Summer’s End 2009 Day Two Part One
Day 1 of Summer’s End ended with yours truly seeing more of Glouchester than I had intended to. My sat nav was refusing to locate my hotel and I ended up having to find the M5 and then following my printed directions from there. Something which added an extra hour to my already late night. It did not help that the people in the next room having just retired from the bar decided to continue the partying for an additional hour.
My mood was not improved when I entered the breakfast area the next morning to find out that they did not serve hot food. I know I was close to Wales but come on where was my full English? All that was on offer was toast and cereal. I grabbed a piece of toast and headed back to Lydney where I knew I could atleast get a decent sandwich at the Tesco up the road from the venue.
Having finished my sandwich I was sitting outside the venue enjoying the sunshine when I was joined by Rob and Simon of Tinyfish. We chatted for a while and I was properly introduced to David aka AmazingWilf of the European Perspective progcast.
In addition to the excellent performances I was to experience this weekend, the one thing that I will remember with fondness is the social aspect to this festival. It was very easy to engage people in conversation and it did not matter who they were. One minute you would see a band on the stage, the next you would be sharing a cigarette outside or a drink at the bar.
Godsticks had the honour of opening the first “proper” day of the festival. Fronted by Darran Charles, see my 6Qs for Darran, it was only these Welsh boys third gig, but you would not know it from their performance. An excellent start to the day. I heard mumblings that this was not prog … it might have been the fact that there was no keyboard player … but lets face facts people, you do not need a keyboard player to make prog music.
I am afraid that I am pretty new to writing reviews so I did not collect any set lists, something I should do in the future. One of the songs which stood out was Puppy Gardener. Godsticks is a great band and I am currently waiting for their EP to arrive by post.
[rating=5]
Fresh of the ferry from the continent Belgian band, Quantum Fantay, hit the stage with the confidence of men twice their age. The energy of of Dario on guitar and Jaro on bass was infectious and backed up by Gino Verhaegen, see my 6qs for Gino, on drums they had the audience attention from the getgo.
Quantum Fantay is the brainchild of the keyboardist Pete Mush aka Pieter van den Broeck. He adds an ambient feel to the otherwise heavy sound of the rest of the band. The band has been categorised as space rock and I feel this is a description that suits them well. Some might say they are missing a singer but I found their instrumental performance refreshing.
[rating=5]
Next out was Parallel or 90°. After a 7 year long break Andy Tillison, see my 6 Qs for Andy, Alex King and Dan Watts are back performing. This was, I believe, their 2nd gig after the reunion and they were joined by new bass player Matt Clark. I am slightly familiar with Andy Tillison’s work in Tangent but this was the first time I have seen him perform live.
I was really impressed by Andy’s vitality on stage. Most prog keyboardists I have seen tend to be very static. Not Andy. He was jumping around the keyboard like a man possessed, at one point it looked like he was about to jump off the stage but alas it was not to be … not since Peter Gabriel has a prog rocker had the guts to perform a stage dive to my knowledge. Po90° was a great way to end the afternoon session.
[rating=5]
To be continued …