Progressive Rock Music

Richard Wright - The great gig in the sky

2011-08-14T05:13:00.000-07:00

Richard Wright a compus The great gig in the sky (Marele concert din cer), una dintre cele mai frumoase piese din istoria rockului. Numele său va fi întotdeauna legat de Pink Floyd. Nu ştiu dacă mai trebuie amintită importanţa grupului pentru istoria muzicii rock. Personal, sînt convins că ascultarea unor albume ca The Wall (albumul însoţit de film) sau The dark side of the mooneste o experienţă asemănătoare citirii unui lung poem în proză.

Unul dintre membrii fondatori ai formaţiei a fost Richard Wright. Contribuţia sa la proiectul Pink Floyd este esenţială pentru evoluţia creatoare a formaţiei. The dark side of the moon, al treilea album ca vînzări al tuturor timpurilor, reprezintă dovada faptului că succesul comercial poate fi obţinut fără concesii în procesul de compoziţie. Richard Wright este compozitorul a cinci piese de pe acest album, printre care se numără titluri ca Breathe, Time, The great Gig in the Sky, Us and them, Any Colour you like.

(The great Gig in the Sky)

(Us and Them)

(Any Colour You Like)

(Time)

În primii ani de existenţă a grupului, atunci cînd formaţia era condusă de Syd Barret, Wright a contribuit activ în calitate de compozitor, pianist şi organist. Printre compoziţiile sale din acea perioadă putem aminti Remember a day, See-saw, Paint Box sau It would be so nice. Anii 1968-1970 reprezintă perioada experimentării muzicale pentru Pink Floyd. În această perioadă, Wright este autorul unor compoziţii bazate pe improvizaţii de pian şi de orgă, care au contribuit la cristalizarea "sunetului psihedelic" al formaţiei. Odată cu evoluţia concepţiei muzicale a formaţiei, Wright a devenit mai puţin preocupat de compunerea pieselor şi mai mult preocupat de crearea unui nou sunet şi a unui nou stil pentru creaţii instrumentale caInterstellar Overdrive, A Saucerful of Secrets, Careful with That Axe, Eugene, One Of These Days, aria principală de interes fiind reprezentată de segmentele de orgă şi de pian.

(Careful with That Axe, Eugene)

(Interstellar Overdrive)

Tot în această perioadă, Wright contribuie, împreună cu membrii grupului Pink Floyd, la compunerea coloanelor sonore a unor fime ca More, Obscured by clouds şi, bineînţeles,Zabriskie Point, regizat de Michelangelo Antonioni.

Albumele Atom Heart Mother şi Meddle reprezintă o perioadă de tranziţie în evoluţia formaţiei. Aceşti ani sînt caracterizaţi de experimentalism şi de căutarea sunetului distinct ce avea să fie numit de fani "The Pink Floyd Sound". Activitatea formaţiei este marcată de colaborarea cu Ron Geesin şi de înregistrarea împreună cu o orchestră simfonică.
Cea mai importantă contribuţie a lui Richard Wright o reprezintă însă compunerea pieselor de pe albumul The dark side of the moon. Lăsînd la o parte incredibilul succes comercial al albumului, care a consacrat pentru totdeauna formaţia, trebuie spus că apariţia sa este considerată unul dintre cele mai semnificative momente ale muzicii rock. Nu cred că am exagera dacă am spune că apariţia acestui album este pentru istoria rockului la fel de importantă ca apariţia volumului Florile răului pentru istoria poeziei.

Albumul este bazat pe sesiunile experimentale din spectacolele şi înregistrările precedente ale formaţiei. Este de la sine înţeles că Richard Wright a avut o contribuţie esenţială la realizarea acestui album, semnînd (singur sau împreună cu ceilalţi membri ai formaţiei) mai mult de jumătate din piesele de pe The dark side of the moon. Dacă Roger Waters, noul lider al formaţiei după retragerea lui Syd Barret, era responsabil pentru compunerea versurilor de pe album, o mare parte a concepţiei muzicale este datorată lui Richard Wright. Albumul a deschis drumul pentru ceea ce, în zilele noastre, este numit concept album (album-concept). Pe lîngă faptul că toate piesele de pe acest album sînt grupate în jurul cîtorva teme unificatoare, aceste compoziţii reprezintă şi rezultatul unui experimentalism muzical bine controlat, ceea ce face dinThe dark side of the moon o noutate a genului, fiind primul album de acest tip care a avut succes comercial.

Tema mare a albumul este "explorarea experienţei umane". Breathe ilustrează experienţele noi şi copilăria. Time este o meditaţie asupra îmbătrînirii şi a trecerii timpului. Us and themabordează tema conflictului, Money satirizează consumismul şi lăcomia, în timp ce The great Gig in the Sky (epitaful lui Wright) explorează spiritualitatea şi moartea.

Unul dintre aspectele esenţiale ale albumului este abilitatea lui Richard Wright şi a lui David Gilmour de a cînta într-o armonie perfectă în piese ca Us and them sau Time, atît la nivel vocal, cît şi la nivel instrumental.

Wright a lucrat şi a compus o parte din piesele de pe următoarele albume ale formaţiei. După contribuţia la realizarea albumelor Wish You Were Here şi Animals, relaţia cu Roger Waters s-adeteriorat din ce în ce mai mult, culminînd cu plecarea lui Wright din formaţie în timpul sesiunilor la albumul monumental The Wall. Artistul a debutat în cariera solo cu albumul Wet dream(1978). Lăsînd la o parte vechile neînţelegeri cu Roger Waters, a participat şi la concertul de reuniune de la Live 8 (2005).

(Mediterranean C - Wet dream)

Richard Wright nu e responsabil pentru muzica părinţilor sau a bunicilor noştri. El trăieşte de fiecare dată cînd un adolescent descoperă Us and them sau The Great Gig in the Sky. El reprezintă muzica tuturor generaţiilor.

Sursa: http://agenda.liternet.ro/articol/7693/Cezar-Gheorghe/Marele-Concert-al-lui-Richard-Wright.html

David Gilmour - Romania

2011-08-13T23:12:00.000-07:00

Fans of David Gilmour in Bucharest, Romania are joining together to Demand that David Gilmour perform in Bucharest, Romania. Chat with other David Gilmour fans in Bucharest, Romania below and get your friends to join by using the share buttons above. Spread the word by putting a Demand it! widget on your MySpace or blog.

Roger Waters Live - O2 Arena, London, UK

2011-06-15T07:02:00.000-07:00

De pe un blog gasit intamplator pe net, un articol care mi-a placut, pe care il postez si eu aici, cu citarea sursei si cu multumiri pentru autorul articolului

Il mai vazusem pe roger waters in concert, in 2007, la budapesta, insa am fost usor dezamagit: trupa cu care canta reproducea aproape nota cu nota solo-urile din celebrele piese pink floyd. fara geniul lui gilmour, wright si mason, desigur. concertul de la londra din acest an a fost special. waters a recreat “the wall“. fara maretia inegalabila a concertului de la berlin din 21 iulie 1990, insa cu logistica si efectele video ale secolului XXI. cele trei concerte de pe O2 arena (suplimentate cu inca doua, datorita cererii imense de bilete) au fost inregistrate si filmate pentru viitorul DVD al turneului.
O2 arena din Londra este coplesitoare. cat un stadion (23.000 de locuri), cu o instalatie de lumini formidabila si cu un sound system impecabil, locul ideal pentru “the wall“. accesul se face civilizat, fara imbulzeala, poti cumpara mancare sau bautura la tot pasul, doar ca – la fel ca in toata anglia – nu se fumeaza nicaieri. am intalnit fani pink floyd veniti din toata europa si – din imensitatea aia de sala – exact in spatele meu s-au nimerit patru romani care n-aveau habar de avertismentul organizatorilor de a nu folosi blitz-urile aparatelor foto in timpul concertului. n-am reusit sa inteleg la ce le-a folosit ca, oricum, pana la scena erau vreo 80 de metri. noroc ca nu i-au observat oamenii de ordine, care i-ar fi scos din sala.

inca de la primele note, pe scena a fost ridicat celebrul zid, pe care se proiectau apoi animatiile binecunoscute. doar de cateva ori au aparut imensele papusi cu aer cald (mama, profesorul, femeia), iar la “run like hell“, un porc imens a plutit deasupra spectatorilor.

toata sala astepta cu sufletul la gura “comfortably numb“. cu trei zile in urma, norocosii fani de la concertul de pe O2 arena au fost zdrobiti: alaturi de roger waters, la tobe a aparut nick mason, iar la chitara insusi david gilmour ! cu totii speram ca minunea sa se repete, dar – vorba lui mason – “enough is enough. we’re english, after all. we don’t do that hugging thing a lot.”

chiar si fara cei doi, show-ul “the wall” construit de roger waters merita toti banii (85 de lire sterline, un bilet intr-o zona decenta). pentru cei ca mine, care au crescut cu pink floyd si au trait cu imensul regret ca formatia s-a destramat inainte ca zidul care ne despartea de lumea civilizata sa cada, ca sa poata ajunge la un concert, este ultima ocazie de a-si implini un vis. chiar daca stim pe de rost fiecare acord din muzica formatiei, nimic nu se compara cu un concert adevarat.

organizarea concertului a fost impecabila pana la capat. intr-un sfert de ora, 23.000 de oameni au iesit din O2 arena si au plecat spre casa cu automobilele sau cu metroul, fara sa se calce in picioare, relaxati si fericiti.

Sursa: http://www.sorinbogdan.ro/2011/05/roger-waters-live-o2-arena-london-uk/comment-page-1/#comment-44101

Interviu Riverside - Concert Bucuresti 8 Mai 2011

2011-05-09T02:28:00.000-07:00

Rockerii polonezi de la Riverside au de toate: zece ani de experienţă împliniţi chiar în această primăvară, versuri care merg de la poezie la discurs pur, idee, profunzime, instrumentişti de primă mână şi un vocal cu un timbru greu de uitat. La 8 mai vor putea fi ascultaţi în Capitală, în concert.

Luna mai înseamnă pentru trupă un amplu turneu european în cadrul căruia a treia escală va fi la Bucureşti. Concertul de la Kulturhaus a fost posibil prin implicarea Twin Arts şi a Institutului Polonez de la Bucureşti, care aniversează la rândul său zece ani de existenţă în România.

„Suntem în discuţii cu Riverside de doi ani de zile pentru un concert în România. . . Ne place mult muzica lor şi ne-am gândit că vom face o surpriză faină rockerilor români. A fost puţin dificil să ne sincronizăm, dar într-un final am reuşit. Ne-a surprins plăcut şi feedbackul mai mult decât pozitiv pe care oamenii îl au şi pentru trupa de deschidere, Tides From Nebula, ce par a avea destui fani în ţară”, ne-a declarat Dragoş Bâscă, event producer Twin Arts.

Piotr Grudzinski, unul dintre chitariştii de la Riverside, ne-a răspuns la câteva întrebări despre evoluţia acestei trupe spectaculoase.

• Care au fost începuturile Riverside?

Piotr Grudzinski: Începutul a fost accidental aş putea spune. Eu şi Piotr Kozieradzki (bateristul) ne-am întâlnit pentru prima dată la studioul Sercos din Varşovia. El înregistra cu trupa sa de death metal, Hate, iar eu înregistram cu trupa mea, Unnamed. Am descoperit că amândurora, pe lângă metal, ne mai plăcea şi Marillion şi că fiecare considera că ar fi cool ca într-o zi să cânte ceva similar. Mai aveam un prieten, pe Jacek, care cânta la clape, iar el a fost de acord să se implice. Jacek avea un studio şi o încăpere pentru repetiţii şi tot el l-a descoperit pe Mariusz Duda care cânta acolo cu o trupă, la un moment dat.

• După zece ani, este Riverside trupa pe care v-aţi imaginat-o la început?

Da, desigur. Trebuie să spun că tot ce s-a întâmplat de zece ani încoace este mai mult decât am sperat la începuturile acestui proiect.

• Când aţi fost conştienţi, pentru prima dată, de succesul trupei în Polonia şi apoi în Europa?

Ce înseamnă succes? E o întrebare dificilă. Am muncit mult ca să înregistrăm cântece cât mai bune şi am încercat să cântăm în cât mai multe spectacole posibil. Am riscat mult pentru că la început nu puteam şti ce urma să se întâmple în viitor. Nu prea ştiu cum s-a întâmplat, dar chiar de la început am avut o mulţime de oameni la show-urile noastre şi mai ales în marile oraşe precum Varşovia, Cracovia, Wroclaw ori Gdansk. La un moment dat aveam scoasă o singură înregistrare şi am cântat cu casa închisă două seri la clubul Progresja din Varşovia.

Au fost cam 600 de oameni. Este un succes? Cumva este. Prima ieşire din Polonia a fost la Prog Power Festival din Olanda, iar după spectacol am citit o mulţime de cronici bune şi oamenii ne-au spus că am fost una dintre cele mai bune trupe din festival. Şi acesta a fost pentru noi un succes.

• Sunteţi de acord cu eticheta de trupă de rock neoprogresiv sub care circulaţi?

Nu sunt responsabil pentru modul în care oamenii ne descriu muzica. Dar prefer să folosesc doar descrierea de trupă rock. Neoprogresiv mă face să mă gândesc la trupe al căror fan nu aş putea spune că sunt. Iar de zece ani cred că am ajuns să scăpăm de acest „neo”. Marillion a fost doar ceea ce ne-a adus împreună, dar există doar o Marillion şi cred că oamenii nu mai au nevoie de încă una.

• Titlurile şi atmosfera pieselor voastre sunt onirice, abisale. Cum ajungeţi să exploataţi zona asta?

Mariusz care este un adevărat povestitor şi cel care ne scrie textele şi el ar răspunde cel mai bine la întrebarea asta. I-am admirat mereu scrisul, este foarte talentat. Ceea ce mie îmi place cel mai mult sunt lucrurile ascunse din titlurile pieselor şi semnificaţia adâncă a versurilor. Mariusz alege temele în urma observaţiilor sale personale şi a experienţelor proprii. Se poate inspira dintr-o întâmplare, un film, o carte ori chiar un joc. Până acum el a scris versurile pe muzică, deci a ştiut cum sună şi ce emoţii ascunde. Cred că pe viitor ar trebui să inversăm asta (joc de cuvinte intraductibil în română: to reverse/Riverside – n.r.).

• De ce cântaţi în engleză?

Sunt două mari motive. Mai întâi, credem că engleza ne dă mai multă deschidere spre publicul din afara Poloniei. Apoi, engleza se potriveşte mai bine pe muzică, fiind o limbă mai melodioasă. De multe ori poloneza nu sună bine când este cântată.

• Ultimul vostru album, „Memories in my head”, este o sinteză a albumelor anterioare?

Obişnuim să închidem capitole. Am făcut asta printr-o trilogie şi am scos „Reality Dream”, iar acum închidem capitolul celor zece ani cu EP-ul „Voices in my head”. Am încercat să ne întorcem puţin la albumele noastre anterioare „OoM” şi „SLS”, am încercat să compunem piese mai melodioase, cu mai mult spaţiu.

• Cum vă pregătiţi pentru cele 12 concerte europene din mai?

Douăsprezece concerte, nu e rău deloc. De obicei călătorim cu două van-uri şi este obositor, dar de data asta vom avea un autocar, ceea ce va face drumul mai confortabil. Repetăm de patru ori pe săptămână, sperăm să facem nişte spectacole bune. Ne place să cântăm şi în concerte, dar şi în spaţii mai mici sau doar în studio. N-am mai fost într-un turneu de un an şi ne lipseşte, dar după o astfel de experienţă trebuie să începi să te gândeşti la ceva nou, începe să-ţi lipsească partea aceea de creaţie. Cam aşa stau lucrurile.

• Un concert memorabil, la care aţi participat?

Cred că un show cu adevărat memorabil a fost la Arrow Rock Festival, în Olanda.
A fost pentru prima dată când am cântat în faţa a douăsprezece mii de oameni, iar alte douăzeci de mii ne vedeau pe ecrane. A fost prima noastră ieşire în faţa unei audienţe de asemenea calibru şi a fost oarecum înfricoşător.

• Ce muzică ascultaţi?

Fiecare dintre noi ascultă multă muzică. Avem câteva preferinţe comune, dar, în general, fiecare caută în altă direcţie. Ceea ce ne place tuturor este Pink Floyd. Cred că este cea mai bună trupă rock din câte au fost vreodată. Mie îmi plac Dead Can Dance, care pentru mine cel puţin sunt cei mai buni.

http://www.jurnalul.ro/cultura/muzica/rock-est-european-de-prima-mana-la-bucuresti-577257.html

Learn from the Master - Alan Parsons

2011-03-19T11:02:00.000-07:00

In 1967, an 18-year-old British high school dropout named Alan Parsons landed a job at EMI’s tape duplication facility in West London. Among his first duties: Making reel-to-reel copies of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Inspired and curious, Alan applied for a job at EMI’s recording studios at Abbey Road. “I couldn’t wait to find out the secrets behind Sgt. Pepper,” he recalls. “It left me in awe of the the Beatles themselves, but also of the work behind the scenes in the studio.”

Alan would ascend to assistant engineer in the Beatles era, working on the albums Let It Be and Abbey Road, including the final “rooftop sessions” at Apple Corps. He went on to engineer the landmark 1973 Pink Floyd album, The Dark Side of the Moon, whose recording quality and originality turn heads to this day. Then, with singer and songwriter Eric Woolfson, the skills that had assured Alan’s place in history as a superlative “sound guy” would be focused on his own music in the Alan Parsons Project. Lush, wall-of-sound production was one sonic signature of the APP; another was an abundance of unique keyboard sounds. This is no less true of his recent Grammy-nominated solo release, A Valid Path.
Alan took a break from making his upcoming instructional DVD series The Art and Science of Sound Recording to share studio secrets from both the Floyd and the Project.

THE POWER OF THE DARK SIDE

In 1972 there were just a few synths available — the Moog, the ARP 2600, the EMS VCS3 and Synthi AKS,” says Alan. “Nothing could be stored and nothing was polyphonic, so Pink Floyd’s synth parts were performed organically and built up in layers. The famous sequence from ‘On the Run’ was a Synthi AKS, [an upgraded VCS3 with a touchplate keyboard and built-in sequencer –Ed.], and all the filter changes you hear are from turning knobs in real time. I remember thinking the hi-hat part sounded uncannily like the real thing, though it was actually a filtered noise generator. For live shows, rather than using a tape, David Gilmour programmed the sequence nightly on a Synthi AKS, so that it could be reproduced onstage straight out of the synth. He’d play it in slowly in step time, then speed it up.”
Another Dark Side track, “The Great Gig in the Sky,” is a study in stellar rock keyboards. Clare Torry’s wordless vocal solo emerges from a plaintive piano figure and explodes over a thick bed of Hammond organ. “The piano was the Steinway concert grand in studio 1 at Abbey Road,” explains Alan, “I miked it using classical techniques: Putting nothing too close to the instrument itself, and capturing the ambience in the room. I used a pair of Neumann M50 omni mics. Compression? No! I added a little plate echo to compliment the natural ambience.
“On the Hammond, I used one mic on the Leslie’s lower drum and two on opposite sides to capture the active horn of the top pair. On Leslies I’d use Neumann KM86s as a rule. I got the best results for the horn by not getting too close, as this would result in an over-accentuated swish as the horn crossed the mic path. I panned the top mics hard left and right and kept the bottom centered. In later years, I felt I got better results by just using two mics: one top and one bottom, with a narrow stereo spread between them.”

