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Progeny, London Astoria 15/16th November 2003
Saturday's Bands include:
Magenta
Richard Sinclair
In Cahoots
Pallas
Kevin Ayers
IQ
Fast link to Sundays Festival review
This was shaping up to be a very good weekend indeed for progressive music.
Neal Morse had played a blinder the night before at the Mean Fiddler, and there was still the prospect of 12 more bands/artists to see.
There was one slight disappointment which we discovered before the weekend got underway, Carl Palmer's band had pulled out for reasons as yet unknown to me.
Not to worry, I thought, I have seen him live before, and there were still plenty of other bands to enjoy. Besides, we may get someone else to replace him, or if not extended sets from some of the other bands - At least that would have been the logical decision to make.
Unfortunately, it was not to be.
Yes, we did get an extended set from one of the acts; Kevin Ayers. The same Kevin Ayers who was already booked for an hour slot on Sunday, was given Carl Palmers one hour slot on Sat evening also. Magenta had only 40 mins. Pallas had only 40 mins. Kevin Ayers, and no disrespect intended to the man here, is hardly even what you would call a progressive act. A somewhat baffling decision to say the least. But on to the music.
Magenta had the unenviable "first act" slot.
It did not help that a lot of the fans were still queuing outside when they began their set, and I missed 5 mins of the first song myself. I really like these guys, and have seen them a few times now and it was great to finally have them in London on a big stage. They have not gigged extensively, but, even since the last time I saw them, it's obvious they have grown in confidence. The vocal work was much more polished and they seemed much more relaxed and were obviously excited to be here. The sound could have been a little better, I thought Chris Fry's guitar was a little low, but the general audience reaction was very positive. It was a shame they were not seen by more people.
Richard Sinclair was next on the bill. I like Richard's voice, but I just found his songs just a little too whimsical for me.
In Cahoots were next. I knew absolutely nothing about these guys, and as far as I can tell they were a kind of slightly manic jazz rock/fusion outfit. Unfortunately I did not stay for most of their set (needed
to stretch my legs and get some
fresh air), so I cannot really comment. I caught the last few minutes though, and I am not sure it would have been my cup of tea. It all seemed a little shapeless to me, and in fact a stage hand had to come up and tap the guitarist on the shoulder twice to tell them their time was up. In another time and another place perhaps I would have enjoyed them.
Next on the bill, the mighty Pallas. How on earth were they going to make an impact with only a 40 minute set? Well, they not only made an impact, they tore the place apart. As far as they were concerned
it was just as important as any other gig and they really went for it. It helped that they had a great sound mix, but they were really tearing around the stage. My good friend John Stout, who was with me
for the weekend, commented that he had never seen Alan Reed so animated. The crowd were also enjoying themselves, and really made an effort to clap and sing along. The set was perfectly judged – Cross
and The Crucible, Greater Glory, Crown Of Thorns, and Sanctuary/Atlantis Suite end section. I think they deliberately went for the crowd pleasers, and the stuff that would get the crowd singing along.
They were the best band of the weekend bar none.
After this, it was off for a bite to eat before IQ's set (I did not stay for Kevin Ayers set, so cannot comment).
Now, Pallas had really raised the bar with their set and IQ were going to have to be very good to top them. To be fair, they were, but they are stylistically very different to Pallas, and there was something
about that slightly aloof air they sometimes exude that occasionally worked against them. Technically, their set was superb – they had the best sound of the day, a great light show, computerised screens; a
very slick show indeed. However, they
did'nt quite connect with the audience the way Pallas had. Also they decided to preview some new songs, which in a shorter than usual set at a festival was a somewhat questionable decision.
Sunday's Bands include:
Kevin Ayers
Arena
Mostly Autumn
The Enid
Pendragon
On to Sundays set.
We decided to give Kevin Ayers set a miss once again, meeting up with some friends instead. I did pop my head in the door briefly during his set and it sounded, pretty much as some people had described it to me, a sort of bluesy rock.
Arena played a very short acoustic set, with just Rob Sowden, Clive Nolan and John Mitchell on stage. I have never have been able to get into their stuff, and I didn't think an acoustic set by them would do
anything to change that, and it didn't. I find Rob Sowden a slightly awkward and unappealing lead singer.
Things improved greatly with Mostly Autumn. Wisely, in a 60 minute slot, they decided to stick mostly to the old favourites; Evergreen, Spirit Of Autumn Past, Heroes Never Die etc, with just the title track
from the new album Passengers. There seemed to be quite a large contingent of male admirers around the front of the stage – this may possibly have had something to do with the lovely Heather!
The Enid are of this countries great eccentric prog bands, but a much loved one.
I last saw them at the Reading festival in 1977 and I wondered how they were going to sound after all of this time, especially as their output in the last 20 years or so has been decidedly patchy and somewhat odd. Robert John Godfrey is quite a character, sounding a bit like a schoolteacher explaining the finer points of chemistry or something. This was especially true when he gave a lengthy "lecture" on how he was going to reproduce the orchestral sounds with samples from his computer, affectionately named Mother.
I actually quite enjoyed them, even if the orchestral bits sounded a little too synthesised occasionally. It was great to hear two pieces from the band's first album 'In the Region of the Summer Stars',
namely 'Judgement' and the title track itself, which has always been my favorite piece of theirs. The more recent Salome was quite impressive too.
The headliners that day were Pendragon. I have seen them live twice before, and have always enjoyed them, but I think a combination of tiredness, too much drink and the fact that it had just been a very long
day/weekend meant I just could not get into their set. There was nothing wrong with them, it was me. This was a shame since had they been on earlier I may have felt better about them.
I suppose that's one of the disadvantages of festivals like this. You can end up with prog overload and some bands just tend to wash over you while others are not on stage long enough to make an impact.
For future festivals like this, I would prefer to see less bands and have them play longer sets. 12 bands over 2 days sounds great, but it can be a little too much. It would also be good to see bands from
other parts of the world too.
On the whole though I think this was a reasonably successful event, and look forward to the next Progeny with great interest.
John Morley
17/11/03
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