The News

EG2012 Postponed

Written by Administrator
Friday, 03 February 2012 21:31
It is with great regret that we announce the Electric Garden Progressive Rock Festival will not be taking place in May this year. As some of our mailing list will know, we were attempting to get a suitable venue for most of last year. When it looked as though a venue would not be found we put forward the idea of a live internet streaming gig which was in place for mid-May with bands arranged and most of the details in place. At the eleventh hour a suitable venue came forward and we attempted to revert to the 2011 format of a regular festival plus streaming. Unfortunately the date had to move forwards by a week and the band contracted for the original streaming gig could no longer perform on the new date. We contacted several other bands and realised that it was going to be difficult to break even on our costs even if we sold out the festival. The increased fees demanded by bands plus the usual overheads, coupled with the reduced time to market the festival has made the event untenable in its current form. I mentioned on the blog surrounding the Nearfest cancellation that to run a festival of this kind required compromise from all parties. When you have 8-12 artists and 1 ticket, it is not a massive calculation to realise that for each band to receive some remuneration, then a reduction in fee has to be considered to make everything work. During January we actively sought sponsorship to be able to run the festival and remunerate the artists. Sadly we were unable to secure any sponsorship but we did have dialogue with several organisations who were looking for a longer marketing period. We are keen to keep the festival alive and we are looking at different options to run some kind of event later in the year. Sorry to all the people who have contacted us with their support, and also to the bands who offered to play for expenses only. Please join the mailing list to be kept updated.
Last Updated on Friday, 03 February 2012 21:41

The Watch - New album 'Timeless' Feb 21st

Written by Administrator

Thursday, 10 February 2011 23:20

The Watch release new album 'Timeless' on February 21st, 2011. They have also released small advance clips from the album on their website.

Hot off an extensive tour in 2010 which touched most of Europe and the USA and Canada, ("The Watch plays Genesis") in which the band merged their own music with some Genesis classics for a unique result that has been defined as a must also for all Genesis fans, The Watch are back with a new studio breakthrough: borrowing themes from Genesis's very first album "From Genesis to Revelation" and re-shaping them to create brand new songs bound to become classics. Keeping the original musical flavour that allowed the very young members of Genesis to prove their talent to the world, but adding the typical musical flair and energy people know and love from The Watch.

The result is a 10 song album, 7 original songs and 3 reinterpretations of very early '69 - '70 Genesis tracks. On one of these John Hackett, Genesis's guitarst brother, joins the band with his flute and another one is a great performance of Genesis's Stagnation, taken from the 2010 shows giving newcomers an idea of how incredible and "timeless" that music and this band can sound when performing Genesis. Don't take our word for it! It has to be heard to be believed!

Timeless cover - New album by The Watch

All music by The Watch except for: "In the wilderness", "Let us now make love" and "Stagnation" music by Genesis
Lyrics by Antonio De Sarno except for: "In the wilderness", "Let us now make love" and "Stagnation" lyrics by Genesis

Songs list:

1- The Watch
2- Thunder has Spoken
3- One day
4- In the Wilderness
5- Soaring On
6- Let us now Make Love
7- Scene of the Crime
8- End of the Road
9- Exit

10- Bonus: Stagnation - from the "Blue show 2010"

Listen to clips from the album here at the Watch portal

Tangent & Dropshard New Albums

DROPSHARD - Anywhere But Home - The new concept album

"The songs are dynamic and explore both harder edged progressive metal riffing and more mellow progressive rock pieces. This makes for a very varied listen and at no point do the band fail to entertain."
UMUR Metal Music Archives

"The debut album by Dropshard - Anywhere But Home sits in the progressive metal category but is an album that can be enjoyed irrespective of genre restrictions. From the opening vocal harmonies there is an intent in this music which demands attention.Further, the album provides a diverse mix of melody, powerful riffing, subtle textures and a conceptual theme that grows on every listen."
Strummerlive.net