THE PRE-SAMPLER SAMPLER

“The Projectron was essentially an analog, keyboard-based sample player,” says Alan, describing the one-of-a-kind instrument he helped create in the days before samplers officially existed. “The idea came about after Roger Waters and I recorded some loops of rubbed wine glasses and he said, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to have different pitches of that, playable from a keyboard?’ I went to audio wizard Keith O. Johnson and asked him if he could make something that could trigger individual multitrack tape tracks from a standard keyboard — and he did.”
How was a Projectron patch created? “We used only continuous sounds. For instance, we’d record ‘ahhs’ on C for as long as the singer’s breath allowed. This was on multitrack, so not only could we layer the same note for thickness, we could also record a number of notes, usually a major scale. We’d then mix each note to 1/4" tape. We had to build a 1/4" loop from some point after the singer had started singing, but before he or she had run out of breath. Sometimes we’d make a very long diagonal splice so you wouldn’t hear a glitch, or we’d record directly to a blank loop and gradually pull the tape away from the erase head, then the record head, using a pencil. Getting a seamless loop was very much a trial and error thing — we were basically trying to find a ‘zero crossing’ without a waveform display!
“When we had good 1/4" loops for each note, we recorded them back to multitrack so that each track was one note. To get ‘black notes’ not in the major scale, we’d cheat using varispeed, and individual tape tracks were triggered from notes on the Projectron keyboard. ”Some of the more interesting ‘samples’ were treble, descant, and bass recorders blown by a vacuum cleaner — you can hear this on ‘Some Other Time’ on the Pyramid album. Continuous, rapid hits of hammers on a vibraphone was a section of the title track of I Robot. Female ‘ahhs’ featured most noticeably on ‘Breakdown’ and ‘Shadow of a Lonely Man.’”

ALAN PARSONS LIVE

In the ’70s and ’80s, the Alan Parsons Project didn’t play live concerts, partly due to the difficulties in recreating the albums’ orchestral and synth-drenched soundscapes. Thanks to such synths as the Yamaha Motif XS, though, the Alan Parsons Live Project gives the fans’ ears what they want. “Especially if a sound was originally created organically, or using myriad analog components, it can be nigh impossible to recreate onstage in the same way,” says Alan, “So, sometimes I use samples to capture the amalgamated sound. Programming them is a skill you amass over a number of years. It’s really all about developing an understanding of musical tonality. Some people are incredibly good at hearing a sound and knowing how to recreate it. Inside knowledge — which you now have — can also be an advantage!”

Learn from the Master
Alan Parsons’ The Art & Science Of Sound Recording DVD series, produced by Keyfax New Media, covers everything from recording live drums and guitars to the inner workings of mics, preamps and compression — all as it relates to cutting-edge, DAWbased music creation. Details are at www.artandscienceofsound.com.

http://www.keyboardmag.com/article/alan-parsons-synth/mar-09/94815

Roger Waters opens "The Wall Live" at New York Madison Square Garden - In the Flesh

2011-02-25T04:59:00.000-08:00

An Interview With Rick Wakeman

2011-02-24T02:57:00.000-08:00

Rick Wakeman has had a fascinating career that has spanned 4 decades and shows little sign of slowing up anytime soon. Perhaps he is best known as the master of the Moog synthesizer for the bands The Strawbs and Yes, but he is also a very, very accomplished solo musician. Over the past couple of months he has released two DVD’s, while widely divergent in intention they are both delightful, and should be part of everyone’s collection. I had the opportunity to chat with Rick recently, and what an engaging guy he is. Oh, and Rick, my address is on its way for that Christmas card!

I loved the concept of “Amazing Grace”, take some well known Hymn tunes and rearrange them for the grand piano. How did this project come about? Where did the inspiration come from?

It started quite a few years ago when someone was talking to me about ‘The day thou gavest’ which I had used on the end of Anne Boleyn on the Six Wives album. They asked me why I had used the hymn. I explained that the music was not the hymn, but simply a tune that church ministers used, amongst many others, to fit the stanzas of the hymns that had been written by various writers. No tunes were actually written at that time with the specific purpose of use for a specific hymn. Amazing Grace is a classic example. The words by John Newton must have had at least 20 tunes used before the excellent tune we all know today came along.

It is ironic that it was used in the William Wilberforce film called Amazing Grace, as it had not even been written at the time… Oh well… that’s ignorant film makers for you!

Anyway, I just thought it would be nice to take some of the more well known tunes that had been used for hymns and had become synonymous with them and literally perform them as instrumental variations

I first did this with a CD called ‘Morning has Broken’ and when that ceased to be available I thought it would be a nice idea to re-mix, add new hymns. And make visuals to go with the music, and so Amazing Grace was born.

Your daughter sings on the title track, and a very fine musician she is. Do you plan on working with her more in the future?

We’ve done a few things together. She sang on both my retro albums, and has a band of her own. She’s a beautiful piano player too… I’d love to do more with all the kids… they’re all great players in their own right. But I don’t think I can afford them anymore!

The videography on the DVD is nothing short of stunning. The use of time lapse captures the mood of the music so well. Can you tell us a little about where the ideas behind that came from, and what your involvement was?

I have to be totally honest here and own up that all of the visuals were the brainchild of Robert Garofalo. I left that side of things to him because of his expertise. I am absolutely thrilled with what he did. Choices of footage I would never dreamed of, such as the Pan Am disaster.

I must say that I was delighted that you included “All things bright and Beautiful”, it was my late fathers favorite hymn, and your version I know would have pleased him greatly. Do you have any personal favorites in this collection?

To be honest the hymn you mention is a personal favorite because it’s probably the first hymn I ever learned as a young kid. It is indeed bright and beautiful and timeless too. I really do love hymn tunes as they are in general so melodic and so adaptable.

You have had an outstanding career spanning 4 decades, and I know that in my collection I still have ‘Antiques and Curios’, which I believe was one of your first recordings. Looking back at the many, many projects you have worked on, is there a pet one?

Political answer here.. There isn’t a favorite to be honest. They all mean something to me, although admittedly some more than others. Some of the more obscure I am fond of too, such as A Suite Of Gods which I did with the operatic tenor Ramon Redios, Classical Variations on the President label was fun too. Return To The Centre Of The Earth was a milestone for me, as were the early albums from the 70’s.

Following on the heels of ‘Amazing Grace’ you released The Other Side Of, which I think is very entertaining. Was it a hard decision to try the comedy format?

I’ve been doing it for such a long time now, since the 70’s really, but the comedy side of things really took off in the 80’s when I appeared on the Danny Baker Show and told a few anecdotes. The national press gave the show rave reviews and my double life started! I’m a comedy freak and just love laughter, and so I combine the two wherever possible. Hosting 8 years of The Comedy Show Live at Jongleurs didn’t do any harm either! I am also part of a huge TV series here called Grumpy Old Men. I’m as well known in the UK for being a TV comic as I am a musician these days!

The stories came across as very unscripted, and in my opinion that was part of the charm. Were they as ‘off the cuff’ as they appeared?

Oh very much so. When I tell them on other occasions they are never the same, I always seem to go off on tangents.

‘Amazing Grace’ and ‘The Other Side Of’ are certainly a far cry from the world of Progressive Rock, but I was wondering if you still keep in touch with that genre. I reviewed a couple of DVD’s recently by, Neo and Pendragon, they share the same keyboardist Clive Nolan, not only does he look like the Rick Wakeman of the 70’s and 80’s he plays like him! Have you seen any of his work?

Bits and pieces, as he worked with my eldest son Oliver on a couple of projects. I still keep the Prog Rock flame alive with concerts with the English Rock Ensemble (ERE) here and there. This year we have played Norway and Canada very successfully, and the last two albums have been very much Prog Rock (Retro and Retro 2).

A question just for fun. Who is the better Moog player, you or Keith Emerson?

That’s like asking if a football player is better than a baseball player, we are so totally different. Keith does stuff I couldn’t do and I think the same applies the other way round. I have the utmost respect for Keith in all he has done and all he is doing.

I understand that you have recently completed the music score for a movie about Aleister Crowley, can you give us some clues about the soundtrack, when will we in North America be hearing it?

It is very much a soundtrack where musically I try to follow the film and the story.. and an amazing story it is too. Very fascinating how evil one man can be. The film is called Aleister Crowley – In Search Of The Great Beast 666. The official movie site is: www.aleister-crowley-666.com

What other projects are you working on?

I’m currently involved in a stage musical, two other films and a stage juggling show! I’m doing a lot of television as well, and have a short tour starting in the UK in October called Rick Wakeman’s Grumpy Old Picture Show, and I’m pleased to report that tickets are flying out of the box office. It’s a very busy period, and already I am booked for Brazil next August to perform King Arthur with a symphony orchestra and choir.

Posted on August 24th, 2007

by Simon Barrett in All News, Interview, Movie Reviews, Music Reviews, Reviews

Roger Waters – "We Shall Overcome"

2010-11-01T11:49:00.000-07:00

Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters has made available a new recording of the protest song “We Shall Overcome.” Posted June 3 to YouTube, the video is a call for the end of the blockade of Gaza. Waters is seen in the video singing and playing acoustic guitar. Lead guitar is played by G.E. Smith, with drums by Thor Jonsson, neither of whom are seen in the video.

Waters explains his motivation by referencing the freedom march to Gaza this winter. “The would be Freedom Marchers wanted to peacefully draw attention to the predicament of the Palestinian population of Gaza. The Egyptian government, (funded to the tune of $2.1 billion a year, by us, the U.S. tax payers), would not allow the marchers to approach Gaza,” he writes. “I was moved, in the circumstances, to record a new version of ‘We Shall Overcome.’ It seems appropriate.”

Roger Waters releases “We Shall Overcome” video

New DVD Classical Wakeman Volume 1 - Live in Lugano released

2010-11-01T10:39:00.000-07:00

The latest Rick Wakeman DVD is a live orchestral DVD entitled Classical Wakeman Live In Lugano. The DVD was filmed in Lugano Switzerland and features the tracks The King Arthur Suite, Gone But Not Forgotten, Catherine Howard 2009, Merlin The Magician and Journey To The Centre Of The Earth. This will be an important release for Rick Wakeman and as such will be of interest to the massive Rick Wakeman fan base.

http://www.rwcc.com/new.asp

ASIA Featuring John Payne

2010-10-15T10:28:00.000-07:00

John Payne became the frontman of the supergroup ASIA in 1992 at the invitation of keyboardist Geoff Downes, replacing vocalist/bassist John Wetton. ASIA extensively toured the world for the next 14 years performing new classics and old favorites. With John Payne fronting the band, ASIA released 8 stunning studio albums and several live recordings. In 2006, Geoff Downes left the band to reform the 1982 line up for their 25th anniversary. On the 9th of May 2006, John Payne, Geoff Downes, John Wetton, Carl Palmer and Steve Howe contractually agreed that John Payne would continue his 14 year legacy with ASIA as "ASIA Featuring John Payne". ASIA Featuring John Payne have been touring in North America since 2008 and a new studio album is underway and planned for release in 2010.

		JOHN PAYNE - Vocals, Bass Vocalist/bassist John Payne fronted ASIA for 14 years replacing John Wetton in 1992. 8 studio albums and 6 live albums followed including extensive world touring with the band. In 2006, John formed "ASIA Featuring John Payne" and is performing shows with his current lineup. Previous to ASIA, John sang with Roger Daltrey,CCCP, ELO Part 2 and more recently GPS plus being chosen as the Parson in Jeff Wayne's The War Of The Worlds stadium tour. http://www.johnpaynemusic.com photo by Josh Krause
		ERIK NORLANDER - Keyboards Keyboardist Erik Norlander joined ASIA Featuring John Payne in November of 2007. Erik's evocative synthesizer technique is reminiscent of the legendary Rick Wakeman, Keith Emerson and Jon Lord while still very unique made him an obvious choice for the band. His works include over 25 releases with Lana Lane, Rocket Scientists and solo titles. http://www.eriknorlander.com photo by Neal Hamilton
		JAY SCHELLEN - Drums Drummer Jay Schellen joined as ASIA's premiere drummer in 2005, toured in Europe with the band and recorded the album ASIA Featuring John Payne EXTENDED VERSIONS for Sony in 2006 when he remained with ASIA Featuring John Payne. Before joining ASIA, Jay played drums for Hurricane, Unruly Child, Badfinger and Conspiracy with Chris Squire from Yes. Jay also records and gigs with CIRCA: featuring former Yes members Billy Sherwood and Tony Kaye. Along with John Payne, Jay is a founding member of GPS. http://www.jayschellen.com photo by Mark Waterbury
		MITCH PERRY - Guitar Guitarist Mitch Perry joins ASIA Featuring John Payne for the 2009 summer tour. Gold records, sold out concert tours, MTV video and network TV appearances, numerous magazine features and recognition in the form of several guitar awards, over the last 25 years Mitch Perry has accomplished all of the above in a career working alongside some of the most renowned and popular musicians in the world. Mitch's discography and touring experience reads like a who's who of rock ranging from Aerosmith to Michael Schenker Group to Cher and Edgar Winter. His performances both live and in the studio show him to be a truly world class guitarist. www.myspace.com/mitchperry http://theasiaband.com/afjp_biography.htm

Roger Waters Lays First Brick of 'The Wall Live' Tour in Toronto

2010-10-14T10:42:00.000-07:00

Getty Images

It's unlikely that any rock 'n' roll roadie works as hard as Roger Waters' roadies. Last night in Toronto -- on the first of three dates kicking off the former Pink Floyd singer's globe-spanning, 30th anniversary 'The Wall Live' tour -- they slowly and steadily constructed a massive, non-metaphorical wall across the Air Canada Centre stadium stage until, by intermission, the band was now completely hidden behind it. And after repleting up the rafters with crashing fighter planes, flying pigs and grotesque three-story tall animatronic puppets, they eventually send that wall a-tumblin' down at the climax of Waters' triumphant return performance.

Several generations have now grown up with Pink Floyd's 1979 magnum opus, chanting that they don't need no education, attending laser light shows, crowding Midnight Madness screenings of the Alan Parker film and listening to the prog-rock double-album epic in their bedrooms with the lights off. Needless to say, for all the many acts who have taken to playing full album concerts in recent years, few have boasted full albums quite as impactful as 'The Wall.' Waters may not be Pink Floyd, but given the '70s legends ongoing irreconcilable differences, there's somewhat more enjoyment in watching a black hoodie-clad Waters front an anonymous Floyd cover band than, say, seeing David Gilmour play Pink Floyd karaoke. Though to be fair, it did take a full four players to replace Gilmour's contributions onstage, including uneven vocalist Robbie Wyckoff who often faltered on Gilmour's lines, though the crowd often helpfully out-sang him.

What made Waters' state-of-the-art 'The Wall Live' resurrection work so well was that it was ultimately about the album, not the man who wrote it or the men who performed it. But the big question that surrounded the tour lead-up was, Does 'The Wall' still matter? Its core story of youthful alienation -- sparked by the band's dissociation from its fanbase once it reached stadium-size -- certainly continues to reach out to new and old listeners alike. As for the album's additional themes of nationalism, fascism, corporatism and war, they may not ring quite as powerfully as when Waters last performed it on the collapsed husk of the Berlin Wall itself. But the new images from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and other global hotspots that Waters added to the familiar ones from the album art and cult film make clear that wars certainly haven't stopped being fought, revolutions haven't stopped being quashed and soldiers and civilians haven't stopped dying. This was emphasized by the crowd's roar of support that accompanied the slogan "Bring the Boys Back Home" during 'Vera.'

Waters also made sure to mix old-school sloganeering (Big Brother is Watching You) with new ones (iProfit) and the animated planes dropped bombs made up of Shell Gas and Mercedes-Benz logos alongside the old communist, capitalist and Christian and Jewish symbols. The other question was, How well does Waters hold up? Almost creepily well, actually. At 67, his vocals are shockingly similar to those on the album as they mourn and marvel at the mysteries and inequities of life. 'The Wall' is really purpose-built for this kind of performance -- the double-album is perfect concert length and the songs are confident enough to take their time to set scenes and establish moods as with more traditional theatrical productions.

It was also conceived as a complete piece, so while the Toronto crowds certainly sang along loudest to the album's breakout hits -- 'Another Brick in the Wall (Part II),' which included a chorus of lip-syncing schoolchildren and giant professor puppet; 'Mother,' featuring a sky-high maternal puppet glowering down as Waters sang the acoustic number (marred by an early microphone flub); and 'Comfortably Numb,' performed high atop the now-constructed wall -- there was no feeling of impatience through the lower-key songs. That was equally due, of course, to the unceasing spectacle of the concert, which also involved mind-blowing digital animation projected upon the wall itself, beloved scenes from the movie (marching hammers, anal judge, fornicating flowers) and astounding use of surround sound.

By the end, the crowd, ecstatic that the performance had actually met their sky-high expectations, began chanting "Tear down the wall," until the wall did collapse upon the stage as if it, and the album itself, were alongside Waters taking their own well-deserved bows. http://www.spinner.com/2010/09/16/rogers-waters-the-wall-live-tour-toront/

Building The Wall and Stage Production of Roger Waters Tour

2010-10-14T10:40:00.000-07:00

October 12, 2010 at 6:33 pmRogerWatersTours.comNo comments

The Construction of The Wall | Stage Production on Roger Waters Wall Tour | Stufish

Big bands and artists often take lots of equipment out on the road with them in order to set up their own stage, lighting, sound, vision, props and… oh yes, instruments too! But the amount of equipment, engineering and on-site construction happening on Roger Waters Wall Tour is just phenomenal!

How I would like to be a rigger on the current Roger Waters tour – if I wasn’t afraid of heights! The people behind the design, engineering and construction of The Wall are Stufish and they have a rather excellent photo gallery on their website of a behind-the-scenes look at the construction of The Wall. As you can see from the photo top right, the amount of equipment used is colossal!

The Construction of The Wall | Stage Production on Roger Waters Wall Tour | Stufish

Those who find it necessary to complain about the ticket prices can probably start to appreciate how much all that equipment cost, how much it costs to transport around and erect night after night over a hundred times! Tickets are expensive but I cannot wait to see the fruit of all that effort! Looks amazing.

