Mark Trueack (ex-Unitopia) Reveals New Project

 

The former singer, songwriter and co-producer of well-respected Australian band Unitopia has announced the formation of the United Progressive Fraternity with the release of a video for a song called “The Water”.

The idea for the project started in July 2011, while working on the “Covered Mirror” album. Mark Trueack and Stephen Layton started to develop songs ideas and arrangements for a concept album to be called “The Hope”. While working on this project Stephen realised that these could be a real opportunity here to bring the voices of Mark and Jon Anderson together. The piece selected to test this collaborative prospect was to be “The Water”.

Over the next six months, Mark started speaking with artists from around the world that he felt would complement his voice and the new sound he was looking for. These included Hasse Froberg (The Flower Kings), Nikki Squire (Esquire), Jerry Marotta (Peter Gabriel), Ian Ritchie (Roger Waters Band), Guy Manning (Manning, The Tangent), John Jowitt (IQ, Frost*, Arena), Billy Sherwood (Yes, Circa) and Tom Brislin.

Mark’s vision for the underlying musical content of UPF music is that it will not be that dissimilar to that of Unitopia, however, the sound will be much edgier and less keyboard dependant.

Having several producers and songwriters within the core group will certainly give the listener a banquet of textures and moods! Unlike Unitopia though, UPF will always invite special guests aboard for albums. This ‘open door’ policy will allow Mark to use producers and musicians as the music dictates, whilst also allowing each and every musician involved a chance to put their own individual stamp on the music.

“Fall in Love with the World” will be the first UPF release, containing over 60 minutes of music that will take the listener on a journey of self-belief. The album will be officially launches at the UK’s Summers End Festival in autumn 2014.

Track listing:

1. Overture
2. Spinning on the Surface
3. How Long
4. Don’t Look Back
5. Crossroads
6. Water
7. Fall in Love with the World

To learn more about the United Progressive Fraternity:
Website: http://unitedprogressivefraternity.com/site/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UPFrat

Watch "The Water" video, featuring Mark Trueack and Jon Anderson:

Yes: They Have a Title and Release Date

While presenting the dates of their 35-show US Tour today, Yes also announced the title and release date of the album that is being finalized right now.

The new album, Heaven and Earth, will be released on July 8th 2014.

The show is set up in three parts. They will perform 1971′s Fragile in its entirety as well as every track from 1972′s Close to the Edge, followed by an encore consisting of greatest hits and material off their new studio album.

For more information: www.yesworld.com

Kate Bush Announces Series of Concerts

You read that right. Famously reclusive artist Kate Bush, who last toured in the Spring of 1979 when she only had two albums under her belt, has announced today that she will be back on stage in August and September 2014. WOW!.... Unbelievable!

To say that nobody saw this coming is an understatement. Kate's last release, the excellent 50 Words for Snow is already 3 years old, having been released in 2011, and we haven't heard anything about a new album coming out soon. But lets not quibble about these little details - Kate Bush is doing a series of concerts - that is news to celebrate.

The series of concerts, called Before the Dawn, are to be staged at London's Eventim Apollo, Hammersmith.

I've seen press reports calling this her first tour since 1978. Stop that! It isn't a tour if you only play at one location. It's a residency! And there isn't anything wrong with that - except that we, in the world at large, won't be able to applaud a truly grand artist. Still, who knows what the future brings - we certainly never thought she'd be doing live shows again.

Tickets will go on sale at 9.30 am (GMT) on the 28th March 2014 and purchases are limited to a maximum of 4 per order.  For example, you can try to purchase up to 4 tickets for just one of the 15 concerts, or 4 tickets for 4 separate shows.

So, for you lucky people in Europe who'll be able to make the trip to London, here are the details:

August 2014
Tuesday, 26th August
Wednesday, 27th August
Friday, 29th August
Saturday, 30th August

September 2014 
Tuesday, 2nd September
Wednesday, 3rd September
Friday, 5th September
Saturday, 6th September
Tuesday, 9th September
Wednesday, 10th September
Friday, 12th September
Saturday, 13th September
Tuesday, 16th September
Wednesday, 17th September
Friday, 19th September

Ticket sales:
Available exclusively from the following agents:
www.eventim.co.uk
www.gigsandtours.com
www.ticketmaster.co.uk

Please note that tickets are not available directly from the venue Box Office.

The Room Announces New Drummer

Uxbridge based Chris York is today unveiled as the new drummer for UK crossover progressive rock band The Room following the forced retirement of Andrew Rae through the onset of tinnitus.

