Arena are set to release their first ever single ‘Poisoned (single version)’. The track has been one of the most popular songs from their latest and ninth album, ‘Double Vision’, and was a poignant and much commented on a moment from their last UK and European tour. The single version is a reworked version of the album track and the band have recorded they’re first ever video to accompany the song, which will be released on October 26th, 2018.
The song was written for loved ones and close friends lost to illness and Arena are asking everyone to join the band in commemorating anyone lost to them who represented an important part of their lives.
Fans can join in with the #arenapoisoned campaign by posting a picture and the name of someone important in their life who has passed on, on social media, with the hashtag #arenapoisoned and encourage others to do the same. The band’s plan is to collate the photographs and create a montage of the pictures in a forthcoming vinyl version of Double Vision – something special for posterity.
The Single was released on 26th October. The single is be available from iTunes, Amazon Music amongst others.
Arena, a band that in many ways was brought together by a running joke in an underground fanzine, which led directly to Mick Pointer realizing that there was quite a vibrant prog scene. In turn, he was introduced to Clive Nolan, and the rest, as they say, is history. The debut ‘Songs From The Lion’s Cage’ was released in 1995, and the jokes soon started about never being at far left or far right on a band photo as you would be the next to leave, but the guys have been stable now for quite sometimes, with the same line-up since 2011’s ‘The Seventh Degree of Separation’. That was the last album I heard, as for some reason I missed 2015’s ‘The Unquiet Sky’, although I have been listening to quite a lot of Clive’s other works, as well as releases featuring guitarist John Mitchell (the line-up being completed by singer Paul Manzi and bassist Kylan Amos).
Having played Clive’s ‘Alchemy’ so much that it is almost worn out (according to LastFM it is my second most played album since I joined that site in 2007, behind only Camel’s ‘The Snow Goose), plus having known him for more than quarter of a century (I feel old) and having most of his projects, I was really looking forward to this album, and I wasn’t disappointed. While Arena is first and foremost a progressive rock band, what I found fascinating with this album is the amount of theatricality within it. Paul Manzi surely has one of the most expressive and emotive voices around, and his relationship with Clive is long-standing in this and other projects, and they have an innate understanding of what is needed to take a song to the next level. There are times when I am clearly reminded of his performance on the aforementioned ‘Alchemy’, such is the power of his storytelling.
But, this is very much a band album, although it obviously has been heavily influenced by Clive who wrote or co-wrote every song and provided all the lyrics, but Mick is playing better than ever, Kylan has a great sliding style that really suits the music. Then on top of it all, there is the incomparable John Mitchell. He may not have been the original guitarist (who was Keith More, ex-Asia, for the first two albums) but he has been there for twenty years now, during which time he has built a considerable reputation as one of the finest guitarists in the scene, and I don’t think anyone was really surprised when he joined It Bites. He knows when to riff and drive the music along when to provide solos, when to use restraint and when to just let the music rock.
Here we are in 2018 and both Galahad and Arena have this year released possibly the finest albums of their careers, only time will fully be able to judge that, showing that although they were in the underground scene in the Nineties, playing all the dives that entailed due to no publicity (or internet!), they are ready and able to reap the rewards of keeping going when others have given up. This is a stunning album, one that all progheads need to discover at once if not sooner. I loved it the very first time I played it, and it has only got better the more I listen to it.
We’re excited to announce the dates for our forthcoming tour in April and May 2018 to celebrate the release of our new album “Double Vision” and the 20th anniversary of “The Visitor”. We’ll be playing all of “The Visitor” live on this tour, along with songs from the new album. Ticket links are available on our website http://arenaband.co.uk
Lonely Robot, the project masterminded by producer, guitarist and singer/songwriter John Mitchell (It Bites, Frost*, Arena), has announced that its much-anticipated second studio album ‘The Big Dream’ will be released on 28th April 2017.
Following 2015’s acclaimed debut ‘Please Come Home’, ‘The Big Dream’ has a core theme running through it – one that sees The Astronaut, the central character in the Lonely Robot adventure, emerging from a long period in stasis.
Mitchell explains: “The Astronaut wakes up from a cryogenic sleep but finds he’s no longer in space, and is instead in a woodland area surrounded by a group of strange people with animal heads! It’s a little surreal, a little ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ to some extent. This is something of a solipsistic haze, for want of a better description!”
