Table of contents for Issue 91 in Prog

Coincidental timing means that I’m writing this the night before the seventh annual Progressive Music Awards. I could have pretended that the event had already happened, but doing that would no doubt make something go awry on the night! And I’m not one to tempt fate like that. What I will say, however, is that I very much doubt we’ll ever go to press the day before the awards again. That’s a dual workload that none of the Prog team is likely to ever want to endure again, I can assure you! So in this issue we look at the greatest ever keyoard players from this genre of ours. It’s our belief that the keyboard player is to prog what the guitar hero is to heavy metal. Judging by the…

Issue 90 of Prog has been an inspiration! Not only for the interesting articles, like the review of Ramblin’ Man Festival (which I went to, and it’s so exciting to read about something I have been involved in!) but the CD that comes with the magazine! I’ve enjoyed a lot of the music on these CDs, and often research some of the bands. My music collection has grown immensely in the last year but not all bands speak to my heart and soul. However, as soon as I heard the track Calling on the Prog mag CD by Stuckfish, I was spellbound. I can’t think of a better word, but you know what I mean. Philip Stuckey’s voice is rich and vibrant, and I connect with the whole sound. Atmospheric…

Drummer Jimmy Pallagrosi has confirmed that his new band Zio are releasing their first single Xray at the end of September. It’s the first track from their ambitious full-length Flower Torania, which will be out later next year. “It’s a concept album involving storytelling, fantasy and sci-fi inspired by the video games I grew up playing, and each of the characters in the story will be played by different vocal guests,” explains Pallagrosi. “I’ve written an accompanying story which starts with a small kid discovering a mini games console at his local skate park. I’ve even built the console which will be featured in Xray’s trailer.” Former Karnataka bandmate Hayley Griffiths and ex-The Enid frontman Joe Payne appear on that first single, with Franck Carducci also confirmed as villain. Zio…

August 2018 Compiled by 1 TAME IMPALA Currents FICTION 2 ELO Secret Messages EPIC 3 All One Tonight – Live At The Royal EAR MUSIC 4 A PERFECT CIRCLE Eat The Elephant BMG 5 BLUE OCTOBER I Hope You’re Happy BRANDO 6 BIG BIG TRAIN Merchants Of Light ENGLISH ELECTRIC 7 ROGER WATERS Is This The Life We Really Want? COLUMBIA 8 FAIRPORT CONVENTION What We Did On Our Saturday MATTY GROOVES 9 ORB No Sounds Are Out Of Bounds COOKING VINYL 10 WOODEN SHJIPS V THRILL JOCKEY 11 JEFF LYNNE’S ELO Wembley Or Bust RCA 12 MASTODON Emperor Of Sand REPRISE 13 MOGWAI Every Country’s Sun ROCK ACTION 14 RUSH A Farewell To Kings UMC/VIRGIN 15 EPICA Vs Attack On Titan Songs NUCLEAR BLAST 16 GRATEFUL DEAD Anthem Of…

Best known as the beardy braggart of television comedies such as Toast Of London, The IT Crowd and House Of Fools, Matt Berry has also forged an impressive music career, occupying a wonderful space between prog, folk and psychedelia. His latest album Television Themes, on which he’s joined by regular compadres The Maypoles, finds him reconfiguring some of the most enduring signature tunes of his youth. Among the cultural delights absorbed by generations of British TV viewers from the 1960s to the 1980s are the themes from shows such as The Good Life, Rainbow, The Liver Birds, Sorry! and, naturally, Doctor Who. Berry explains all to Prog… So how did Television Themes come about? The label asked if I fancied doing a covers album at some point, which I didn’t,…

