The dates, which commence at Liverpool Philharmonic on November 1, also see the Brits returning to the Royal Albert Hall for two nights with the In Praise Of Folly string quartet, Sam Morris on French horn and Emma Halnan on flute. “We’ve added this wonderful six-piece to the band for this entire tour. They’re brilliant players, good friends, and the chemistry we have together has already spoken for itself,” says frontman Steve Hogarth. “I thought we’d never beat that night at RAH… but there’s going to be two nights and two different RAH setlists this time, so let’s see what we, and [what] our legendary fans, can do.” The shows will include material from the band’s 14-album career with…

Davy O’List is embracing his poppier side on upcoming album The Future’s Wild, which is due out next spring. “I proved that I still had my prog routes with [2015 album] Second Thoughts and it was time for me to progress and do something new and different,” he says. “It’s still prog but the genre is now more advanced than it used to be and it’s more popular. Steven Wilson has described pop as The Beatles and Abba. He came from a heavy prog background and decided to make more commercial-sounding music and had a No.1 album. I hear that as pop prog.” The songs were written on his 2016-2017 tour and feature keyboards from his former Attack bandmate Bob Hodges. The Nice’s Alan O’Duffy will help out with the…

Constellations showcases a very different side to keyboard player Dean Baker. The album, available to pre-order from November 5, was heavily influenced by a bequeathed CD collection and the musician’s collection of vintage synths. “People would often say to me that they thought certain Galahad songs had been inspired by Tangerine Dream or Kraftwerk but I didn’t own any of the recordings,” says Baker. “I’ve now got almost complete sets of albums by Jean-Michel Jarre and Vangelis and I got really inspired by them. I literally wrote 20 tracks in about six weeks!” The 10 mostly instrumental songs that made the final cut include guest appearances from his bandmates Stu Nicholson and Lee Abraham, as well as Coburg vocalist Anastasia Coburg. Galahad hope to announce their next studio album in…

“The main theme of Letters To Maro is showing up the emotional fallout of metropolitan life.” THE PROG WORLD is full of artists and musicians striving to create movies for the mind, but few have mastered this distinctly niche art form quite like Frequency Drift. Led by Bayreuth-based multi-instrumentalist Andreas Hack and Prog-approved harpist Nerissa Schwarz, this amorphous ensemble have been quietly making wildly imaginative records for the last 10 years. When Hack formed the band back in 2007, he was primarily inspired by film soundtracks and the freewheeling spirit of prog. “To me, Close To The Edge is still is one of the greatest pieces ever written in rock because it showed me that there are no boundaries,” he says. “That was exactly what I needed for the way…

“The theremin is a very different experience to the cello: there are no particular rules on how to play.” “I USED TO describe my music as minimal sci-fi but I think it’s become bigger than that,” muses the softly spoken Hekla Magnúsdóttir. “It can be really dark and heavy but also really bright and light.” The experimental Icelandic musician and vocalist is all about opposites. She swapped her cello for a theremin 10 years ago and more recently has exchanged the darkness of her native country for Berlin’s vibrant underground music scene, where she frequently pops up on the live circuit. “There’s a limit of venues and people in Iceland, so it’s a lot easier doing things here [in Berlin],” says Magnúsdóttir. “You’re more connected to the outside world and…

Official Progressive Albums Chart WIN! STEVE HACKETT BROKEN SKIES BOX SET! Steve Hackett released the collection Broken Skies – Outspread Wings (1984-2006) on 5 October via InsideOut, that includes six remastered albums, bonus tracks, live videos and more, and we have one set to give away. The art book will include remastered versions of Till We Have Faces, Guitar Noir, Darktown, Feedback 86, To Watch The Storms and Wild Orchids, and bonus material. The package will also include two DVDs featuring 5.1 mixes, live rarities, and the Somewhere In South America live set which was captured in Buenos Aires. The cover features brand new artwork from Roger Dean and the collection will come with a 60-page book, complete with liner notes, rare photos, lyrics and more. Hackett says: “I’m excited…

