As you already know, this column has been designed to highlight those members of the Public Sector who go above and beyond the call of Public Duty to promote our beloved Progressive Rock music. Last month we featured Librarian Angela from Chelmsford.
This month, we would like to praise the one and only Mick Lloyd, a man many of us only know as "Croydon Mick".
Over the last few years, Mick has worked tirelessly to promote nearly every prog rock band that has ever walked the face of this earth, on forums and message boards up and down the country, and even round the world. And in the last couple of years, he has been the driving force, along with DJ Twang, behind the rise of The House Of Progression - the regular Prog Rock nights that take place at The Peel in Kingston-Upon-Thames, a venue that has become THE venue for Prog Bands in London and the surrounding area.
All this whilst coaching his school basketball team to numerous finals and whatnot.
Mick Lloyd - we praise you!
Thanks to John in Black for the nomination!
If you are, or know a Public Servant, be they librarian, policeman, bus driver or lollipop operatve who do their bit for Prog, let us know at silhobbit@gmail.com.
Bob Dalton Calls All The Heroes on British Forces radio
It Bites drummer Bob Dalton was on BFBS, the radio station for the Armed Services, this morning to promote the bands rerecorded version of 80s smash Calling All The Heroes. Bob was on the Breakfast with Sim show talking about the bands charity efforts, trying to raise money for the Cumbria Flood Recovery Fund.
The first two bands playing this years Summer's End Festival have been announced.
Firstly, the recently reformed Ark will be there. The near classic line up includes Ant Short (vocals / flute), Pete Wheatley (guitar), Steve Harris (guitar synth) and John Jowitt (bass). Darwin's Radio drummer Tim Churchman completes the line up.
The second band are Australia's Unitopia, who released their second album The Garden to much acclaim in 2008.
The Summer's End Festival takes place on October 8th, 9th and 10th at Lydney Town Hall, Lydney, Gloucestershire.
Dan Fry leaves Magenta leaving Dutch fans "high and fry"
Magenta's bass player, and brother of guitarist Chris, Dan Fry has announced that he is leaving the band to focus on his other non-prog projects. Dan's last gig with the band will be their headline set at the Winter's End Festival in Stroud on the 13th March.
This means that the band have been forced to cancel their Dutch appearances in May at the Boerderij and the W2, though it is thought that Dutch band Mangrove will continue to play.
The band say that they'll be taking this opportunity to focus on studio matters, such as their Real World live album, Christina's solo album and the next Magenta album.
A statement from the band says: Dan has been a fantastic servant to Magenta during his 4½ year tenure with the band. Both his playing skill and his onstage enthusiasm have, quite rightly, made him a favourite with the fans and have helped build Magenta’s considerable reputation as a live act. However, Dan now wants time to pursue his own musical projects outside of Prog and we respect that. While his departure is a huge disappointment to us all, he remains a great friend to the band and we can’t thank him enough for his remarkable contribution. He certainly will be a hard act to follow. We are currently holding auditions for Dan’s replacement so if you’d like to throw you hat into the ring (so to speak) we’d love to hear from you.
Also Eden announce "Differences as Light" will see the light in May
Also Eden have announced that their new ep Differences As Light, featuring new vocalist Rich Harding, will be available in May.
The EP will contain 3 new songs: Seeing Red, Oud En Nieuw and Reality Cheque, while the stunning artwork has been did by the excellent Graeme Bell.
The band say: We're loving the results, it's a fresh new direction for us - and we hope you will too! Our next live date is Sunday May 9th 2010 at The Robin2 where we're supporting Andy Powell's Wishbone Ash. We can't wait - a terrific way to introduce the new lineup and our new music!
The Peel continue their fine work with some new gigs
London's premier prog palace, Kingston's The Peel, continues to put on some amazing gigs. Here's what's been announced for the next few months:
Saturday 20th March - Kyrbgrinder + Bright Colour Vision Saturday 27th March - Panic Room + Chris Johnson Saturday 24th April - Jump + Tinyfish Saturday 1st May - Pythia + Shadowkeep + Awake By Design Saturday 22nd May - Pallas Saturday 26th June - Crimson Sky + Tim Burness Saturday 10th July - Prog Fest 2 Saturday 31st July - Lee Abraham + IOEarth Saturday 18th September - Haze + Mother Black Cap Saturday 11th December - Touchstone
A veritable feast of Prog, I'm sure you'll agree! Check out more at The Peel's website
Crimson Sky, who are appearing at next weekends Winter's End Festival in Stroud, have announced more dates for this year. On Saturday 23rd April, they'll be at The Griffin in Frome, then they'll be headlining at The Peel in Kingston-Upon-Thames on Saturday 26th June, where they'll be supported by Tim Burness. On the 9th July, they'll be at New Brewery Arts in Cirencester. Finally, they'll be supporting Swedish proggers Black Bonzo at the 12 Bar in Swindon on Thursday 22nd July.