If the keyboard embodies prog’s spirit, then Keith Emerson embodied the keyboard. He wasn’t the first musician to place the instrument front and centre in rock music, but he was the one who showed it could be just as innovative and powerful as any guitar. Emerson was a craftsman, artist and showman in one: a genuinely revolutionary figure who helped usher in the progressive rock era – an era that has endured to this day. “Keith didn’t want to be known as a rock star – he wanted to be known as a composer.” “Keith Emerson invented progressive rock,” says Lee Jackson, bassist with Emerson’s first great band, The Nice. “I know, because I was there when he was doing it. We didn’t call it that at the time, but…

OCEANSIZE The truly unique, much-loved progressive rock band stood alone in terms of style right up until their split in 2011. Don’t expect a reunion any time soon. “We still get a lot of offers, but not enough money for Gambler [Richard Ingram] on his own. Not one fee has been enough for Gambler’s pocket singly. I would have considered it, but Gambler’s like, ‘No chance.’ He’s not daft!” BIFFY CLYRO Vennart and Gambler are both touring members of the hugely successful Scottish rock band, with whom they formed a friendship as labelmates in the early stages of their careers. “One of the things I was really encouraged by when I was doing this album was how eclectic most Biffy albums are. When I was worried about not all the…

“I haven’t turned into this nihilistic kind of ‘we’re doomed’ guy. I don’t think that. I still think humanity is wonderful.”Bruce Soord If your first impression of Bruce Soord was his lyrics, you’d expect a deeply troubled man. For nearly 20 years he’s specialised in beautiful angst, painting soul-searching vignettes that tap into some of the darkest recesses of human strife. At times this has been informed by personal experience, as seen in the introverted aggro of his earliest works, as well as the pain of losing a child in 2006’s Little Man. To actually meet him, however, is to meet a different person: an upbeat leading light in alternative music (both as a musician and multi-channel mixer with Opeth, Anathema and Gong among his credits) and the happily married…

“WHEN I FIRST JOINED IT WAS A FEUDAL DEMOC RACY OF THE WORST KIND.”John Etheridge When Prog catches up with Soft Machine guitarist John Etheridge, he’s only just returned from the band’s tour in Japan. You might expect him to be resting up and feeling the effects of jet lag, but in fact the 70-year-old player is in the pink after his early morning dip at an outdoor swimming pool in London. “I go for a swim most mornings at the outside men’s pond in Hampstead Heath which is rather special. I always try to swim every morning even in the winter when it’s minus two degrees,” he laughs Diving in head first is something Etheridge has been doing for most of his professional career. When Allan Holdsworth quit the…

Björk, Billie Holiday and The Anchoress come to mind while listening to Kitty Whitelaw’s exquisite vocals on Siren (Antigen), the debut album from Sealionwoman, her duo with double bassist and knob-twiddler Tye McGivern. It’s Mercury Prize bait, this – haunting, monolithic soundscapes with roots in Selkie, their two-handed theatrical show inspired by Scottish folklore. The performance art element and McGivern’s broad-minded experiments make for an album whose atmosphere is dreich but never dull. To warmer climes, and Chilean proggers Aisles offer up new EP Live From Estudio Del Sur (Presagio), featuring in-studio performances of songs from their latest and finest studio album Hawaii, and 4.45 and The Yearning. These neo anthems glide smoothly through melodic and metallic moments, Sebastián Vergara’s vocals both sweet and operatic as ever. For the full…

There's often a feeling that people dismiss Gordon Giltrap as some sort of folky minstrel who deals in quiet passages of music that are okay but lack real impact. Wrong! What he does certainly has a folk element, but it’s distinctively individual. That’s because nobody else sounds like this man, as he proves tonight. This concert comes at the end of a day that was, in essence, a workshop, wherein people have the opportunity to meet the master and get tuition from him, based around his 2017 composition Ania's Dream. The climax of the occasion is this intimate performance, in the imposing setting of the Castle Park Arts Centre. This sort of location suits Giltrap's music because he’s at his best when getting up close and personal with the audience.…