“Striking the balance between our 70s sound and the need to be contemporary was vital.” Even in the eclectic, diverse era of the 1970s, Gryphon were unusual. Their medieval musical fascinations gave albums such as Midnight Mushrumps and Red Queen To Gryphon Three a unique artistic outlook. The band also made history by being the first to appear on BBC Radios 1, 2, 3 and 4 in the same week. However, Gryphon split up in 1977, after releasing five albums. In 2009, original members Richard Harvey, Graeme Taylor, Dave Oberlé and Brian Gulland reunited. Subsequently, they performed spasmodic concerts to great acclaim. But in 2016, Harvey (an award-winning composer of music for films and TV) left the band. Undeterred, Gryphon brought in Graham Preskett, Andy Findon and Rory McFarlane (since…

“As Robert Fripp has said, his approach for this sprawling version of Crimson is that all music is new when it is written, and this band address all of the music as though it’s new.” “In Pompeii, a large percentage of the audience were young couples, and older men were with wives. My own sense and feel of our two audiences: a large proportion seeing Crimson for the first time, a larger proportion seeing this incarnation for the first time.”Robert Fripp Starting late as they do in Italy, the sun long since set, the amphitheatre in Pompeii is a stark and haunting place. Echoes abound and rebound, flying off into the night sky. Refurbished by Dave Gilmour so he could play it a couple of years back, it’s nevertheless spartan,…

American musician Phideaux Xavier was highly prolific between 2003 and 2011, releasing no fewer than eight albums under his name. But since then, little had been heard from him. Frustratingly for aficionados, his dystopian trilogy remained incomplete, with 2006’s The Great Leap and 2007’s Doomsday Afternoon succeeded by two unrelated albums, 2009’s Number Seven and 2011’s Snowtorch. But his fans can now celebrate following the release of double album Infernal, which concludes the trilogy. So, why the lengthy Infernal gestation period? “The seven years weren’t spent drinking Mai Tais in Malibu! I thought I was making beer; instead it turned out to be cognac,” laughs Xavier, speaking from his Los Angeles home. He then explains more prosaically that his day job (directing General Hospital, America’s second longest running soap opera)…

Pure prog, jazz fusion and rock come together in fine style on The Courage To Be, the self-released debut album from Cleveland, Ohio trio Lux Terminus. Pianist/keyboardist Vikram Shankar, drummer Matthew Kerschner and bass player Brian Craft are in perfect sync on eclectic tracks with proggy titles like Electrocommunion, Aberration and Spectral Shapes. What a breath of fresh air this is, a treat for fans of thinky piano-led prog, and the cherry on top comes in the form of a classy vocal slot from the ever-divine Anneke van Giersbergen. London psych proggers The Osiris Club have removed their cultish masks of late and unveiled three-track single Island Of Stone (Indie). Ulver’s Kristoffer Rygg sings the catchy title track – taken from the Club’s recent second album Wine-Dark Sea; the Nik…

There’s a palpable air of expectation tonight in deepest East Sussex before Downes Braide Association begin their first ever live show. They’re introduced by Roger Dean, who quips that he first met DBA’s Geoff Downes and Chris Braide about 40 years and 40 minutes ago, respectively. While this is DBA’s live debut, they don’t lack ambition tonight, playing Prelude before launching with gusto into the 18-minute title track from last year’s Skyscraper Souls album. The key question is how DBA’s meticulously studio-crafted music will translate live. While the first two albums relied exclusively on the duo’s own talents, Skyscraper Souls deployed assorted guests. DBA’s live configuration tonight features bassist Andy Hodge and Rick Wakeman guitarist Dave Colquhoun, both of whom played on that album, but there’s no drummer, with the…

