| Being such an
influential person in the Progressive Rock world, I was
specially invited along to this concert, the first the
band had played since Progeny 2002, and the first
night of the bands first tour for nearly five years.
And over the last two weeks, it had taken on even more
significance - Fudge's passing had left an empty
and slightly damp stool that needed to be filled.
Tonight, we would see how wonder kid Joe Crabstick
would do. We've all seen the clips on his website, and
been excited by the promise he brings, but was that
really him, or just a photoshopped head upon someone
else's shoulders? I
arrived at Nick Barrett's mansion in the heart of
rural Wiltshire at around 2:30, to be greeted buy the
sight of Gary Chandler, Steve Thorne and
Rob Aubrey doing what they do best - sitting in
the garden drinking tea. After joining in for an hour or
so, Nick turned up and organised us enough to
load the cars up with tour provisions and merchandise.
Eventually we trouped off to the venue - Riff's Bar
- with our cars packed to the rafters, to learn that the
whole tour was in jeopardy as tour manager Paddy
had forgotten his passport. Luckily a quick dash up the
road to Reading saved the day, and the month!
Riff's is small. Riff's
is hot. Riff's is sweaty. Riff's sell beer. |
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| Gary & Steve
kicked the ball off, like a progressive Journey South,
with an entertaining set culled from Jadis's long
history, punctuated with tracks from Steve's
Emotional Creatures Part 1 album, and a new track
from the forthcoming Part 2. It was a great way
to start and I'm sure that the European audiences will
love it, and use the chance to buy their CD's and hair
products. By the
time they had finished, the place was heaving! I spotted
Mick Pointer at the back, holding court with
various hangers on, meaning I couldn't get close. The
place was so busy that the Neo-boys, who turned
up fashionably late, had to be turned away, and are
surely disappointed to have missed was was a wonderful
spectacle. |
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At one point, the ghost of
Jimi Hendrix joined the band. |
Eventually, the
Pendragon boys pushed their way through the sweating
mass of prog bodies and made their way onto the stage.
They started off with No Place For The Innocent,
from their recent Believe CD before leaping into
As Good As Gold and Guardian Of My Soul.
The band seemed to be in top form tonight, Pete's
bass was throbbing like his life depended on it,
Clive was whizzing behind his keyboards like an
un-caped madman, whilst Nick was grinning
maniacally whenever the fancy took him. New boy Joe
also made several telling appearances, at points playing
his kit standing up! Let me tell you, this boy can drum,
make no mistake about it. Fudge was good, but
Joe is a more-than-adequate replacement. Kowtow
was played next, to a totally ecstatic crowd. The
temperature was rising inside the venue, and the band
called for towels. Unfortunately, Sweaty Chandler
had used them all up, so the band had to make do with
bar towels, j-cloths and beer mats.
After order had been
resumed, they broke into Believe's epic The Wishing
Well, with Nick explaining how he'd had to pawn his
life to get this record made, and to get this tour
organised. Anyway, the magnificent four-parter went down
a storm, and it gave them the energy to burst into
Nostradamus, which also gave the hard-core fans at
the front the chance to singalongaNick! |
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| Dance of the Seven
Veils was next, along with Nicks "You meet a girl,
write a song about her, then she buggers off" tale that
I can't quite remember! This was followed by yet another
crowd pleasing favourite Paintbox. This had the
creche-pit down the front singing along - yes,
there were kids there, children brought up right, in
decent households, where their parents listen to prog
rock! I guess most venues wouldn't allow them in, but
tonight was different.
The Last Waltz fairly
waltzed along next, followed by Breaking the Spell,
before the epic The Edge Of The World got it's
first live airing. Masters Of Illusion finished
the set off excellently!
The boys had barely
managed to get back to their "Dressing Room" and sponged
each other down, before the crowd chants for "More"
became too much for them and they made their weary, yet
energised way back through the crowd which parted like
the Red Sea before Moses a thousand years ago. As Nick
sung the opening lyrics to The Black Knight, you
could see ripples of excitement emanate from the
gathered hordes. I dunno about damp Moss, but if Kate'd
been there, she'd've be dripping! Anyway, this was, as
you well know, well received but was trumped by a medley
featuring The Lost Children, Green Eyed Angel,
Sister Bluebird and The Last Man On Earth. |
Clive hadn't played before
the Queen before, and bowed his head respectfully all
through the show |
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Time for another break,
so I popped out for a whizz and bumped into Credo's
Mark Colton! We chatted out back for a while,
talking of the old Freewill days, the
Silhobbit magazine, the Marquee, The Royal Standard,
jumpers for goalposts and all that jazz! Then back
inside to get the old boys back out on that stage again and they gave us what we
wanted - an emotional Am I Really Losing You.
What a way to end! I made my weary way back
to Barretts place where I barely had time to cook a
bacon and egg sandwich before Nick and Gazza turned up
for a brief chat, and to drop their cars off, before I
took them back to the tour bus. |
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| But that wasn't the end
of it, no way! The very next day, a phone call from Nick
himself started a frantic search for a pair of glasses,
left carelessly behind like a half eaten burger, and a
mad dash across scenic Swindon to find a DHL to deliver
them to Germany! Phew, the excitement of it all!
STOP PRESS!!
Despite our best
efforts that Friday. Nick's glasses didn't turn up until
Monday 21st in Poland, after having been all round
Europe. We calculated that the glasses have
independently travelled over 7,000 miles!
If Pendragon have passed you
by in recent years, now is a ideal time to catch up. A
new album, taking them in a different direction, a new
drummer and a new energy. See them at The Mean Fiddler
on 16th June or in Sheffield on the 17th.
See their website for
Euro-dates
www.pendragon.mu |
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Pete, Clive, Nick and Joe - Not at
Riff's Bar (stolen from
www.MySpace.com/pendragon )
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