Says Kelly: “I first came across DeeExpus when a friend of theirs emailed me and.asked, ‘Are you interested in playing piano on a track?’. I told him to send me the song, which was Maybe September.”

Kelly not only plays on this, but also the 26-minute title track. And multi-instrumentalist Andy Ditchfield feels he’s made an enormous contribution to the album.

“He’s helped immensely, offering mix advice, critique and enthusiastic encouragement.”

As a result, Kelly ‘s now a full-time member, joining up with Ditchfield and singer Tony Wright.

“I recently went up to the North East, and after a few pints down the local they popped the question. ‘I’m in!’, I replied.”

There’s also a guest appearance from Nik Kershaw. He sings on the song Memo.

Find out more at www.deeexpus.com

Alongside our guide to this month’s High Voltage Festival, the newest addition in the prog festival calendar, we interview every prog band on the bill including:

Caravan, interviewed by snooker loopy Steve Davis!

Curved Air’s frontwoman Sonja Kristina, interviewed by Rise Above/Cathedral mainman Lee Dorrian.

Prog’s biggest ever roundtable as Jon Lees’ Barclay James Harvest, Anathema, Mostly Autumn and Amplifier collide at Prog Towers – and contribute to our renaissance-inspired cover masterpiece!

We also bring you:

Ian Anderson’s editor’s message, hotly-tipped new band and reissue review picks.

Chris Squire and Trevor Horn present the new Yes album Fly From Here.

Jan Akkerman discusses the major event of Minor Details.

Jon Anderson on how every day counts in Survival And Other Stories.

Dave Greenslade keys in with tales of Colosseum, Count Basie and new Roots.

New bands Cryptex, Moonwagon, Wobbler and the Ian Anderson-approved Dogma.

The Prog eye view of that reunion at Roger Waters’ O2 Wall show as well as Rush, Pendragon, Tangerine Dream, Von Hertzen Brothers and more on tour.

Plus our essential guide to prog festivals, tours and releases in the coming summery months. Yes, we said summer (puts away umbrella and wellies).

Did we say there’s a free nine-track CD, too? With an exclusive Big Big Train track? And a bumper 19-page review section featuring Yes, CCLR, Mostly Autumn, Carl Palmer, Andy Sears, Queensryche, Devin Townsend, John Wetton, Marillion, The Flower Kings and more?

We don’t half spoil you…

The new issue of Classic Rock Presents Prog – out now!

Kaboom! The latest issue of Classic Rock Presents Prog gets inside 1971, the year that prog rock broke. Interviews with Jon Anderson, Roy Harper, Gentle Giant, Caravan, ELP and more profile the birth of prog, as Fish, Steve Hogarth, Peter Nicholls, Nick Barrett, Brian Devoil, John Mitchell and Steven Wilson describe how their young lives were shaped by the sights and sounds that came out of this year, and how it changed music forever as they carried the torch on. To cap it all, we’ve collated your votes in our 1971 Readers’ Top Ten. Is your favourite in there? Grab a copy now and find out… 

Also in the issue:

Jon Anderson on ABWH – the band that said no to Yes! 

John Wetton returns – healthier, happier and ready to spread his wings. 

Jakszyk, Fripp & Collins – what the Schizoid men did next. 

Kate Bush stars as our maverick – through the eyes of brother John Carder Bush. 

Devin Townsend – the mad professor of prog metal gets experimental. 

Plus: Symphony X, Mogwai, Caravan, …Trail Of Dead, King’s X, Blackfield, Marillion, Yes, Arbouretum, UK, Nektar, Moon Duo, Michael Giles, Blood Ceremony, Touchstone, Roger Waters, Comus, Amorphis, Neal Morse, Wobbler – and, of course, Rick Wakeman’s regular Caped Crusades column. 

There’s always the free CD too featuring 11 artists from Solstice to Graveyard with an EXCLUSIVE Jon Anderson track on as well. 

If you can’t get to a newsagent, find Prog here. 

It really is the dawning of a new era.

It has a lavishly illustrated Rush spectacular celebrating their current Time Machine tour that features an exclusive in-depth chat with sticksman/lyricist Neil Peart – his first rock magazine interview in five years – plus Geddy Lee on the evolution of the band, the Time Machine set-up and 30 years of Moving Pictures.

Also in this issue:

* On the road with Fairport Convention and the story of Babbacombe Lee.

* Here come The Nice: Keith Emerson and Lee Jackson pop into Prog HQ

* Judy Dyble: Fairport and Robert Fripp’s original muse tells us her extraordinary story – and all about her new album and anthology

* Cumbria’s finest, It Bites, on their new live DVD and the concept album in the pipeline

* In the run-up to his arena shows, ex-Supertramp star Roger Hodgson reveals all in his feud with Rick Davies

* Plus! We explore Roy Harper’s Stormcock as our Masterwork, Pentangle maestro John Renbourn as our Maverick, and cram in new bands Phaedra, Konchordat, Rose Kemp and Arcane Roots.

* Want more? How about Adrian Belew, Presto Ballet, Mastodon, Wolverine, Beardfish, Peter Gabriel, ELP, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Van der Graaf, Pendragon, Marillion, Radiohead, Haken and Touchstone?

Of course we mustn’t forget our regular FREE Prognosis CD, this issue featuring 11 tracks from Twelfth Night, Liam Davison, John Young, Talanas, Aethenor and more, and for UK and subscription customers* we are proud to include an exclusive bonus CD, Starcrazy – An Introduction To Judy Dyble, a seven-track sampler from the folk-prog songstress’ singular catalogue, including two outstanding new tracks.