“The orchestra are generally present only as an underlying added flavour, rather than bringing any new, unanticipated spice.” Once again we are going to witness Steve Hackett and his exemplary band revisit the earlier work of Genesis, a gift the self-professed “keeper of the flame” has been giving us for six years now. But this time there’s a difference. Sitting behind them is the 41-piece The Heart Of England Orchestra, conducted by the enthusiastically bouncing Canadian Bradley Thachuk. In theory, this should make some of the biggest soundscapes in art rock history even bigger. It sort of works, and makes for some exhilarating moments, although oddly – and despite the evidence of them fiddling busily away in front of your very eyes – the orchestra aren’t always audible. Perhaps it’s…

There’s no support for The Aristocrats tonight, but with more than two hours of music, there’s little danger of anyone going home with their appetite unsatiated. The band request no filming or photographs and it’s such a treat to be able to watch a show without peering through a glowing crop of smartphone screens. Happily, the venue boasts excellent sound, which is vital given the sheer density of the music tumbling off the stage. Guthrie Govan, Bryan Beller and Marco Minnemann have chops to spare, but what separates The Aristocrats from so many fusion and progressive bands is their resolute determination to have fun. As fiendishly difficult as their compositions may be, they’re clearly having such a laugh playing this stuff that their concerts feel like a house party, not…

Asmall, dark room in a North London pub, a glow of purple and reddish light and – out of nowhere – a little ambient mist. Just the setting for five figures in black robes to enter and take up sonic arms. But wait – is that a bearded lady on bass? No, it’s The Osiris Club’s Sean Cooper, his long, wavy hair and face fuzz enhanced by some glam eyeshadow beneath his dark hood. It’s a signifier of the psychedelic pop sparkle these gothic proggers have, within a catalogue of expansive, brooding epics. Inspired by Dark Horse comic hero Hellboy, there’s a cartoonish element to the look of the London-based band but that doesn’t detract from what they do. Saxless tonight (regular member Hanna Petterson is unwell), they still whip…

A CAUSE FOR DEBATE I reckon you are going to get a lot of this, but I thought I needed to point out some omissions, a few glaring ones, from your ‘50 Greatest Keyboard Players’ list [Prog 91]. Firstly, the list did not say prog keyboard players, though by default I suppose it should probably encompass this genre. However, back in the days when I started getting into ‘serious’ music, prog’(or progressive music) was anything that wasn’t mainstream pop. Okay, here are the missing in my opinion (and in no particular order)… Steven Porcaro (Toto). His playing takes in rock, jazz and prog, I could also make a case for his co-keyboard player, David Paich. Ken Hensley (Uriah Heep). Master of the Moog simplifier (listen to Uriah Heep Live). Steve…

AX-EDGE Some readers may recall the legendary performance of Frankenstein by the Edgar Winter Group on The Old Grey Whistle Test in 1973, which featured a white-haired Edgar with a colossal keyboard hanging around his neck. Since then, many companies have tried to create a keytar that didn’t attract ridicule, and this is the latest failed attempt. “Step into the spotlight” is the slogan, calling on keyboard players to step out of the shadows with this bladeshaped instrument with an optional leopard skin trim. Speaking as a keyboard player myself, I’d prefer to continue sitting in the shadows to avoid the jeering. www.roland.com KYZEN We’ve featured a number of Bluetooth speakers in this column over the years, but we’ve never acknowledged the fact that pairing speakers with devices and switching…

“Before and after every tour, it’s always been a tradition to have a curry. It just suits the mood. Over the years and after much experimentation, I came up with this recipe. I really started to develop a love for cooking, listening to tunes, drinking good beer and having a kitchen full of people to chat, laugh, taste and laugh some more. The kitchen is the heart of the home and when it’s filled with the people you love, the music you idolise and the food you adore, there’s no better setting. It’s the perfect recipe in every respect.” Ingredients (serves 2) 2 chicken fillets, chilli infused olive oil, 4 garlic cloves (finely chopped), 1 red onion (finely chopped), small piece of ginger (finely grated with skin removed), 3 Scotch…