Martin and Holly from the band were on Stroud FM on Monday, chatting to proggin' DJ Andy Read about the band, their music and the Winter's End Festival.
Mermaid Kiss, the Herefordshire based folk-prog group who have been drafted into the Winter's End Festival lineup at the last minute to replace RC2, have set up their own Facebook fan page, entitled Song Of The Siren - the Mermaid Kiss fan page. You can sign up here. Work continues on the bands follow up ablum American Images.
Former singer Kate Belcher is in the studio with Jamie Field and Andy Garman to record her debut solo album, Paper Town. Recording under the name Caitie Belesur, she will be posting demos onto her MySpace page.
Laura Thompson, who supported the band at their recent concert in Hay, will be releasing her debut CD Promised Nothing at a launch party on Sunday March 7th, at The Marrs Bar, Worcester. You can hear some of the tracks on her MySpace page.
Parzival's Eye and Pure Reason Revolution pull out of Progeny 3 Prog Festival
Brit Space-dance proggers Pure Reason Revolution and German RPWL side project Parzival's Eye have both been forced to pull out of this years Progeny 3 festival, taking place over the weekend of 8th & 9th May at The Assembley in Leamington, due to "circumstances beyond the control of both parties". Pure Reason Revolution are currently working on the follow up to last years Armor Vincit Omnia and hopefully will still be supporting Polish proggers Riverside in Europe in April. Chris Postl's solo project Parzival's Eye released the excellent Fragments album last year, featuring contributions from Christina Booth and Alan Reed as well as RPWL band-mate Yogi Lang. Coincidentially, RPWL (who also withdrew from the festival) are playing in Germany on the Saturday night.
The Sunday line up, which features Mick Pointer’s Recital of the Script, The Tangent and Pallas will be joined by 80s folk-proggers Solstice, with the new opening band still to be announced.
Classic Rock Society announce the "Progeny Fringe Festival"
To coincide with the Progeny 3 festival, being held at The Assembly in Leamington, there will also ba a "Fringe Festival" taking place at the Robin's Well pub, just around the corner.
This festival will feature intimate, acoustic gigs. On Friday 7th May, The Two J's - John's Mitchell and Beck, will be performing songs from both of their back catalogues, and wearing stuff from the Littlewoods catalogue. Also playing on the Friday will be Mini-Magenta - Christina Booth and Chris Fry, doing what they do best. Cooking. This gig takes place on Friday evening, from 7pm. On Saturday lunchtime, the so-called Tinyfish Trio will be entertaining the pre-festival crowd with their witty brand of music and tales of herring-do. The funs starts at 2:45... I mean 1pm. Sunday lunchtime sees Fish and Mostly Autumn guitarist Chris Johnson playing, also from 1pm.
Tickets will be limited to 100 per day, and are only available from the Classic Rock Society, at www.classicrocksociety.co.uk or over the phone on 01327 310088 costing £10 (Friday), £5 (Saturday or Sunday) or £17.50 for the whole shebang (£15 if you're in the CRS)
Deep Imagination's new album "Awareness" expected Summer 2010
Deep Imagination, the solo project of German keyboard player Thorsten Sudler-Mainz from proggers Art Of Infinity, expect their new studio album Awareness to be released during the summer.
Deep Imagination will be playing at the Electronic Circus Festival on the 25th September, at the Movie in Bielefeld, Germany. Thorsten will be joined by guest musicians Thorsten Rentsch and Stefan Höllering, The band will be playing music from Art Of Infinity as well as Deep Imagination, including songs from the new album. More information on the festival at www.electronic-circus.net
New CD Release By German Music Legends Amon Duul 2 Now Available For Download
PRESS RELEASE: Experimental music pioneers Amon Duul 2, whose music defined the German progressive rock scene of the 1970's, are back with a new album Bee As Such. Currently only available by download through the band's website, the CD marks the first new album by the legendary group in several years. Amon Duul 2 reveal on their website: "Recorded April 2009 at Dreamscape Studio, Amon Duul 2 celebrated a highly sensitive performance, of finding back to the roots - not in the past, but essentially - seeking the new sounds and contents at the same time. No 'kraut', no '70s', but the music of the new millenium. This sound painting is one more of our unique works, containing the spirit of our time."
