John Wesley Announces New Album and Tour

Renowned singer / songwriter & guitarist John Wesley has announced he will release his forthcoming 8th studio album 'a way you'll never be' on October 7th, 2016.

John had this to say:

"'a way you'll never be' was fairly big step for me in that I have worked extremely hard at bringing the two sides of my writing together; the "acoustic singer songwriter" and the "electric heavy guitar" elements. This album is most certainly the set of songs that has successfully combined my introspective lyrics with the aggressive type of guitar playing and writing that I love. Mark Prator and Sean Malone brought the songs to life as an amazing rhythm section. The themes of the lyrics, the melodies, and the playing make these my favourite, most cohesive and adventurous set of tracks to date. Stylistically the songs revisit some of the guitar music of the 70's that grabbed me and made me want to be a guitarist. Sonically I combined those 70's big guitar tones with the modern sounds available to us as guitarists today."

In support of the album, John will head out as support to Marillion & Steven Wilson in the US & Canada:

With Marillion
Oct 21 2016 - The Regency Ballroom San Francisco, CA, USA
Oct 22 2016 - Saban Theater Beverly Hills Beverly Hills, CA, USA
Oct 25 2016 - Paramount Theatre Denver, CO, USA
Oct 27 2016 - Vic Theatre Chicago, IL, USA
Oct 28 2016 - Vic Theatre Chicago, IL, USA
Oct 29 2016 - Hard Rock Live Northfield, OH, USA
Oct 31 2016 - Danforth Music Hall Toronto, ON, Canada
Nov 1 2016 - Virgin Mobile Corona Theatre Montreal, QC, Canada
Nov 2 2016 - L'Impérial Bell Québec, QC, Canada
Nov 4 2016 - Royale Boston Boston, MA, USA
Nov 5 2016 - 9:30 Club Washington, DC, USA
Nov 6 2016 - Keswick Theatre Philadelphia, PA, USA
Nov 8 2016 - Playstation Theater New York, NY, USA

With Steven Wilson
Nov 17 2016 - Center Stage Atlanta, GA, USA
Nov 18 2016 - The Plaza Live Orlando, FL, USA
Nov 19 2016 - State Theatre Tampa, FL, USA
Nov 20 2016 - Culture Room Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA

'a way you'll never be' was produced by Jim Morris at the legendary Morrisound Studios and sports a cover by renowned artist Carl Glover.

'a way you'll never be' tracklist:
1.   by the light of a sun
2.   a way you'll never be
3.   to outrun the light
4.   the revolutionist
5.   nada
6.   the silence in coffee
7.   unsafe space
8.   sun.a.rose
9.   epic
10.  pointless endeavors

John Welsey online:www.john-wesley.com
www.facebook.com/johnwesleyofficial
www.twitter.com/johnwesleymusic

Marillion Launch PledgeMusic Pre-Order

Marillion, the band that started this whole pledge-funding craze by using the internet to fund a US tour in the late 90's, and then using this experience to fund their studio releases, is at it again.

This time, instead of using their own website, they've joined forces with PledgeMusic to crowd-fund album number 18, in fact endorsing PledgeMusic as the foremost platform within the Crowdfunding model. The album is set to be released in 2016 and will be followed by an extensive world tour.

Funding started on September 1st 2015, so jump to it at this site:
http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/marillion

Steve Rothery Announces Live in Rome CD/DVD

Legendary Marillion guitarist and founding member Steve Rothery has revealed that, in advance of his much anticipated new solo album The Ghosts of Pripyat, he will release a brand new CD/DVD set titled Live in Rome. Released through InsideOutMusic on the 25th August 2014, this stunning show sees Rothery & band premiering some of the material from his forthcoming solo album.

Steve had this to say about the set:

The Rome concert was only the second time my band had performed together but they are some of the finest musicians I’ve ever worked with and the concert was an unforgettable experience. The incredible interest I’m getting for the studio album from all round the world makes this an important record of the progression of the project.

The Steve Rothery band Live in Rome CD/DVD captures a great evening of live music as Marillion guitarist and founder member Steve Rothery and his superb band premiers some of the tracks from Steve’s forthcoming solo album The Ghosts of Pripyat (released on September 22nd) and also play various classic Marillion songs with inspired performances from several guest vocalists.

The Ghosts of Pripyat album was financed by an incredibly successful Kickstarter campaign which reached its fifteen thousand pound target in the first 24 hours and went on to raise nearly sixty thousand pounds. At one time it was the second most popular music project on Kickstarter in the world!

The studio album will feature guest appearances by Steve Hackett, Don Airey and other name musicians and Steve will be touring around the world in support of it from October 2014. To get an idea of what the new songs will sound like, visit www.steverothery.com to listen to new track White Pass performed live in Plovdiv.

The D Project to Release Making Sense

It's been almost three years since The D Project has released a new album.  Supported by great guest musicians such as Tony Levin and Lalle Larsson to name but two, the Big Face album (2011) was highly praised by the press and by prog rock fans alike.

In May 2014, The D Project will release their 4th album named Making Sense. Stéphane Desbiens and Francis Foy once again worked together to create a new classic neo-prog experience.

Eight tracks of inspired music enriched by special guests: Sean Filkins (ex Big Big Train) Claude Leonetti (Lazuli), Guillaume Fontaine (Nemo) will, doubtless, stretch the listener's horizon to unexpected territories. And as the Making Sense title suggests, a trip back to Desbiens' «Sense» area will revive some interesting memories! Mastered by Andy Jackson of the Pink Floyd hall of fame.

The D Project have also announced that they will be opening for Marillion on Saturday the 12th of July 2014 at the Festival d'été de Québec, in Quebec City.