Any band calling themselves The Pop Group are either stating the bleedin’ obvious or have a perverse sense of irony. In the instance of the Bristol five-piece it was a case of the latter. They started in 1977, when the world was safety pinned to the supposed anarchy of punk. But what vocalist Mark Stewart et al were doing was truly anarchic because they refused to bend to any conformity. Imagine what it might be like if Captain Beefheart became entangled in a John Zorn maze, and then add a quantity of acid to the resultant twisted percolation. Now you might have some clue as to where The Pop Group were going. Y was released in 1979, and sounded like nothing else. There were those who dismissed it as a…

There are certain people – and you’ve almost certainly encountered them – who believe that prog has no place on the world stage. Instead, they think the genre they profess to love must remain a backwater curio for the entertainment of a select few… mainly them. There’s the irritated fan wearing a band’s early-era shirt, aghast that so many new faces are enjoying the show. The dismissive behaviour of a band who refuse to be interviewed by a magazine because acts people have heard of are in it. And the clenched fist of the weekend warrior who’s not bloody listening to them again because they got on the radio. They’ve sold out! Prog is sometimes seen as an elitist scene from the outside but that’s a great reason why no…

“Writing the album was all about challenging ourselves and each other.” JUST WHEN YOU thought that the whole djent phenomenon was running out of steam, along comes a handful of new bands breathing virulent life into the genre. Chief among tech metal’s new breed are Bristol/Manchester/Belfast quintet Valis Ablaze, whose powerfully melodic and uplifting take on the djent blueprint sets them firmly apart from the generic, growling herd. You might even say the band have pop sensibilities, particularly in light of their cover of Rag’n’Bone Man’s now ubiquitous Human. “Every two years we do an April Fool’s joke,” explains guitarist Ash Cook. “Last year we created a tour poster which was advertising an acoustic Meshuggah show with Karnivool, Vola, Skyharbor and us opening, at the SSE [Wembley] Arena on 19…

Keyboardist Andy Tillison has never ploughed a mainstream prog furrow. Since the band’s 2002 birth, The Tangent’s course has seldom run smooth. Last year the band released The Slow Rust Of Forgotten Machinery, Tillison swiftly following that with his Kalman Filter collaboration Exo-Oceans with The Fierce & The Dead’s Matt Stevens. With the release of new Tangent album Proxy this month, Tillison has become highly prolific again and appears to have well and truly recaptured his mojo. “Some of our albums are great and some are crap and I wish I’d never made them. I never thought Not As Good As The Book was one of our finest moments musically – the book was good and the album title was right! But it’s some people’s favourite Tangent album.” “It depends…

“Like many, they started with the R&B/blues sound – which they went back to later – but albums such as S.F. Sorrow and Parachute are definitely in the progosphere.” Titus Jennings “Yep, only S.F. Sorrow and Parachute. Although I love their AOR albums Savage Eye and Silk Torpedo, they are definitely NOT prog. So on balance I would not call them a prog band.” Solent Area Prog “Never heard of them.” Captain Beanhead “S.F. Sorrow is a unique body of musical brilliance!” Jackie Elvey “Parachute is still a favourite. Proto-prog I’d say.” Greg McVeigh “They definitely have a place in the history of the genre, for being part of the psych scene in the mid-1960s and recording one the very first concept albums, S.F. Sorrow.” Paul Quinton “S.F. Sorrow counts…

Oh Sees leader John Dwyer, who knows a thing or two about wired psychedelic rock, calls Straight Arrows “the fuzziest, most catchiest, escapist, good-times vending, rapscallion trampoline shiners this side of the Murray River”. The Australian quartet’s third effort, On Top! (Agitated), pounds forth like a bull from a gate, evoking the wild R&B of 60s primitives like The Sonics and Them. Fronted by guitarist and songwriter Owen Penglis, there are also nods to freakbeat, garage punk (Gun Man feels like a lost outtake from Nuggets) and the classic age of psychedelia (the fuzz-smothered Buried Again). The overall effect is invigorating. Dwyer may well also fancy the equally ferocious La Planète Inexplorée (Stolen Body), from French trio Slift. Under the guidance of noted producer Lo Spider in Toulouse, the band…

