by Nick | Aug 23, 2018 | Festivals, News
The Inaugural On The Blue Cruise
We are pleased to announce the inaugural, 2019 On The Blue Cruise, featuring special performances by your host, Justin Hayward of The Moody Blues, along with one of the finest Classic Rock lineups in the history of our company. This incredible 5-night Classic Rock Cruise, sails from Miami, Florida February 10-15, 2019 for five days and nights, visiting Nassau/Paradise Island, Bahamas and the Private Isle of Labadee!
Expect all the great events and production that sets our cruises apart from the rest. This is going to be a cruise to remember, showcasing the talents of Justin and our featured Artists and Bands!
Our line-up rivals any in our history and includes not only Justin Hayward, but, The Zombies, Dave Mason, Steve Hackett, Al Stewart, Wishbone Ash, POCO, Vanilla Fudge, Colin Blunstone, Danny Seraphine from the band Chicago, Rick Derringer, Randy Hansen and our favorite Irish band, the Young Dubliners…with more to come soon!
We are delighted to announce that our home for the 2019 On the Blue Cruise is the magnificent Royal Caribbean, Mariner of the Seas. This is one of our favorite ships for Music Festivals at Sea because it has not just one, but two, huge music venues inside the ship. No chance of rainout on the concerts you don’t want to miss!
In addition, the Mariner is getting the biggest facelift in the history of Royal Caribbean Cruise Line. This is a stem to stern makeover of epic proportion…over $100 MILLION! Even better, they will be completing the renovation before we sail, giving us a pristine vessel for the kickoff of the inaugural On the Blue Cruise!
The new Mariner of the Seas has more ways to play, delicious new dining concepts and a few surprises to thrill even the boldest cruisers. Launch yourself into a virtual world on a new bungee trampoline experience — Sky Pad. Hang ten on the newly added FlowRider surf simulator or race down The Perfect Storm waterslides. Have a tiki-chic rendezvous over rum punches in The Bamboo Room or bond over family-style Tuscan eats at Jamie’s Italian by Jamie Oliver. This is going to be a “WOW” ship with some of the finest music and events featuring some of the greats in Classic Rock…what a show!
Tickets will go on sale to our past Moodies Cruise Alumni on Tuesday, March 6, 2018, at 2 pm Eastern. Alumni will receive an email prior to this date with their personalized booking link. Later in the month, our general on sale to new guests will open up at www.OnTheBlueCruise.com/booknow so be sure to grab your spot aboard!
On The Blue Cruise is a playground for the serious fan where music and a luxury cruise unite for the vacation of a lifetime.
Website
http://onthebluecruise.com
by Nick | Aug 22, 2018 | News
MUSIC – LASERS – LIGHTS – LET’S ROCK
Photo by Jay Skolnick
JOIN US ON THE DARK SIDE-OCTOBER 13 for
“The Ultimate Pink Floyd Experience”
Address: 590 Plaza Real, Boca Raton, FL 33432
-TICKETS NOW ON SALE-
http://seaside-music.ticketleap.com/usfloydexperience/
by Kev Rowland | Aug 19, 2018 | Reviews
Multi-instrumentalist and singer Marco Ragni is back with his latest album, and what an album it is. While he provides vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, bass, keyboards, mellotron, piano and mandolin he has also been joined by Dave Newhouse (sax, clarinet, flute, keyboards and woodwinds arrangements), Peter Matuchniak (lead guitar), Jeff Mack (bass) and Maurizio Antonini on drums, plus a few guests adding different nuances. This means this album includes members of The Muffins, Bomber Goggles, Scarlet Hollow and Barock Project, so it is a given that the guys all know their ways around their instruments. What this has enabled them all to do is to relax completely, and the result is an album which in many ways is the loosest I have ever come across. We often talk about how tight a band is, how they are right on top of each other, but here they sound as if there is a great space between them all and between the layers, allowing the music to fully breathe and go where it desires.
The album title is apt, as there is a feeling of a great sky and a bleak landscape, and the travelers knowing not where they are going when they are likely to reach the destination, or even if it really matters. This is a musical journey that is given a very middle eastern feel at times with the use of the oud, while it is also often reflective, with a great deal of restraint. It is an album which demands to be savored like a fine brandy: take the time and let all the nuances and textures hit every sense. It is progressive, it is psychedelic, it is nearly New Age (but not quite, they don’t inhale), it is World, it is delicate, but there is an inner strength and core which keeps everything moving in the same direction.
Often it is just Marco singing in a reflective manner, but during “Promised Land” there is even room for many singers and for Peter to become more direct in his approach. Maurizio is also one of those drummers who understand that there are times to play, and time to listen to the band with everyone else, and that restraint also has a key part to play. This is quite some album and is well worth discovering by all good music lovers.
8/10 Kev Rowland
by Kev Rowland | Aug 19, 2018 | Reviews
‘Origins’ is a collection consisting of compositions and recordings from keyboard player Lisa LaRue from as long ago as 1992, up to 2016. stemming from 1992 through 2016. It is incredibly varied, as it includes pieces such as a spoken word/keyboard collaboration with Gilli Smyth of Gong, some she composed and recorded for modern ballet, selections with John Payne (Asia Featuring John Payne, GPS, Dukes of the Orient), Michael Sadler (Saga), Ryo Okumoto (Spock’s Beard), a collaboration with Italian composer/keyboardist Federico Fantacone, and solo pieces. Other musicians involved include Mitch Perry (Talas, Aerosmith), Don Schiff (Rocket Scientists, Kracked Earth), John Baker (Forever Twelve, Mars Hollow) as well as Steve Adams, Brenda K, Michael Wheeler, Merrill Hale, Svetlan Raket (Par Lindh Project), John “Yafke” Timothy, Michael Alvarez.
It is a wonderful collection of work, containing so many styles that one never knows what is going to happen next. “256 Leagues Above New Orleans” combines jazz-style electric piano with shimmering synths and wonderful flute to bring together thoughts (at least in my mind) of Native Americans riding over the plains, and then there are others where Steve Adams provides incredibly fluid electric guitar, while it is always a pleasure to hear Don Schiff in the mix. There is so much going on that the album could have become disjointed, spread over two discs it is nearly two hours in length, yet there is always the desire to know what ideas are going to come through next, how it is going to come together.
LaRue isn’t a flashy “look at me” extravagant player in the realm of Wakeman or Emerson, but instead has a strong understanding of arrangements and what is needed where. There are a few numbers that drift into delicate New Age territory, but there are many others which are far harder, with real presence. The album ebbs and flows, and the result is that listeners such as myself, who haven’t previously heard much from LaRue, will feel inspired to search out more of her back catalog Now that she is with MRR, I am sure we will all be hearing quite a bit more of her activities, and I for one am very pleased about that.
8/10 – Kev Rowland
by Nick | 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/