One of the main men behind Stufish is Mark Fisher. Mark of course did the production of Pink Floyd’s tour of The Wall in 1980-1981. They have also done stages for the likes of U2, The Rolling Stones, Genesis and to throw someone in a little younger, Muse!

http://www.rogerwaterstours.com/

Pictures with Roger Waters At The Air Canada Centre

2010-10-14T10:32:00.000-07:00

Roger Waters kicks off his The Wall 2010 tour in style at Toronto's Air Canada Centre. Photos by Richard Beland. To read a review of the Roger Waters show click here. (Sursa)

The Wall in the 2010 version

2010-10-14T10:29:00.000-07:00

Somewhere amidst the arrival of the giant inflatable "Mother," the none-too-subtle animated film showing war planes carpet-bombing suburbs with Christian crosses, Islamic crescents and stars, Jewish Stars of David, plus Shell and Mercedez-Benz logos, and the graffiti-style scrawl of "Big Brother Is Watching You" splayed across the literal giant wall that was rapidly being built to consume the full back 20 per cent of the Air Canada Centre, a nervous pang of realization hit me:

The Wall is really fucking important. And that concerns me because I have no idea what the future holds for this truly important work.

Roger Waters kicked off his massive 30th anniversary tour of The Wall last night in Toronto. It was the first time a full, proper production of the classic album and related stage show has happened since Waters' former band Pink Floyd toured it in 1980.

True to his word, The Wall was done in its entirety with some incredible technological augmentation and, most importantly, a well-executed focus on bringing a "broader meaning" to what was originally Waters' intensely personal album about the death of his father, his wife leaving him, abuse at school, and personal isolation.

In the 2010 version of The Wall, fallen 9/11 firefighters share equal tributes with Iraqi civilian casualties in a sweeping condemnation of capitalism, organized religion, politics and the sort of Apple i-everything universe we live in, all with a trust-no-one zeal that would make The X-Files' Fox Mulder blush for lack of commitment.

With Waters already deep into his 60s, the odds of him revisiting The Wall again in three more decades is mighty unlikely, despite how spry he looked on stage this night. And if this, like hushed rumours are to be believed, is the last time Waters will ever properly do The Wall, the question that hit me around the time "Goodbye Blue Sky" played became "Who will break down The Wall when he's gone?" It's very clear from Waters' massaging of the show that The Wall is something now very much bigger than its creator, and something that needs to not only be seen now, but well into the future as well.

Waters himself is often just a bit player in a production full of massive pyrotechnics, flying pigs, arena consuming walls, gang-singing schoolchildren, and elaborately choreographed interactive light and film scenes. Certainly the lack of ex-Floyd co-conspirator David Gilmour's presence wasn't really noticed. His role was filled by a guy who's name I'd print but you'd be bored by the Google search results.

Waters could easily be swapped out in a future Wall universe. He spent substantial portions of the show behind said Wall, or obscured in a Black Bloc-echoing black hoodie and jeans ensemble anyway. Licencing out The Wall to Eddie Vedder or Thom Yorke or PJ Harvey or someone else with character and artistic judgment would ensure that the revolutionary slogans that get projected onto the Wall during the show could get to live on.

When "Comfortably Numb" was played, in every section of the arena people were jumping out of their seats, holding their arms out with religious fervour and singing along. They could've been propelled by the numerous billowing pot clouds and the free-flowing ACC beer taps, but the song played out just as much a cautionary tale as a stoner anthem, so there was more to it than that. Likewise, "Run Like Hell," which Waters introduced by saying, "Is there anyone here who's weak? This song's for you," received a similar reaction.

What I was really witnessing in that arena last night was a sort of communing of sensitive souls, a meeting of people who think there's something not quite right in the world. These were people who haven't quite given up yet, who still want to break down that metaphorical Wall.

That experience isn't one that should be limited to the attendees of the 100 or so shows that Waters intends to do on this tour. This new Wall is bigger than that. As a concert/theatre/spectacle Waters' current edition of The Wall is something every self-respecting rock fan should witness. But what's more important is thatThe Wall Rogers unveiled last night lives on for a long time.

To view a photo gallery of Roger Waters' kick-off Wall tour show go HERE.

To view a photo gallery of Roger Waters' kick-off Wall tour show go HERE. (Sursa)

The Wall in Toronto

2010-10-14T10:25:00.000-07:00

This would be considered a “SPOILER” if you plan on seeing the presentation of THE WALL featuring Roger Waters. This Tour will be remembered for sure. The few photos and videos I took from the 2nd row and what I am about to summarize will for sure remove the surprise element from the experience for anyone who hasn’t see Pink Floyd or any of previous Roger Waters’ Tours.

……I saw the Radio Kaos Tour when Roger Waters stopped into Hamilton, Ontario around 1987 and both Pink Floyd tours after around the same time Delicate Sound, Momentary Lapse, Division Bell era. Music aside the creativity that went into those tours set a new bar for me as a teenager early in my concert career. Now almost 23 years later the anticipation of seeing THE WALL in it’s original format was building by the minute.

When we first walked onto the floor and saw the Wall going up each side of the hockey rink the size of this show started to sink in…. heck if I hadn’t seen KISSjust 6 nights ago it might have seemed even Bigger!.. But this still had a stadium feel at first glance.

“In The Flesh” -- This was probably one of the best opening songs I have seen at a live concert. It was full steam ahead from the men on the bridge with flags, the fireworks, seeing Roger in his hoodie, lights swirling and that buzz under the hood of we’re seeing THE WALL !!!

… and of course the famous… “so ya thought ya might like to so to the show…” was truly electric and almost overwhelming. The lighting stretched back to the far end of the arena with additional speaker arrangements…above, not sure if it was quadraphonic or just for effects… as we were too close to the stage to hear….but as the helicopter sound kicked in this lighting unit above the main stage appeared to have a small speaker stack on it as well and it moved forward with the spot light shooting into the crowd as if to be the light on the front of the helicopter, the sound moved with it…really wicked…

Some 25 lucky kids from The Regent Park School of Music ended up on stage to help sing over the track for Another Brick plus got to point at thefloating 40 foot teacher. The overall sound was really good for a 1st show and most of the other musicians including Roger’s son on Keyboards were hard to see or get into with this large production unfolding…. except a little at the end of Run Like Hell as the band were in front of the wall closer to us.

I actually heard “Mother”start with Roger on acoustic and have the video it but I will spare you listening to the faint 1st verse that seemed to fall down with technical difficulties… the song never really got back on track for me. The Wall of course was being built brick by brick as Side 1 Played out and the barrier starts to fill in… to the point yes where you could barely see the band.

After the intermission HEY YOU starts and the entire song almost is play behind the Wall…it’s cool and as the light shines thru the cracks and you hear the band playing it really shows what Roger was thinking about years ago of feeling that distance from some of the audience…those who were not engaged with him as he performed . Speaking of di-engaged…The guy beside me after introducing himself 4 times and asking about doing ACID kept praying for David Gilmour to walk out and join in. I didn’t feel that was going to happen. I didn’t feel it needed too….The Gilmour stand in did fine at most points and this was not Pink Floyd we were seeing… it is and was billed as “The Wall Live…featuring Roger Waters”

The imagery on the circle screen in the back dipped into parts from the Wall movie and the overall scenes on the 200+ foot WALL itself were quite thought provoking weaving in some of todays political issues and visuals from past Tours I had scene…all very cool to watch in a synchronized kinda way

“One Of My Turns” turned out beautiful as you can see below in the video and “Run Like Hell” with the flying pig got the crowd up, dancing and celebrating it seemed… ..as security told the front row to move back… and we all started to chant along with “THE TRIAL”... “bring down the wall, bring down the wall..” the WALL did come down..crashing faux bricks.

No encore, just The Wall and alot of entertainment to go along with an amazing album… I will leave the comments open here for others who visit the shows as the tour unfolds. (Sursa)

Roger Waters - Live At The Air Canada Center on Sept. 15, 2010.

2010-10-14T10:18:00.000-07:00

Roger Waters performs "The Wall" Live At The Air Canada Center on Sept. 15, 2010.

GEORGE PIMENTEL/GETTY IMAGES

Credit to Roger Waters where credit is due: this 30th anniversary tour in honour of the epochal Pink Floyd opus The Wall is about The Wall, not about Roger Waters.

Waters’s previous resurrections of the paranoid double-album song cycle from 1979 that marked the classic, stadium-era Floyd lineup’s last moment of real greatness and that had effectively blown the group apart by the time The Final Cut rolled around felt a bit like gratuitous, compensatory grandstanding in the wake of some iffy solo efforts – The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking, anyone? – and his old bandmates’ slide into the comfortable sterility that would yield A Momentary Lapse of Reason and The Division Bell. “You might have the name Pink Floyd,” they seemed to say, “but I’m still the man in charge of the music that made the people care.”

These days, catching Waters alone doing Pink Floyd songs is only one-quarter more “authentic” the experience than one would get if fellow surviving members David Gilmour and Nick Mason bothered to go out on tour again under the Floyd banner. And yet the notoriously self-important Waters himself seems ready to concede that the music he made with Pink Floyd is bigger than him, bigger than petty matters of ego and ownership and worthy of celebration in its own right.

Sure, it’s a cash-in. Watching the expensive, state-of-the-art 2010 production of The Wall that Waters brought to the Air Canada Centre on Wednesday night – the first of three hot-ticket gigs at the 20,000-capacity venue – it was hard not to smirk whenever the word “capitalism” or animated dollar signs raining from the sky made au courant appearances amidst the war-scarred fascist iconography of the original work. Capitalism and capitalism alone is the only reason that a rock ‘n’ roll stage show ambitious enough to completely wall itself off, faux-brick by faux-brick, by the intermission can even exist during one of the shakiest years for the live-music industry in recent memory.

That’s the enduring power of The Wall, though, and The Wall was what the doting ACC throng was there to see on Wednesday night. I say “see” rather than “hear” because it was a high-end presentation built on arresting digital animation, ceiling-high marionettes and a requisite, giant, inflatable wild boar emblazoned with the phrase “EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY” unleashed to cheers over the arena bowl after “The Show Must Go On” that made this a memorable night out. The music, professionally recreated by Waters and something like a dozen anonymous side players, was actually kind of drab and heartless, not much different from what you’d hear at one of those Classic Albums Live nights at the Phoenix were it not for the production values that permitted, say, a British fighter jet to crash into the titular wall at stage left at the end of “In the Flesh?” or an enormous, grotesque caricature of Waters’s smothering mother to glower at the crowd during “Mother.”

“Mother” was a little wobbly, actually, marred by a mix that left Waters’s vocals completely inaudible for the first verse. Likewise, the band’s attempts to spread out and jam on “Empty Spaces” and “Run Like Hell” sounded more like something you’d hear Paul Schaffer walking the Late Show band through after a commercial break than Pink Floyd at the top of its powers. And the dude Waters has brought in to do Gilmour’s parts on “Hey You,” “Comfortably Numb” and the like is simply not up to snuff and was audibly flat for at least half of his vocal turns on Wednesday.

Again, however, credit to Waters. The night’s most rapturous audience moment – aside from the genuine cheers of anti-war sentiment that erupted during “Vera” when the phrase “BRING THE BOYS BACK HOME” flared up across the backdrop – might have been when the star of the show simply stood alone on a bare stage in front of the aforementioned wall and graciously raised his arms while the audience took Gilmour’s verses to “Comfortably Numb.” The Gilmour stand-in and another Gilmour stand-in on guitar got spotlights at the top of the all, but the song and the love everybody in attendance obviously felt for it were in charge. Good on Roger Waters for recognizing that, and good on Roger Waters for recognizing – and humbly deferring to – what a massive contribution to the rock canon he made in The Wall. (Sursa)

By Ben RaynerPop Music Critic

Radio Prog Ro

2010-09-30T11:09:00.000-07:00

Rockul progresiv,stil de rock ambitios si adesea grandios aparut la sfarsitul anilor `60 in principal in Anglia ,atingand varful de popularitate la inceputul anilor´70 ,continuand insa ca gen musical si in zilele noastre. Rockul progresiv a fost in mare o miscare europeana si isi are marea parte de influente din muzica clasica si jazz in contrast cu rockul american care a fost influentat de rhythm&blues si country, desi exista si exceptii notabile in Lumea Noua ca si Kansas si Rush considerata de multi ca fiind cel mai bun exemplu al acestui curent. Peste ani au aparut numeroase subgenuri ale rockului progresiv, ca rockul simfonic, art rock si metal progresiv.

Artistii rockului progresiv au incercat sa se indeparteze de limitele stilului rock si pop transmis la radio si au propulsat rockul spre punctul in care acesta atinge complicatia jazzului sau a muzicii clasice. Este admirat de fani pentru complexitate, solicitand un nivel ridicat de virtuozitate muzicala pentru a fi cantat. Criticii au catalogat adesea acest gen ca fiind un gen pompos si libertin. Asta din cauza ca spre deosebire de genurile country sau hip hop, rock-ul progresiv este greu de definit intr un mod concludent. Principalele formatii care abordau genul in 1970 (Yes , Genesis , Emerson Lake and Palmer , Rush and King Crimson) nu au un sound asemanator. Exista discutii si in ceea ce priveste apartenenta celor de la The Beatles , Phish si Radiohead la acest gen.

Compozitii lungi, cateodata peste 20 de minute, cu melodii complicate si armonioase care cer numeroase ascultari pentru a fi intelese. Acestea sunt adesea descrise ca epopee si sunt cele mai clare exemple de muzica clasica. Un exemplu timpuriu este piesa Echoes de 23 de minute a celor de la Pink Floyd. Alte faimoase exemple include piesa celor de la Jethro Tull`s , ` Thick as a Brick ` de 43 de minute, formatia Yes cu piesa ` Close to the Edge ` (18 minute) si cei de la Genesis` cu piesa ` Supper`s Ready ` (23 de minute). Exemple extra,mai recente, sunt piesele de 60 de minute ` Light of Day ` cantata de cei de la Green Carnation si ` Garden of Dreams ` cantata de cei de la Flower Kings.Versuri care transmit naratii greu de patruns,incluzand anumite teme , cum ar if : fantasticul , istoria , religia , razboiul , dragostea , si nebunia. Mai multe formatii de rock progresiv de la inceputul anilor `70 (in special cele din Germania) au compus versuri preocupate cu probleme politice si sociale.Albume notiune , in care o tema sau o relatare este explorata pe un album intreg in o maniera similara cu un film sau cu o piesa. In zilele vinylului , acestea erau de obicei un dublu record stabilit cu maneci indoite, croite vulgar. Exemple faimoase include ` The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway ` cantata de Genesis, ` Tales from Topographic Oceans ` cantata de Yes, ` 2112 ` cantata de Rush, ` Dark Side of the Moon ` si ` The Wall ` cantate de Pink Floyd si cel mai recent ` Metropolis Part II: Scenes from a Memory ` cantata de Dream Theater si ` Snow ` cantata de Spock`s Beard.

Stiluri vocale neobisnuite si folosirea mai multor note armonice. Magma, Robert Wyatt si Gentle Giant.Folosirea proeminenta a instrumentatiei electronice ` in special instrumente de baza , cum ar fi: orga, pianul, Mellotronul si sintetiza Moog , in adaugare la combinatiile rockului obisnuit a unei chitari electrice, bass si tobe.Folosirea unori masuri, game si tonuri neobisnuite. Multe dintre piese folosesc multiple masuri, cateodata concomitent. Pasaje solo pentru fiecare instrument, create pentru a arata maiestria cantaretului. Acestea sunt tipurile de lucruri care contribuie la faima unor performeri , cum ar fi pianistul Rick Wakeman si bateristul Neil Peart.

Includerea unor piese clasice pe album. De exemplu, formatia Yes isi incepeau concertele cu o inregistrare din ` Stravinsky`s Firebird `, si Emerson Lake si Palmer au cantat acorduri din piese de ` Copland `, ` Bartok `, ` Moussorgsky `, ` Prokofiev `, ` Janacek `, ` Alberto Ginastera ` si adesea fragmente din ` Bouree ` de J. S. Bach in care ei transformau piesa clasica intr ` un ` cantec slinos pentru cluburi de noapte ` dupa cum spune Ian Anderson. Marillion si-a inceput concertele cu Rossini`s La Gazza Ladra. Simfonia x a inclus parti de , sau inspirate de , Beethoven, Holat si Mozart.O estetica legand muzica de arta vizuala, un curent pornit de cei de la The Beatles cu Sgt. Pepper`s. Unele formatii au devenit cunoscute pentru directia artei de pe albumele lor si de asemenea pentru sunet, cu ` look ` ul ` integrat in identitatea muzicala a grupului. Aceasta a condus la faima pentru artistii particulari si ateliere, cel mai insemnat fiind Roger Dean, a carui tablouri si logo ` uri create pentru cei de la Yes sunt atat de esentiale pentru identitatea trupei incat ar putea avea aceasi functie ca si o marca inregistrata. Hipgnosis au devenit la fel de faimosi pentru copertile neobisnuite a celor de la Pink Floyd, adesea create experimental foarte inovatoare pentru acele timpuri. Tabloul lui H .R.Giger pentru Emerson Lake si Palmer`s Brain Salad Surgery este una dintre cele mai faimoase coperti de album create vreodata.O piesa care este subdivizata in miscari in modul unei piese clasice. Exemple sunt cantecele: de 4 parti ` Cloase to the Edge ` a celor de la Yes, de 6 parti ` Hemispheres ` a celor de la Rush si de 7 parti ` A Change of Seasons ` a celor de la Dream Theater. Toate piesele care apartin celor de la TransAtlantic sunt formate din mai multe parti.O piesa care este formata dintr-un petic care apartine unui muzical care ar putea fi conceput ca si un cantec individual, dar impreunate pot relata un complet fir narativ. Exemple sunt ` Super`s Ready ` de Genesis` Foxtrot, ` A Day in the Life ` de Sgt. Pepper`s, ` Lonley Hearts Club Band ` de The Beatles, ` Aqualung ` de Jethro Tull de pe albumul cu acelasi nume si ` The Gates of Delirium ` de pe albumul Relayer a celor de la Yes.O piesa care permite dezvoltarea ideilor muzicale o data cu progresul sau variatia in modul bolero sau canon. ` King Kong ` de Frank Zappa`s Uncle Meat este un bun exemplu.

Inceputul anulor `80 a adus un fel de inviere a genului, condusa de artisti cuma ar fi cei de la Marillion,Saga si Kate Bush. Formatii care au aparut in acest timp sau intors mai tarziu la neo ` progresiv. Tot in acelas timp, viteji ai rock ` ului progresiv au schimbat directia muzicala, simplificand muzica lor si incluzand mai multe elemente electronice. In 1983 Genesis au atins succesul international cu cantecul ` Mama ` sublinierea accentuata a tobelor. In 1984, Yes au creat single-ul ` Owner of a Lonley Heart ` care ajuns numarul 1 care continea efecte electronice si a fost suficient de accesibila pentru a putea fi cantata in discoteci.Genul s-a bucurat de o alta inviere in 1990 cu asa numitul ` Third Wave ` cantata de formatii cum ar if: ` The Flower King ` , ` Porcupine Tree ` si ` Spock`s Beard din SUA. Una dintre cele mai importante formatii a miscarii rock ` ului alternativ, The Smashing Pumpkins, au incorporat rock ` ul progresiv in stilul lor unic,reusind sa scoata 2 albume cu acelas concept.