York brings over 30 years of live and studio experience to the band as they start work on the follow up to their critically acclaimed debut album Open Fire.

“I am thrilled to have been asked to join The Room” said York “We have played together a number of times now and it has been so easy to fit in. I love the album and playing the tracks live is going to be really exciting”.

Vocalist Martin Wilson commented “it was a really difficult moment for the band when Andrew left. However we are absolutely delighted that Chris has agreed to join us on the next part of our journey. We loved Chris’s sense of humour; his take on our material and of course his excellence behind the kit.”

The Room play a showcase event in London during May, Home Farm Festival in June, The Cambridge Rock Festival in August plus dates in Market Harborough and Leicester later in the year.

The Room:
Martin Wilson: Vocals
Steve Anderson: Guitar
Steve Checkley: Keyboards
Chris York: Drums
Andy Rowe Bass Guitar

Visit The Room At.
Official Website: http://www.theroom.eu/

Social Media.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theroom.eu
Power of Prog: http://powerofprog.com/profile/TheRoom
Twitter: https://twitter.com/theroom_eu

Wishbone Ash Tour North America Spring 2014

Wishbone Ash, one of the most influential guitar bands in the history of rock, returns to North America this Spring with brand new tunes from their upcoming release, Blue Horizon.

The group returns to these shores following last year’s annual tour through the East, Midwest, Northwest and Western Canada, where they delighted fans with high-energy performances featuring a vast catalog spanning 45 continuous years of music-making.

The 2014 Spring tour has been nicknamed “The Blue Horizon Tour” to coincide with the March US release of Blue Horizon and celebrate the return of the band to areas not visited in many years.

“I thought, why not ring the bell to see if our fans in the South and Southwest would come out and join the party,” says bandleader and founding member Andy Powell.

The first leg of the tour begins April 15 in Florida and winds south and west before heading northward through the Pacific West Coast and Canada.

“We hope our long-lost fans will come check out what we’ve been doing, which has been continuously touring, recording and rehearsing,” said Powell. “The band has a fire in its belly, and we want to share that.”

 

Lynyrd Skynyrd cites Wishbone Ash as a primary influence on their style along with Thin Lizzy, Iron Maiden and, more recently, heavyweights like Opeth. All have been transformed by the original, legendary twin-guitar approach of Wishbone Ash.

Wishbone Ash’s new album, Blue Horizon (Solid Rockhouse Records), includes guest artist Pat McManus playing fiddle on two tracks. Fans will recall McManus made an appearance on 2011’s Elegant Stealth and also co-wrote one of the songs, “Can't Go It Alone,” with Andy Powell. Blue Horizon features two songs written by Aynsley Powell (Powell's son) and one by former Wishbone Ash guitarist Roger Filgate.

Tour of the USA:

Apr 15: Lou;'s Blues, Indialantic, FL, USA

Apr 16: The Plaza Live, Orlando, FL, USA

Apr 17: Bamboo Room, Lake Worth, FL, USA

Apr 18: Ringside Café, St Petersburg, FL, USA

Apr 19: Variety Playhouse, Atlanta, GA, USA

Apr 22: Neil's Music Room, Memphis, TN, USA

Apr 23: Duling Hall, Jackson, MS, USA

Apr 24: THe Ballroom at The Warehouse Live, Houston, TX, USA

Apr 26: Poor David's Pub, Dallas, TX, USA

May 3: Ramona Mainstage, Ramona, CA, USA

May 4: Coach House, San Juan Capistrano, CA, USA

May 8: Aladdin Theater, Portland, OR, USA

May 9: Jazzbones, Tacoma, WA, USA

May 11: Triple Door, Seattle, WA, USA

Billy Sherwood Brought Back Into the Yes Fold

Billy Sherwood has returned to the fold as a second engineer on Yes' new studio project.

On his Facebook page Sherwood announced: “Got a phone call from the Yes camp tonight, asking me to engineer the backing vocal sessions for their new record. Got a phone call from the Yes camp tonight, asking me to engineer the backing vocal sessions for their new record. Tomorrow I start with Jon Davison, Squire comes in later in the day to sing, Steve Howe after that and so on for the next week or so... As Pacino said in Godfather 3 "They keep pulling me back in !!" lol. Looking forward to seeing the lads tomorrow, viva la YES”

Sherwood's Yes credentials cannot be denied. He started as a song-writing partner of Squire's before the Union album. He later appeared on the Talk tour, mixed both Keys to Ascension albums, then worked on Talk and The Ladder. He also formed Conspiracy with Squire and toured briefly as the Chris Squire Experiment (with Alan White and Steve Porcaro). He also formed Circa with Tony Kaye.

