Progsfest - Chippenham, Wiltshire, UK  30^th/31^st October

Saturday 30^th - Tantalus / The Tangent / Pineapple Thief / IQ
Sunday 31^st - The Progs / Galahad / Magenta / Ray Wilson

Saints be praised! Another new progressive music festival, and a new venue!

This one took place over the weekend of  30/31^st October at the Olympiad leisure centre in Chippenham Wilts.  It seemed slightly odd to have to negotiate your way past swimming pools, badminton courts etc to get to the hall where the bands where actually playing. However, the organisation of the event was very good, and the atmosphere very relaxed and easy going. So refreshing not to be shoved around by stewards and security guards, as is often the norm at other music venues.

The hall was medium sized, rectangular, with the stage in the centre rather than at the end. This meant you could be reasonably close to the stage even if you stood against the wall, and the sound was actually pretty good. There were occasional teething problems with the sound, but for a first time music festival in a venue of this sort this was to be expected, and was never too distracting.

So what of the music?  Here are my impressions of the bands that played -

Tantalus – I have to say I am not familiar with the bands recorded output. But I found them interesting.  This was very listenable, textured, multi-layered prog.  The band is fronted by Max Hunt on keyboards, augmented by vocals, flute, bass, guitar, drums and occasional mandolin.  There were occasional problems with on stage monitors for vocals making the lead singer sound off key in some places.  Despite this, there was some excellent guitar/bass work in display, and some inventive keyboard flourishes from Max to make this a great start to the festival.

The Tangent – For me, this was a bit of a disappointment.  There was a farcical situation with Roine Stolts lyrics being mislaid, and myself and others in the audience did not care for Andy Tillison's inference that they had been taken by someone in the audience.  This was a somewhat ill advised comment, and had the effect of distancing them from the audience before they had even played a note. 

This meant that it fell to keyboard player Andy Tillison to take over vocal duties.  However, apart from having a very rough, shouty style of singing, he seemed too distracted with his keyboards and other equipment than communicating with the audience. OK, I understand why Roine needed those lyrics – this is not his main band and the new Tangent album has only just been finished.  However, that was not their fault – but the fact that they seemed bored, somewhat moody and very mechanical certainly was.  The new material sounded severely lacking live, with only one or two of the older numbers like The Canterbury Sequence lifting the their performance out of the doldrums, and the welcome encore of the Nice' America. Perhaps I just expected too much from them, especially as this was their first live performance, but it just did not work for me.  A shame, because I like their recorded output and have recently been enjoying their new CD, The World We Drive Through.

Pineapple Thief – Something of a relief after Tangents set. A more modern, contemporary sound reminiscent of some of the newer, younger bands such as Jump. Not overtly prog - a simpler, cleaner sound.  They were good, they are more than capable musicians, but I cannot honestly say that any of the numbers stood out for me personally.

IQ – I guess this is the band most people had come to see. The venue may have been smaller and not as well equipped as the band may be used to, but they demonstrated their usual professionalism, even managing to get their video screens up and running.  A shorter set than usual, not the best sound but despite that no less enjoyable.  The new songs, especially Harvest Of Souls and Born Brilliant, were excellent (I had been looking forward to singing along to the "The Hand Of God Defends America" section in Harvest Of Souls for some time – though with a suitable sense of irony, of course.) For the older numbers we got The Wake, Outer Limits, Common Ground and the title track from Seventh House.  Sure, they could have played some of the more well known classic numbers – but y'know…I am over this whole "Why didn't X band play X song?" stuff – as long as they play well and entertain I am happy.

The Progs – Featuring organizer Shaun Hunt on double necked bass and Doug Melbourne (formerly of Regenesis) on keys. A prog tribute band, no less.  The usual suspects were covered, Firth Of Fifth, Comfortably Numb, Roundabout, Karn Evil 9, Starship Trooper, In The Court Of The Crimson King.  On the downside I found that occasionally the playing was a little rough, although I believe they only got together recently, and sadly the sound mix was not always that great with the guitar solo at the end of Starship Trooper being completely obliterated by the other instruments. I also felt that the lead singers voice, though good, did not strike me personally as being ideally suited to Prog - more of a straight rock singer.  That said I did enjoy their set though, and I like the idea of a Prog tribute band.  They were very well received by the crowd and the material was certainly ideally suited to the festival.

Galahad – Now these guys really impressed me.  I had only ever heard one album by them in the past (Following Ghosts), but they managed to create quite an atmosphere – great use of electronica and samples on the intro to Year Zero, and a very heavy, powerful, dramatic sound. Almost prog metal, but with a little more empashis on keyboards and a lot more imagination. And just how tall is their bass player exactly?  Brave of them to debut some new songs in a short set too.  I will definitely be checking them out further.

Magenta – Oh dear. I am going to get slaughtered for this, I know.  I am aware that a lot of you will have seen my name against reviews for Magenta many times.  But I have to say it – they were the band of the festival. If you don't believe me, just ask anyone else who was there.  The proof of this is that Shaun Hunt has already asked them to be the headliners at next years Progsfest. They were forced to take to the stage and set up very quickly and had no time for a soundcheck, and just went for it.  Luckily it sounded fine.  It always amazes me that the band manage to better their performance everytime I see them.  Chris Fry is definitely the showman of the band, running all over the stage, interacting with the other guys (and during one unexpected but very welcome moment jumping off the stage and sitting in one of the seats at the front while playing a solo). I have never heard Christina in such fine voice, and she was having a great time up there. In fact there were smiles all round on stage when it became apparent that the audience were completely entranced by them.  There were a couple of occasions where the audience applauded even before the songs finished (Especially during a brilliant guitar solo from Chris followed by some improvisational vocals from Christine during the middle section of White Witch). And what a set – the whole of White Witch, new faves Gluttony and Pride, the single Broken, 2 full new tracks from the impending new album Home, namely King Of The Sky and Tina's Song…and an encore too. (And due to time constraints very few bands managed that). I know for a fact from speaking to people in the audience afterwards that they made quite a few new fans that night.

Ray Wilson – I was not sure about how I would take to Ray Wilson. I only know his Genesis material and the Stiltskin single Inside. For some reason during soundcheck he did not seem too happy. Thankfully, and somewhat wisely Ray decided to play to the gallery and include not only quite a few Genesis songs (including a couple of interesting but welcome choices such as Follow You, Follow Me and I Can't Dance), but also some Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel solo songs.  A great band, excellent guitarist. Shame about people talking at the bar during his set, though.  I enjoyed him much more than I expected, though I personally found some of Ray's solo stuff a little too angst ridden for my taste.

On reflection, I was surprised that I ended up enjoying Sunday more than Saturday.  I believe the majority of the tickets were sold for Sat (no doubt because of IQ and Tangent), and Sunday was shaping up to be a little quieter. But all of the bands on Sunday were very enjoyable in their own way, and the audience for Sun seemed more appreciative and more vocal. I also think overall this was an excellent line up.  A lot of the bands I had either not heard at all or never seen live, so for me it was something of a voyage of discovery.

Good merchandise stalls too. Nearly all of the bands had their own product for sale. Needless to say I indulged myself and will be living on bread and water for the rest of the month!

For a first time event at a new venue, I personally thought this went off very well. It was comfortable, relaxed, a good atmosphere and good music.

My thanks to festival organiser Shaun Hunt for putting all of this together, and I will definitely be there for Progsfest 2005.

John Morley  November 6th 2004