Prog stars add their name to Charity Event for the Mongolia Crisis
After being moved by hearing about, and seeing the news of the dzud (a severe winter following a dry summer) crisis that is currently hitting Mongolia (see video clip below), several local music stars, including John Mitchell (It Bites, Arena), Raff Achour (Boot Led Zeppelin), Rob Sowden (Arena) and Andy Sears (Twelfth Night) will be giving up their time and performing at a charity concert in Reading on Saturday 10th April.
The concert, held at The Turks in London Road, Reading, will be raising money for the Cambridge Mongolian Development Appeal (CAMDA). There is more information on the crisis at www.elephantjournal.com and on the concert on Facebook.
The Facebook event describes the crisis: Since late December, Mongolia has been stricken with severe snow storms of such severity that by February, with 90% of the country badly affected, the situation was officially announced as being what is known as zud or dzud. The extreme cold - down to minus 50c in places - and deep crusted snow is depriving millions of animals from grazing, and following a drought summer resulting in low stocks of stored feed, large herd numbers have frozen or starved to death.
A dzud is a winter storm of extreme severity, often preceded by a drought summer. They tend to arrive in cycles of around 11 years, the last being 1999-2000. Then, and during the succeeding 3 years, millions of herd animals perished from starvation or exposure. Temperatures plunged to minus 50c in places. Tens of thousands of nomadic herder families lost almost all their animals, forcing them to give up herding and migrate mostly to the capital Ulaanbaatar, with severe impact on its ability to cope with such an influx. Ger encampments sprang up on the capital's outskirts, and inevitably hardship and poverty overwhelmed these rural immigrants.
Yet again the present dzud is taking its toll in much the same way. Official figures indicate that 198 soums in 19 (out of 21) aimags are suffering very severe, or severe dzud weather with snow depths ranging from 20 to 120 cms (8 inches to 48 inches). The lowest recorded temperature of -47C was recorded in Uvs province, and overall temperatures in the worst affected provinces during early February averaged -35C.
Nationwide, animal losses have mounted to 4.6 million as at 24th March, including the loss of 2,800 camels, 158,000 horses and 264,000 cattle. The GOM has appealed both nationally and internationally for aid, especially fodder for the animals. Working groups and troops and vehicles have been working to open blocked roads and to deliver limited amounts of hay, fodder, food, clothes and medicine to badly affected herding families. The severe weather is likely to continue in many places until the thaw in May, when the toll will be much greater.
Pendragon have added a date at Legends in Newcastle to their May tour. The list of dates now looks like this:
Friday May 7th - The Subscription Rooms, Stroud Sunday May 16th - The Robin 2, Bilston Tuesday May 18th - Spirit of 66, Verviers, Belgium Wednesday May 19th - Bergkeller, Reichenbach, Germany Thursday May 20th - Colos-Saal, Aschaffenburg, Germany Friday May 21st - Z7, Pratteln, Switzerland Friday May 28th - The Ferry, Glasgow Saturday 29th May - Legends, Newcastle Sunday May 30th - The Musician, Leicester
The band will also be appearing at the following worldwide festivals: Friday April 2nd - La Coruna Finisterrae Festival, A Coruña, Spain Friday April 30th - Rosfest, Majestic Theater, Gettysburg, PA, USA Saturday July 24th - High Voltage Festival, Victoria Park, London Friday September 10th - 2Days Prog Festival, Veruno, Italy
Factory of Dreams starting work on their third album
PRESS RELEASE:
It's been quite a ride through the Utopian Worlds, and it's now time to return to origins and to an energized Poles territory. We officially announce that we have started work on the 3rd album. More details to be released as we move further, both regarding the concept, artwork, sound and some surprise musicians.
Thanks to all the fans for the support, you can count on another great album that will be surely blow your speakers away, so prepare for that coz we won't provide any refund. Yes, the music is taking over, evolving into Factory's most powerful sound yet.
The Gathering to play Chile benefit gig at Teatro Caupolicán, Satiago, 11 April 2010
The Gathering will be playing a benefit gig in Teatro Caupolican, Santiago, Chile 11.April 2010 to help the people in need after the earthquake damages. Please join us making a beautiful evening together to help the people in need!
Pre-sale tickets will be $ 7.000,- (pesos) and it is also possible to donate non-perishable food at the door.
Dutch Female Fronted Gothic Rock Band (yeah, I made that genre up) Delain are over here in the UK this week on their first headline tour, and on Sunday they goth-rocked The Garage in London.
Luckily, someone in the crowd had the sense to record this, and put the vids up on YouTube for us all to enjoy. I've chosen the title track of their 2009 album April Rain, but there's a whole raft of them for you to watch.
WARNING - THIS CLIP CONTAINS FLASHING LIGHTS
Delain play the following UK gigs: Monday 22nd March - Rock City, Nottingham Tuesday 23rd March - Cathouse, Glasgow Wednesday 24th March - JB's, Dudley Thursday 25th March - Rio's, Leeds
Jump celebrate 20 years of recording albums and playing gigs by recording new album and playing gigs
Chiltern proggers Jump are celebrating 20 years of togetherness this year by playing a series of concerts, including a special, one-off, Six of One, Half a Dozen of the Other gig at The Nags Head in High Wycombe on May 8th, which will feature sets from both the original line-up and the current line up. The Sugababes should take note. This will be the first time the original line-up have rocked out together since 1998.
The dates are: Saturday 24th April - The Peel, Kingston, London (supported by Tinyfish) Saturday 8th May - The Nags Head Blues Loft, High Wycombe Friday 14th May - Riffs Bar, Swindon Saturday 22nd May - Wesley Centre, maltby Friday 28th May - The Stables 2, Milton Keynes
The band is also heading into some studio somewhere to start recording their new album next weekend, which they hopes will be released later this year.
Two more bands announced for this years Summer's End Festival
Two more bands have been announced for this years Summer's End Festival.
Italian proggers The Watch return to these shores after their recently well recieved visit. The band, well known for their Genesis tributes as well as their own work, have recently released their new album Planet Earth?
Secondly, USA proggers Phideaux probably make their UK debut at the festival. The 10 strong band, led by multi-instrumentalist and keen ornithologist Phideaux Xavier, have released a stream of classic albums that have entertained us here at Silhobbit over the last few years!
The Summer's End Festival takes place on October 8th, 9th and 10th at Lydney Town Hall, Lydney, Gloucestershire.
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.
Hot News
After being moved by hearing about, and seeing the news of the dzud (a severe winter following a dry summer) crisis that is currently hitting Mongolia (see video clip below), several local music stars, including John Mitchell (It Bites, Arena), Raff Achour (Boot Led Zeppelin), Rob Sowden (Arena) and Andy Sears (Twelfth Night) will be giving up their time and performing at a charity concert in Reading on Saturday 10th April.
Pendragon have added a date at Legends in Newcastle to their May tour. The list of dates now looks like this:
PRESS RELEASE:
Chiltern proggers Jump are celebrating 20 years of togetherness this year by playing a series of concerts, including a special, one-off, Six of One, Half a Dozen of the Other gig at The Nags Head in High Wycombe on May 8th, which will feature sets from both the original line-up and the current line up. The Sugababes should take note. This will be the first time the original line-up have rocked out together since 1998.
Two more bands have been announced for this years Summer's End Festival.
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.
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.