Incredibly, a decade has passed since a new imprint unveiled the No-Man album Schoolyard Ghosts. Since then Kscope have presented music from across the globe, but tonight we are gathered in a Grade 1 listed place of worship in the label’s home city for a (mainly) acoustic birthday party celebration. There’s no doubting the Chapel’s beauty, but it isn’t a great venue for rock. Volume is controlled, and up in the balcony, views can be limited. And does anyone really want to sit on a wooden pew for almost four hours? There’s another drawback. Over the course of any evening, regardless of its quality, acoustic material tends to sound earnest and repetitive. A four-song set from Nosound leader Giancarlo Erra is full of dark, melancholy gravitas, but in terms of…

“Tonight is a life-affirming reminder that music can side-wind and surprise.” Nick Mason sets us straight early on. “We’re not the Australian Roger Waters. Or the Danish David Gilmour.” He’s given up waiting for a phone call from his fellow Floyd survivors, he adds. As tonight affirms, he’s making hay while the heart of the sun shines, fully in control. Halfway through an exhilarating show, he jokes that Roger was “not good at sharing”, so the drummer never got to bang the gong at the start of Set The Controls…. “But tonight,” he declares wryly, “is my night…” It certainly is, and not just because he gets to bang that gong. The 74-year-old has quipped that it’s akin to playing in his own tribute band, but this unit combines devoted…

Tonight is kind of a big deal. It’s the last night of The Pineapple Thief’s tour, in support of new album Dissolution (their first to make the UK Top 40), and their biggest ever headline show. Oh, and main man Bruce Soord is set to become a father again – like, imminently. This anticipation is reflected in the waves of punters in T-shirts from various Pineapple Thief tours (interspersed with other Kscope-y names) excitedly jostling from bars to stalls and seats. By contrast, it’s fair to guess that most people here don’t already know LizZard. It is fair to say, however, that they’ll remember them after this. The French trio peddle a contemporary, hard-hitting fusion of artrock and meaty progressive rock, with nods to the more organic end of Muse…

Because the venue is turning into a club night after this live show has finished, the 10pm curfew means the three bands on tonight’s Scandinavian triple-bill get less stage time than they ordinarily would. Nevertheless, the compact hall is healthily full by the time the first of the bands comes on stage at 6.45pm. The oddly named 22 get only half an hour in which to impress with their angular, staccato approach, pummelling the crowd with a visceral sound from the off. At times somewhat reminiscent of Thumpermonkey if they were accompanied by a truckload of drum kits being pushed off a cliff, the Norwegians get a rousing reception from the fearless stage-front devotees. Next up are Agent Fresco, from Iceland. Describing themselves as math metal, the elements of precision…

JUDY DYBLE @judydyble Anyone fancy an apple? NICK BEGGS @NickBeggs Tonight, after a day of looking after my grandaughter, I am mostly drinking beer and looking at the sky through my binoculars. RICK WAKEMAN @GrumpyOldRick I met loads of friends at Reading last night who I haven’t seen for years. Fantastic memories. Thank you Hexagon too for supplying far and away the best piano on the tour that I’ve had so far. MIKE PORTNOY @MikePortnoy Life imitating art… or vice versa? Always nice to come back to the Colos-Saal in Aschaffenburg, Germany… one of the great prog clubs in Europe! But I have to stare at my mug hanging in the venue all night long from the stage! Hahaha MATT COHEN @MattCohenBass Definitely a @MarillionOnline Misplaced Childhood morning. This album…

