In September 2019 the 8th edition of the Progdreams Festival will take place. The indoor festival has grown into an annual event that many prog fans from home and abroad look forward to. The prog scene seems livelier than ever and we received requests from bands from all over the world for a spot at the festival. Once again we managed to present you with an interesting selection and put together a versatile line-up.
We have a total of 12 bands performing over three festival days, including Gazpacho, The Watch, John Hackett Band, Sky Architect, Von Hertzen Brothers and many more. Both established names and newcomers get the chance to present themselves to fans of the genre. We have both day-tickets and passe-partouts for three days for sale. On Friday, the following bands will take the stage: Von Hertzen Brothers, The Paradox Twin, and Sky Architect. Scroll down for more information about these bands.
Roine Stolt, known as the guitarist, singer, writer and at times band leader of the groups The Flower Kings, Transatlantic, Agents of Mercy, Kaipa DC, as well as from his work with prog icon Jon Anderson and the new super-group The Sea Within, has released ‘Manifest of an Alchemist’, his brand new studio album. Under the moniker ROINE STOLT’S THE FLOWER KING, this album offers 10 songs and almost 70 minutes of playing time celebrating the style Roine is most revered for: progressive rock, richly orchestrated with all the trademark elements from four decades of the genre.
To celebrate he is pleased to launch a stream of the new track ‘High Road’, which you can listen to here:
Roine comments: “Today marks the day, “Manifesto Of An Alchemist” is released worldwide and I’m glad to be able to celebrate this and The Flower Kings’ music with our fans in Guadalajara, Mexico. It is a truly special ‘release day’ for me and I hope you will all enjoy this album as it offers an extensive prog rock journey that I consider a wonderful contrast to the haste and hectic pace of this age. So, enjoy the 12 minutes of ‘High Road’ on this day, get the album and see you on our European tour with Spock’s Beard kicking off November 30!”
Manifesto of an Alchemist has been receiving great reviews, find a selection below:
“immediate and energetic, gaining in grit” – Prog Magazine
“Stolt’s virtuous musicianship and songwriting abilities shine throughout this masterpiece.” – Daily Sport
“The Flower King at his very best.” – The Prog Report
Watch Stolt discuss how the album together in this recently launched interview video here: https://youtu.be/K2bxqEAx3PI
A lyric video for the track ‘Lost America’ was released recently. Watch it now here: https://youtu.be/y919myxnMAc
‘Manifesto Of An Alchemist’ is a celebration of all the styles that have been part of the colourful, daring and dynamic songwriting and arrangements that Roine masters like no other, yet also offers a more immediate, more hands on approach. “Like that first TFK album, I’m the main lead vocalist here again – it works as these lyrics are important to me and resonate with my view of the world. A lot of the guitar work is actually my spontaneous ‘demo’ guitars” and that goes for much of the synth work, too. I didn’t want to ‘process’ ideas too much as there is much power in the initial creation – I wanted to keep it that way.”
The album features a host of other musicians, including long-time collaborators Jones Reingold, Hans Froberg & Michael Stolt, as well as fellow The Sea Within member Marco Minnemann, Max Lorentz, Zach Kamins, Rob Townsend & Nad Sylvan.
‘Manifesto Of An Alchemist’ features stunning artwork from Shaun Beyond (https://www.instagram.com/shaunbeyond/), and will arrive as a limited edition CD digipak, Gatefold 180g 2LP + CD & as digital download.
As previously announced, Roine will take The Flower Kings catalogue on tour later this year, as well as playing tracks from this new album. He comments: “I am excited that the album will be released in November this year and at the same time will be in South America playing The Flower Kings music with a band that also includes Hasse Froberg & Jonas Reingold and also introduces two younger friends; Zach Kamins on keyboards and Mirko DiMaio on drums – both fabulous musicians. We will also bring this to Europe where we join forces with legends Spocks Beard.”
InsideOutMusic 25th Anniversary European Tour feat. Spock’s Beard & Roine Stolt’s The Flower King
30th November – Cosmopolite, Oslo, Norway
1st December – Kulturhuset Studion, Stockholm, Sweden
2nd December – KB, Malmo, Sweden
4th December – Zeche, Bochum, Germany
5th December – Z7, Pratteln, Switzerland
6th December – La Machine, Paris, France
7th December – De Boerderij, Zoetermeer, Netherlands
8th December – Hedon, Zwolle, Netherlands
9th December – Islington Assembly Hall, London, UK
10th December – Academy Club, Manchester, UK
CANADA – North America 2019
28th February – Club Soda, Montreal, Canada
1st March – Salle Jean – Paul Tardif, Quebec City, Canada
Just saw Bohemian Rhapsody, and even though they screwed up a lot of things chronologically and factually, it still captured the essence of Freddie Mercury and brought back a cool memory from when I was 18. Queen was an obsession for me in high school. Their music was a constant soundtrack of my life and I had all their albums. My band at the time wrote many songs inspired by Queen and even learned all the harmonies to “Love of my Life”, including Brian May’s guitar solo, which I transcribed and taught myself to play.
