UK Progressive Rock Legend, Martin Barre, Confirmed as snd Headliner for RoSfest in 2019 Celebrating 50 Years of Jethro Tull

by | Aug 2, 2018 | Festivals, News

UK composer and musician Martin Barre is best known for being a vital member of legendary progressive rock band Jethro Tull being their guitarist for more than four decades and performing on all their classic albums. His sound and contributions to the band have been a major factor in their success. Album sales have exceeded 60 million units and they continue to be played worldwide, representing an important part of progressive rock history.

Martin’s guitar playing has earned him a high level of respect and recognition; he was voted 25th best solo ever in the USA and 20th best solo ever in the UK for his playing on ‘Aqualung’. His playing on the album ‘Crest of a Knave’ earned him a Grammy award in 1988. As well as numerous Jethro Tull albums, Martin has worked with many other artists including Paul McCartney, Phil Collins, Gary Moore, Joe Bonamassa and Chris Thompson and has shared a stage with such legends as Hendrix, Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin. While he is now firmly established as a solo artist, he is not a stranger to his past, and that past will be a vital part of the headliner show that will be presented at ROSfest, 2019.


Clive Bunker
Clive was born on the 12th of December, 1946. He took up the drums as a serious occupation with his friend and compatriot, Mick Abrahams in the group “McGregor’s Engine” in 1967. Based in Luton, England, the band played in the general locality with Clive mustering an extraordinary non-matching drum kit, comprised of bits and pieces of various manufacturers’ equipment. It was as a drummer of “mix and match” description that he joined the fledgling Jethro Tull at the end of ’67 to accompany Ian Anderson, Mick and Glenn Cornick in the early, heady days of the post-blues-boom years of Brit-rock.

Never the self-professed technical drummer, Clive made his impact, based on his throbbing, gritty engagement with the essence of blues and rock and roll, moved by the work of Ginger Baker, Mitch Mitchell et al.

Later, Clive was to become firm friends of Corky Laing of “Mountain” and the many other drummers from the bands with which the early Tull found themselves appearing on the first US tours in 1969 and 1970. After the album “Aqualung”, Clive felt that Tull was entering a more complex musical phase, not so much in keeping with his own earthier roots, and volunteered to take early retirement to the different world of marriage, dog kennel management, and a venture in light engineering which had been his previous profession. Tull continued with the employment of Barrie Barlow, an old chum of Ian’s and John’s from schooldays in Blackpool.

In 1974, Clive joined the band “Blodwyn Pig” which Mick Abrahams had formed on his departure from Tull in 1969.

Today, Clive still remains a sought-after session musician, with many, many credits to his name amongst the world of old and not-so-old music groups.

Jonathan Noyce
A native of England, Jonathan Noyce was born in 1971. After trying his hand at many different instruments, Noyce eventually settled on the bass. He did his time at the Royal Academy of Music, beginning in 1990. It was during this time that he first hooked up with David Palmer. In 1995, Noyce met Jethro Tull guitarist Martin Barre, who eventually recommended him as a possible bassist for Ian Anderson’s solo tour. He got the gig and did that tour. Shortly after, he went on to become the bass player for Jethro Tull following the departure of Dave Pegg in 1995. He has been with that group ever since, although he still finds time to do other projects.

This show will celebrate 50 years of Jethro Tull in the United States. The show will revolve around a music history of Jethro Tull with Barre and two other former members of Jethro Tull.  Clive Bunker, who was their drummer from 1967 to 1971, and Jonathan Noyce, Tull’s bassist from 1995 to 2007.  In addition to the three aforementioned members, Martin Barre will be joined by members of his solo band on tour. They are vocalist Dan Crisp, bassist Alan Thompson, and drummer Darby Todd.

This performance will be 2, 60-minute sets with a 15-minute intermission. This is a world class performance delivered by one of the world’s best, most renowned guitarists.

Apart from Ian Anderson’s own solo concerts, this will be the closest thing you can get to experiencing a Jethro Tull concert in 2019, consisting of former members of Jethro Tull performed by seasoned musicians of which several were a part of the band itself and hence know this material intimately. It doesn’t get much better than that. If you like “Sitting on a Park Bench” there are several across the street from the Sarasota Opera House or you can come inside in the air-conditioned theater and enjoy the bliss with Martin Barre performing Jethro Tull 50th Anniversary Tour!

RoFest 2019 will take place on May 3rd through 5th, 2019 at the Sarasota Opera House, Florida. The final line-up and schedule for the festival are still TBA. Confirmed bands to appear so far are Headliner – Riverside, Karmamoi, Traverser, Entransient, and Edge of Reality.

