First time at the Robin 2 in Bilston for me, and what a great venue it is. Decent sized stage, great sound, plenty of bars - it's primarily standing but there are tables and chairs for those that want them. Plenty of room for merchandise stands, and a nice little outdoor area to relax in and have a drink in between bands.

First band up were The Progs - I had seen a version of this band a few years before at another festival, and while they were ok their energy level seemed a bit low and thus their various cover versions (heavily leaning towards Genesis and related solo projects) were a little lacklustre. Perhaps it just that difficult 'first band of the festival' slot, where the audience are not warmed up yet (i.e. sober), and the band are a little nervous and wary.

By complete contrast, Tinyfish really impressed. More of a straight, hard rock band than a prog outfit, they had the audience eating out of their hand from the off... great audience rapport, funny, entertaining guys (the story about the Santa Claus was hilarious).

Final Conflict didn't really register for me at all - nothing wrong with them, they seemed to have all the right equipment and had the chops, but the material never came across for me. But, they have 4 CD's out there, so good luck to them.

After a break for some food and drink, it was back to the venue for the first acoustic act of the festival, Claire Hammil. I had seen Claire some years before supporting Renaissance and remember enjoying her set, and I was impressed with her here as well. Great, soulful voice and good material.

Co-organiser Huw's band Also Eden were up next, they're a pretty decent bunch but I had seen them a few times before, so I took the opportunity to scour the merch stalls.

And so on to what for me were the band of the festival, Pain Of Salvation. Had been wanting to see these guys live for some time - and they rocked hard, believe me. But yet at the same time this was no dour, clichéd, we-will-eat-your-children metal scenario, there was a lot of humour and banter onstage, and Daniel Gildenlow was obviously enjoying himself. Not great with song titles, but I was glad they played Disco Queen from the Scarsick album, had great fun boogeying along to that one.

First band up on Sunday were Touchstone...whoah! These guys have definitely raised their game. I have always liked them, but this time I REALLY liked them. The new material is excellent, especially Blacktide and Shadow - and I love their excellent, heavy cover version of Mad World. They look and sound more polished and heavier too. Good to chat with Adam and the guys, and it sounds like they have some interesting things planned for the future...watch this space.

Didn't stay for Whimwise, had seen them once before and it was not my cup of tea, so our group decided to take the opportunity to beat the crowd at the local pub and go for Sunday lunch a bit early.

Solstice...never heard them before, was not sure what to make of them...I almost left after the hit their 'mellow' stretch, but then they livened up a bit with the 'comedy/audience participation' stuff. A little forced I thought, not the easiest thing in the world to get a prog audience to clap and sing along...and maybe I am getting old and a little deaf, but I never realised what the 'naughty word' actually was until right at the end of the song!

And what of Tina Booth and Friends? Unfortunately, during the break there had been a few problems at the soundcheck, which took longer than usual meaning that for the rest of the day the subsequent bands would have to shorten their sets slightly. And after a very long wait outside we still had to wait for Threshold to finish soundchecking once we got in, and then Tina (accompanied by Rob Reed, Chris Fry and Tina's sister Fran) had to very hastily set their gear up. I liked what I heard of Tina's solo material, but the set was far too short for it to make much of an impact - it felt like they were just starting to warm up with an excellent cover of Kate Bush's Hounds Of Love and then they were off. Take it as a compliment that I wanted to hear more, I guess. And hopefully the experience will be repeated at some point when the eventual album surfaces (get writing, Tina), and then hopefully a longer set should be in order.

Threshold were the second surprise of the weekend for me - a band that I had heard one CD of some years before and had all but dismissed them as not my thing. Great, powerful prog metal stuff that benefits enormously from front man Damien Wilson's overwhelming stage presence - he really knows how to work an audience. I enjoyed them so much I was back again for more when they played the Mean Fiddler in London the following week.

Headliners It Bites were the final band of the festival. Somehow, it felt to me as though something was lacking at this performance. It's the first time I had seen the reformed band, but I had heard Kino play a lot of It Bites songs over the last few years so this reformation seemed like a logical progression. It was obvious from the reaction to the IB material at the Kino gigs that there was still a demand for this stuff. And I don't have an issue with the whole 'Where's Frank Dunnery?' thing either, I like John Mitchell a lot and think he is more than capable of fronting the band. But despite this being a little lacklustre, I still enjoyed it because I go way back with IB and I know all of the material very well, so I just had a great time singing along - especially on Still Too Young To Remember.

All-in-all, I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend, good to hook up with the usual faces, Tommo, Guy, Miles, Dave, Gareth, our Norwegian friends the Steins, Frode and Jarl, Chris Walkden, Dave Robinson, Steve Lambe and Gill, Russ Elliott, Chris Jones, Tina, Mike, Rob, Chris and Fran.

Hats off to Steve Lambe and Huw for putting all of this together, and for actually making it work in spite of all the various scheduling/cancellation/'miscellaneous' issues.I think the decision to have a more diverse line up, with metal, rock, acoustic and pop-orientated bands on was ultimately a good one, though I can hear some of the diehard prog fans perhaps bemoaning the lack of more full-on prog bands. But personally I prefer a line-up like this to a collection of the 'usual prog suspects'. Oh, and please can we have Magic Pie for next year...start negotiating now, Stevie!

John Morley