Video link:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScZoNnTYxyA

The D Project on the web:
http://www.thedproject.com/

Marillion Weekends Update

Picture by Andy Wright

News about the 3 Marillion Weekends has finally arrived. And as I predicted in an earlier post, the second night will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the release of Marbles! The big question concerning the Friday night show has also been answered: they will play the whole of Anoraknophibia.

Great choices!

Swap-the-band is also returning in Port Zeeland and in Montreal. Support bands have not been announced yet, but tickets are on sale for the Port Zeeland weekend already. Tickets for Wolverhampton in the UK, and Montreal, Canada will be on sale shortly. Prices have changed from previous years as they now charge more for us older people how need to sit down, or can't stay up on our legs for the duration of the weekend.

For more information go directly to the Marillion Weekend website. They will be updating regularly. http://www.marillionweekend.com/

Marillion Weekends 2015 Announced

Marillion have announced the dates of all three Marillion Weekends to be held in 2015. More info will be forthcoming, as will dates for ticket sales.

1st Weekend will be at Port Zeeland in the Netherlands on 20 - 22 March 2015.

2nd Weekend will be held in England, at an as yet undisclosed venue on 10 - 12 April 2015.

3rd Weekend will be held in Montréal, Canada, at the Olympia, on 24 - 26 April 2015.

The big question on everybody's mind is what album will be featured on the Friday night, as it is a tradition to do a full album, including B-sides of singles, on the first night of the weekend. I'm hoping for Marbles as it is its 10th anniversary this year.

Usually ticket sales are in June or July, but the full info will be revealed in April.

John Wesley Signs to InsideOutMusic

InsideOutMusic is extremely proud to announce the signing of renowned guitarist John Wesley for the release of his forthcoming sixth studio album Disconnect on April 1. John had this to say:

"Disconnect, is the culmination of all the musical input I have had in the past several years. I am a fan of so many different types of music and being able to perform with artists that take huge chances musically such as Fish, Porcupine Tree, and Steven Wilson led me to a new place creatively. My focus has been on playing guitar for so long, so the songs on this record really came to life on the guitar. I had a great team of musicians to work with and the result is my best work to date. With this album, I was able to achieve a more aggressive guitar-oriented sound that is coloured by my progressive influences. Disconnect has many of the same elements of my previous work -- lyrical depth, song orientation -- but I really feel that I pushed my boundaries musically, with my playing and the song arrangements, more so than in my past work. Inside Out is the perfect home for this album."

John's last release was The Lilypad Suite EP which came out in 2011 and since then he has been playing with the likes of Steven Wilson and Sound of Contact, as well as keeping busy with session work. Disconnect marks his first full-length studio release since 2005's Shiver.

JOHN WESLEY online: 

www.john-wesley.com
www.facebook.com/johnwesleyofficial

Marillion's Steven Rothery Kickstarts Solo album

After putting together a band to play the Plovdiv Guitar Festival, Steven Rothery has finally decided to record a solo album. As the Marillion guitarist wrote today (November 25th) on his band's website:

A very exciting day for me today and not just because it's my birthday ;-)  After twenty eight years of talking about doing a solo album, the time has finally arrived! Today is the official launch day of the Kickstarter campaign for my solo album The Ghosts of Pripyat.

Earlier this year I was invited to play at the annual Plovdiv guitar festival in October 2013. To prepare I got together with my good friend and fellow guitarist Dave Foster for a couple of writing sessions which went incredibly well. After a couple of days rehearsal with the rhythm section of Leon Parr and Yatim Halimi I realised this was going to be something very special. This Youtube trailer from the live video of the performance gives you an idea of where the finished album, The Ghosts of Pripyat, will go. 

 

The audio download of the festival is available at http://steverothery.com/ and the video download at http://steverothery.fetchapp.com/sell/eizeetip

The album will also feature a guest performance from Steve Hackett on a track called Morpheus and another track titled The Old Man of the Sea. Lasse Hoile (of Porcupine Tree fame) is designing the artwork so it's going to visually stunning as well.

 

Steven is hoping to get £15,000 by January 22, 2014 to push the project along, and as of 10:00 AM EST today it already is up to 8,644 out of 284 backers, so it looks like it will be a success.

Add your pledge to this Kickstarter campaign by going to Steven's Kickstarter page here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2090204348/steve-rothery-the-ghosts-of-pripyat. Many pledge bundles are available.

UPDATE (26th November 2013):
By the end of the evening, the Kickstarter campaign had reached its goal, and then some. Inside of one day, the amount accumulated was £20,529, with 694 backers. This is the quickest campaign I have ever seen! Steven Rothery, whose birthday it was when he launched the campaign, had one hell of a gift, and had this to say:

Thank you all for your incredible support! What an amazing way to celebrate my birthday yesterday.

(...)

Mike Hunter will be engineering the recording of the drums for the album at the Racket Club at the beginning of February and Steve Hackett will be recording his parts towards the end of the month. 

We'll be flying over to Italy to play a couple of shows with Ranestrane on the 21st and 22nd February, more details to follow.

Thanks again, Steve

2013 Progressive Music Awards Winners

Last night was the night. Prog Magazine unveiled the winners of the Prog Music Awards in the beautiful setting of the Kew Gardens.

And this year’s winners are:

Limelight – Sound Of Contact

Breakthrough – Big Big Train

Anthem – Von Hertzen Brothers' Flowers And Rust

Event – Steve Hackett - Genesis Revisited at Hammersmith Apollo

Band Of The Year – Marillion

Album – Steven Wilson's The Raven Who Refused To Sing (And Other Stories)

Grand Design – Family Box Set

Virtuoso – Mike Portnoy

Visionary – Steve Hillage

Guiding Light – Thomas Waber, founder of InsideOut

Lifetime Achievement – Dave Brock

Prog God – Ian Anderson

 

Congratulations to all the winners!