Abel Ganz is very pleased to once again stage our ‘Prog Before Christmas’ event in 2018!

As some of you may know – last year’s event, thanks to the generosity of all the bands and audience members, managed to smash our previous total and we raised the fantastic sum of almost £2500 on behalf of cancer care charity https://www.maggiescentres.org/

We are sure you will all by now be aware, we decided to donate all proceeds from our event to this great cause as it has been such an important source of support to our dear friend [and founding member of Abel Ganz] Hugh Carter – who has become something of a champion for this charity. We are very happy indeed to say that this continues to be the case and so we will again be running this year’s show on the same basis.

As has become customary we are delighted to have some very specially invited guests who have agreed to come along to help make this what is sure to be another exceptional event.

This year – we are running things just a little differently. We noticed last year that not everyone could stay on till the end of the night [as the event ran on till 1am]. Some of the feedback we got back was that, for some, a slightly earlier finish would mean people could enjoy all the music and atmosphere of the event and still make it in time for last trains and buses home. We have taken that on board and so this year we will start earlier and finish just a little earlier.

Indeed, by adding one more band to the bill our event now becomes almost a ‘mini’ one day Prog Fest. A five band bill with two bands in the afternoon, then a break, then three bands in the evening. Our line up looks like this:

Glen Brielle – Hugh Carter’s solo project. Joined by several close friends in a full band line up, Hugh will debut selections from forthcoming solo release ‘Still‘ – a very personal album including epic track The Journey: a musical record of the voyage of discovery that Hugh and his wife Maria set off on after his diagnosis.

Halo Tora – Recently featured in Prog magazine this young and vital band from Glasgow are rightly drawing a great deal of attention at the moment. With a fresh and exciting sound, they really do have the potential to go very far and we are, frankly, fortunate to have them join the bill while it’s still possible to see them up close and personal! The band has just released new album ‘Man of Stone: First Chapter’.

Grand Tour – Hew Montgomery solo project. Joined by Joe Cairney from Comedy of Errors on lead vocals, and with full band line up, we are absolutely thrilled that this year’s event will feature the first live performances of Hew’s solo material. Playing selections from debut album ‘On the Beach’, and tracks from new, forthcoming album ‘Clocks that tick – but never talk’ this is sure to be a highlight of this year’s event.

Abel Ganz – Organizers / hosts will showcase new material from forthcoming album ‘The Life of The Honey Bee – and other moments of clarity’ as well as some favourites from back catalogue.

Galahad – Headline act. With a long and illustrious history, Galahad have in recent years released one great album after another! Their 2018 release ‘Seas Of Change’, the follow up to the 2017 ‘Quiet Storms‘ album consists of just one massive, hugely ambitious ‘Magnum Opus’ track exceeding 42-minutes of imaginative and dramatic modern Progressive Rock. Nominated for the 2018 UK PROG awards in the ‘UK Band/Artist of the year’ category, Galahad have, astonishingly, never before played in Scotland! We are so very pleased to welcome them to The Prog before Xmas and have them remedy that fact!

We hope you will agree that this is sure to be another night to remember and we would remind you all – as before, the aim is to raise as much money for the Maggie’s charity as we possibly can!!

The event will be held on Saturday December 15th in the Drygate Brewery in Glasgow and we expect to have tickets on sale from Sat 25th August. Please come along and enjoy a great night and support the event if you can.