After several years of rehearsals and concerts, Sebastiano Benatti, Tommaso Mangione e Alex Stucchi (ex Antares) decide to set up the prog/alternative project of Dropshard. They recorded 2 demo sessions DS1 and DSII and evolved through several line-up changes before taking to the road to debut songs from their ‘suite’ of music called Anywhere But Home. Following a fantastic response from audiences which found the band in the finals of many Italian unsigned band events they were spotted by the UK’s Sonic Vista Music and recording of the debut album began. The album is being released and distributed internationally on February 15th, 2011. Following a storming performance at EXPROG 2010 the band have been played on the very highly respected European Perspective Progressive Rock Radio show and are appearing at Electric Garden the north west UK’s first progressive rock festival.

www.dropshard.net

THE TANGENT LIVE DVD "GOING OFF ON TWO"

The Tangent were in the studio during December recording for the new live DVD/CD “Going Off On Two” The mixing and editing process is nearly at an end and the finishing touches are now being done to the final credits and art work (cover by Ed Unitsky). Release date is pencilled in for the end of March 2010.
This is up close and personal, recorded in the band's rehearsal studio in Stockport, England. No spectacular light shows, no adoring audience or beautiful venue, just 5 amazing musicians and a camera crew. Paid for and made by people who love this band, people who believe in real music with lyrics that mean something.....this one really is all about the music and the incredible raw energy of a Tangent performance.

You can pre-order your copy at www.thetangent.org

European Progressive Rock Album of 2010

The results of the 2010 poll were as follows:

1 Tinyfish - The Big Red Spark (UK)
2 Big Big Train - Far Skies Deep Time (UK)
3 Manning - Charlestown (UK)
4 Frost* - The Philadelphia Experiment (UK)
5 Transatlantic - Whirld Tour 2010: Live In London (Multi-national)
6 Gazpacho - Missa Atropos (Norway)
7 Anathema - We're Here Because We're Here (UK)
8 Haken - Aquarius (UK)
9 Pineapple Thief - Someone Here Is Missing (UK)
10 Dec Burke - Destroy All Monsters (UK)
11 Godsticks - Spiral Vendetta (UK)
12 Kaipa - In The Wake Of Evolution (Sweden)
13 Agents of Mercy - Dramarama (Sweden)
14 Karnataka - The Gathering Light (UK)
15 Hasse Froberg & Musical Companion - Future Past (Sweden)
16 The Watch - Planet Earth (Italy)
17 Moon Safari - Lovers End - (Sweden)
18 Star One - Victims of the Modern Age (UK)
19 The Lens - Regeneration (UK)
20 Mostly Autumn - Go Well Diamond Heart (UK)
21 Porcupine Tree - Anesthetize (UK)
22 The Reasoning - Adverse Camber (UK)
23 Lunatic soul - Lunatic Soul II (Poland)
24 Steve Hackett - Live Rails (UK)
25 Morild - Time To Rest (Norway)
26 Motorpsycho - Heavy Metal Fruit (Norway)
27 Il Tempio delle Clessidre - Il Tempio delle Clessidre (Italy)
28 La Maschera di Cera - Petali di Fuoco (Italy)
29 Oceansize - Self Preserved While The Bodies Float Up (UK)
30 IQ - The Wake Live (UK)
31 Solstice - Spirit (UK)
32 Sky Architect - Excavation of the Mind (Netherlands)
33 It Bites - This Is Japan (UK)
34 RPWL - The Gentle Art Of Music (Germany)
35 Jump - The Beachcomber (UK)
36 Those Men - Theman Simpulse (UK)
37 Crippled Black Phoenix - I, Vigilante (UK)
38 Argos - Circles (Germany)
39 Bunchakeze - Whose Dream? (UK)
40 Field Music - Measure (UK)
41 Magenta - Live From Real World (UK)
42 Pain of Salvation - Road Salt One (Sweden)
43 arK - Wild Untamed Imaginings (UK)
44 Delusion Squared - Delusion Squared (France)
45 Kingfisher Sky - Skin Of The Earth (Netherlands)
46 Matt Stevens - Ghost (UK)
47 Carptree - Nymf (Sweden)
48 The Orb Ft David Gilmour - Metallic Spheres (UK)
49 Mindgames - MMX (Belgium)
50 Chris - Making Sense (Netherlands)