‘The Big Dream’ will be available as a special edition digipak CD (including 3 bonus tracks), gatefold 2LP + CD, and digital download. The track listing is as follows:
1. Prologue (Deep Sleep)
2. Awakenings
3. Sigma
4. In Floral Green
5. Everglow
6. False Lights
7. Symbolic
8. The Divine Art Of Being
9. The Big Dream
10. Hello World Goodbye
11. Epilogue (Sea Beams)
Bonus Tracks:
12. In Floral Green (Acoustic Version)
13. The Divine Art Of Being (Acoustic Version)
14. Why Do We Stay? (feat. Kim Seviour)
Lonely Robot will be brought to life on stage with Craig Blundell on drums, Steve Vantsis on bass & Liam Holmes on keyboards. The following dates are currently confirmed:
Sun 5 March – Progdreams VI, Boerderij, Zoetermeer, Netherlands
Thu 27 April – Sub89, Reading, UK
Fri 28 April – Marillion Convention, Leicester, UK
Sat 27 May – Trinity Live, Assembly Rooms, Leamington Spa, UK
Clive Nolan is a British musician, composer and producer who has played a prominent role in the recent development of progressive and symphonic rock.
Born in Gloucestershire, he was a pupil at Wycliffe College and King’s School, Gloucester. He completed his B. Mus and M. Mus degrees at London University where he studied composition, orchestration and conducting. He has been the regular keyboard player in Pendragon (1986–present), Shadowland (1992–present), Strangers on a Train (1993–1994), Arena (1995–present) and Caamora (2006–present) as well as writing music and lyrics for Arena, Shadowland, Caamora and numerous other projects.
Nolan is the founder member of The Caamora Theatre Company formed to produce and perform the musicals of Clive Nolan. The premiere of ‘She’ took place in Katowice Wyspianski Theatre in Poland in October 2007. Subsequently, full theatrical performances of ‘She’ were performed in January 2010 in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, followed by the eight-man ‘She in Concert’ variation in Holland in September 2011. In February 2012 theatrical version of ‘She’ debuted in the UK in Cheltenham Playhouse Theatre. Recently, the revived theatre shows were performed again at the Cheltenham Playhouse in September 2015 during the anniversary event, “The Fire and the Quest”. ‘She in Concert” was also performed in Germany in 2015 and Holland in 2016.
He was voted Best Keyboard Player by Classic Rock Society in the years: 1995, 1996, 1998, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2015 and 2016. In 2010 the Bolivian government awarded him with the title of Honorary Visitor to Santa Cruz, Bolivia for his theatre work in the city of Santa Cruz. In 2013 he was awarded with the Polish MLWZ “Golden Lexicon Award” for Outstanding Achievements in Music for his musical ‘Alchemy’.
Nolan released his second musical ‘Alchemy’, with libretto based on the composer’s original story, early in 2013. In February 2013 the live show was recorded for the DVD at the famous Wyspianski Theatre in Katowice, Poland. The full theatrical shows of ‘Alchemy’ were performed by the Caamora Theatre Company at the Cheltenham Playhouse Theatre in September 2013. In 2013 and 2014 the concert version of ‘Alchemy’ headlined musical and theatre events in the UK and Holland. In August 2014 ‘Alchemy’ was performed over a week at the Jermyn Street Theatre in the London Off-West End. In november 2014, ‘Alchemy’ returned in a concert version to be performed in Reichenbach, Germany. Recently the musical was once more performed at the Cheltenham Playhouse as part of “The Fire and the Quest” festival.
Clive Nolan with Arena
Studio
Songs from the Lion’s Cage (1995)
Pride (1996)
The Visitor (1998)
Immortal? (2000)
Contagion (2003)
Pepper’s Ghost (2005)
The Seventh Degree of Separation (2011)
The Unquiet Sky (2015)
Live
Welcome to the Stage (1997)
Breakfast in Biarritz (2001)
Live & Life (2004)
Arena: Live (2013)
Arena: XX (2016)
EP’s
The Cry (1997)
Contagious (2003)
Contagium (2003)
Compilations
Ten Years On (2006)
Videos/DVDs
Caught in the Act (2003) (live)
Smoke & Mirrors (2006) (live)
Rapture (2011) (live)
Arena: XX (2016) (live)
Clive Nolanwith Pendragon
The Jewel (1985)
Kowtow (1988)
The World (1991)
The Window of Life (1993)
The Masquerade Overture (1996)
Not Of This World (2001)
Believe (2005)
Pure (2008)
Passion (2011)
Men Who Climb Mountains (2014)
Clive Nolan with Shadowland
Albums
Ring of Roses (1992), reissued with two extra tracks (1997), remastered with bonus tracks (2009)
Through the Looking Glass (1994), reissued with one extra track (1997), remastered with bonus tracks (2009)
Mad as a Hatter (1996), remastered with bonus tracks (2009)
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