In anii recenti, cea mai comerciabila si viabila categorie a rockului progresiv a fost progressive metal.Muzica metal prog s-a dezvoltat cu `Images And Words ` a lui Dream Theater. Oricum, in anii `80 cateva trupe cantau deja muzica progresiva (heavy metal): Queensryche, Fates Warning, Watch Tower. In afara de muzica metal prog, Spock`s Beard cantau o muzica simfonica progresiva cu referire la Gentle Giant, Genesis, Echolyn si Izz ( aceasta muzica se apropie de cea neo progresiva). In Europa de nord s-a dezvoltat o miscare simfonica progresiva scandinava, formatii ca The Flower Kjings, Anglagard si Sinkadus, o miscare post Rio s-a dezvoltat la trupe ca: Djam Karet, Thinking Plague. Unele trupe au cantat jazz-fusion: Kenso, Cartoone, Deux Ex Machina. Trupe ca Porcupine Tree si Ozric au cantat Space Rock. Collage si Clepsydra sunt formatii renumite ce au fost puternic influentate de Iq si Marillion. (Sursa) © Radio Prog Ro

Roger Waters in concert - Toronto 2010

2010-09-19T10:41:00.001-07:00

Roger Waters performs "The Wall" Live At The Air Canada Center on Sept. 15, 2010.

GEORGE PIMENTEL/GETTY IMAGES

Credit to Roger Waters where credit is due: this 30th anniversary tour in honour of the epochal Pink Floyd opus The Wall is about The Wall, not about Roger Waters.

Waters’s previous resurrections of the paranoid double-album song cycle from 1979 that marked the classic, stadium-era Floyd lineup’s last moment of real greatness and that had effectively blown the group apart by the time The Final Cut rolled around felt a bit like gratuitous, compensatory grandstanding in the wake of some iffy solo efforts – The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking, anyone? – and his old bandmates’ slide into the comfortable sterility that would yield A Momentary Lapse of Reason and The Division Bell. “You might have the name Pink Floyd,” they seemed to say, “but I’m still the man in charge of the music that made the people care.”

These days, catching Waters alone doing Pink Floyd songs is only one-quarter more “authentic” the experience than one would get if fellow surviving members David Gilmour and Nick Mason bothered to go out on tour again under the Floyd banner. And yet the notoriously self-important Waters himself seems ready to concede that the music he made with Pink Floyd is bigger than him, bigger than petty matters of ego and ownership and worthy of celebration in its own right.

Sure, it’s a cash-in. Watching the expensive, state-of-the-art 2010 production of The Wall that Waters brought to the Air Canada Centre on Wednesday night – the first of three hot-ticket gigs at the 20,000-capacity venue – it was hard not to smirk whenever the word “capitalism” or animated dollar signs raining from the sky made au courant appearances amidst the war-scarred fascist iconography of the original work. Capitalism and capitalism alone is the only reason that a rock ‘n’ roll stage show ambitious enough to completely wall itself off, faux-brick by faux-brick, by the intermission can even exist during one of the shakiest years for the live-music industry in recent memory.

That’s the enduring power of The Wall, though, and The Wall was what the doting ACC throng was there to see on Wednesday night. I say “see” rather than “hear” because it was a high-end presentation built on arresting digital animation, ceiling-high marionettes and a requisite, giant, inflatable wild boar emblazoned with the phrase “EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY” unleashed to cheers over the arena bowl after “The Show Must Go On” that made this a memorable night out. The music, professionally recreated by Waters and something like a dozen anonymous side players, was actually kind of drab and heartless, not much different from what you’d hear at one of those Classic Albums Live nights at the Phoenix were it not for the production values that permitted, say, a British fighter jet to crash into the titular wall at stage left at the end of “In the Flesh?” or an enormous, grotesque caricature of Waters’s smothering mother to glower at the crowd during “Mother.”

“Mother” was a little wobbly, actually, marred by a mix that left Waters’s vocals completely inaudible for the first verse. Likewise, the band’s attempts to spread out and jam on “Empty Spaces” and “Run Like Hell” sounded more like something you’d hear Paul Schaffer walking the Late Show band through after a commercial break than Pink Floyd at the top of its powers. And the dude Waters has brought in to do Gilmour’s parts on “Hey You,” “Comfortably Numb” and the like is simply not up to snuff and was audibly flat for at least half of his vocal turns on Wednesday.

Again, however, credit to Waters. The night’s most rapturous audience moment – aside from the genuine cheers of anti-war sentiment that erupted during “Vera” when the phrase “BRING THE BOYS BACK HOME” flared up across the backdrop – might have been when the star of the show simply stood alone on a bare stage in front of the aforementioned wall and graciously raised his arms while the audience took Gilmour’s verses to “Comfortably Numb.” The Gilmour stand-in and another Gilmour stand-in on guitar got spotlights at the top of the all, but the song and the love everybody in attendance obviously felt for it were in charge. Good on Roger Waters for recognizing that, and good on Roger Waters for recognizing – and humbly deferring to – what a massive contribution to the rock canon he made in The Wall.

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/music/live/article/861996--it-s-the-wall-not-the-roger-waters-show

Roger Waters şi David Gilmour in concert la Kiddington Hall din Oxfordshire

2010-07-18T14:50:00.000-07:00

Kiddington Hall din Oxfordshire a găzduit recent un concert de caritate, banii fiind destinaţi Fundaţiei Hope and Optimism for Palestinians In the next Generation.

Spre surprinderea celor prezenţi - care au strâns 350.000 de lire sterline -, pe scenă au urcat Roger Waters şi David Gilmour - cel care a promis că se lasă de muzică, îndurerat de moartea colegului Rick Wright (1943- 2008).

Syd Barrett (1946-2006) a înfiinţat Pink Floyd (în 1965) împreună cu Waters, Wright & Mason. Sursa

Waters And Gilmour To Work Together Again?

2010-07-18T14:37:00.000-07:00

There could be more live collaborations between Roger Waters and David Gilmour.
Following their surprise on stage reunion last weekend, in aid of the Hoping Foundation, Waters has said this might not be a one-off. Writing on his Facebook page, the former Pink Floyd leader said the idea for the get together a week ago came from Gilmour (a big supporter of the Hoping Foundation), and that he had taken some persuading to do it. After Gilmour suggested they do the Teddy Bears’ classic To Know Him Is To Love Him, at first Waters felt that this might be beyond his capabilities: “Some weeks passed with David cajoling me from time to time, telling me how easy it would be, but I clung resolutely to my fear of failure until one day he made one final entreaty. I quote, ‘If you do To Know Him Is To Love Him for The Hoping Foundation Gig, I’ll come and do C. Numb on one of your Wall shows”.

Well! You could have knocked me down with a feather. How fucking cool! I was blown away. How could I refuse such an offer. I couldn’t, there was no way. Generosity trumped fear. And so explaining that I would probably be shite, but if he didn’t mind I didn’t, I agreed and the rest is history. We did it, and it was fucking great. End of story. Or possibly beginning.” http://www.classicrockmagazine.com/news/waters-and-gilmour-to-work-together/

Pendragon at High Voltage Classic Rock Festival

2010-07-18T14:28:00.000-07:00

Probably one the the biggest events of next year and Pendragon are gonna be part of it, check website for more details, we'll also bring you more news as we get it.

Pendragon will perform their finest in the Prog tent on the Saturday July 24th, this is going to be a superb weekend and will includes the bands ZZ Top, ELP, Asia, Foreigner and many more still to come!

High Voltage Festival's website.

High Voltage Festival's Facebook.

Any Colour You Like

2010-07-08T12:41:00.000-07:00

Chiar daca concertul era programat sa inceapa la 8, din cate imi amintesc, cu intarzierile de rigoare, a inceput cu aproximativ jumatate de ora intarziere. Reactia mea de atunci a fost ca : “uite, si la ei se poate sa existe probleme”. Intarzierea nu a fost totusi intamplatoare. S-a asteptat cat mai mult sa apuna soarele, astfel ca show-ul de lumini sa iasa misto, dar nu prea a mers. Lumea s-a adunat; si pe cat de putina lume era cand am intrat eu, pe atat de 60000 de oameni s-au facut pana la ora 8 si ceva. Era “ceva” lume, da.

Scena arata bine, mare, cu podeaua foarte inalta, mai inalta decat am vazut vreodata eu la un concert, un ecran maaaare de tot si foarte bun calitativ se afla in spatele ei, 2 ecrane laterale, si un arsenal impresionant de boxe: 2 turnuri laterale in fata scenei si inca 3 perechi de turnuri pe ambele laterale, indreptate atat spre fata cat si spre spate. Impresionant de multe boxe.
Inca de la intrarea in arena, pe ecranul principal din spatele scenei era deja proiectata o imagine – un radio vechi, un avion de jucarie pe el, gen al 2-lea razboi mondial si o sticla de whisky in stanga. Concertul a inceput intr-o maniera total inedita. Imaginea a prins viata. O mana s-a vazut aparand in fata radioului si deschizandu-l. Timp de aproximativ 10 minute, am ascultat la radio Elvis – Hound Dog, cat si bucati de alte cateva piese clasice; la cateva minute, mana tot aparea pe ecran, interactionand cu obiectele de acolo sau schimband postul de radio. Dupa vreo 3 piese schimbate, radio-ul a fost comutat pe un post care difuza exact inceputul silentios, calm de la “In the Flesh?”. Mi-am dat seama ca avea de gand sa inceapa. Dupa vreo 30 de secunde, a intrat cu o forta ametitoare bass-ul titanic al lui Roger Waters, alaturi de celelalte instrumente bineinteles. Deja ma luasera niste fiori greu de descris. WOW !!! Uite !! E ROGER WATERS !!! cum zicea si prima piesa, in the flesh.

Sunetul era pur si simplu impecabil. Se auzeau perfect fiecare instrument, in frunte cu bass-ul. Piesa fiind de pe The Wall, pe ecranul din spate incepusera sa fie proiectate niste animatii superbe foarte bine realizate bineinteles, inspirate din cioconele binecunoscute de pe The Wall. In continuare a urmat o piesa de pe acelasi album, Mother, pe care Roger Waters a cantat la chitara acustica.

In continuare, ne-am intors in 1968, la albumul A Saucerful of Secrets de pe care am avut norocul sa ascult o piesa incredibila, din anii de inceput ai trupei Pink Floyd, Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun. Un bass mult mai puternic decat cel din versiunea de album; piesa a fost insotita de proiectii care erau in acelasi ton psihedelic cu piesa. Daca tot a fost amintita perioada Syd Barret, au urmat piese de pe Wish You Were Here, 1975; Shine On You Crazy Diamond, piesa dedicate in totalitate lui Syd, a avut parte de o interpretare as zice dubioasa, extreme de scurta, de doar 4-5 minute; intre timp, de undeva de sus, au pornit niste aparate care au format un nor de baloane de sapun, care in lumina soarelui care apunea straluceau foarte simpatic; imi pare rau ca nu se vede si in poza acest lucru.

Sarind peste Welcome to the Machine, piesa care urma pe album si pe care Waters a interpretat-o in turneul precedent, am ajuns la Have a Cigar, care m-am bucurat enorm ca am avut ocazia sa o ascult, mai ales ca a fost una din primele piese pe care le-am apreciat de la Pink Floyd.

A urmat si superba Wish You Were care a fost deschisa tot de chitara acustica a lui Roger Waters. In continuare au urmat de pe The Final Cut, 1983, Southampton Dock si The Flethcer Memorial Home, cea din urma fiind o piesa cu referiri politice puternice. Concertul a continuat cu doua piese din afara compozitiilor Pink Floyd, Perfect Sense Part 1, de pe Amused to Death si Leaving Beirut. Leaving Beirut este o piesa care a aparut doar ca un single in 2004, pe "To Kill the Child"/"Leaving Beirut”. Piesa a fost cantata doar in cadrul acestui turneu; piesa spune o poveste a lui Roger Waters de pe vremea cand era adolescent si a ajuns prin Liban. Este o piesa foarte buna pe care nu o stiam pana in acel moment dar de care nu mi-a trebuit mult sa ma indragostesc.

Melodia a fost acompaniata de proiectia unui comic book, in care erau exact versurile piesei, in partile de dialog si imagini din intamplarile pe care piesa le povesteste. Am fost uimit de sincronizarea perfecta a ceea ce se intampla pe scena, cu intamplarile care erau prezentate in comic. Vazand cu luni de zile in urma concertul lansat pe DVD din cadrul turneului In the Flesh, care avusese loc cu cativa ani in urma, stiam, banuiam, speram de fapt sa vad si ceva de pe Animals. In turneul acela, cantase Dogs care iesise foarte bine. In momentul acela eram foarte mare fan Animals si insistam sa aud ceva de pe el, ceea ce s-a si intamplat. Nu a fost chiar mult doritul Dogs, ci a fost Sheep, care a fost cel putin la fel de bun.

O interpretare impecabila de 10 minute, care a fost insotita de spectaculosul porc gomflabil plin de desene si lozinci care a trecut prin toata arena. Surprinzator a fost ca la sfarsitul piesei, i-au dat drumul si a zburat destul de sus. Probabil ca sperau sa il recupereze de la diversi localnici binevoitori. Dupa Sheep, Waters a anuntat o pauza, dupa care urma sa revina cu The Dark Side of the Moon. Pauza de suc, in care am impartasit impresii cu cei din jurul meu, a fost binevenita. Afara tocmai intunecase in sfarsit. Dupa plecare de pe scena a lui trupei, cele 3 ecrane s-au facut negre cu un punct mic, abia vizibil in centru. Pe tot parcursul pauzei, 15-20 minute, acel punct s-a marit, incepand sa se vada ca este de fapt luna care “venea”. Tipa cu care ma imprietenisem mi-a povestit ca data trecuta, cand a ajuns la pauza, se facuse deja noapte si luna plina rasarise pe cer si inainte sa plece Waters a zis ceva de genul : “We’ll take a break. When we come back we’ll play that” (aratand spre luna). Pauza a trecut greu. Eram plin de emotie, ca inainte de un examen. Vedeam cum luna se apropie din ce in ce mai mult si simteam cum sunt cuprins de lumina ei magica.

Trupa a revenit pe scena. Tensiunea cresetea cu fiecare secunda. Au inceput sa se auda bataile de inima care precedau inceperea albumului. Eram vrajit. Nu imi venea sa cred ca urmeaza sa vad cel mai bun album din istoria muzicii cantat live, cu Roger Waters la bass. Proiectiile au fost ametitoare. Erai total cuprins de moment, ca si cum traiai fiecare piesa din tot sufletul. In mare parte elementele vizuale au avut loc pe poriunea de ecran circulara din centru, echivalenta cu dimensiunea lunii. Inceputul relaxat al albumului, Speak to Me si apoi Breathe, au pregatit On the Run, o instrumentala total mind-blowing, cantata pe niste sintetizatoare foarte rare, alaturi de o multitudine de efecte.

Interpretarea a fost pur si simplu perfecta. Imi amintesc ca o vazusem live cantata chiar de Rick in P*U*L*S*E (1994) si acolo a fost cu atat mai spectaculoasa, pentru ca un avion a zburat de-a lungul salii, prabusindu-se langa scena, si creand o explozie spectaculoasa. Cel mai bine am vazut ce fel de monstrii de aparate sunt folosite pentru piesa cand am vazut show-ul tribute al celor de la Dream Theater in care si ei au cantat integral tot albumul. Din cate am vazut Jordan Rudess avea conectate aparatele direc la niste orgi, astfel redand exact efectele de pe albumul orginal Pink Floyd. Revenind, si in acest concert, asemeanea P*U*L*S*E-ului, On the Run s-a terminat cu o explozie care a cuprins tot ecranul si care a creat linistea de care era nevoie pentru a auzi ceasurile ticaind, anuntand astfel urmatoarea piesa, Time. In toata arena s-a auzit superb ceasurile care sunau, urmate de solo-ul de tobe.

Ecranul din spate a fost cuprins de imagini care din cate stiu eu au fost folosite de Pink Floyd in cadrul altor reprezentatii ale albumului inca de la lansarea lui. Cred ca au fost cam aceleasi si in P*U*L*S*E. Chiar nu imi amintesc exact. La fiecare piesa in care a aparut luna in spate pe ecran, aceasta a fost acoperita de un filtru de culoare diferit. A urmat reluare de la Breathe, Breathe (reprise), asa cum era intitulata pe album, dar care nu aparea ca o piesa separata, fiind inclusa in Time. Totusi, chiar pe vinil, versurile apar separat cu titlul piesei; nu sunt incluse in Time. In continuare a urmat o piesa destul de trista, fara versuri, despre care trupa a zis inca de la compozitie ca este o piesa trista, despre moarte. Chiar daca nu are versuri, piesa este de fapt un solo vocal, in care vocea feminina este exploatata la maxim. Acest solo este precedat de o parte vorbita :
And I am not frightened of dying. Any time will do; I don't mind.
Why should I be frightened of dying? There's no reason for it—you've gotta go sometime.
Cunoscand foarte bine piesa, ca tot albumul de altfel, aveam anumite pretentii sa semene cu versiunea originala, lucru care s-a intamplat doar pana la un punct. Nu a fost cred cea mai reusita interpretare a piesei. A fost una buna indiscutabil dar nu cea mai buna. Dupa terminarea piesei, linistea s-a lasat dar doar pentru cateva secunde, pentru ca ecranul s-a facut verde, sub forma unui disc de vinil care a inceput sa se invarta; in acelasi timp au inceput sa se auda sunetele banilor care au precedat iconicul bass din inceputul piesei. Pe parcusul piesei si o prisma tridimensionala superba care a inceput sa se invarta. Cam in acelasi timp, si mega-prisma de deasupra mea a inceput sa se invarta si sa faca un nor de fum in jurul ei.

A urmat bineinteles Us and Them, care a adus o luna rosie pe ecrane. Piesa a fost mai lunga decat in original, avand cateva parti improvizate si solo-urile putin prelungite, ceea ce nu a stricat cu nimic farmecul ei. In continuare, Any Colour You Like, o piesa bazata in principal tot pe solo de clape, la fel de reusit si de aceasta data. Undeva intre Any Colour You Like si Brain Damage, prisma a prins viata, si prin norul de fum a aparut de-o parte a ei o raza alba de lumina si pe cealalta spectrul razelor formate prin dispersie. In tot acest timp prisma se invartea deasupra scenei. Din pacate putina adiera a vantului a facut ca fumul sa treaca cam repede de zona prismei, neputand reda o imagine perfecta pentru mult timp a imaginii de pe fata albumului. Sfarsitul a fost cat se poate de relaxant. Brain Damage si Eclipse care au fost considerate ca o piesa unitara, au avut parte la randul lor de o interpretare impecabila, incheindu-se exact ca pe album, cu fraza :
There is no dark side of the moon, really. Matter of fact, it’s all dark.
si cu bataile de inima cu care a fost deschis.
A fost superb. Nu se poate exprima in cuvinte cum si ce am simtit. Trebuia sa fii acolo ca sa intelegi adevaratul sens al cuvantului UNIC.

Dupa ce s-a terminat, in mod logic, publicul a izbucnit in aplauze care nu aveau de gand sa se opreasca pana dimineata probabil, daca nu ar fi revenit pe scena. Bineinteles ca a revenit pe scena pentru un bis dupa vreo 4-5 minute de aplauze continue. A cantat din nou piese de pe The Wall, adica The Happiest Days of Our Lives, care a fost un intro pentru Another Brick in The Wall 2.