It’s difficult to pinpoint the precise moment that it happens, but the feeling that time has stood still to become an utterly meaningless concept becomes both overwhelming and apparent tonight. With Kuba Ziołek remaining in a sedentary position as the apreggios and strums from his guitar are looped and then treated further through the phalanx of pedals in front of him, his partner Wacław Zimpel is blowing up an intense yet subtle storm on his clarinet. And right now, this is all that matters. The appearance of Zimpel/ZioŁek on these shores is the next step of a musical rebirth that’s currently happening in Poland. A generation born just prior to and also after the fall of Communism is now expressing itself in a new musical language that owes little or…

The contrast in the performance style of tonight’s two bands couldn’t be greater. BEAK> look like they’re in their rehearsal studio, with bassist Billy Fuller commanding centre stage in a chair. But as soon as they start to play, the temperature in the hall drops by several degrees, the uneasy drone and jerky anti-groove of The Brazilian being nothing less than coldwave prog. Brean Down is similarly moody as hell, its nervy rhythm full of creeping dread. Not that BEAK> themselves appear particularly doom-laden, winding up the audience and each other in between songs. Yet for all their couldn’t-givea-fuck insouciance, they’re a tightly focused playing unit with a fine grasp of dynamic tension – witness how they build Allé Sauvage from a wild synth arpeggio into an epic of wonky…

There’s a niche market in modern prog for bands who juxtapose the tranquillity of instruments like keyboards and acoustic guitars with the upbeat energy of grooving percussion. And as they take to the stage to perform their ironically titled debut album The Swan Song in full, Servants Of Science can add themselves to that select group, alongside names such as Nordic Giants, Messenger and Exploring Birdsong. The group may not be the most enthralling concept visually – the band members often remain firm-footed, while bassist Andy Bay stays hidden behind frontman Neil Beards – but their modern pop- and indie-flavoured take on the melancholia of Pink Floyd and David Bowie makes their set an undeniable success. The showcase hits its apex with tracks such as Peripheral and the stomping Kaleidoscope,…

CLASSIC CAMEL Having read your excellent feature on Camel in Prog 90 and the comments made by the band, in particular those by Andy Latimer himself, I feel a new album isn’t completely necessary. All Camel fans, myself included, would welcome a new record, but not if Andy was unhappy with the process because of his health issues. The prog world know what a talented and humble individual Andy is and I’m sure would be just as happy with the wonderful albums already recorded should he decide a new one isn’t possible. Camel: one of the finest prog bands Britain has given the world. With or without a new album! Alan A LETTER FROM AMERICA I discovered your magazine when I was travelling last Christmas. I immediately ordered a subscription.…

Midlake bassist Paul Alexander started big when he made Two Medicine’s debut solo album Astropsychosis, released on November 2 via Bella Union. Exploring a more psychedelic vibe than he’s usually associated with, he tackled the giant theme of the future of humanity in a world we’re destroying. “Keeping objectivity while I was doing it was kinda hard,” he tells Prog. “I was trying to discover what my writing was like. Does it make sense? Does it sound like real music?” Looking back, he can say, “It’s a good accomplishment, just to find out that I could do it. I think for some artists it’s easier, but for most artists it’s hard.” Two Medicine (Alexander with Aimee Adams) play four UK dates in October and November as a duo. The musician…

ODD Sports fans gain great pleasure from the sound of a tennis ball pinging off a racket or a cricket ball being hit for six. But what if the impact of a ball could be transformed into beats? Two graduates from the Royal College Of Art, Nathan Webb and Pasquale Totaro, have developed a chuckable sphere called Odd which, combined with an app, becomes a drum machine. The promo video features kids in baseball caps chucking it at walls to create beatscapes, and who’s to say that’s not possible? It’s certainly believed by the 2,000 people who’ve funded the Kickstarter project nearly six times over. www.oddballing.com SONY DMP-Z1 It’s time to play audiophile bingo! The blurb for Sony’s eye-wateringly expensive music player promises “tighter bass”, “authentic detail”, “transparent and clear…