Sherwood has also been prolific on his own, working on different projects as producer, musician, or engineer.

Mystery Announces New Lead Vocalist

Picture: Andy Wright

Benoit David leaves Canadian prog band Mystery. A new vocalist, Jean Pageau, was announced today! Read the whole press release.

Dear Mystery Fans,

I would like to announce that Canadian singer Jean Pageau will be replacing Benoit David as Mystery’s lead singer. The singer from Gatineau, Quebec became anofficial Mysteron on March 9th 2014 and is now preparing with the band for upcoming live performances and a new studio album. Jean is a great singer and we are very excited to be making new music together.

 

Jean Pageau

Benoit David leaving Mystery:  It has not been as easy for us to say goodbye. Benoit joined Mystery in 1999 and we released our first album (Beneath the Veil of Winter’s Face) with Benoit on vocals in 2007 followed by One Among the Living in 2010 and The World is a Game in 2012. In the spring of 2012, as we were preparing for our first European shows, Benoit discussed with me his desire to take a break from music and Mystery for a while. He fulfilled his commitment to do all of the shows that were booked for Mystery up until the Toronto show in June. We took the summer off, and in the Fall, Benoit announced that he was officially leaving the band. We kept the search for a new singer a Mystery.

 

Benoit’s contribution to the music of Mystery is and will always be considered remarkable, full of passion and emotion for us.He remains one of the best singer I have had the chance to hear, and luckily for me, to work with. I wish him all the best and will always be grateful for the works we created together.

As things seemed to speed up for Mystery, we had to slow down, take a pause and see where we were going. It has not been an easy quest for us in finding someone to fill Benoit’s shoes and has in fact proved to be a difficult task. But we are excited to be back now and are looking forward to seeing all of you soon with new singer Jean Pageau on stage with us.

Michel St-Pere

With the coming release of Mystery's first ever live album and DVD, fans will have a chance to see and hear Benoit with the band one last time. I look forward to the next studio release and hearing Jean for the first time.

All the best to Benoit in his future endeavors, welcome to Jean, and long live Mystery.

 

More info about Mystery:

www.therealmystery.com

Rocket Scientists to Release New Album

Well that was an unexpected surprise! Erik Norlander, whose Galactic Collective can be seen live in concert on May 9th, has just announced the return of The Rocket Scientists.

March 19th will see the return of vocalist / guitarist Mark McCrite, bassist Don Schiff, and keyboardist Norlander with the release of an as yet untitled album after a 5 year absence (They released Revolution Road in 2006 but toured from 2007 to 2009).

Meanwhile, tickets are on sale for the Galactive Collective live at the Cherokee Arts Center in Canton, Georgia.

Camel Live DVD

For those of you lucky enough to have seen the return of Camel last year, and the magnificent Snow Goose played in its entirety, this new release will bring back souvenirs. For those of us outside of Europe who wish we'd been there, this is welcome news.

Camel have released a live DVD title In from the Cold, chronicling their last night at The Barbican, in London. Recorded on 28 October, 2013, the DVD showcases the Snow Goose and the welcome return on the stage by Andy Latimer.

The 130 minutes DVD is available only on tour in Europe for the moment, sold at the merch desk, but once the tour is over, the DVD will be made available either through Camel Productions or through the usual outlets.

In From The Cold tracklisting:
Set One: (The Snow Goose)

1. The Great Marsh
2. Rhayader
3. Rhayader Goes to Town
4. Sanctuary (Revised)
5. Fritha
6. The Snow Goose
7. Friendship
8. Migration (Revised)
9. Rhayader Alone (Revised)
10. Flight of the Snow Goose
11. Preparation
12. Dunkirk
13. Epitaph (Revised)
14. Fritha Alone
15. La Princesse Perdue
16. The Great Marsh (Reprise)

Set Two:

1. Never Let Go
2. Song Within a Song
3. Echoes
4. The Hour Candle
5. Tell Me
6. Watching the Bobbins
7. Fox Hill
8. For Today
9. Lady Fantasy

Shadow Circus Bow Out of Terra Incognita

The Terra Incognita Festival in Quebec City was proud to present American prog band Shadow Circus for the 10th edition of the festival. Unfortunately, a couple of weeks ago Shadow Circus announced on their Facebook page that they have had to bow out and cancel their scheduled appearance.

With two months to spare, Terra Incognita have the pleasure to announce that American prog band 3rDegree will fill the Saturday night slot. For the full schedule and a link to the festival site for tickets follow this link.