In continuare proiectiile au fost la fel de spectaculoase ca pe tot parcursul concertului. Tot de pe The Wall, au urmat Vera si apoi Bring The Boys Back Home, care a fost plina de explozii si efecte pirotehnice. Concertul s-a incheiat glorios cu Comfortably Numb, adica tot cu The Wall. Gata. Se terminase.

Din punct de vedere al vocii, in tot concertul au fost o multitudine de voci care au cantat. In afara de Waters care a cantat mai bine de jumatate din piese, la Dark Side of the Moon au cantat de asemnea si chitaristul si claparul din cate imi amintesc si nu au fost singurele moment cand Waters nu a fost si vocalul pieselor. Instrumentistii au fost buni. S-a vazut clar ca sunt oameni cu experienta si dupa cum au cantat si dupa varsta lor inaintata. Clapele au fost bune, la Hammond si sintetizatoare a fost chiar fiul lui Roger Waters, Harry, iar la celalt set de clape a fost Jon Carin, care are si el o scurta istorie prin Pink Floyd dar si prin alte mari trupe. Chitarile au fost bune, dar nu stralucite. Daca a fost ceva ce a lipsit acestui concert, au fost chitarile. Daca doi chitaristi care sunt sigur ca au o experienta mare in cantare, nu au fost in stare sa duca chitara la nivelul lui David Gilmour, care era o singura chitara, asta in mod clar spune ceva despre cat de bun este Gilmour. Mi-au lipsit solo-urile lui. S-au simtit ca nu sunt in regula. Shine On, Wish, Time, Money, Brick si mai ales Comfortably nu au fost complete parca. Si sunt sigur ca ce le-a lipsit a fost David Gilmour. Este de neegalat. Sunt multe piese care pot fi cantata de doar un membru, cum a fost acest concert in care putine chestii au deranjat si nu au fost asa cum a fost Pink Floyd de-a lungul “secolelor” si anume perfect. Sunt piese care totusi necesita talentele inegalabile a tuturor celor 4. Roger Waters – David Gilmour – Richard Wright – Nick Mason. Nu sunt niste muzicieni. Sunt Pink Floyd. Si sa faci ceva cum face Pink Floyd nu este ceva simplu si de multe ori e de fapt chiar imposibil.

11 mai 2008, Megaland, Landgraaf, Olanda – The Dark Side of the Moon Live. Set list-ul concertului a fost pana la urma urmatorul. :
Partea I :
1. In the Flesh
2. Mother
3. Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun
4. Shine On You Crazy Diamond
5. Have a Cigar
6. Wish You Were Here
7. Southampton Dock
8. The Fletcher Memorial Home
9. Perfect Sense, Pt. 1
10. Leaving Beirut
11. Sheep

Partea a II-a (The Dark Side of the Moon)
1. Speak to Me
2. Breathe
3. On the Run
4. Time / Breathe (Reprise)
5. The Great Gig in the Sky
6. Money
7. Us and Them
8. Any Colour You Like
9. Brain Damage
10. Eclipse

Partea a III-a
1. The Happiest Days of Our Lives
2. Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)
3. Vera
4. Bring the Boys Back Home
5. Comfortably Numb

Efectele vizuale – incredibile, sunetul – perfect, spectacolul – incomparabil, sentimentul lasat – nemuritor , Roger Waters – UNIC. Sa vezi live macar o bucatica din Pink Floyd si sa asculti muzica care a scris istorie este ceva cu adevarat special. http://rockopedia.blogspot.com/2009/06/8-any-colour-you-like.html

Don't Leave Me Now

2010-07-07T04:50:00.000-07:00

Having finally come to the realization that he is absolutely alone in the world after having failed to form a true connection with his wife or the groupie, Pink lapses into the depressive bout of "Don't Leave Me Now." Perfectly reflected in the sluggish rhythm of the piano and the reverb-laden synthesizers, the reverb itself hinting at the hollowness and void of Pink's life, "Don't Leave Me Now" finds Pink in "the depths…of deprived depravity" (interviewer Tommy Vance, 1979 Roger Waters interview). At first the song seems to follow in the tracks of the few songs before it, wearing its meaning on the surface. Distressed at the thought of his wife's infidelity, Pink gives voice to the plethora of warring emotions teeming within his heart, mind, and soul. In one instant he pleads with his wife not to leave him, not to say that their relationship is over. Seconds later, the rage over being left boils to the surface and Pink threatens to put his wife "through the shredder" or to "beat [her] to a pulp on a Saturday night." It's certainly a shock for most listeners to hear the previously docile Pink (submissive to the point of being non-responsive) not only conjure up brutal images of physical abuse but also relish the thought of meting these very images on his adulterous wife. So is Pink physically abusive to his wife? Are these random beatings that he sings about true? As I mentioned above in "One Of My Turns" concerning Pink's "favorite ax," there is a certain danger to interpreting these lines in a literal context. First and foremost, it must be remembered that this character is uttering these lines at the extremes of his emotional capacity. In "One Of My Turns" he is at the height of his violent rage and now in "Don't Leave Me Now" Pink is at the bottom of the darkest depression. I cannot stress enough how important it is to keep a character's mental state in mind when interpreting, or even reading / listening, to their narrative. Many writers love to use the unreliable narrator, presenting the protagonist's skewed views as truth in order to reveal fully the instability, deceptiveness, or simply playfulness of the main character's mind. I think that is what Waters is doing with Pink at this moment, using these false recollections of beatings in order to show just how far gone Pink's mind really is. Keeping this in mind and judging by the complete absence of spousal abuse throughout the rest of the album, I personally would say that Pink never physically mistreated his wife. One can argue, and rightly so, that Pink mentally abuses her, belittling her rather than physically beating her to "a pulp" in front of his friends. Perhaps he says these things to justify her leaving him. Perhaps he says them in order to get some amount of revenge on her, using the very thought of beating her to placate his own wounded pride. Whatever one's interpretation of these lines might be, it is most interesting to see how quickly Pink flips from one apparent extreme to the other, wondering where their relationship went wrong before lashing out at the very thing he supposedly held dear.
Along with the rapid shifts in feelings, it is also interesting to note Pink's obliviousness throughout the song in which he blindly asks, "how could you treat me this way?" As I'm sure I've mentioned countless times before, Pink is still ignorant of his liability in the formation of the bricks for his wall, believing this whole time that it is the world and everyone in it who have created and continue to create bricks through their injurious relationships with Pink. Accordingly, Pink sees himself as the hapless victim in all of his failed relationships. At his very core he wants to connect with someone, to forge a personal bond with another person, but is unable to leave himself so vulnerable. But rather than realizing that he is as much, if not more, to blame for the distance he creates between himself and the rest of the world, Pink projects each one of his faults onto the external world, blaming everyone except himself for "running away."
Not surprisingly, it seems that cycle of Pink's mother's overprotection has come full circle, causing Pink to protect himself from the world almost by means of the same neurotic behavior of his mother. Notice that Pink repeats "oooh babe" throughout the song, a phrase that until now has been uttered numerous times by his mother alone in songs like "The Thin Ice" and "Mother." And so the cycle of obsession continues,paralleling such haunting ideas like the mother putting "all of her fears into you" with Pink's equally disturbing threats of putting his wife "through the shredder." Even the image of an actual shredder quite possibly alludes to Pink's childhood education in which the teachers attempted to mold their students into model citizens (the movie scene of "Another Brick In The Wall 2" uses a hamburger shredder to perfectly convey this point). Pink alludes to the shredder here as being an implement of personal humiliation, an instrument that produces submissiveness. Simply put, he fantasizes about molding his wife in much the same way that the teachers tried to mold him. In other words, Pink has adopted both his mother's obsessions as well as his teacher's methods of using humiliation to create the desired product. Pink is becoming the very things that he detests in a cyclical pattern that culminates in his final, corrupt transformation later in the album.
Heretofore I have been discussing "Don't Leave Me Now" as Pink's degenerate mental address to his adulterous wife. Yet in a 1979 interview with Tommy Vance, Roger Waters states that Pink doesn't sing the song "to anybody; it's not to her [the groupie] and it's not really to his wife, it's kind of to anybody. If you like it's kind of men to women in a way, from that kind of feeling." Generalizing the song in the way Waters does really stresses that Pink's relationship with his wife is seemingly the same as his polar love-hate relationship with everything in his life. He loves his father but hates him for dying. He loves his mother but hates her for stifling him. He loves his celebrity but hates it for being so shallow and materialistic. He loves his wife but hates her when she cheats on him. And as we shall see soon enough, he loves his wall for the protection it gives but will eventually hate it for nearly entombing him.
The movie scenes accompanying "Don't Leave Me Now" once again depart from simply depicting the ideas conveyed by the lyrics (as seen in the past two songs) and instead offer up many densely packed images. The song begins with a close-up of the debris in Pink's hotel room, littering the screen with shots of broken glass, overturned tables, and smashed guitars. While the chaos might not seem like much out of the ordinary at the moment, I think it is important to note so that the development between this point in time and the ordered chaos depicted later in "Is There Anybody Out There?" can be truly understood. The Christological parallels of "The Thin Ice" depicting Pink floating in a crucified form are furthered here, first with a close-up shot of Pink's blood-soaked hands reminiscent of the stigmata and then with a full screen shot of the "crucified" Pink, his blood dispersing and staining the clear blue water of the swimming pool. This shot is interestingly superimposed over images of Pink's wife and her lover, the faded image of Pink's crucifixion standing out in sharp contrast to the almost animalistic movements of the lovers. Though he is a sort of anti- or mock-Christ, Pink presumably imagines himself otherwise as evidenced in the shots. In his mind, he is a martyr who is betrayed by the sinful acts of a loved one (notice that Pink's wife has red hair, supposedly the same color as Judas Iscariot, the disciple who betrayed Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane). As a result, he is suffering for their sins by means of his own mental crucifixion, the depressing anguish that he is experiencing because of his wife's transgressions. Though Pink is presented in such a light, the audience is far more cognizant of his mock-Christ role, knowing that Pink was not so much betrayed by his wife as he was by himself, that he is only victimized by his own blindness and ignorance.
Pink is next shown sitting in a chair watching TV while each splash of blood that falls from his fingers takes on a cataclysmic, Christ like resonance. Despite the apparent ordinary reality of the scene with "the Dambusters" still playing on the television, this scene is quickly revealed to be another one of Pink's hallucinations. Far from the littered screen that opened the song, the room, though sparsely furnished, is still intact just as the TV is still in working condition. The hallucination continues as the shadow of Pink's wife emerges onto the back wall before transforming into a preying mantis, the very name of which creates a hunting / hunted scenario in which Pink, the "hapless victim" is hunted by his wife. The mantis's face soon transforms into the female flower from "Goodbye Blue Sky" which itself is suggestive of a woman's vaginal lips, a "symbol of womanhood" as Gerald Scarfe suggests on the DVD commentary. Pink cowers in the corner, tortured by both the mantis in front of him and the thoughts of his wife's adulterous acts superimposed on the screen. And so the song ends with Pink crouching in the corner, helpless in his mind, surrounded by the massive blue walls that possibly allude to the "baby blue" innocence which he believes he still possesses. In his mind, he is as innocent and unaccountable as the crucified Christ who, according to Christian beliefs, suffered and died on the cross as a result of the world's transgressions. Yet here we find another separation in the characters of Christ and Pink, further supporting the argument that Pink is a mock-Christ rather than a Christ figure. While Christians believe that Jesus gave himself to the world when he died so that all might live, we will see in the next song that Pink takes the opposite course by completely isolating himself from the external world, symbolically sacrificing himself so that he alone might live.
Resurging from the depths of his depression, Pink commits one final violent act before completely isolating himself from the injurious external world. With the rage that has built up over his life, Pink symbolically attacks the burdens that he feels has been placed on him. He destroys the television with one fell swoop of his guitar, striking out against his past afflictions (represented by "the Dambusters" that was playing on the TV) and his present burdens (embodied in everything from the materialistic symbol of the television and the surrounding hotel room to his very solitude in the scene). It is also interesting to note that Pink destroys the TV right before the couple on the screen kiss, alluding to his own severed relationships and his inability to truly connect with anyone. In an instant Pink is propelled into the uncharted reaches of mental dementia. (Sursa)

Pink Floyd members discuss recording "Money"

2010-07-03T03:37:00.005-07:00

Pink Floyd members discuss recording "Money" - From Classic Albums: Pink Floyd - The Making of 'The Dark Side of the Moon, a must-see documentary for any Floyd fan.

Prog4You.com

2010-06-30T23:26:00.000-07:00

EVENT	LOCATION	FESTIVAL DATES
	Milan, Italy	May
	Mexicali, Mexico	March
	Whittier, CA	October
	Saint Palais sur mer, France	December
	Montreal, Quebec	September
	Barcelona, Spain	May
	Teatro-Cine, City of Gouveia, Portugal	April
MARS FESTIVAL	Milwaukee, Wisconsin	June
	Bethlehem, PA	June
	Toronto, Ontario - Canada	March
	Chapel Hill, North Carolina	August
	Tilburg, Netherlands	October
	Atlanta, GA	September
	Glenside PA	May / 2008
	Gloucester, England	September

John Wetton - God Walks With Us

2010-06-30T22:39:00.000-07:00

Roger Waters tours The Wall

2010-06-20T00:17:00.000-07:00

Considering the response when I wrote about Pink Floyd recently (ostensibly about the album The Final Cut) I figured there might be some interest from Blog on the Tracks readers now that Roger Waters has announced that he is touring The Wall. He is celebrating the 30th anniversary of the album - taking it out on the road. At this stage it's just American dates (from what I can tell) and then, presumably, the tour will roll on through Europe. And perhaps it will make its way, brick by indulgent brick, to Australia - and maybe to New Zealand - sometime in 2011...
So - what do you think? Would this be the best night out - seeing Roger Waters performing The Wall? Or would you prefer that the wall was actually built up around you so that you didn't have to hear it?
I am pretty sure I do not need to see Richard Gere's twin brother reliving/rebuilding The Wall.
I'm all for seeing old heroes play old classics - I loved seeing Leonard Cohen last year. But isn't this just a bit ridiculous? The Wall: 30 years on. Do people really care?
It would be hard to re-form Pink Floyd now, granted. But what has Roger Waters really done since leaving Floyd? He's released three studio solo albums that sound like Floyd. And while he has dabbled in opera and written some new tunes, his live shows focus on recreating Floyd-without-Floyd; essentially he travels the globe in a bid to prove authorship.
We know he wrote the songs.
He was here a while back doing The Dark Side of the Moon album in its entirety. Before that - with the In the Flesh live album - there was a heap of Floyd material; not just Floyd songs but Floyd recreations. Roger Waters performing his Pink Floyd songs as he wants to hear them now - and that means that next up you will get to hear The Wall.
The Wall is something of a polarising album - some Floyd fans love it, many can't stand it. It is rightfully regarded as the height of the band's excess - in terms of overwrought and overarching song/album concepts. And it also has some of David Gilmour's greatest guitar playing and a few good songs.
I am not sure I am much of a fan of The Wall.
But - don't get me wrong - I definitely was a fan. I watched the movie so many times through my high school and university daze. I even watched it three times in a row one day. Hey, I grew up in Havelock North, pre-flat whites and vineyard lunches. It was either watch The Wall three times or watch people be subtly racist (ironic, I know).
I also had a videotape of when Roger performed The Wall in Berlin with all sorts of famous guest vocalists (Van Morrison, Cyndi Lauper, Ute Lemper, Bryan Adams and so on). I watched that videotape - recorded from the TV during an all-night music festival - in 1990.
The double-CD was soon part of my collection.
I've even got the country-cover of The Wall: Rebuild The Wall by Luther Wright & The Wrongs. (I thoroughly recommend fans and non-fans check out this CD. It's ace).
So I've done my time with Pink Floyd, been a big fan - but you know that from the previous post I linked to at the top of today's entry; I still have every Floyd album - and everything that Roger Waters has done since leaving the band. I just don't listen to the material that often these days.
The thing that killed The Wall for me - probably - was seeing the tribute act, The Pink Floyd Experience, doing their version of it live. It just seemed such a redundant concept. The weirdest thing that happened that night was hearing a person ask at the merchandise counter whether the band had any CDs available. I wanted to lean over and go, "yeah, they've got about 14 albums - they're in stores under the name Pink Floyd!" But I didn't. I just waited until the bricks came tumbling down, the show was over, and it was time to leave.
I won't write any more about The Pink Floyd Experience because one time I mentioned them on the radio and received threatening phone calls. And when I reviewed the show where they performed The Wall, there were angry letters and phone calls.
I guess just seeing them doing it - and I'm not knocking their skills as musicians at all - made me realise what a strange idea it is to want to hear this music recreated live; to have the need to hear something played note-for-note as you remember it. No spontaneity, no soul. No energy. Not even the anger that is in parts of the album. A live version of The Wall - and you can see this on Roger's Berlin show that I mentioned earlier - is all just stupid pantomime. It is the band at its worst. And to see Waters doing it live just shows he has nothing to offer at all beyond working on his retirement fund.
If you are keen to go see Roger Waters "tear down the wall" (again) - you'll be pleased to hear that Snowy White is playing guitar for the tour.
So are you up for a rebuilding of The Wall? Or would you prefer it stayed in blocks on the ground?
» Join Blog on the Tracks on Facebook

http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/blogs/blog-on-the-tracks/3579156/Roger-Waters-tours-The-Wall

Rogers Waters tour 2011

2010-06-04T04:11:00.001-07:00

Roger Waters a anuntat datele turneului in cadrul unei conferinte ce a avut loc in data de 27 mai in Londra unde a declarat ca noua interpretate va fi mult mai politica decat cea initiala. Cele 28 de concerte nu includ si Romania, cea mai apropiata locatie pentru a vedea spectacolul fiind Budapesta, Ungaria.

Datele turneului european sunt dupa cum urmeaza.
Mar 21, 2011 Atlantico Pavilion Lisbon, PT
Mar 25, 2011 Palacio de Deportes Madrid, ES
Mar 29, 2011 Palau Sant Jordi Barcelona, ES
Apr 1, 2011 Mediolanumforum Milan, IT
Apr 2, 2011 Mediolanumforum Milan, IT
Apr 8, 2011 Gelredome Arnhem, NL
Apr 12, 2011 Sports Arena Budapest, HU
Apr 15, 2011 O2 Arena Prague, CZ
Apr 18, 2011 Atlas Arena od, PL
Apr 23, 2011 Olympiski Moscow, RU
Apr 25, 2011 SKK Arena St. Petersburg, RU
Apr 27, 2011 Hartwall Arena Helsinki, FI
Apr 30, 2011 Telenor Oslo, NO
May 4, 2011 Ericsson Globe Stockholm, SE
May 7, 2011 Parken Copenhagen, DK Tickets
May 11, 2011 O2 Arena London, UK
May 12, 2011 O2 Arena London, UK
May 17, 2011 O2 Arena London, UK
May 20, 2011 Manchester Evening News Arena Manchester, UK
May 21, 2011 Manchester Evening News Arena Manchester, UK
May 23, 2011 O2 Arena Dublin, IE
May 27, 2011 Sportspaleis Antwerp, BE
May 30, 2011 Bercy Paris, FR
Jun 3, 2011 SAP Arena Mannheim, DE
Jun 6, 2011 Hallenstadion Zurich, CH
Jun 10, 2011 Colorline Arena Hamburg, DE
Jun 15, 2011 O2 Arena Berlin, DE
Jun 18, 2011 Esprit Arena Dusseldorf, DE

The Wall a fost interpretat de Waters de 31 de ori inclusiv turneul de promovare din 1980-1981.