"Amon Duul never used to present the same style on their albums," explains guitarist John Weinzierl "We like to develop our music into all kinds of directions and sometimes we don´t even know where it´s gonna lead us. We don't follow a pattern only because it is successful. Since 2000 we´ve used lots of elements of world music, we had eastern influences, ethnological sounds, and of course we never forgot 'sound painting'." When asked if there was a concept behind this new album? Weinzierl expounded, "Avoiding industry music, heading for new frontiers."
Formed in Munich in 1968, Amon Duul 2 rapidly excelled to the forefront of German avant garde music along side notable peers Can, Faust and Tangerine Dream. Amon Duul 2 quickly distinguished themselves from these other ensembles with their use of pop elements interspersed with eclectic songwriting and arrangements along with deft musicianship and the sweet voice of female vocalist Renate Knaup-Krotenschwanz. The band's influences ranged from jazz and classical to Zappa and Syd's Pink Floyd, although the music has remained so original these past 30 years it's difficult to tell who the band's influences are! "That's because Germany culture-wise has no rhythm and blues influence," explains Renate. "We have classical music and traditional music, so we just experimented with what we had. To copy rhythm and blues or rock and roll would be silly because they are not our roots." By 1979 and many critically acclaimed, pioneering LPs later, Amon Duul 2 went their separate ways, only to reunite in the 1990s, and most recently in the mid-2000s. The current line-up includes original members: Chris Karrer (guitar, violin, vocals), John Weinzierl (guitars, synth, vocals), Renate Knaup-Krotenschwanz (vocals), Danny Fichelscher (drums), Lother Meid (bass, vocals) and neo-Duul Jan Kahlert (percussion, vocals).
And where did the name Amon Duul 2 come from? "We didn't want to have an anglophonic name, because in those days everybody was called Rattles, or Beatles, or some other english name," explained John Weinzierl. "We didn't wanna have a German name either, that's why we went into a long period of finding an appropriate name. At some point the band had a different name with every other concert that was played. Finally it was AMON DUUL. Amon referres to the Egypt sun god Amon-Re. Duul (with the "Umlaut" dots, that your computer can't print out) comes from a Canadian group's album called Tanjet, that we used to listen to a lot. On this album there was a self-constructed mythology with a part called Dyyl. This eventually was transformed into Duul and the Umlauts gave it this slight German touch. Since then many groups started having fantasy names, or even using Umlaut dots like in Motorhead. Understand? (of course you have to imagine the Umlaut dots, cause your computer can't...) And I shall never answer this question any more now."
Yet one question still remains; It has been 40 years since the incarnation of Amon Duul 2, what has kept the band together all these years? "As we are not just a band, but a music commune, a social experiment, and a work of art, it's just natural to stay together, and of course: it must be love, or something close enough...."
Amon Duul 2 - Bee As Such will be released on CD and DVD later this year. It is currently available for download at: www.amonduul.de
Porcupine Tree Anesthetize - live in Tilburg Blu-Ray/DVD
Porcupine Tree's new live film is approaching completion and a special edition will be available in April, with a regular version to follow in May.
Anesthetize was filmed live over 2 nights in Tilburg, The Netherlands in October 2008, at the end of the Fear of a Blank Planet tour. The 130 minute live film includes a complete performance of the Blank Planet album and 11 other tracks, and was directed and edited by Lasse Hoile on high definition cameras, with the soundtrack mixed into stereo and 5.1 sound.
The special edition will take the form of a cloth bound hard back 120 page book (as per The Incident and Insurgentes deluxe versions) featuring live photography of the band taken over the last 5 years. The book will house both a DVD and a much higher quality Blu-Ray disc version of the film, as well as 2 audio CDs of the soundtrack including one bonus track not featured in the film. The book and audio CDs will not be included with the standard retail versions of the Blu-Ray/DVD.
P090, the prog band built around The Tangent mainman Andy Tillison have been bouyed by the responses to their recent Jitters album and Summer's End and Prog Resiste festival appearances. So much so that they have announced their first headline show in nearly a decade.
The band - Dan Watts, Alex King and Matt Clarke make up the quartet - will be playing at The Henshaws Centre in Knaresborough, Yorkshire on Sunday March 28th.
Leeds based space proggers Area 39 have been announced as the support band when Galahad play their 25th anniversary show at the Montgomery Hall in Wath-Upon-Dearne on Saturday April 24th.