Links:

Martin Barre official website: http://martinbarre.com

Martin Barre FaceBook Page:  https://www.facebook.com/pg/officialmartinbarre/about/?ref=page_internal

Clive Bunker – Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clive_Bunker

Jonathan Noyce FaceBook:  https://www.facebook.com/Jonathan-Noyces-Conscientious-and-Fully-Formed-Musical-Information-Page-129222920462334/

 

Presenting Dukes of the Orient, International AOR with a Mid-Atlantic Prog Accent

by | Dec 14, 2017 | News

What do you get when you match a Brit from London who loves American AOR with an American from California who grew up on British Prog? Dukes of the Orient is the masterful pairing of vocalist John Payne (ex-ASIA, GPS) with keyboardist Erik Norlander (Last in Line, Lana Lane, Rocket Scientists) who now present their eponymous debut album, ten years in the making. Payne’s powerful arena-seasoned vocals carry soaring melodies and lush harmonies over the sea of classic synthesizers and keyboards artfully painted with Norlander’s signature sonic palette.

Payne says of the album, “With Dukes of the Orient we have dug deep with analog soundscapes, superlative musicians, and song-driven epics. Add to this the masterful artwork of Rodney Matthews and a journey that started with the supergroup ASIA, we give you the next chapter, one we are extremely proud of.”

The two are backed by a world-renown ensemble of top musicians including Jeff Kollman, Guthrie Govan, Moni Scaria and Bruce Bouillet on guitar, Molly Rogers on strings and Jay Schellen on drums. Payne provides bass guitar and additional lead and rhythm guitar parts to complete the audiophile production. The album was mixed on a traditional analog console to preserve and enhance the natural depth, clarity, and soul of the tracks with great care taken to avoid over-compression, extreme equalization, and distortion.

Dukes of the Orient has its origins in 2007 as “ASIA Featuring John Payne,” a band that continued on after ASIA keyboardist, Geoff Downes, left the band to re-form the original 1982 lineup. Payne recruited Norlander to join Guthrie Govan and Jay Schellen for tour dates in the US and initial recordings, some of which endured to appear on the Dukes of the Orient album here. Govan left the band to form The Aristocrats and was replaced by guitarist Bruce Bouillet followed by Jeff Kollman and Moni Scaria. The final lineup resulted in the track, “Seasons Will Change,” released as a video in 2013 and also now appears on the Dukes of the Orient album. Following the death of original ASIA vocalist, John Wetton, in early 2017, Payne and Norlander decided that these recordings should give birth to a new band, both out of respect for Wetton and for clarity with the Downes-led ASIA.

John Payne grew up in Luton, England. Upon moving to Harpenden, England in his teen years, he started his first band. His love of music started long before, though. As a young teenager, he taught guitar at school and also played into the early hours of the morning at clubs in a local cover band. Tired of playing other people’s songs, he formed a three-piece called Moonstone. With influences such as Santana, Hendrix, Trower and Deep Purple, Moonstone toured both locally and around the UK rock circuit. With encouragement from Jim Rodford of The Kinks and Rod Argent, the music bug would not let go. John went on write, tour, session (both as a vocalist and guitarist), record and produce. Moving to London gave him his first break singing backing vocals for Roger Daltry of The Who on the album Under a Raging Moon. This started much session work leading to purchasing The Wall, his first recording studio, which would be one of many. Between session work, Payne was invited to Power Station recording studio to record vocals for the group ELO at the invitation of drummer Bev Bevan and producer Jim Steinman. When legal complications regarding the name arose, Payne made the decision to return to London, where he was invited to join Asia in 1992.

Payne has since toured as “The Parson” in Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds, toured and recorded with GPS, co-created and co-wrote the Las Vegas musical Raiding The Rock Vault, and formed The Rock Pack, hosting a plethora of iconic classic rock vocalists. His love of music and analog recording has taken him on a journey as multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, composer, scriptwriter, studio engineer, and producer.

Erik Norlander was born in Hollywood, California and went against the tide of 80s Sunset Strip pop metal, instead learning the craft of progressive rock keyboards inspired by the founding fathers of the movement, Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman, Eddie Jobson, Patrick Moraz and others, many of whom became friends as Norlander’s career developed. Both Emerson and Wakeman even wrote liner notes for Norlander’s early solo albums. As part of his indoctrination into the genre, he became obsessed with synthesizers and classic keyboards of all kinds, learning the subtleties of sound design and the inner workings of these arcane instruments including his own 1967 modular Moog synthesizer famously dubbed the “Wall of Doom.” This led Norlander to actually work on the design of synthesizers including the legendary Alesis Andromeda analog hardware synthesizer and IK Multimedia Syntronik virtual instrument among many others. Norlander has released 10 solo albums, 7 with his prog-rock band, Rocket Scientists, and 10 albums with his vocalist wife, Lana Lane. He also works with the Bob Moog Foundation to forward the legacy of the maverick inventor.

Dukes of the Orient to release their eponymous debut album with stunning cover art by Rodney Matthews on February 23, 2018, with select tour dates to follow.

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