'Intrebarea inca ma macina. Vom suferi din pricina tehnologiei sau ne va ajuta pentru a ne intelege mai bine? Ne va insela, ne va destrama?' declara Waters.
'Acum 30 de ani am compus The Wall din perspectiva unui om plin de frica. Cred ca acel concept ramane valabil si in ziua de azi. Cred ca este responsabilitatea mea sa impart optimismul meu si sa-i incurajez pe altii sa faca la fel

Camel biography

2010-04-26T03:56:00.000-07:00

The roots of Camel can be already found in 1969 when guitarist/flute player/vocalist Andrew Latimer (born on May 17, 1947), bassist Doug Ferguson and only 14-year-old drummer Andy Ward met in the band The Brew as a trio. In 1970, the trio teamed up with singing keyboardist and changed the name according to him to Phillip Goodhand – Tait. But at the end of the same year, Phillip quit the band. In May of 1971, Peter Bardens, a keyboard player (ex Them), came to strengthen the orphaned trio. The new quartet formed in Surrey chose the name Camel. December 4, 1971 was the day of the band first performance as a support band of more famous Wishbone Ash.

In August of 1972, Camel signed the contract with MCA Records and by the end of 1973, the band released the debut album "Camel". After having changed record labels and signed with Decca's Gama, the band issued the follow-up "Mirage". The cover inspired by a homonymous cigarette packet attracted the unwanted attention of the American cigarette branch, which wanted to change the cover; otherwise they would sue the band. The American record company quickly developed a new cover to avoid the lawsuit. The band members were really upset because of it and Peter Bardens sarcastically renamed the title song of the album to "Twenty Sticks of Cancer".

In 1975, the band decided to record a concept album based on a book story. Bassist Doug Ferguson suggested Paul Galico's "The Snow Goose", which has become a very successful issue. On October 17, 1975, Camel together with the London Symphony Orchestra performed "The Snow Goose" in the sold-out Royal Albert Hall. The self-titled instrumental song of the album has reached the greatest success.

In April of 1977, bassist Doug Ferguson quit the band being replaced by Richard Sinclair (ex – Caravan) for a year. Saxophonist Mel Collins, who was spending most of his time in the studio and touring with the band, became an official band member up until August of 1979.

On July 30, 1978, keyboardist Peter Bardens, who was quarrelling with Latimer for a longer time, left the band. Their conflict already developed during recording LP "Rain Dancers". Bardens left very reasonably after the band had completed the album "Breathless". Two keyboardists Kit Watkins and Jim Schelhaas replaced Bardens for a couple of months. Bassist Colin Bass was brought in to the band to replace Sinclair.

Both recording the conceptual album "Nude" describing the story of a soldier forgotten on an island during the World War II and following world tour in mid-1981 had a very destructive effect on all band members. Andy Ward succumbed to alcohol and drugs and tried to commit suicide, fortunately unsuccessfully. He has been saved, but it resulted in a long-time interruption of both recording a new album and tours. Decca Records, however, was not interested in problems inside the band itself and they wanted Camel, in compliance with the contract, to record next new stuff. Latimer having understood that his friend and drummer in one person Andy Ward could not recover in such a short time, had to ask for a help musicians like vocalist Chris Rainbow, singing bassist David Paton, guitarist Anthony Phillips (ex – Genesis), keyboardist Francis Monkman (Sky) and drummers Simon Phillips (Who, Jeff Beck, Toto), Dave Mattacks (Fairport Convention), and Graham Jarvis (Cliff Richard). They together issued the new album "The Single Factor". Peter Bardens took part in recording the song "Sasquatch". Andy Ward joined the musicians on the road but later, after nearly 13 years of being a member of Camel, he definitively left.

In 1983, guitarist Andy Latimer met Dutch keyboard player Ton Scherpenzeel (Kayak) who he recorded the conceptual album "Stationary Traveller" with. The album was recorded in London with the support of bassist Colin Bass and new drummer Paul Burgess (Jethro Tull, 10cc). Camel having been encouraged by a great response set out on a tour. The line-up consisted of Andrew Latimer, Colin Bass, Chris Rainbow and Paul Burgess. Ton Scherpenzeel, however, was not touring with the band because of his "travelling by plane-phobia". The live gig of the "Stationary Traveller" tour was recorded on May 11, 1984 and issued on videocassette and CD entitled "Pressure Points". Visiting Peter Bardens as well as keyboard player Richie Close, who sadly died a few months later due to Legionnaire's disease, took part in the mentioned concert.

In mid-1980s, Decca stopped supporting the band and Latimer had to face the lawsuit filed by former Camel manager Geoff Jukes. The stressful process took a long time but it has resulted in Latimer's victory. Soon after in mid-1988, Latimer sold his house in London and then moved to California where he established a small independent studio Camel Productions. New Camel album "Dust and Dreams" was recorded there in 1990.

In August of 1992, after a 7-year break, Camel set out on a tour again. Drummer Paul Burgess and keyboardist Mickey Simmonds (Fish, Mike Oldfield) joined Andrew Latimer and Colin Bass.

A year later, Latimer's father died. This grievous lost has inpired him to write the song "The Hour Candle" (A Song for My Father) included in the album "Harbour of Tears" of early 1996.

In 1997, Camel began a tour again. Burgess was replaced by Dave Stewart and Foss Patterson replaced Simmonds. The band performed in the Czech Republic as well. In October of 1999, Camel issued the LP "Rajaz" composed by Latimer and recorded with the participation of returned keyboardist Ton Scherpenzeel. The live release "The Paris Collection" was recorded during Y2K Kayak album tour on September 30, 2000. 71-minute long CD includes 10 songs warmly accepted by fans as well as the bonus "Slow Yourself Down" originated during rehearsals.

On January 22, 2002, the first Camel keyboardist, Peter Bardens, died of the lung-cancer.

Camel issued the anthology "Lunar Sea: An Anthology 1973 – 1985" on March 27, 2002.

The seven song new album "A Nod and a Wink" of the line-up consisted of Latimer, Guy LeBlanc, Colin Bass, and Denis Clement appeared on August 13, 2002.

Camel will be headlining NEARfest on June 29th 2003. This marks the band's first concert on the US east coast in 28 years. The band will consist of Andrew Latimer, Colin Bass, Guy LeBlanc and Denis Clement.

Camel have announced that the 2003 tour will be their last. Increasing difficulties with booking viable concert dates in an unpredictable market have greatly contributed to this sad decision. However, Camel's Andy Latimer stresses that the band will continue making music.

Camel have been forced to postpone the European leg of their farewell tour. Keyboardist Guy LeBlanc's wife suffered a heart attack at the beginning of May and he has returned to Canada to be there for her and his children. It is expected that LeBlanc will not be returning to Camel soon due to the seriousness of the situation. Therefore all dates of European tour have been postponed until the Autumn. The USA tour will go ahead according to the plan.

Camel have found two replacement keyboard players for Guy LeBlanc, who had to bow out for personal reasons. Tom Brislin, who recently toured with Yes on their Yessymphonic tour, will be joining Camel on the USA leg of the tour, while old Camel cohort Ton Scherpenzeel, who previously worked with the band in the early eighties, will be tinkling the ivories on the postponed European leg. Source: http://www.camelproductions.com

Camel - Stationary Traveller

2010-04-26T03:32:00.000-07:00

Riverside biography

2010-04-21T09:27:00.001-07:00

Despite not being the biggest progressive rock powerhouse of Europe, Poland have certainly sprouted great and interesting progressive bands since the heyday of progressive rock, being the biggest examples of that the singer and multi-instrumentalist Czeslaw Niemen and the supergroup SBB. After the fall of the communist regime, during the 90's and 2000's, more bands begun to form and release their material, strengthening the country's own progressive rock scene, such as the neo prog bands Abraxas and Collage, and Riverside is, quite possibly, the biggest and best known band to come out from that scene.

Riverside was formed almost by accident, when two of its members, the guitarist Piotr Grudziñski and the drummer Piotr Kozieradzki, listened to Marillion in Kozieradzki's car back in 2001. Both played in heavy metal bands at the time, but had the common interest for progressive rock, so they decided to join with their mutual friend, Jacek Melnicki, who owned a studio, and started to experiment with progressive rock. Mariousz Duda, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist from the band Xanadu, joined the trio later that year for rehearsals and the results and reactions from those meetings were extremely positive. After some more rehearsals, and the completion of some compositions by the band, Mariousz started to take the role as both the band's vocalist and bass player.

In late 2002, about one year after the band's formation, Riverside's was already playing gigs in Warsaw with material that would later be their debut album, Out of Myself, and, after distributing 500 copies of their demos around the town, the band played in a small club in Warsaw by the end of the year.

In 2003, shortly after the recording of Out of Myself, Riverside's founding member and keyboard player Jacek Melnicki decided to leave the band to focus on his own studio, so the rest of the band continued to mix and produce the album, as well as to search for a replacement for Jacek, which would be the band's current keyboardist Michal Lapaj.

Upon its release, in late 2003, Out of Myself had an unexpected success in Poland, and such success led to the album's rerelease in September 2004 by the American record label Laser's Edge, which led to even bigger media coverage and even more praises and attention towards the band. Still on 2004 the band had its first gig outside Poland in the Progpower festival in the Dutch city of Baarlo. The crowd's response was so good tDespite not being the biggest progressive rock powerhouse of Europe, Poland have certainly sprouted great and interesting progressive bands since the heyday of progressive rock, being the biggest examples of that the singer and multi-instrumentalist Czeslaw Niemen and the supergroup SBB. After the fall of the communist regime, during the 90's and 2000's, more bands begun to form and release their material, strengthening the country's own progressive rock scene, such as the neo prog bands Abraxas and Collage, and Riverside is, quite possibly, the biggest and best known band to come out from that scene.

Riverside was formed almost by accident, when two of its members, the guitarist Piotr Grudziñski and the drummer Piotr Kozieradzki, listened to Marillion in Kozieradzki's car back in 2001. Both played in heavy metal bands at the time, but had the common interest for progressive rock, so they decided to join with their mutual friend, Jacek Melnicki, who owned a studio, and started to experiment with progressive rock. Mariousz Duda, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist from the band Xanadu, joined the trio later that year for rehearsals and the results and reactions from those meetings were extremely positive. After some more rehearsals, and the completion of some compositions by the band, Mariousz started to take the role as both the band's vocalist and bass player.

In late 2002, about one year after the band's formation, Riverside's was already playing gigs in Warsaw with material that would later be their debut album, Out of Myself, and, after distributing 500 copies of their demos around the town, the band played in a small club in Warsaw by the end of the year.

In 2003, shortly after the recording of Out of Myself, Riverside's founding member and keyboard player Jacek Melnicki decided to leave the band to focus on his own studio, so the rest of the band continued to mix and produce the album, as well as to search for a replacement for Jacek, which would be the band's current keyboardist Michal Lapaj.

Upon its release, in late 2003, Out of Myself had an unexpected success in Poland, and such success led to the album's rerelease in September 2004 by the American record label Laser's Edge, which led to even bigger media coverage and even more praises and attention towards the band. Still on 2004 the band had its first gig outside Poland in the Progpower festival in the Dutch city of Baarlo. The crowd's response was so good that they sold out all CDs they had on stock. Still in 2004 they began to work on their EP Voices in my Head, in an attempt to keep their momentum in Poland and ready their fans for their upcoming release. The EP was released in early 2005.

Marillion played an important part in Riverside's history: the band was one important element in their very formation and Riverside's first three albums, their debut foremost and their second and third albums in a minor degree, are hugely influenced by Marillion, specifically the Fish-era Marillion.

Finally, still in 2005, the band signed with the record label InsideOut and was able to rerelease all of its previous works to the international public and could release the upcoming album (at the time) in late 2005, which is Second Life Syndrome. The album was an even bigger success than the debut, allowing the band to play for the first time overseas at NEARfest in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania on June 24, 2006. Second Life Syndrome is considered as the band's breakthrough album, since it was responsible for most of Riverside's international attention, such as the invitation to play at the NEARfest and the title of one of the best albums of 2005 by Dream Theater's drummer Mike Portnoy.

By the release of their third album, entitled Rapid Eye Movement, in late 2007, Riverside was considered one of the big progressive metal band of the world. The tour they did supporting Dream Theater in the Fall of 2007 and the release of Rapid Eye Movement stretched the band's horizons even further and widened the band's fanbase. The album was considered by Classic Rock Magazine one of the 10 essential progressive rock albums of the decade. Rapid Eye Movement has two different release packages: the standard album and the double album, containing both the original album and a bonus disk, containing material from the 02 Panic Room Single and two new and unreleased songs.

In 2008, despite the lack of fresh material, Riverside released its first proper live release ever and it is entitled Reality Dreams. The album was recorded during a concert performed in Lodz. Also in late 2008, Mariousz Duda released an album by his project called Lunatic Soul.

2009 was a bright year for Riverside. Despite the bankruptcy of SPV, the owner of InsideOut, the band was able to release their newest album, Anno Domini High Definition, on schedule and have more success than ever. The album debuted as the leader of Polish charts and went gold on Poland, after selling over 10 thousand copies in Poland alone and seems like nothing will stop it from also claiming international recognition. Anno Domini High Definition also represents a major change of direction for the band: from the mellow and introverted mix of progressive rock and progressive metal they did until Rapid Eye Movement to full blast energetic, fresh and surprisingly original progressive metal. With their latest release, the band apparently found their own unique signature sound. The album, much like what happened with Rapid Eye Movement, have two different release packages: the standard album and the double album, containing the studio album and a live bonus DVD, recorded on December 2008 at Amsterdam's Paradiso club.

The year of 2010 seems to bring surprises as well, as Mariousz Duda announced the release of the second album from his project Lunatic Soul, what could be yet another fine release by one of those fine polish progheads.

( Biography written by CCVP. Replace original Biography written by Brian Adair)

Riverside - Live at Paradiso (Amsterdam 2008.12.10)

2010-04-21T09:25:00.000-07:00

Yes biography - Part I

2010-02-11T01:41:00.001-08:00

Yes are an English progressive rock band that was formed in London in 1968. Their music is marked by sharp dynamic contrasts, extended song lengths, abstract lyrics, and a general showcasing of instrumental prowess. Yes blends symphonic and other 'classical' structures with their own brand of musical style. Despite a great many lineup changes, occasional splits within the group and the ever-changing trends in popular music, the band has continued on for over forty years and still retains a large following. Band members Chris Squire, Steve Howe and Alan White toured in late 2008 and early 2009 with vocalist Benoît David and keyboardist Oliver Wakeman on the In The Present Tour.

History

Formation
Yes was formed in 1968 by vocalist Jon Anderson and bassist Chris Squire. Anderson had already recorded a single in 1964 as a member of The Warriors, a beat band formed by his brother Tony, and later sang on a couple of 45s for Parlophone Records under the pseudonym Hans Christian. He was also briefly a member of the group The Gun. Squire had been a member of The Syn, a flower-pop outfit that recorded a couple of singles for Deram Records (one, "14-Hour Technicolour Dream", celebrating the "happening" held at Alexandra Palace on April 29/April 30, 1967). After the breakup of The Syn, Squire spent a year developing his bass-playing technique, strongly influenced by The Who's bassist, John Entwistle. Then, in May 1968, he met Anderson in a Soho nightclub, La Chasse, where Anderson was working. The two had a common interest in vocal harmony and began working together soon afterwards.

Squire was in a band called Mabel Greer's Toyshop with Clive Bailey, and Anderson also started singing with the group. Drummer Bill Bruford was recruited from an ad he had placed in Melody Maker, replacing Bob Hagger. A jazz aficionado, Bruford had played just three gigs with Blues revivalists Savoy Brown before leaving. The group also included guitarist Peter Banks.

With Bailey's departure, Banks' return and the addition of organist/pianist Tony Kaye, the band became Yes. Banks came up with the three letter name, with the rationale that it would stand out on posters. The classically trained Kaye had already been in a series of unsuccessful groups (Johnny Taylor's Star Combo, The Federals, and Jimmy Winston and His Reflections).

Early Days
Yes played their first show at East Mersea Youth Camp in England on August 4, 1968. Soon after this, they opened for Cream at their 1968 Farewell Concert from The Royal Albert Hall. Early on, influenced by bands like 1-2-3 (later Clouds), the group earned a reputation for taking other people's songs and drastically changing them into expanded, progressive compositions. In September, they subbed for an absent Sly and The Family Stone at Blaise's and as a result of that appearance gained a residency at The Marquee club. Soon after, they made their first radio appearance on John Peel's programme and, when Melody Maker columnist Tony Wilson selected them and Led Zeppelin as the two bands "Most Likely To Succeed" (as he states on the liner notes of the band's debut LP), it appeared that their future was assured.

Their eponymous debut album Yes was released on July 25, 1969. The harmony vocals of Anderson and Squire were an immediate trademark of the Yes sound. The band's optimistic, vaguely futuristic outlook on the world was delivered with a combination of melody and virtuosity. Standout tracks were a jazzy take on The Byrds' "I See You" and the album closer, "Survival", which displayed the band's vocal harmonies and deft song-construction. Notably, the album was given a favourable review by Lester Bangs in Rolling Stone magazine, which described the band as promising, the album displaying a "sense of style, taste and subtlety"

In 1970, the band released their second album, this time accompanied by a 30-piece orchestra. Time and a Word featured mostly original compositions and two cover songs, Richie Havens' "No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed", and "Everydays" by Stephen Stills, originally recorded by Buffalo Springfield. The reworking of Havens' song also included excerpts from the theme song of the movie The Big Country. Although musically exceptional in terms of melody delivery, the orchestra (and keyboardist Tony Kaye) overpowered Banks and much of the vocal work, leaving Time and a Word somewhat uneven. Before the album's release, guitarist Peter Banks was fired and ex-Tomorrow guitarist Steve Howe was hired. Howe was included in the front cover photo of the American release despite not having played on the album.

Entering the '70s
Vocalist Jon Anderson performing in concert with Yes in 1977
The 1970s Yes recordings are still considered the classic Yes sound by many fans. These albums feature complex classically influenced arrangements, unusual time signatures, virtuoso musicianship, dramatic, dynamic and metrical changes and oblique, stream-of-consciousness lyrics. Songs often exceeded the standard three-minute pop-song structure with lengthy multi-part suites sometimes lasting 20 minutes or more, making the band a leading 1970s progressive rock combo. Vocal verses alternated with atmospheric instrumental interludes, frenetic ensemble passages and extended guitar, keyboard and bass improvisations. The signature sonic features of this 'classic' period are Jon Anderson's distinctive high-register lead vocals, the group's strong vocal harmonies, Rick Wakeman (and Patrick Moraz) and Steve Howe's respective keyboard and guitar solos, Bill Bruford's and later Alan White's polyrhythmic drumming and Chris Squire's highly melodic and discursive bass playing, enhanced by the sound of his Rickenbacker model RM1999 bass.