The band, built around multi-instrumentalist Ray Burrell released the excellent Stand Alone Together way back in 2004 (check out the Silhobbit review here) and are due back into the studio this year to work on a follow up.
They are also playing some other dates: Thursday 4th March - Elbow Rooms, Leeds Friday 26th March - Rio's Leeds (supporting Leodis & The Red Pills) Sunday 18th April - Robin 2, Bilston (supporting The Aurora Project) Saturday 24th April - Montgomery Hall, Wath-Upon-Dearne (supporting Galahad) Thursday 29th April - The Pulse Bar, Barnsley
Winter's End Festival openers Andonova have been forced to pull out of the festival. Their set on the Saturday has been replaced by Cirencester band Eliza Tale. You can check out their mixture of progressive and classic rock sounds on their MySpace page.
The Festival takes place at The Space in Stroud on March 13th and 14th.
Cumbrian proggers It Bites have teamed up with a host of progressive rocks brightest stars to re-record a charity version of their 1986 top ten hit Calling All The Heroes. The band have drafted in Marillion's Steve Hogarth and Pete Trewavas, as well as John Wetton, Geoff Downes, Jason Perry and Jem Godfrey. Original singer Francis Dunnery also features a lot in both the single and accompanying video.
There is also a video for sale via iTunes for £1.89. The video was produced by Russell Cherrington from the Film and Television Department of the Faculty of the Arts at the University of Cumbria. Russell has previously worked with Japan, Peter Gabriel and Queensryque.
All proceeds from the sale of the single will be going to the Cumbria Flood Recovery Fund.
The band are hoping that this single will break into the top 40 and raise as much money as possible for the fund.
There will also be a physical CD copy for sale at the bands forthcoming gigs, featuring the single, radio edit and video.
Brummie proggers IOEarth have been forced to cancel tonights (March 2nd) hometown gig at The Jam House due to "unforseen circumcisions"
The band apologise for any inconvenience caused to fans for this.
Silhobbit.com hope that the circumstances don't hinder the bands appearance at The Wesley Centre in Rotherham this weekend, where the band will be supporting the resurgent Shadowland.
Ok, ok, I know that this ain't prog, but fuck it. If there's a better video released this week, tell me about it!
OK Go! are well know for their videos, and have relied on them being spread virally amongst web bloggers, and as a form of promotion, that worked immensely well. However, their record company, being corporate jerks only concerned with the loss of income (YouTube only pays them for plays through the YouTube site) stopped embedding on their videos, leading the band to write an open letter to the New York Times last week, condemning their short sighted actions.
PRESS RELEASE : "Following weeks of speculation, Pallas are finally pleased to announce that their new vocalist is fellow Aberdonian Paul Mackie.
Paul who is probably known throughout the world as one the vocalists on the Grand Theft Auto games, culminating in GTA Vice Citys very own fictional Scottish Rock Band Love Fist. This band was put together to record several songs co written by Paul and various members of Rock Star Games talented staff.
Paul has toured extensively regularly playing to rowdy audiences throughout the UK in venues such as Nottingham Rock City, Glasgow Barrowlands and various Carling Academies etc
Whilst playing in a small but extraordinary Blues machine called Blues Deluxe, with Colin Fraser of Pallas, it came to light that Pallas were looking for a replacement vocalist for their new album XXV and forthcoming gig commitments.
Paul accepted the challenge and looks forward to playing to and meeting Pallas' fans and promises that he will give his all to them.
I am so happy to have been asked to join such a workhorse of intelligent and passionate music. Pallas came into my life when I went to see them on Stage with UFO and Shy when I was a lad. It is hard to believe that here and now is a chance for me to blend all the things I have learned and I guess only now, at this point in my life could I take this challenge and do it the justice that both the band and their fans deserve. I hope they take to me as I hate rotten tomatoes.
As previously announced the band are currently hard at work in the studio on their next album XXV, a thematic sequel to the bands 1985 debut studio album The Sentinel and due for release in the autumn.
Whilst working on the album the band will be taking a break for a number of UK live shows to introduce Paul to their fans.
The first of these shows will rightly enough be a hometown introduction at The Tunnels in Aberdeen on Friday 23rd April with support from Jo McCafferty.
Following this the band will be playing Progeny 3 on Sunday 9th May at The Assembly in Leamington Spa along with Twelfth Night and Mick Pointer's Recital Of The Script.