“Solvite wallpaper paste would be perfect to help Yes paper over the cracks.” The closest I ever got to a sponsorship deal was way back in the 1990s when Kaliber was pretty much the only non-alcoholic beer on the market. They gave me a dozen bottles for every show on the proviso that I put their banner up somewhere, which I duly did. Unfortunately Kaliber wasn’t really that well-known, unless you were teetotal, so all it did was confuse most of the audience who thought The English Rock Ensemble had been renamed Kaliber. Unless you’re a huge name, and preferably female, it’s tough to get any form of sponsorship these days, so it set me thinking which companies would pair up the best with rock and prog bands. I thought…

Dave Brock looked like a wizard that had crawled out of a cave. “I was totally obsessed with space and science fiction from a very young age – Star Trek, Doctor Who, Gerry Anderson. At six, I was given The London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Stereo Space Odyssey by my parents; it had the theme to 2001 on it and some spacey compositions using synths that bounced from channel to channel with ‘Spacial Stereo’. It was the first record I owned and definitely my first taste of prog. We lived in Barry, Wales, and the house was full of music as my mother liked gospel and disco. I went to school in Pencoed and by my teens I was friends with a boy called Nigel. His older brother had a great record…

Limelight Midas Fall Elizabeth Heaton: “We were totally chuffed to be nominated, we never thought we were actually going to win. But I think this is the first album we’ve done that we’ve ever been truly happy with.” Rowan Burn: “I think that’s a lot to do with the fact that it was just me and you. We didn’t have to accommodate anything else, we did this ourselves and we had complete freedom. We just burrowed away in rural Scotland and made this album from nothing in the backroom of a but and ben [two-room cottage] and a village hall. This is a bit overwhelming.” Video Of The Year Orphaned Land Like Orpheus Kobi Farhi: “It’s a true story about metalheads in the Middle East, that people can be religious…

As King Crimson approach their 50th anniversary in 2019, the uncertainty surrounding the UK’s departure from the European Union has had an impact on the group’s plans to tour Europe. Fripp noted in his online diary in June: “Currently there is no foreseeable exit arrangement for the UK, no clear plans for migrant workers, eg the Brothers Crim and their pals, whether work visas will be necessary for anyone other than our American members. “The technicalities and bureaucracy of arranging visa for all eight members of The Beast plus c. 12 support team persons, in each different country, is impracticable; this without even dealing with the withholding tax for each jurisdiction. Compliance with EU tax and individual arrangements for each country is already close to unworkable for small organisations. KC/DGM…

“It developed like slow cooking,” says Martin Barre about his solo career. After more than 40 years playing guitar in Jethro Tull, Barre has steadily established his own distinct musical identity with the Martin Barre Band, who return with Barre’s seventh album as leader on Roads Less Travelled. “Jethro Tull finished and I had to drag myself out of the mess that was left and to really start from absolute zero.” Since the dissolution of Jethro Tull six years ago, the solo side of Barre's career has taken on a new importance now that it’s his bread and butter. “I had music in me that wasn’t coming out in Jethro Tull,” Barre says. “I needed an outlet, but they were purely for fun. There was no need for them to…

Everybody needs to start somewhere. For Geoff Downes, that break came in the orchestra pit at London’s New Theatre. It was 1975, and the 23-year-old Downes was playing keyboards in a brand new stage show. And his unlikely paymasters? Pointy-nosed kids’ TV characters The Wombles. “It was my first job after I finished music college,” says Downes, northern accent undiluted after more than 40 years on music’s frontlines. “I answered an ad in Melody Maker looking for musicians for a theatrical production, and I got the job. It turned out to be the stage version of The Wombles.” And did he have to wear a costume? “Thankfully I didn’t,” he says with a laugh. “They were bloody unhealthy things.” Downes has come a long way since rubbing shoulders with Uncle…