“I’ve always been interested in food and was always hanging around the kitchen when my mum was cooking, so I picked up a few basics. I used to cook a bit when I left home and could rustle up a mean chilli when Fiona and I were first married. “When our two sons, Callum and Luke, came along, I would find myself cooking for them when not on tour or while Fiona was at work. Funnily enough both Callum and Luke are very good cooks, as is Fiona. Over the years I’ve cooked less and less, but still keep my hand in now and again.” Ingredients (serves 4) 8-12 chicken thighs (two or three per person), 2 large carrots peeled and cut into chunks, 2 red onions cut into chunks,…

It’s somewhat surprising to regard this album as an elliptic progressive cascade, because it comes from a man who had previously built his reputation in Sunny Day Real Estate, a band who were among the pioneers of the emo movement in the early 90s. When they split up in 1995, frontman Enigk took something of a left field turn and in the process came up with this multi-faceted solo album. Much has been made of the fact that Return Of The Frog Queen was recorded soon after Enigk had converted to Christianity, and there’s certainly an influence from that situation on his lyrical stance here. You can sense that Enigk was reaching out, striving to come to terms with an inward emotional turmoil. But while it’s easy to interpret songs…

Asked about deluxe ticketing packages in 2010, Bruce Springsteen’s longtime manager Jon Landau replied that such add-ons were likely to become a fixture on the scene. “If you call something deluxe or unique,” he mused, “this is America – someone will buy it.” He’d seen the future of rock’n’roll and its name was the VIP hospitality package. Not every A-list act has exploited fans’ bottomless well of blind devotion, but in the present climate it’s almost de rigeur for large-scale shows to involve labyrinthine layers of scaled pricing. This summer the Roger Waters spectacular at Hyde Park offered Golden Circle tickets for £299, which bagged you entrance to a fenced-off area near (ish) the front and a bar with a slightly shorter queue than the bars at which Joe Average…

Why did you choose to play keyboards in the first place? We had a piano at home so I started pressing keys at the age of three or four. I obviously took to it so my parents gave me piano lessons from the age of seven, and then I started on church organ when I was 12. I did that all the way through school. When did you realise you could do it for a living? It was with Van der Graaf. Electronics and music have been my two hobbies since the year dot, so a couple of years after I started messing with the piano, I started messing with batteries and lights and that sort of thing. After I left school, my first job was with the BBC as…

What inspired you to first take up keyboards as opposed to, say, the guitar? Well, the piano wasn’t as glamorous as the guitar, but it always looked more logical to me. You’ve got low notes one end, high notes the other, so just concentrate on the bit in the middle and it’ll be fine. Which other keyboard players were you influenced by? I wasn’t really influenced by keyboard players a great deal. I got into the whole progressive rock thing late, so I went through the 1970s blissfully unaware that Genesis and Yes and ELP existed. By the time I discovered there were other people who were doing that sort of thing, I was doing it already. You once said that you weren’t cut out to be the next Keith…

“It’s impossible to say who was the first progressive keyboard player, because the world of classical music was so much more than just one person on one instrument. “But Mozart (1756-1791) was hugely important. He was viewed as this incredible genius at a very tender age. He was doing things that were amazing people at the time – sitting at the piano and improvising. Then as he began to introduce his compositions, he was really pushing boundaries. He sounds tame today, but what he was doing was definitely cutting edge and radical. “But you can go back even further, to someone like Bach (1685-1750), who was a huge influence on so many groups. If you listen to Gentle Giant, and that whole thing with counterpoint, that all goes back to…

Phil Collins still has the T-shirt that Genesis’ touring drummer Chester Thompson gave him on a long-forgotten birthday many years ago. The logo on the front says: ‘Plays well with others’ – words that still resonate today. “I thought about it, and it pretty much summed up my life,” says Collins. “People kept asking me to be on their records and, nice person that I am, I could never turn them down.” The 67-year-old has repurposed the phrase for the title of a new compilation, which brings together his countless collaborations over the years, from his work with fellow prog regents Brian Eno, Robert Fripp and his old Genesis oppo Peter Gabriel to more mainstream musicians such as Eric Clapton and Robert Plant. “I suppose listening back to it, the…