Glass Hammer Premier New Song on YouTube

American proggers Glass Hammer, whose new album Ode to Echo will be releasesd next week, have released a track off of their newest opus on youtube.

Crowbone features music by Fred Schendel and lyrics by Viking Saga author Robert Low.

 

There is still time to pre-order a signed copy of the new album through Glass Hammer's website.

 

http://www.glasshammer.com/pages/store.html

IQ Announce Album Title and Release Date

It has been five years since the release of their critically acclaimed album Frequency. Now we finally have a news about the new album.

This week UK based band IQ, through their Facebook page, have been trickling information about their upcoming album. First it was the look of their new logo. Then came new dates for their tour of Europe, and a look at parts of the album cover. And now we finally have the title of the new album and snippets of the music in the form of a youtube music add.

The Road of Bones will be released in May 2014 and pre-orders are now being taken via Giant Electric Pea, IQ's own label. Order now!

 

To pre-order:

www.iq-hq.co.uk

www.gep.co.uk

 

 





The Watch Live in North America

On the heels of their newly released studio album Tracks from the Alps, Italian Genesis-tribute band The Watch will be doing a series of concert in the province of Quebec, in Canada from April 3rd to the 6th. Starting in Quebec City, The Watch will play 3 nights at the La Chapelle theatre, site of the Terra Incognita Festival.

On the first and third night the band will re-create the Seconds Out album and play some of their own compositions near the end.

On the second night, as well as in Montreal on their fourth day in North America, the band will play songs from their own albums.

Upon their return to Europe, they will continue a series of shows called The White Show, where they showcase the whole of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.

The Watch mini-tour of Canada:

April 3 - Centre d'art La Chapelle, Quebec City
April 4 - Centre d'art La Chapelle, Quebec City
April 5 - Centre d'art La Chapelle, Quebec City
April 6 - Café Campus, Montreal

The Gift Announce the Release of Their Sophomore Effort

Symphonic Prog band The Gift is proud to announce that Land of Shadows, their much-anticipated sophomore release, will be released on 5th May 2014.

Mike Morton, principal songwriter and vocalist with The Gift, said:

"We are genuinely thrilled about Land of Shadows. The Gift don’t do things quickly, but even by our standards this one was a long time coming. Part of the reason was our determination not just to remake Awake and Dreaming, which we could so easily have done. The new album is still very much us. We’re still telling tall tales and mixing up vintage with modern sounds, but this time around things are more imminent; more live. We’ve stripped back the layers and focused more on the song. But as card carrying proggers we still couldn’t resist throwing in a 20 minute beast about a near death experience...For those who like their music emotional, complex and occasionally grandiose, it’ll be right up your street."

 The album is to be release on the Bad Elephant label, the same label that brought us Shineback in 2013 and the latest The Fierce and the Dead.

Pre-orders will open on 31st March - more details will follow soon.

Tracklist:

1. The Willows (12:10)
2. Walk Into the Water (6:04)
3. St Vitus Dance (3:17)
4. Too Many Hands (4:35)
5. You Are the Song (4:02)
6. Windscreen (7:08)
7. The Comforting Cold (19:53)
8. I Sing of Change (2:12)

To hear The Willows, to be released as a digital single through the BEM website on 10th March, visit our Soundcloud site at https://soundcloud.com/badelephant/the-willows
.

New Album and Video by Nick Magnus

Composer, keyboard player and producer Nick Magnus (ex-The Enid, ex-Steve Hackett Band) will release his newest CD on April 28th. Titled n'monix is "a collection of songs and music in the finest tradition of his past work." The album also features collaborations with his old band mates Steve Hackett and Pete Hicks, and Andy Neve, Rob Townsend, Tim Bowness (No-Man, Henry Fool, Memories of Machines), Kate Faber, Tony Patterson (ReGenesis) and James Reeves.

Meanwhile, Nick is also is also putting the finishing touches on the Northlands album project by Tony Patterson and Brendan Eyre. Amongst the featured guests are Steve and John Hackett, Doug (ReGenesis) and Carrie Melbourne, Nigel Appleton (ReGenesis), Tim Esau (IQ).

n'monix tracklist:

1. Time
2. Memory
3. Kombat Kid
4. Headcase
5. Eminent Victorians
6. Broken
7. Shadowland
8. Entropy

N'monix is now available for pre-order here.

In the meantime, listen to this excellent track featuring Steve Hackett, Eminent Victorians from Nick's upcoming album.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vStLVtXNYxc