In February of 1993, about a year and a half after Freddie’s death, Brian May put out a great solo album called “Back to the Light.” I heard through the grapevine that he was giving a secret, free concert at the old Agora in Cleveland. I went with my bandmates, Matthew James Murphy and Matthew Parrotta. The show was killer and afterward, we wanted to try to get backstage. It was frigid cold and snowing outside and there was a huge line of people waiting to meet Brian. We were in the back of the line freezing our asses off, so we just started singing as loud as we could, hoping the guy guarding the door would hear us.
All of a sudden, the door opens, someone from the crew along with the drummer Cozy Powell walks up to us and leads us past the crowd straight to the backstage area. There, standing in front of us, was Brain May! We sang him one of our songs and gave him our demo tape. He was very gracious, complimentary, and we chatted for a while. He signed our CD’s and we thanked him.
For what it’s worth, the memory of that night is forever etched in my mind.
Thank you, Brian, Freddie, and Queen for the incredible music and inspiration!
– Joe Deninzon
Laid Back Townies is rhythmic, explosive and progressive roots rock-band from Northern Ostrobothnia, Finland. The band is founded in 2013 and they released their debut album ‘Watch Your Step’ in 2015. The record’s power song ”It’s Not You” got a lot of praising words and reviews from underground rock-circles.
Their second album named ‘II’ is released on December 14th, 2018 by Inverse Records. The album is more progressive compared to its predecessor and most of the instrumental parts was recorded live only in four days. In other words, the second album can be described as a raw free jamming ensemble which shows the dynamic playing of the trio and energetic vocals.
Watch music video ‘True Grit’
Line-up:
Lauri Peisterä – vocals
Jussi Karasti – guitar
Mika Säkkinen – bass
Samuli Lindberg – drums
Tracklist:
1. Drop Dead Woman
2. Who Knows
3. Sin City
4. Ghost
5. True Grit
6. The Fall of Giants Part I
7. The Fall of Giants Part II
8. Salt Rain of SadnessPre-sale – album ‘II’ on Spotify: https://bit.ly/2FA4StX
Exclusively available on the band’s November UK tour and via the band’s official online store ONLY!
The current line-up of Focus, which features Thijs van Leer, Pierre van der Linden, Menno Gootjes and Udo Pannekeet – completed the new studio album titled “Focus 11” earlier this year and are debuting the CD edition on their November UK Tour.
The 11 track album will be released as a CD, gatefold coloured LP and Download on the band’s own In And Out of Focus Records, via Cherry Red, in late January. The album features artwork by Roger Dean.
When asked about the album, Thijs van Leer responded with this poem: Wow, my joy could not increase To see this new release It has Mazzel, Palindrome and Heaven Plus a title track called Eleven Both angelic and a beast It’s Focus, to say the least!
For fans who can’t attend the November tour, the only place where the CD can be ordered online (with orders being fulfilled in November 2018) is the band’s own webstore: https://burningshed.com/store/focus
For fans wishing to pre-order the CD and LP for when they are released in January, Amazon is starting to take pre-orders now. The CD is identical. Amazon CD: http://geni.us/Focus11CD and Amazon LP: http://geni.us/Focus11LP
Focus tour dates:
10th November – LONDON – London 100 Club SOLD OUT
11th November – WOLVERHAMPTON – Robin 2
12th November – MILTON KEYNES – The Stables
14th November – HULL – The Fruit
15th November – NEW BRIGHTON – Floral Pavilion Theatre
16th November – WOKINGHAM – Wokingham Football Club SOLD OUT
17th November – KINROSS – Green Hotel SOLD OUT
18th November – GLASGOW – The Ferry
19th November – EDINBURGH – The Caves
20th November – ABERDEEN – The Assembly
21st November – DUNDEE – The Church
22nd November – GATESHEAD – The Sage
23rd November – LOWDHAM – Lowdham Village Hall
24th November – DERBY – The Flower Pot
25th November – HOLMFIRTH – Picturedrome
27th November – MANCHESTER – Band on the Wall
28th November – ALDERSHOT – West End Centre SOLD OUT
29th November – SOUTHAMPTON – 1865 Club
30th November – FLETCHING – Trading Boundaries
1st December – FLETCHING – Trading Boundaries
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