The band then hit London with a show at The House Of Progression at The Peel in Kingston upon Thames on Saturday May 22nd.
Further dates and summer festival appearances will be added to these with the band undertaking a full European Tour to coincide with the release of XXV - The Sentinel 2."
According to our research, guitarist Paul also plays in a two piece, The Citrus Theory, as well as a solo artist "Pmac". Our research only consisted of looking at his website.
Bristol proggers Crimson Sky recently played ay The Peel in London, supporting IOEarth. Singer Holly Thody recently posted a video collage of the band playing at the gig, interspersed with photo's from the night, along to the song "Season's End" taken from their début album "Misunderstood".
Hot News
It Bites drummer Bob Dalton was on BFBS, the radio station for the Armed Services, this morning to promote the bands rerecorded version of 80s smash Calling All The Heroes. Bob was on the Breakfast with Sim show talking about the bands charity efforts, trying to raise money for the Cumbria Flood Recovery Fund.
The first two bands playing this years Summer's End Festival have been announced.
Magenta's bass player, and brother of guitarist Chris, Dan Fry has announced that he is leaving the band to focus on his other non-prog projects. Dan's last gig with the band will be their headline set at the Winter's End Festival in Stroud on the 13th March.
Also Eden have announced that their new ep Differences As Light, featuring new vocalist Rich Harding, will be available in May.
London's premier prog palace, Kingston's The Peel, continues to put on some amazing gigs. Here's what's been announced for the next few months:
Crimson Sky, who are appearing at next weekends Winter's End Festival in Stroud, have announced more dates for this year. On Saturday 23rd April, they'll be at The Griffin in Frome, then they'll be headlining at The Peel in Kingston-Upon-Thames on Saturday 26th June, where they'll be supported by Tim Burness. On the 9th July, they'll be at New Brewery Arts in Cirencester. Finally, they'll be supporting Swedish proggers Black Bonzo at the 12 Bar in Swindon on Thursday 22nd July.
Mermaid Kiss, the Herefordshire based folk-prog group who have been drafted into the Winter's End Festival lineup at the last minute to replace RC2, have set up their own Facebook fan page, entitled Song Of The Siren - the Mermaid Kiss fan page. You can sign up 
Brit Space-dance proggers Pure Reason Revolution and German RPWL side project Parzival's Eye have both been forced to pull out of this years Progeny 3 festival, taking place over the weekend of 8th & 9th May at The Assembley in Leamington, due to "circumstances beyond the control of both parties". Pure Reason Revolution are currently working on the follow up to last years Armor Vincit Omnia and hopefully will still be supporting Polish proggers Riverside in Europe in April. Chris Postl's solo project Parzival's Eye released the excellent Fragments album last year, featuring contributions from Christina Booth and Alan Reed as well as RPWL band-mate Yogi Lang. Coincidentially, RPWL (who also withdrew from the festival) are playing in Germany on the Saturday night.
Deep Imagination, the solo project of German keyboard player Thorsten Sudler-Mainz from proggers Art Of Infinity, expect their new studio album Awareness to be released during the summer.
PRESS RELEASE: Experimental music pioneers Amon Duul 2, whose music defined the German progressive rock scene of the 1970's, are back with a new album Bee As Such. Currently only available by download through the band's website, the CD marks the first new album by the legendary group in several years. Amon Duul 2 reveal on their website: "Recorded April 2009 at Dreamscape Studio, Amon Duul 2 celebrated a highly sensitive performance, of finding back to the roots - not in the past, but essentially - seeking the new sounds and contents at the same time. No 'kraut', no '70s', but the music of the new millenium. This sound painting is one more of our unique works, containing the spirit of our time."
Porcupine Tree's new live film is approaching completion and a special edition will be available in April, with a regular version to follow in May.
P090, the prog band built around The Tangent mainman Andy Tillison have been bouyed by the responses to their recent Jitters album and Summer's End and Prog Resiste festival appearances. So much so that they have announced their first headline show in nearly a decade.
Leeds based space proggers Area 39 have been announced as the support band when Galahad play their 25th anniversary show at the Montgomery Hall in Wath-Upon-Dearne on Saturday April 24th.
Brummie proggers IOEarth have been forced to cancel tonights (March 2nd) hometown gig at The Jam House due to "unforseen circumcisions"
PRESS RELEASE : "Following weeks of speculation, Pallas are finally pleased to announce that their new vocalist is fellow Aberdonian Paul Mackie.
Whilst working on the album the band will be taking a break for a number of UK live shows to introduce Paul to their fans.