Chris Squire was one of the first rock bass players to successfully adapt electronic guitar effects such as tremolo, phasing and the wah-wah pedal to the instrument. The rhythm section of Squire/Bruford and Squire/White was considered by some to be one of the best in rock music at this time.

The first two Yes LPs mixed original material with covers of songs by their major influences, including The Beatles, The Byrds, and Simon & Garfunkel. In 1970, Peter Banks departed and was replaced by Steve Howe. The group's emerging style coalesced on their next LP, the critically acclaimed The Yes Album, which for the first time consisted entirely of original compositions by the band. It was also the record that united them with long-serving producer and engineer Eddie Offord, whose studio expertise was a key factor in creating the Yes sound.

Steve Howe, lead guitarist for Yes, in 1977
In 1971, original organ/piano player Tony Kaye left the band, and though some reports attest that he was fired, others indicate that he left voluntarily. It is typically reported that the decision had to do with his unwillingness to use modern keyboard technology, as he considered himself to be simply an organist. He soon formed the group Badger. Although a talented player who contributed memorable chord passages on the Hammond organ (particularly on the classic "Everydays" and "Yours is No Disgrace"), Kaye, arguably, could not match Howe's guitar improvisation. He was replaced by the classically-trained Rick Wakeman, who had just left Strawbs and was already a noted studio musician with credits including T. Rex, David Bowie and Lou Reed. Wakeman brought the keyboards up to a level of improvisational skill comparable with that of Howe's guitar. Tony Kaye guested in ex-Yes guitarist Peter Banks' own progressive rock band, Flash. Oddly, Flash was accused of stealing Yes's musical sound – a sound Peter Banks and Tony Kaye themselves were instrumental in creating.

As a soloist, Wakeman proved to be the perfect foil for Steve Howe. He also brought two vital additions to the group's instrumentation: the Mellotron (which Kaye had been unwilling to employ) and the Minimoog synthesizer. Surrounded by banks of keyboards, his flowing blond hair and sequined cape provided a strong visual focus on stage.

The '70s Continued
With Wakeman on board, Yes entered what some consider their most fertile and successful period, cutting two highly acclaimed LPs. Fragile (1971) went Top Ten in America, as did Close to the Edge (1972). Yes enjoyed enormous commercial and critical success around the world and became one of the most popular concert attractions of the day. They also notably benefited from the tremendous advances in live music technology that were taking place at that time, and they were renowned for the high quality of both their sound and lighting.

Fragile also marked the beginning of a long collaboration with artist Roger Dean, who designed the group's logo and their album covers, as well as their stage sets.

In February 1972, in between Fragile and Close to the Edge, Yes recorded a non-album track, their dynamic ten-minute interpretation of Paul Simon's "America". It originally appeared on the album The New Age of Atlantic (1972), a compilation with several acts from the roster of Atlantic Records. This song had been a staple of Yes gigs since the band's early days (a version featuring Kaye appeared on the Word Is Live box set). The Mellotron part on the end of the track was actually played by Bruford.

Some consider the next album, Close to the Edge, to be the high point of the whole progressive rock genre. Some fans of this era describe themselves as "Troopers", after the 3-part track "Starship Trooper" from The Yes Album.

Before the release of Close To The Edge, and at the height of the band's success, Bill Bruford announced that he was quitting to join King Crimson. He was replaced by former Plastic Ono Band drummer Alan White, a more conventional rock drummer and a distinct contrast to the jazz-influenced drumming of Bruford. White was brought into Yes several months before the September 1972 release of Close to the Edge. Their early touring with White was featured on their next release, the three-record live collection Yessongs, recorded on their US and UK tours in November-December 1972. The album included two earlier recordings with Bruford, notably the song "Perpetual Change" with an extended Bruford drum solo, as well as backing Chris Squire in his solo "The Fish", while White played drums on the rest of the tracks. White learned the tremendously ambitious repertoire in a matter of three days before embarking on the tour. (White, a friend of Anderson's and Offord's, had sat in with the band once during the weeks before Bruford's departure. After trying each other out for three months, Squire threatened to throw White out the window if he did not join.) White has lasted with the group for over thirty years, contributing great drumming, navigating ambitious time changes and shifts, and maintaining a reputation for having a collaborative and "down to earth attitude".

Yessongs was a hugely ambitious project and undoubtedly a major gamble for their label, Atlantic Records. It was one of the first rock triple-album sets, featuring live versions of all-original material from the previous three studio albums. Presented in one of the most lavish album packages to date, Roger Dean's artwork spread across a triple gatefold cover and continued the cosmic-organic design concepts of the two previous albums. The album was another bestseller and was recently voted among the top twenty live records of all time. A video of the tour, released under the same name, featured concert footage (with Howe garnering a large amount of the focus because his brother-in-law was the editor) intermixed with psychedelic visual effects.

Their next studio album, Tales from Topographic Oceans, marked a change in the band's fortunes, polarizing fans and critics alike. Although extended compositions were by now a Yes hallmark — the title track of Close To The Edge took up the entire first side of that album — the four roughly 20 minute tracks on the two-disc Topographic Oceans earned mixed reviews and left many feeling that the band was beginning to overreach itself. Coming after extensive touring, the album was later described by Jon Anderson as "the meeting point of high ideals and low energy." Rick Wakeman, in particular, was not pleased with the album, and to this day speaks ill of much of it. It is said that the mockumentary film, This Is Spinal Tap, was largely inspired by the album and its tour. On the other hand, many prog-rock fans consider it to be one of the greatest progressive albums of all time.

Increasing interpersonal tensions between Wakeman and the rest of the band, as well as Wakeman's own burgeoning solo career, led him to quit at the end of the Tales tour in 1974. (In 1976, Wakeman, Bruford and his King Crimson bandmate John Wetton formed a new trio called British Bulldog, but the project failed to get off the ground. Bruford and Wetton subsequently joined with guitarist Allan Holdsworth, and Roxy Music's wunderkind keyboardist/violinist Eddie Jobson, under the name UK.) Wakeman himself embarked on a long, productive solo career, in addition to his projects with his English Rock Ensemble, film scores, and collaborations with other artists.

Perpetual change
After auditioning Vangelis to replace Rick Wakeman, Yes settled on a replacement for Wakeman - Swiss keyboardist Patrick Moraz - for the album Relayer in 1974. Moraz was a distinctive electric-jazz musician in his own right. Again, the album featured a side-long track, "The Gates of Delirium", from which the "Soon" section was put out as a limited single release. Following an extended tour through 1975–1976, each member of the group released his own solo album. At the same time, the album Yesterdays was released, containing tracks from the first two albums, as well as "America" as the opening track.

Yes performing in concert in Oslo, 1977
The group commenced sessions for a new album. There is some confusion about the chain of events, but after a considerable amount of negotiation, Rick Wakeman rejoined the band on a "session musician" basis. The confusion comes from Moraz being on record as saying he feels he deserves credit for much of the music on the resulting album. Certainly Howe has also stated that the group "tried to remove as much of Patrick from the songs as possible", so it would appear that he did contribute to the initial sessions. Ultimately, Moraz ended up at the top of the ambiguous "thanks to..." list on the album sleeve. In any case, after hearing and being impressed by the new material Wakeman once again became a permanent band member. Moraz would go on to have additional success by joining The Moody Blues soon after his departure from Yes.

The resulting album, Going for the One, was the first not to feature Roger Dean artwork since The Yes Album, although it does display the Yes logo that Dean designed. Apart from the 15-minute track "Awaken", most of the album's songs were relatively short, including "Wonderous Stories", released as a single in the UK in 1977 and making the top ten. This album and the next, 1978's Tormato featuring the same lineup, were successful in spite of being released at the height of the punk rock era in Britain, during which Yes were often criticised by the music press as representing the most bloated excesses of early 1970s progressive rock. Ironically, Yes outlasted almost all the groups of that era as well.

The Tormato album is another that has sparked dissension among fans. The band members themselves have said that they were not sure of some of the material on the album. The album artwork would see large changes as well, with design firm Hipgnosis taking a turn once again with their combination of manipulated photography and graphical elements in lieu of the traditional Roger Dean approach. For many fans, this artwork did not properly capture the iconic "Yes" look, though it was arguably as much of a visual departure as that of the music. However, despite internal or external criticisms of this latest album, the band enjoyed successful tours in 1978 and 1979.

In October 1979, Yes convened in Paris with producer Roy Thomas Baker, fresh from his success producing the band The Cars. There are a number of statements by band members and rumours as to why the sessions did not produce a formal album. Howe, Squire, and White said later in 1980 that none of the three of them liked the music Anderson had offered the band, claiming it was too lightweight and lacking in a heaviness that the trio felt they were generating during their own time together. (Bootlegs of these sessions would suggest that Howe et al. were correct in their descriptions of Anderson's music, some of which appeared on his 1980 solo album Song of Seven.) In December, the sessions ended when White broke his foot. There is also strong speculation that Anderson and the remaining members of the band had a falling out over money issues and claims and counterclaims of members spending more than their fair share of their group monies. By May 1980, the situation reached a conclusion with Anderson departing Yes as no agreement could be reached over musical direction and financial remuneration. With Anderson leaving, Rick Wakeman followed suit, thinking that Yes could not continue without its primary voice.

Drama
At Yes manager Brian Lane's suggestion, Squire invited the Buggles' duo of Geoffrey Downes (keyboards) and Trevor Horn (vocals) - who were coming off an international success with their New Wave album The Age of Plastic and the acclaimed single "Video Killed the Radio Star" - to help out on a new Yes album. Initially, the plan was that Downes and Horn would help write some new material - they already had a song called "We Can Fly From Here" which had been written with Yes in mind. To Downes and Horn's surprise, they were invited to join Yes as full-time members. They accepted the invitation and performed on the Drama album in 1980 (on which "We Can Fly From Here" was not included). Drama clearly displayed a heavier, harder sound than the material Yes recorded with Anderson in 1979, opening with the hard rock, lengthy track "Machine Messiah". While Drama was well received by many fans, and often regarded as one of the finest moments for the trio of Squire, Howe, and White, despite the Horn/Downes contribution, many other Yes followers missed Anderson's unique lyrics and vocal style. The album's artwork (the album was nicknamed "Panthers" by some fans after the black cats featured in the Roger Dean cover) raised eyebrows as the inside cover also displayed a bit of a horror-house style in photo and graphic design, an anomaly that perplexed some fans. The band undertook a North American tour in September 1980. The general consensus is that Horn performed the vocals for their new material on tour well (although he had no experience fronting a band that performed on the scale of Yes shows) but that he struggled on the classic Yes material as it was not in his range. When the band returned to England later in 1980, the English press heaped great criticism on Horn and Yes.

Meanwhile, Jon Anderson reunited with Vangelis Papathanassiou (who became best known for his film soundtracks including Chariots of Fire and Blade Runner) as Jon & Vangelis. Their collaboration worked well enough to produce three albums including the North American FM hit "Friends of Mr. Cairo" and the U.K. hits "I Hear You Now" and "I'll Find My Way Home".

Disbanded
After the Drama tour, Yes reconvened in England to decide the band’s next step. Ultimately, Trevor Horn left to pursue music production. Alan White and Chris Squire left Yes but continued working together, beginning sessions with former Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page. The band was to be called XYZ, short for "ex-Yes-and-Zeppelin," but nothing came of the sessions when ex-Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant failed to get interested. XYZ produced a few demo tracks, elements of which would appear in later Yes music (most notably "Mind Drive" from Keys to Ascension 2, and "Can You Imagine", from Magnification). Later in 1981, Squire and White released the Christmas single "Run With the Fox". Downes and Howe, who were left holding the bag of Yes as it were, opted not to continue Yes. Instead, they went on to form "supergroup" Asia with former King Crimson and UK bassist/vocalist John Wetton and Carl Palmer from Emerson, Lake & Palmer on drums.

Sursa: (http://www.lyricsfreak.com/y/yes/biography.html)

Yes biography - Part II

2010-02-10T23:50:00.000-08:00

Reinventing Yes

In 1982, over a year after the breakup of Yes, Chris Squire and Alan White formed a new group, dubbed Cinema with guitarist Trevor Rabin (late of the band Rabbitt). Original Yes organist Tony Kaye was invited to participate as Squire felt that Kaye's textural approach to keyboards would suit the band. Formerly a solo artist with three albums to his credit, Trevor Rabin's writing contributions included the catchy riff-oriented "Owner of a Lonely Heart", but Rabin also played a role in the making of music to fit the MTV era while retaining certain aspects of Yes' original style - particularly the vocal harmonies. Originally, the lead vocals were shared between Rabin and Squire, but in early 1983, Chris Squire played Jon Anderson some of Cinema's music at a party in Los Angeles. Impressed with the band's new approach in songs like "Leave It," Anderson was invited by Squire to add his vocals to the new project and Anderson accepted the invitation, resulting in the "accidental" reformation of Yes. Many fans call this lineup "Yes West," because of the band's relocation to Los Angeles and the more American, radio-friendly sound that introduced Yes to a massive fan-base and a reinterest in their older material. Yes made many new and younger fans over the next years with the 90125 album.

To distinguish them from those who prefer the classic Yes (sometimes called "Troopers"), fans of this lineup were often called "Generators," taken from this lineup's second album, Big Generator. However, it should be noted that many Yes fans enjoy both periods of the group's music.

The band's first album since the reunion, 90125 was a radical departure from their earlier sound. It was more visceral, with then-modern electronic effects – attributable chiefly to producer (and former Yes vocalist) Trevor Horn. Yes' most commercially successful album by far, 90125 eventually sold over six million copies and secured a new lease on life for Yes, who toured over a year to support it. The song "Owner of a Lonely Heart" from this album was even a top hit on the R&B and disco charts (and sampled countless times since), and remains a defining song of 80's-era pop. The keyboardist appearing in the video for this song was Eddie Jobson since Tony Kaye temporarily left the band. Jobson has reported on his own website, when discussing why he appeared in the video, that he was first asked to replace Kaye and then to share keyboard duties with Kaye; Jobson declined and Kaye returned. Yes also scored significant hit singles with "Leave It" and "It Can Happen," also garnering a Grammy award for Best Rock Instrumental ("Cinema," a short, highly compressed and complex track recorded live in the studio), suggesting that the group had not totally abandoned their musicianship in favour of commercial success – as some fans allege. The popular album also spawned a concert video, directed by Steven Soderbergh, 9012Live, and a live album, 9012Live: The Solos, which included solo pieces from Anderson, Rabin, Squire and Kaye, plus a Squire/White piece.

In 1986, Yes began recording Big Generator. Unfortunately, interpersonal problems (chiefly between Rabin and Anderson) kept the album from timely completion, and ultimately Trevor Rabin took a hand in its final production. Although 1987's Big Generator did not fare as well as 90125, it still sold well over two million copies. Some Yes fans have considered Big Generator more faithful to the vintage Yes sound than its predecessor because of a concentrated effort to record longer songs such as "I'm Running" and "Shoot High, Aim Low" in addition to the more poppy tunes. Trevor Rabin's radio-friendly "Love Will Find a Way" charted moderately well, with the Beach Boys-inspired "Rhythm of Love" barely scraping the Top 40. The 1988 tour ended with a gig at Madison Square Garden as part of Atlantic Records's 40th anniversary celebrations, but left Yes members exhausted and frustrated with one another.

Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe
Jon Anderson grew tired of the musical direction of the "new" Yes line-up and wanted the band to return to its classic sound. Following the 1988 tour, Anderson, asserting that he would never stay in the band purely for the money, began working with former Yes members Rick Wakeman, Steve Howe, and Bill Bruford. Some in the group (particularly Bill Bruford) wanted to distance themselves from the "Yes" name. As it turned out, the former Yes members were contractually unable to use the name, as Squire, White, Kaye, Rabin (and, ironically, Anderson) held the rights, dating back to the 90125 contract. Subsequently, the new group called themselves Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe, or simply ABWH. The project included Tony Levin on bass, brought in by Bruford after the two had worked together in King Crimson. Appealing to old and new Yes fans, their eponymous 1989 album featured "Brother of Mine", a popular MTV video in its own right, and went gold in the United States. However, they did not all record together as in the early 70s and instead their parts were slotted into place on the album by Anderson. Howe has stated publicly that he was unhappy with the mix of his guitars on the album (a version of "Fist of Fire" with more of Howe's guitars left intact eventually appeared on the In a Word box set in 2001). It is also worth noting that according to Bruford, the four-way writing credit does not reflect the actual writing process and was instead an incentive to have the ex-Yes men take part in the recording sessions. After the album's release, legal battles (sparked by Atlantic Records) soon followed over the title of ABWH's tour, An Evening of Yes Music Plus, the live recording of which featured Bruford colleague Jeff Berlin in Levin's bassist spot, who was forced to sit out for two weeks because of illness. In addition, the live sessions were augmented by second keyboardist Julian Colbeck and guitarist Milton McDonald. The tour alternated between music from AWBH and vintage Yes classics, and each night opened with short solo stints from all four Yes members.

"Union" and reunion
Meanwhile Yes were working on their follow-up to Big Generator. The band had been shopping around for a new singer. Ex-Supertramp vocalist Roger Hodgson had rejected the post. Hodgson enjoyed working with the group but thought it unwise to attempt to pass off the music as Yes. The band had been working with songwriter Billy Sherwood of World Trade. Arista, ABWH's new label, encouraged ABWH to seek outside songwriters, and Trevor Rabin ultimately sent a demo. Predictably, Arista sensed the commercial possibility of a Yes re-union. This would lead to the end of Yes having new albums released by Atlantic Records after more than 20 years of their initial recording contract. Throughout early 1991, phone calls were made, lawyers soothed, and agreements were struck, with Yes West joining ABWH for the Union album. Each group did its own songs, with Jon Anderson singing on all tracks. Chris Squire sang background vocals on a few of the ABWH tracks (with Tony Levin doing all the bass on those songs). A world tour united all eight members on one stage in a short-lived "Mega-Yes" line-up of Anderson, Squire, Howe, Rabin, Kaye, Wakeman, Bruford, and White. The album was clearly a somewhat forced combination of the music from the two line-ups, since none of the songs on Union featured all eight members at once; two-thirds were actually ABWH compositions, while Trevor Rabin and Chris Squire contributed four songs (including a Billy Sherwood collaboration). Nearly the entire band have publicly stated their disliking for the finished product because of producer Jonathan Elias's secret involvement of session musicians after the initial sessions. (Bruford has disowned the album entirely, and Wakeman was reportedly unable to recognise any of his keyboard work in the final edit, and amusingly threw his copy of the album out of his limousine. He has gone on record as referring to the entire venture as "Onion" because it makes him cry when he thinks about it.) However producer Jonathan Elias later stated publicly in an interview that Jon Anderson as the associate producer knew of the session musicians and even initiated their contributions, because of the hostility between some of the band members at the time (notably between Anderson and Howe and Wakeman) and none of the work getting done.