Giancarlo Erra freely admits that he sometimes has a hard time with the term ‘prog’. As the creative general of Nosound, the Italian five-piece who’ve charted a course through post-rock, electronica, ambient music and emotionally shattering alt-rock over the last decade or so, Erra is at pains to stress that the traditional precepts of prog should allow for more fluidity. “If someone is expecting to hear prog in the classic definition of it then they really will be disappointed with us,” he says. “I just hope it’s progressive in the true meaning of the word, in that it should progress. It often seems to be the most retro and conservative genre when it should be the most forward-thinking.” Nosound’s recorded output goes some way to backing up this statement. Each…

It’s a cold Melbourne winter’s evening and it’s a school night, but that doesn’t stop a horde of “incorrigible prog snobs” (as pegged by Caligula’s Horse frontman Jim Grey) showing up early to catch a band with strong links to the headliner, both in terms of sound and personnel. The 400-capacity venue is close to full when Brisbane’s Opus Of A Machine hit the stage. The sound is huge, the drums particularly enormous. In fact, to be a little picky, they probably have a little too much presence in the mix, drowning out a little of the subtlety and complexity that former Caligula’s Horse guitarist Zac Greensill brings to his parts. While Opus are a fine choice as an opener on this very special C-Horse tour, the two bands’ sounds…

It’s been 40 years since film director Dario Argento appointed fellow Italian horror maestro Claudio Simonetti and his band Goblin to score the cult film Suspiria. To celebrate the highly venerated classic movie’s anniversary, Simonetti and his black-clad musicians are performing the infamous film music score live, in front of a seated audience in a church. The Union Chapel’s perfectly preserved gothic revival architecture is an ideal setting for Goblin’s ghoulish tunes. Atmospherically lit up with dark red spotlights and the flicker of candlelight, the renovated, award-winning venue has become a trendy holy haven for alternative music enthusiasts. As the bustling crowd of goths, proggers and horror buffs squeeze into the last remaining seats on the pews in a full house of God, you almost forget the location’s primary Anglican…

While the Green Man festival is one of those exceptional gatherings where the location is every bit as crucial a part of the line-up as the acts playing, its notorious microclimate also has considerable influence on how enjoyable the event is. And for only the second time this decade, this magical gathering in the southernmost tip of the Brecon Beacons is spared rain and is bathed in sunshine throughout the weekend. Working in tandem with the stunning environs is an approach to musical curating that simply enhances the experience – not least because this is music that frequently opens and cleanses the third eye, and it has an occasional bucolic bent. Since breaking through with 2014’s The Silver Globe album and its 2017 follow-up Modern Kosmology, Jane Weaver has moved…

Six distinctly contrasting bands are up against a very tight venue curfew at the second festival fundraiser under the Resonate/Resonance banner, organised by The Gift’s main man, Mike Morton. However, despite the easy-to-reach central London location, the impressive line-up attracts an enthusiastic but criminally modest-sized crowd. According to frontman John Dexter Jones, openers Jump are no more a prog band than they are a cat. However, they unfailingly know how to work a crowd. Animate, articulate and amusing, the Bangor Bard leads the folk rock-infused stalwarts through a roistering set that includes new numbers: the nostalgic, wistful The Heroes We’d Be and full-on rant Breaking Point. Verbal Delirium are fast becoming UK festival favourites, their passionate Greek prog melding classical influences with searing flashes of edgy theatrical tension. This plays…

