Fresh Fish and Big Wedges

Flying Off in Different Colours.

Didn’t I promise some Fish for our prog hungry listening ears?  Well, in the last show I dished up a healthy serving of Fish, as promised, and nearly served it with some Big Wedges.  Ah, the joys of a radio station CD player.  You see, the CD players in radio stations are preset to only play one track at a time once they get cue’d up.  If you want to play two tracks in a row you have to switch the single play to continuous.  Fish’s track that I played, Plague of Ghosts, is made up of something like five separate tracks so, dutifully, make the switch I did.  But that means that as a radio jock I am now entering dangerous and frightening territory.  You have to watch the CD player all the time to make sure that it has reached the last track you want to play and then toggle it back to single play so, when it reaches the end of the current track … it stops!  Well, I thought I did, popping the little toggle and then looking back to the computer to answer an email, listening all the time to the music so I was aware of when it was about to end.  As the end drew near I pulled up the level on my mic and started to give my closing words to end the show.  At this point I should also have dropped the level on the CD player as an extra precaution but, as it was the end of the show, I had thrown caution to the wind, lifted my anchors and was now thinking about the long drive back to the folk festival I was camping out at for the weekend.  Suddenly, the CD player still having the bit between its’ teeth, started to play The Big Wedge, the opening strains bursting in on my little speech like a mobile phone going off during the quiet part in an opera.  With a surprising speed I pulled the volume down on the CD player on the spot, with a blush to my cheeks and a quick apology on my lips.  Oops, but no one to blame but me on this one.

Did I mention a folk festival?  This weekend I was away in a place called Rochester, Kent, taking part in the Sweeps Festival.  This is where loads of folkies and Morris dancers go to dance and play in public for the whole weekend on the streets, drinking beer and carousing in a most enjoyable fashion.  There’s a campsite set up for those who are taking part over the whole of the bank holiday weekend, and that’s where I had set up my camp along with my long suffering wife and kids.  I took with me my trusty mandolin and bhodran and played my heart out, drinking beer and joining in with the carousing, except on the Saturday as I was due back to the station to do the show.  I know it’s not prog, all this folk, but sometimes it’s hard to tell where the dividing line sits.  I mean, take the band Ritual.  They play progressive rock with a strong folk content.  Then there’s Ayreon’s concept album called The Final Equation, with it’s pure folk elements embedded within it’s proggy infrastructure.  I could go on, but I’m sure you get the point.  Anyway, I just enjoy playing music.  Even my wife takes part as she’s a gifted melodeon player.  In fact, she’s supported Spinal Tap at the Royal Albert Hall, and she’s in the film The Calendar Girls, though if you blink you’ll miss her.  So am I by the way, but you don’t see me, only hear me play the guitar during the scene, which is set near the opening of the film and revolves around a country fete and some sort of home baked cake competition.  Sweet memories.

Anyway, before I get too far from the show, here’s last Saturday’s playlist:

Artist : Album : TrackA.C.T. : Silence : Truth is Pain
Eyestrings : Burdened Hands : Recovery
Manfred Manns Earth Band : The Roaring Silence : Waiter, There's A Yawn In My Ear
Dominici : O3 A Trilogy - Part 2 : The Monster
PFM : L'Isola Di Niente : La Luna Nuova
Kaipa : Angling Feelings : Solitary Pathway
Sylvan : Presets : Presets
Spock's Beard : Snow : Solitary Soul + Wind At My Back
Discipline : Unfolded Like Staircase : Canto IV (Limbo)
Martin Orford : Classical Music and Popular Songs : Field of Fallen Angels
Fish : Bouillabaisse : Plague of Ghosts

As you can see, if you didn’t hear the show, it’s got an eclectic mix of both new and classic progressive rock.  One of my favourites is the old PFM album.  I have the vinyl version which is sung in English, but the CD version is in the original Italian.  I don’t know which I prefer, but I do know that the Italian version has a poetry to it that seems to pull me in to a dream world of mystical half promises that I can sometimes reach out to grasp, but most times I don’t quite make it.  Now that’s something you don’t get with Kylie, no offence meant, Kylie, by the way.  And then there’s Manfred Manns Earth Band.  Manfred Mann’s album took me back so many years it’s almost untrue.  I got a request last week to play some Manfred so I ploughed through my collection and pulled out the album mentioned above, settling down to a listen that I haven’t done in about four years.  That was fun, so thanks to whomever it was who asked for some; the name escapes me as I write this.  And then there’s some of the more modern stuff, such as Spock’s Beard.  The album Snow has to be, in my opinion at least, one of the best concept albums to come out in the last ten years.  It’s a shame that Neal Morse used it as his swan song to announce that he was leaving the band to pursue his solo career.  However, what was a cloud for Spock’s Beard turned out to be a silver lining for progressive rock fans everywhere as his solo material is wonderful.  I know the subject matter is a little “holy” but it is still musically a treat to listen too.  Moving on, how about Kaipa?  They’re a great group and certainly deserve more airplay in the future, which I would be pleased to provide if I can.  I’d love to wax lyrical  about Discipline and Eyestrings, but I think you can guess that I love their music so I won’t go to gt pains to point it out.  I just wished I had more of their stuff.  Incidently, that may change as I have been speaking with Mat from Eyestrings about getting the back material sent over for the show.  Now that is omething I am really looking forward too.

Want some gossip?  Well, you know the band The Tangent?  Don’t worry if you don’t as you will this Saturday.  You see, they have a new live DVD out soon and a live CD to accompany it.  Also, just to mention it, Andy Tillinson, the writer and keyboard player for The Tangent also has a solo project due out soon.  So, Ian Oakley, the manager for The Tangent and a friend of Andy, is coming on the show and is bringing with him some tracks from those future releases.  Sounds like it’s going to be a good show, in my opinion.  I’d certainly recommend tuning in if you get a chance as you’ll be hearing material that isn’t due out until sometime in June, if my memory serves me.

And, what of the show the week after?  Well, I can’t say anything just yet, nudge wink, but I can say if you like Magenta then you’d best tune in for that one as well, extra wink.  Talk about flying off in different colours!

Bye for now,

Dave.

Article by Dave O'Neill, 10 May 2007
Posted in The Dave O Prog Rock Show

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