The Union tour itself featured tracks spanning the band's entire career, and it was one of the highest grossing concert tours of 1991 and 1992. The album itself fared well, with approximately 1.5 million sold worldwide.

The '90s
When the tour was over in 1992, Bill Bruford and Steve Howe recorded an album of Yes instrumental music reinterpreted by an orchestra for RCA Victor, which featured Jon Anderson's vocals on two of the songs. Entitled Symphonic Music of Yes, the album offered new presentations of Yes songs. String arrangements were done by David Palmer, and the record was produced by Alan Parsons. After the release of this album, Bill Bruford chose not to remain involved in future Yes possibilities. Jon Anderson began writing with both Howe and Rabin separately but eventually the former was not asked to be on the next album by the record label (Victory Music), which had approached Rabin with a proposal to produce an album solely with the 90125 lineup, to which Rabin initially countered by requesting Wakeman be included. By 1993, Wakeman's refusal to leave his long-serving management meant he also could not play on the new album, which by then was well into production (Rabin and Wakeman have both expressed regret that they never played together on a Yes album - excepting the patchwork of Union - although Rabin did guest on Wakeman's Return to the Centre of the Earth album in 1999).

Yes were back to their popular 1980s lineup of Jon Anderson, Chris Squire, Trevor Rabin, Tony Kaye, and Alan White. In 1994, Yes released Talk on Victory Music, one of the group's poorest selling releases. Neither the record label nor US radio stations provided much promotion for "The Calling", perhaps their strongest single since "Owner of a Lonely Heart." (David Letterman heard the song while driving and immediately sought to find the "new band" and have them appear on the Late Show, which they did on June 20, 1994, just days into their Talk tour, performing "Walls" from Talk). Some of the fruits of the band's work with Roger Hodgson also appears on the album. On the 1994 tour, guitarist/vocalist Billy Sherwood, who co-authored Union's "The More We Live" with Squire, joined as a sixth member. The Talk tour featured an innovative sound system via which fans at a concert could listen on their portable FM radios turned to a specific frequency to hear greater dynamic range and stereo effects during the concerts. By the end of 1994, Tony Kaye, Trevor Rabin, and Billy Sherwood left, with Rabin going on to become a highly successful film score composer and Kaye retiring (he subsequently came back out of retirement, providing Hammond organ on several tracks on the Sherwood-produced Return to the Dark Side of the Moon in 2006 and then working on further projects with Sherwood).

The band reformed the 1970s lineup of Jon Anderson, Chris Squire, Alan White, Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman for a three-night live performance in the California town of San Luis Obispo in 1996. As the band formed a brief contract with CMC International Records, the resulting live recordings were released, together with new music, on the Keys to Ascension albums. Keys to Ascension 2, in particular, featured 48 minutes of new music. The band was disappointed that the new material was not released as a single studio album, which had the working title of 'Know.' The new studio cuts from those two albums were later reissued on a single CD called Keystudio. Wakeman left the group yet again before the release of Keys to Ascension 2 after a Yes tour was planned without his input, and because of his frustration over the decision to bury the Keystudio studio tracks on redundant live albums.

Yes live performance June 1998.
Billy Sherwood immediately rejoined Yes on keyboards and guitar. Open Your Eyes was released in 1997 and used some material originally intended for a project by Squire-Sherwood that was subsequently called Conspiracy. The band would release this and future releases on the Beyond Music label to ensure they have more of a say in packaging and titling the albums. Only the title track and one other, "New State of Mind", received any radio airplay. The tour that followed featured only a few pieces from the new album, and mostly concentrated on the revival of early Yes material such as "Siberian Khatru". The return of Steve Howe to the touring Yes, along with a heavier emphasis on 1970s-era Yes music, was considered an exciting development by many fans. The tour also featured keyboards from Russian keyboard player Igor Khoroshev, who had played on a few of the Open Your Eyes tracks. Khoroshev continued to work with the band for the following album The Ladder. This would be the last album that record producer Bruce Fairbairn would work on before an untimely death.

Many fans were reminded of the band's 1970s sound, largely because of Khoroshev's keyboards. His work was classically-oriented and also included sampling large sections of music by British techno group The Prodigy. Sherwood's live role was limited to backup vocals and backup guitar, with a few notable spotlight moments for guitar solos in Rabin-era songs. Howe refused to duplicate Rabin's solos, citing that his style would not fit those solos. The 1999 tour resulted in a live DVD of the performance at the Las Vegas House of Blues. "Homeworld (The Ladder)", a track from The Ladder, was written for Relic Entertainment's Homeworld real-time strategy computer game and was used as the credits and outro theme. It is interesting to note that the band have stated that they wrote the song not because they were requested by the game's developers, but because they liked several aspects of the game itself.

Turn of the Century
Sherwood, finding Yes's internal politics uncomfortable, left the band before the 2000 Masterworks tour, which featured a revival of the Moraz-period extended piece "The Gates of Delirium" (from the album Relayer). Khoroshev was fired from the band after the tour amidst a cloud of controversy over his backstage conduct including a sexual assault charge, just before the recording of the 2001 orchestral release Magnification. The band was not only backed by a 60-piece orchestra, but specific parts and arrangements were written by notable film composer Larry Groupé and performed by the orchestra, sounding as if the orchestra was a permanent band member. On tour, however, the band hired keyboardist Tom Brislin to augment the orchestra since the orchestra alone could not faithfully reproduce some of the classic Yes keyboard material.

Fans who felt they were short-changed in 1996 were delighted as Rick Wakeman announced his return to the group on April 20, 2002, and a world tour for Yes followed, including a return to Australia after more than 30 years. The lineup enjoyed a somewhat revitalised presence in the public consciousness, especially during the celebration of their 35th anniversary in 2004. Reacting to an online survey of popular Yes songs to play, the band added "South Side of the Sky" to the touring set list, a surprise given that it was rarely played before, even on the original Fragile tour.

This revitalisation showed itself during a show in New York's Madison Square Garden. Near the end of the song "And You and I" where Howe finishes his pedal steel part, before the last few acoustic notes, the band was overwhelmed with thunderous applause. It lasted so long that by the time it subsided, the roadies had already removed Howe's guitar - Wakeman then had to play the last bit with Anderson singing.

In later legs of the tour, the band performed some songs in acoustic style towards the later part of the tour, after doing a live-via-satellite concert as part of the Yesspeak documentary premiere.

On November 11, 2004, for one night only, Trevor Rabin, Steve Howe, Chris Squire, Alan White, and Geoff Downes performed "Cinema", and "Owner of a Lonely Heart" at the Prince's Trust concert at Wembley Arena, which was a tribute to former Yes vocalist/producer Trevor Horn. It remains somewhat unclear why Anderson did not perform that night, although since Horn was being honoured that night (the other acts that played that night were all produced by Horn), there may have been a desire to emphasise Horn's role rather than Anderson's. One report said that Anderson needed time to rest, under doctors' orders, and that Wakeman declined to join in because of Anderson's absence. Whatever the exact reason, fans of the 90125 era were delighted to see Rabin perform with the group for the first time in ten years, and, as on the Union tour, the audience was treated to guitar solos by both Rabin and Howe.

Since 2004, Yes has been on hiatus. In lieu of releasing new albums, they formed deals with Image Entertainment and other video firms to release past concert performances, music videos, and interviews on DVD. Howe, Squire, Wakeman and White had all expressed an interest in recording and touring, but Anderson had been firmly opposed because of personal health concerns. Thus, band members have pursued varied solo projects. White has formed a new group, White, featuring Downes. Their debut album, also called White, was released on April 18, 2006. In 2004, Squire joined a reformed version of The Syn, one of his pre-Yes groups from the 1960s.

Plans for a joint tour by White, The Syn, and Steve Howe, which would have included the Yes members (with singer Kevin Currie from White) performing songs from Drama, were canceled. White joined the band for a tour in 2006. On May 16, 2006, Squire announced that he had left The Syn. On the same day, the original members of Asia, including Howe and Downes, announced that they would be reuniting for a 25th anniversary tour, which commenced in September. Anderson and Wakeman toured together in October 2006, and the set list for most shows featured Yes material along with songs from both their solo careers, and at least one ABWH song. In 2006, Sherwood, Kaye and White — along with guitarist Jimmy Haun — formed Circa, a supergroup formally announced in March 2007. On July 30, 2007, the band self-released on Internet their debut album, Circa 2007. Their debut live performance was held on August 23, 2007, at The Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, at which time the band performed its entire debut album followed by an hour-long medley of Yes songs.

Anderson has also composed some new music with Trevor Rabin. How this music will reach the public has yet to be seen.

In the first half of 2008, Anderson toured North America, Howe toured with Asia, and White toured with Circa.

Close to the Edge and Back Tour (cancelled)
In honour of the band's 40th Anniversary, Yes had announced a 2008 world tour, entitled Close to the Edge and Back. However, the tour was cancelled on June 4 due to Anderson's health problems. Per the press release, "Yes frontman and founding member Jon Anderson was admitted to the hospital last month after suffering a severe asthma attack. He has now been diagnosed with acute respiratory failure and was told by doctors this weekend that he needs to rest and not work for a period of at least six months or suffer further health complications. Upon receiving this news the band has determined that their tour plans need to be put on hold." The tour had been planned to feature Anderson, Squire, Howe, and White, and to also include Oliver Wakeman sitting in on keyboards, in lieu of his father, Rick (who bowed out on the advice of his doctors).

Anderson said the band was preparing four new "lengthy, multi-movement compositions" for the tour which are "very, very different," however, after the weak sales of 2001's Magnification, Anderson has said that "putting together an album really isn't logical anymore" and no announcement has been made as to a release of recordings of this new material in any form.

In the Present Tour and beyond
On stage in Columbus, Ohio.
A separate, North American tour entitled "In The Present" began on November 4, 2008 in Ontario, Canada, featuring Howe, Squire & White, along with Oliver Wakeman on keyboards, and Canadian Benoît David on vocals. David was singing in progressive rock band Mystery and in a Yes tribute band called Close to the Edge. The shows were billed as "Howe, Squire and White of Yes," although many reports and outlets simply referred to the band as "Yes". The tour saw the return of material from the Drama album ("Tempus Fugit" and "Machine Messiah"), "Astral Traveler" from the Time and a word album (not played live since 1971), as well as one new Chris Squire composition, "Aliens (Are Only Us From the Future)".

In the official press release, Squire stated, "This isn't an attempt to replace Jon Anderson, because as we all know, that would be impossible. With Benoît, we are bringing in a talented singer so that we can go out and honour the music of Yes for the fans who have waited for the past four years to see us perform." Squire also stated to the Associated Press that he is hopeful Anderson will be well enough to do shows in 2009. Initially, Anderson stated on his website that he was "disappointed" and "disrespected" by the move and lack of contact the other members have had with him since his illness. Later, this announcement was removed from his website, and Squire has since said that the tour has Anderson's "blessings".

On February 9, 2009, Squire was rushed to a hospital with an unspecified "medical emergency" that required a operation on his leg on February 11, 2009. He required at least a month to recuperate, which resulted in the postponement of the remainder of the scheduled "In the Present" shows, mostly in the Western USA. After this incident, Howe returned to work with Asia.

Squire, Rabin, and White re-united at a benefit reception on 18 April 2009 in Snoqualmie, Washington, playing the music of John Lennon.

The tour resumed in the summer of 2009, with the same "In the Present" band, now simply billed as "Yes". This tour featured Asia as an opening act, with Steve Howe playing with both bands. The 24-date schedule began in Indio, California on June 26, and ended in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania on August 2. Meanwhile, Jon Anderson is doing a European solo tour.

Yes announced a European tour scheduled in fall and winter 2009 (from Olomouc, Czech Republic on October 29 up to Gothenburg, Sweden on December 12).

Squire announced plans for a new album after their European tour wrapped up.

Sursa: (http://www.lyricsfreak.com/y/yes/biography.html)

Pink Floyd - Is there anybody in there?

2010-02-09T22:41:00.000-08:00

Înainte de a începe efectiv această cronică, trebuie să recunosc că eram inconştient de potenţialul estetic, distructiv sau revoluţionar al muzicii celor de la Pink Floyd. Îi consideram nişte precursori apolinici ai gothic-ului transcendental, concept cu sferă largă, în care încap Dead Can Dance, Tiamat sau The 69 Eyes. Nimic mai greşit. "Pink Floyd The Wall" (1978) este un film inimaginabil, în care acordul dintre muzică şi suportul vizual ajunge, uneori, la perfecţiune. Este un punct de referinţă, care face inteligibile proiectele lui Stone (The Doors - 1991) sau ale lui Steve Ericsson (Lyckantropen - 2002), opus relativ necunoscut, care se foloseşte de aceeaşi tehnică. În filmul lui Alan Parker avem o halucinantă moştenire culturală, o adevărată enciclopedie a sufletului, în care încap Vian, Foucault, Brecht, Keoruac, Philip K. Dick şi mulţi alţii. Cum poate aţi ghicit deja, filmul foloseşte paradigma anilor '68, care poate fi caracterizată pe scurt prin: dezordine socială, libertate sexuală, televiziune "globalistă", marxism şi psihanaliză. La fel ca alte două filme-cult ale acestei generaţii, "Clockwork Orange" (1971) şi "Apocalypse Now" (1979), opera cinematografică a lui Parker explorează şi exploatează tematica inconştientului, cu o asemenea prospeţime şi acuitate, încât demersul din "The Wall" devine punct de referinţă. Nişte observaţii tehnice sunt totuşi de menţionat, doar câteva din zecile care s-ar putea face. Momentul hentai din post-modernul "Kill Bill vol.1", în care o scenă din "realitate" este continuată printr-un desen animat, îşi are originea în această peliculă. Procedeu atât de actual, cumulat de Fincher/Palahniuk prin "life is a copy of a copy...", metonimie atotputernică şi nimicitoare a ceea ce înseamnă lumea/viaţa/virtualitatea contemporană. Faţa de plastilină a personajelor, o mască ce le amputează imaginea exterioară este preluată de Parker din "Pădurea de fragi"(1957) a lui Bergman. Şi aici, impresia generală este de fiinţă golemizată, supusă unei pierderi ireversibile a identităţii. Bineînţeles că un asemenea film face ca videoclipul celor de la Pearl Jam, "Do The Evolution" să pară plagiat. Iar acum, o influenţă de fond. Sistematica anti-individualistă şi percepţia asupra poeziei ca "pierdere de vreme" (scena în care personajul principal al filmului este umilit pentru că citeşte la ore o carte de versuri) aminteşte de reflecţia asupra poeziei din "Dead Poets Society" (1989).

"The Wall" este un film psihologic, dacă înţelegem prin psihologie un demers lărgit, atot-cuprinzător, predominantă fiind pentru ea acea călătorie a sufletului, care apare în picturile medievale flamande. Metoda cea mai potrivită este tocmai onirismul bestial (the bad trip), metaforele morţii, nebuniei şi ale sexualităţii, fiind pilonii discursivi pe care este construit filmul. Din punct de vedere strict psihanalitic, figura mamei devoratoare este cea constitutiv-distructivă, piesa "Mother" fiind una referenţială:

Mama's gonna check out all your girlfriends for you.
Mama won't let anyone dirty get through.
Mama's gonna wait up until you get in.
Mama will always find out where you've been.
Mama's gonna keep baby healthy and clean....

Nebunia personajului principal (un star rock numit Pink) este inserată în trama organică a "Zidului" tocmai pentru a cunoaşte şi a învăţa mai multe din dezintegrarea şi fărâmiţarea progresivă a psyche-ului. Iar moartea irumpe în scenariu prin punerea în scenă a războiului (şi aici pesimismul social al unor Brecht sau Böll sunt evidente) sau prin intercondiţionarea ei cu sexualitatea (scena în care două flori fac sex şi una dintre ele se transformă într-un dragon nimicitor, dizolvând-o şi aneantizând-o pe cealaltă). Sunt convins că din punct de vedere iniţiatic şi simbologic, filmul are mai multe conotaţii; dar această reducţie psihologică are avantajul de a se situa în directa descendenţă a generaţiei '68.

Alan Parker a gândit foarte bine acest film; la fel ca şi albumul conceptual "The Wall", pelicula foloseşte contrapunctul. Practic, aşa se îmbină până la o perfecţiune perversă pasajele agresive cu cele meditative sau melancolice. Cu alte cuvinte, filmul nu agresează printr-o violentare banalizată prin repetare, scenele care îţi taie respiraţia fiind secondate de reprise-uri nostalgice, care conturează personajele şi nuanţează mai bine.

O scenă-cheie a filmului este cea introdusă de piesa "Comfortably Numb". Personajul principal este scos de sub incidenţa penală, ca să fac o altă trimitere anti-psihiatrică, cu alte cuvinte este internat în ospiciu. Din punct de vedere filozofic, acest lucru echivalează cu o regresiune în minorat; din punct de vedere imagistic, internarea este asimilată cu o punere în mormânt, la fel de splendidă precum cea clasică. Regresia vine ca o continuarea a scenei în care starul rock îşi rade sprâncenele şi părul de pe piept şi devastează toată casa. Poematic este şi momentul când aruncă televizorul de pe geam (tv-ul este un drog mediu, după cum demonstrează filmul, angajând o receptivitate şi o pasivitate ieşite din comun), tăindu-se adânc în cioburile de la geam (din punct de vedere imagistic, momentul este iar o reuşită). Astfel, prin toate aceste determinative, "Comfortably Numb" vine ca o metaforă a nebuniei estetice:

When I was a child I had a fever
My hands felt just like two balloons.
Now I've got that feeling once again
I can't explain you would not understand
This is not how I am.
I have become comfortably numb.

Bineînţeles, anestezia totală (şi confortabilă) este programul acestei metafore halucinogene. De fapt, multe din personajele filmului par anesteziate: mama apare într-o scenă redusă la anestezia macabră a somnului (ea doarme, în planul oniric, lângă un cadavru), profesorul refulat are un comportament de marionetă, chiar şi şobolanul -pe care copilul şi-l doreşte ca animal de casă- este catatonic. Impresia schizofrenă a acestei lumi de vată, fără conştiinţă, raţiune sau identitate este un alt simptom al golemizării globale, care se reflectă asupra personajului central. Cu adevărat, doar stranietatea sau alteritatea radicală sunt conceptele pe care i le mai putem aplica.

Ca să închei, acest film merită văzut nu doar pentru calitatea sa psihedelică, ce combină muzica cu imagistica, poezia cu meditaţia filozofică. El este mai mult decât atât: un produs cultural, care avertizează asupra deprecierii relaţiilor interumane, asupra eşecului oricărei pedagogii (we don't need no education), bazate pe violenţa programatică şi asupra totalitarismelor, care păstrează o mezalianţă pregnantă cu aureola religioasă. (Sursa)

Pink Floyd - Shine On You Crazy Diamond

2010-02-01T03:37:00.000-08:00

Pentru Bianca si pentru toti cei care cred ca "Shine On You" este poate cea mai mare realizare a muzicii progresive care s-a facut vreodata pe lumea asta...