Follow us on twitter.com/progmagazineUK MARIUSZ DUDA @Marivsz_Riv Recharged. CRAIG BLUNDELL @craigblundell #nowplaying #Supertramp #breakfastinamerica the old man wore this out when I was a kid, SUCH a wonderful album #music JUDY DYBLE @judydyble So… cobwebs in my face as I walk out of the door… it must be autumn MARJANA SEMKINA @marjanasemkina I’m pretending to live in a Pre-Raphaelite painting. I think it works. BRUCE SOORD @bsoord Popped to @hmvWatford to get a copy of our new album. Out now!…

MUSE REVISIT THE 80S ON LATEST ALBUM Muse release Simulation Theory on November 9 via Warner Music. The retro-tinged 11-track includes recent singles Something Human and The Dark Side, and sees the band teaming up with an eclectic mix of names, including Rich Costey (Drones) and hip hop producers Mike Elizondo and Timbaland. Stranger Things poster artist Kyle Lambert is behind the 80s-inspired cover. Deluxe and super deluxe versions with bonus material are also available. SYMPHONIC CD FOR VAN GIERSBERGEN Anneke van Giersbergen releases first live album with an orchestra on November 16 via InsideOut. Symphonized – Live With Residentie Orkest The Hague was recorded in Tilburg and The Hague with one of Holland’s leading symphonic orchestras back in May. The 11-track recording includes new versions of material originally performed…

“Gordon said he had an inkling you were going to be in a rock band one day…” The other day, I saw this man deliberately cross the road and make a beeline for me. I wasn’t worried as I genuinely like people and enjoy meeting all the different kinds I’m lucky enough to meet. He stopped in front of me with a nice welcoming smile and I did my best to reciprocate. “We have a mutual friend that’s going to really surprise you,” he said as an introduction. “Go on,” I replied in anticipation. “Gordon Blansett,” he replied in rather an over-confident tone. “Err, Gordon Blanket?” I answered, slightly confused. “No, Blansett!” he said. He was still smiling. “Give me a clue,” I countered. My new friend looked disappointed and…

“I grew up listening to mainly black music in a household where my mum and dad liked to sing together. My older sister was a bit of mod, into ska and bluebeat. I lived directly between two record shops, Challenger & Hicks in Dartford and Carousel in Swanley, and it was the biggest thrill of my week to go to either or both of them. I gravitated towards the blues – my first single was by local boys the Rolling Stones – and I used to paint pictures of mainly blues artists on my bedroom wall, while the back of my bedroom door was all about Charlton Athletic FC. My teens were spent listening to bands such as Pretty Things and The Kinks, and lots of early pirate radio. I…

50 MANFRED MANN He’s been the leader of the progressively minded Manfred Mann’s Earth Band since 1971, and before that he owned the charts with the more R&B-based Manfred Mann, and dabbled with jazz rock with Manfred Mann Chapter Three. You say: “The man’s simply done everything throughout a long and illustrious career, as well as regularly taking prog into the singles charts in the 70s. Respect.” – Chris Seddon 49 WOOLLY WOLSTENHOLME Wolstenholme was an integral part of what made Barclay James Harvest so special. Self-taught at both Mellotron and organ, his early sound helped pioneer the band’s symphonic prog approach. His own solo work, recently reissued, is equally forthright. You say: “So often the forgotten man when polls of keyword players are discussed.” – George Grieve 48 KLAUS…

“When I started, there weren’t even any keyboard stands. I used to buy a chest of drawers, chuck the drawers out and stick ‘em in there.” What’s so great about keyboards? Why are they better than guitars or drums? Because there are so many more things you can do on a keyboard. If you imagine a paint palette with colours on it, we’ve got pretty much every colour you could want or need. As keyboards have developed, you’ve got such a multitude of sounds. There pretty much isn’t anything you can’t do with keyboards these days, which is fantastic. It wasn’t always that way though, right? Oh no. When keyboards first started, we were the poor relations. You couldn’t be heard onstage, so if you were doing a solo, the…

