Prog it, Prog it real good

5,6,7 July

Seeing as I saw more trainspotters in the next town things became clearer, apparently a steam excursion was taking place.

Arrived in Glasgow and met up with the PsychoChicken Prog Tours (sign revealed later) who came with HippyDave in tow. A quick car ride later, to the sounds of prog, and we were back at ProgCentral. After a hello to the lovely Zantic, a quality beer appeared in our hands and the journey to prog-vana began.

The Chicken is going to try and remember what we played, but it involved everything from SoSo Modern, Phoenix Foundation, King Crimson, Marilion, Pallas (or Iron Maiden as they are now known), Arena, Pink Floyd, The Pineapple Thief and many other stalwarts of the prog scene, both cheese and talent. A wonderful group of people welcomed us 'foreigners' (for the HD is from the lower country) and helped us consume much stunning quality Scottish ale. The Chicken and Zantic certainly know their ales. It would be churlish to single out highlights, as the concept of many hours of prog, beer and whisky with like-minded people is something I struggle to find at home! Two out of those three is easy...
It was great to finally talk to HippyDave, we first met back in 2002 (?) at a Marillion warm-up gig where, from memory, I was a bit drunk as I'd caught up with a friend I'd been to the Oswestry gig some years before. So actually having a conversation with him face-to-face rather than IRC or mailing list was a nice change. It appears HDs assertion that each country has a prog/beer/whisky person may have been proven correct this weekend.
Beers tasted: err many of them.
Whisky's tasted: a Scotch society Arran. This was a fascinating dram, not at all typical - which is the societies aim (see next blog). No tasting notes sorry kids, but it was very complex, and I'd made sure I had it early in the evening.
Also tasted the Glengoyne 17yo which is one of PCs drams of choice. It's nice and good, but not anything different to stuff I've already got. So not a 'must-buy'. A quiet early night (130am), I blame jet-lag !

Prog(Sun)Day dawned and we started with a very nice breakfast and more than adequate coffee from the cafe down the road. And yes, I succumbed and had some black pudding with my vege breakfast - I do have a love of good black pudding which isn't an issue at home, but having PC and Zantic say it was good here almost broke my arm, such was the twisting, and they were right. Had a score update from Fran which made my morning - thankfully having two Scots at the table meant no-one looked at me oddly for wanting to hear 'the real footy' score.
Having decided we wouldn't stop in at Glengoyne, although we did drive past it, we headed up to the small brewer in Bridge of Allan. Tried the pints there, very very nice 80/- which is what I settled on for a pint. The cider, which they've just bottled, was also quite a revelation. One thing that always pisses me off about NZ cider, which you'd think would be good, is it's overly sanitised nature, it's filtered to buggery and far too highly carbonated. This one wasn't. In fact it's one of the better ciders I've had.
Needless to say, beers were purchased. I've grabbed a cider, a stout and a ginger beer. Reviews to follow.
Supplies for the next mornings brekkie were purchased from the deli were purchased and we headed back to Glasgow.

At this point it's worth mentioning there were four of us in a mini. Bear in mind that's three male prog fans, and all that entails. I now know HD better. Civil union to follow.
The journey up was very scenic, reminding me, again, how similar NZ and Scotland are. More mist in Scotland, but the same fatalistic 'well it's sunny now, better pack a jacket' approach to weather. Return was via the motorway which was less scenic.
Music provided by XTC (way up) and Marilion (way up and back).

This was about the time we were to head for an early dinner before the gig. HD is known (and yes, I may be going for understatement there) for his love of curry, and so Indian was cuisine de jour. The Shish Mahal is apparently a firm favourite of our hosts, and given the number of people there at 530-6pm on a Sunday, of Glaswegians in general. Understandable really, dinner was great. I had a med-hot vege curry (whose actual name escapes me now) that was exactly how I wanted it. Superb. HD gamely struggled through his to avoid offending anyone too. Trooper!

The wander to the venue was interrupted by a pint in a pub with a nice whisky collection. The pint was adequate (McEwan's 80/- from memory) without being great. After arriving at the venue (The Arches) and meeting the rest of our party, most of whom had attended the previous Evening of Prog, we managed to secure second row viewing for the evenings entertainment. We also, and this is worth mentioning for the sheer unbelievability, had no beer during this gig.
Note for other visitors: when UK gigs say starts at 730, this does apparently mean 730, not 930-10pm as say I'm used to !!