K arine Polwart renewed her already peerless credentials earlier this year with her sixth BBC Radio 2 Folk Award, as Folk Singer Of The Year. Laws Of Motion (Hudson) is a speedy follow-up to 2017’s lauded A Pocket Of Wind Resistance, and The Guardian’s description of that project as an “epic, emotional endeavour” could happily do service again here. Much of the material on Polwart’s seventh release is of a traditional hue, but her approach is so fearless and, often, socio-political that the effect is daringly cutting-edge. After an acoustic opening for Ophelia (a mood that returns on the comely Cornerstone and others) comes a modernistic turn on the title song, one of those written with Midlothian neighbour Martin Green. Polwart’s studio partners throughout are brother Steven on guitars and…

On 18 November, 1971, Procol Harum played a concert augmented by orchestra and choir. Released the following year as Live: In Concert With The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, the live document would go on to be their biggest seller. Tonight in London, the current incarnation reproduce that album, aided by the Senbla Orchestra and English Chamber Choir. Leader Gary Brooker takes the stage to a rousing welcome from a partisan crowd who clearly hold him in deep affection. It sets the atmosphere for what promises to be a special night of symphonic prog. Conquistador dazzles with its effortless complexity. Cinematic Sergio Leone strings and trumpet flourishes are sublime, while Geoff Whitehorn’s dextrous lead guitar grounds us in rock. And yet there’s a problem – Brooker’s unmistakable voice sounds laboured and cracking.…

“So who’s playing here tonight?” “It’s a band called Gryphon.” “What do they sound like?” “They’re folky, proggy, rocky… everything!” This is an actual chat between a vaguely interested passer-by and a security bloke on the door at the Union Chapel tonight. And it sums up the Gryphon conundrum. Just what do they sound like? The best description is 16th-century music, laced with Vaudevillian humour, wrapped in a package that’s astonishingly apposite for contemporary audiences. Tonight, the venerable bards play two sets. The first begins with Kemp’s Jig, and immediately the coloured trousers being worn by the barefoot Brian Gulland catch Prog’s attention: he looks like a psychedelic Catweazle. He and Andy Findon spend the night darting between a blur of wind instruments, with the fabled crumhorn to the fore.…

The T-shirts here say a lot: Megadeth, Motörhead, Vader. The music fans in this club venue aren’t your average prog audience. But Voivod aren’t your average prog band. The Canadians’ roots are in 80s thrash, yet over their career they’ve developed a style of brutally refined, thinky metal that’s all their own. They’re touring Europe to mark their 35th anniversary and promote new album The Wake, and their vibe is celebratory. The four are all smiles as they walk on, and things get loud as Dominique ‘Rocky’ Laroche kicks off the sphincter-bothering bass riff of Post Society. “All this time together and this is our first time in Wales,” says singer Denis ‘Snake’ Bélanger at its end. Throughout, he’s chatty, funny and slightly frazzled looking, chugging from a can of…

It’s interesting to note Sons Of Apollo’s intro and outro music tonight, which is Van Halen’s Intruder and Happy Trails. The band even throw in a boisterous cover of And The Cradle Will Rock during their encores, while keyboard player Derek Sherinian incorporates a piece from Spanish Fly into his solo spot and guitarist Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal toys with Mean Streets. While it’s hardly surprising that a bunch of US musicians of a certain age are still in thrall to the mighty Van Halen, much of the drive behind Sons Of Apollo’s juggernaut blend of prog and heavy rock seems to be derived from Deep Purple more than anything else. You wonder what any dyed-in-the-wool progger would make of it all, until you remember that there are probably few in…

Kingcrow’s inclusion on this tour gives the Italian prog metal veterans the opportunity to play to their own fans alongside much deserved exposure to a wider audience. Showcasing tracks from their recent The Persistence release as well as airing a couple of older tunes, they win over a fair swathe of a partisan Pain Of Salvation audience, closing with the minor epic If Only. A suitably atmospheric intro ushers in the ferocious and tricksy First Tuesday as Pain Of Salvation gather, with Reasons and the heartrending Meaningless up next. For a man who nearly died of a horrible flesh-eating disease just a few years ago and then spent a long time in recovery, Daniel Gildenlöw’s voice is just as astounding as ever, and he looks gratifyingly healthy and full of…