“As I get older I try to be all-encompassing and I try to be accepting of everybody’s differences and opinions, but I can’t help being in the deepest, darkest despair at the absolute shit I see on my phone every day.” Fear was a much simpler emotion during childhood. Monsters under the bed, fanged Doctor Who aliens and, in early adolescent years, the bloodthirsty creatures lurking in the darkest corners of Stephen King’s imagination offered a thrill of fantastical danger, offset by the warm comfort and safety of the family home, and parental assurances that there were no such thing as ghosts. But in adulthood, the rising sense of uncontrollable terror so many of us feel on a daily basis comes not from fictional ghouls but from the chaos, violence…

Not content with bossing the symphonic metal scene in Epica, Mark Jansen seems to be hell-bent on making his cinematic death metal project Mayan a seriously big deal too. Dhyana (Nuclear Blast) is colossal on every level: from its explosive orchestral interjections to the pristine, hi-def thud of the production, this is progressive, operatic metal designed to level stadiums. The growled vocals may unnerve more sensitive listeners, but this is so gloriously, unashamedly over the top that if you’ve ever wanted to know what it feels like to be in an episode of Game Of Thrones, crank Dhayana up to ceiling-cracking volume and prepare to feel seriously epic. Extreme prog stalwarts Into Eternity have finally re-emerged with The Sirens (self-released), the Canadians’ first album since recruiting new vocalist Amanda Kiernan.…

Who would have thought all these years later that we’d be seeing Quintessential Yes: The 50th Anniversary Tour featuring legends Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin and Rick Wakeman? But that’s exactly what transpires on a beautiful summer night on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood at the small yet legendary Whisky A Go Go club. Tickets to tonight’s show are only $2, the same price they were when Yes first came to America back in 1971. Fans lined up along a sidewalk that stretched up a huge hill, hoping to score a ticket on the day of the concert. Thousands waited in line for hours, but only hundreds were able to get in the door. It was a spectacle. The madness didn’t end there, though, as a crazy show would soon…

Over the past 17 years, Catton Park’s Bloodstock Festival has evolved from a one-day indoor event to a multi-stage, three-day extravaganza by appealing to a niche group of extreme metalheads. However, the festival’s 2018 instalment does more than its fair share of catering to those with a more avant-garde taste, happily providing a cavalcade of prog metal heavy-hitters over the weekend. First up are South Africans Deity’s Muse, who open Bloodstock’s Sophie Lancaster stage by mixing straightforward, grooving rock’n’roll with undeniable technical prowess. Despite a minuscule turnout, the power trio make for an engaging early morning warm-up thanks to the catchy expertise of anthems like I’m The Observer. With Gojira set to headline the Dio stage, the second day is Bloodstock’s apex from a prog perspective. Danes VOLA shine bright…

Sunday night gigs are always a dicey proposition, but the long line to enter the venue, and the rammed crowd inside, suggest that instrumental guitar music is very much in vogue right now. Just a year ago Plini was playing London’s Borderline, so word has obviously got out about the Australian guitarist. The venue is already full for the first support act, Polish guitar whizz Jakub Zytecki. He has a bright, clean tone and there’s a hint of melancholy to tracks like Letters and Yesterdead, but despite Zytecki’s abundant chops, the melodies are always at the forefront of the songs. The crowd clearly love him. Matters take a turn towards the dark side for Toska, by far the most intense act on the bill. The Brighton three-piece craft songs of…

This year’s ArcTanGent Festival sees the main stage headlined on Thursday by Northern Irish instrumentalists And So I Watch You From Afar, who play their stunning new album The Endless Shimmering in full. First, however, there are returning bands to see. Chief among these are Alpha Male Tea Party, firing a stunning parting shot at the end of their Health tour cycle, and Rolo Tomassi, who play a storming set in support of their critically acclaimed Time Will Die And Love Will Bury It album. When And So I Watch You From Afar do finally take the stage, it’s a fantastic performance. The main stage has gone up in size this year, but the band don’t seem fazed. The highlight is naturally the maelstrom-like A Slow Unfolding Of Wings, but…