First up were Frost. A veritable supergroup with the rhythm section of IQ, John Mitchell and Jem Godfrey. Their debut album, Milliontown, was a bit of a surprise hit the other year. As such I was really looking forward to hearing the live. They certainly delivered, opening with Milliontown. Yup that's right, a 45 minute set and they open with a 25 min epic. Well I guess it makes selecting the other songs pretty easy! Sure the set wasn't perfect, but it rocked, and more importantly - the band were really enjoying themselves. In fact I'd go so far as to say in the same league of fun as a Phoenix Foundation gig with the amount of by-play within the band and interaction with the audience. By god can John Mitchell play guitar. Looking like he was idly swinging a golf club the solo-ing was superb. The new track they played seemed a bit rockier than the last album. All good and a we all had the feeling that if the support were that good that the main act could be a bit of a let down (yeah, that's how good Frost were, absolutely blinder of a set).

So thirty minutes later the Mighty Beard arrived. I'll try and dig up a set-list. But from start to finish this was a complete, fun and stunning performance. On CD the band sound superb, but I had my doubts if they'd be able to deliver live. Misplaced doubts it turned up. Nick is a great frontman and his singing is eerily similar to the departed Neal during the early stuff. Speaking of the early stuff, there were a few tracks I didn't know (or didn't know well) so they were playing stuff off the first three albums. That's unfortunate as it'll cost me money. Ryo is nutjob on the keys, normally you'd say four keyboards would be overkill. Four seemed to be limiting him. Described by Alan as 'Ryo and his invisible 12 hands', his solo was impressive and showy without being self-indulgent. Something of an achievement for a prog band! The Nick and Jimmy drum duet was something to hear. Nick's an excellent drummer, but the touring drummer Jimmy was certainly up the task. What really stood out was that it wasn't an annoying drum solo, as many prog ones can be.
Highlights? jeez too many to mention. But the vibe on stage was superb. Five guys pissing around on stage thoroughly enjoying themselves. If Frost looked relaxed and having fun, then SB made them seem uptight prog-twats. Sure there were a few wrong notes, but the over-whelming sense of 'fun' more than made up for those. This was one of those rare, thoroughly enjoyable, gigs where the audience and bands were all there for a good time. Special mention has to be made of Alan Morse. The man is nuts. Insane. Looking like, as HD described him, a college professor wearing a sparkly jacket, his solo-ing was mindblowing. And even more relaxed than Frost's. This was some of the best guitar work I've seen, and he seemed to be doing anything but playing. Leaping around, guitar behind the head/back, legs, hunting Ryo with it, throwing devil horns everywhere, you'd think he didn't have enough to do. We stood there agape at his sheer talent, and then stunned as near the end he decided to try climbing the barrier to the crowd much to the consternation of the roadies. Although from the looks on their faces they were SB roadies and weren't as surprised by these antics as others could have been...
The balance of the setlist was nice, broken up well between long fun epics and shorter more punchy pieces. Audience interjections were good including cries for Snow (the SB album) which was countered by the band with 'but it's July', countered by the audience with 'but it's scotland'.

The band all popped out after the gig for a signing session, so I felt compelled to pick up the new live album. Nice.

I think what stood out about this gig making it something special, was the attitude of the bands. they understood they were prog, and that above all prog is fun. The level of cheese in prog is high, and bands who fail to get that often come across as self-indulgent boring idiots. These two bands were up there for the sheer joy of playing together, and the audience got that.
All of this made for a wonderful day of Prog and limited beer consumption and we fell asleep on a high from a gig we classed as one of the best we'd been to.

Monday arrived and the absence of beer from the night before meant a fighting fit Prog Trio. Just like Rush, only other parts of Commonwealth :) So after a healthy brekkie of haggis on bun. I know. Don't even bother to say it. But PC had said this was great haggis, and when in Rome... And then we hit the town!!
Actually we chilled out on the couches listening to the rather superb stereo. This time we had Spock's Beard, Rush, Camel and Roger Waters - a rather scary experience on this stereo when those torpedoes hit. There may have been more. It's a bit of a Blur. A cake had been made by the prog-widow, a very nice cake as we found out. Devil horns to prog-widows with bitchin' cake baking skillz.

It quickly turned into time to say goodbye to HD as we dropped him off to the airport. Great meeting him! We should do this more often !

After many long rambling discussions between PC and myself about whisky (regular readers will remember our journey to Edradour - our favourite distillery - last year) we decided to head to the Whisky Society tasting rooms in Edinburgh for a dram or two. PC is a member and I'm enthusiastic.

And that's the subject of the next blog.

I'd like to say thanks to all of PCs friends, for keeping it Prog. I'd threaten to be back, but Minister of Prog probably doesn't want that kinda threat!

me