Phew, what a scorcher.

*this CD will not be available to customers outside of the UK for contractual reasons.

Words: Malcolm Dome

Although they’ve now been around for about seven years, it’s only in the last two that the line-up has stabilised, featuring Guy (vocals), Nick (lead guitar/backing vocals), Srdjan (lead guitar), Jamie (bass) and Chris (drums).

Their influences, says Nick, “Come from 80s metal. Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Metallica and Slayer. We’ve also got a little bit of prog in there as well. I’m a big Marillion fan”.

In 2008, the band self-released debut album Through The Gates Of Hell, establishing a style that owes something to the NWOBHM era, but filtered through a distinct thrash perspective. And this is even more obvious on current record The Line Of Fire (again, self-released), wherein the band have added a touch of confident class.

“The problems we have, though, are the same as so many other bands these days. We have to work so hard to get even a sniff of an opportunity and it’s virtually impossible for a band like us to make any money at all.”

Primitai did get the chance to open for White Wizzard on the latter’s recent UK tour, doing well enough to impress everyone who turned up early to see them. At The Underworld in London, the place was packed for the five-piece, who delivered a thunderous and sweaty set of twin guitar-based, maximum throttle. In fact, they probably went down slightly better than the headliners.

Another plus that night was that they appeared to attract a lot of very attractive young ladies. Is this the norm for them?

“I wish it were,” laughs Nick. “That was just a case of friends of friends of friends coming down. We usually get mostly males at our gigs. Not that I’m complaining!”

The plan for 2011 is to get on the road as much as possible…well, as much as day jobs will allow.

“We did 10 dates with White Wizzard, and we’d like to do two or three more support runs like that. In an ideal world we’d tour for a month, but none of us can take off so much time from work. So, we have to do it in smaller bursts.”

Primitai also hope to get a new record ready for a summer release. And if it’s as good as The Line Of Fire, then expect big things for this lot within the next 12 months. They are definitely one of the elite who can carry on Priest’s crucial legacy.

Don’t believe it? You can download the song The Craft now at http://www.primitai.com/

The bands available are:

Argent
Asia

Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Marilion

Check it all out now here.

Former Marillion court jester Fish made a triumphant return to the London stage  at Kingston’s progtastic venue The House Of Progression, in The Peel. Inevitably, it was packed, even the overspill  bar had to be opened to accommodate the throng of Fish/Marillion diehards.

Fish was on fine form and could quite easily make a second career as a stand
up comic/stroryteller. He’s very reminiscent of fellow Scot Billy Connolly, with his sarcastic wit, and deadpan delivery. There were many highly amusing anecdotes, the pick of the bunch being his remarks about  Facebook Sluts, Internet Dating and The Twin Towers (no, not Wembley Stadium!).

And let’s not forget the music. Fish has a vast back catalogue of hidden treasures. So out of the hat came a mixture of solo material and a sprinkling of Marillion Faves. Highpoints were rousing versions of State Of Mind, Zoe 25, Fugazi, Kayleigh, the hypnotic Lavender and the very Who-esque Sugar Mice.

Fish certainly gives value for money these days, with a set that ran for close on two-and-a-half hours. He was also then happy to sign endless autographs, CDs T-shirts, etc. Fish later told me this current tour has been his most enjoyable for many a year. You only had to look at his beaming face as he went in search of another bevy. I’d love to see him now do a tour as a raconteur.

Find out more at www.the-company.com

THEN
Band: Marillion
Venue: The Marquee, London
Date: October 20, 1981
Marillion (now there’s an original name) hail from Aylesbury and have been playing SRO (sold right out) showcase gigs at the legendary Friars boozer, which believe it or not is in Aylesbury.

Marillion recently took London by storm, and gave Aerosmith rip-off merchants Girl a bit of a scare. It’s not often a support act gets an encore at The Marquee, although to be fair to Girl, Marilllion had bought down a rather large contingent of ageing hippy ‘eadbangers. No denim and leather here mate, more like kaftans and loonpants.

A trip back to the mid-70s maybe, but at least Marillion aren’t jumping on the NWOBHM bandwagon. Instead they’re more at home borrowing licks from the old school of Genesis, Styx , Yes and Cannuck rockers Zon and, wait for it, Trillion. These are just a few names that spring to mind.

Onstage Marillion come across very bizarre, not dissimilar to Agony Bag; whatever happened to them? Lead singer Fish, a rather tall and mysterious Scot, stalks around the stage in jerky movements and at times reminded me of Gene Simmons, although Fish’s make up coulda been more outrageous.

The rest of the band look like some weird religious sect, wearing what looked like old potato sacks, each one with a bright eye coloured eye painted on the back, giving that mythical look. Perhaps the band have been reading to many Stephen King novels.

Marillion have a very tight sound. Songs like He Knows You Know, Garden Party and Charting The Single are all long workouts, well crafted, not too much guitar, and synthesizer drifting in and out. Fronting this rather complicated sound is Fish, who does have a good voice, and sings pretty off the wall lyrics. So what a surprise when they encored with an old Scottish jig classic, Loch Lomond, a real show stopper.

The sooner Marillion get signed the better. Now, if someone could tell me what the big eye on the back of those potato sacks means, I’ll join the sect.

NOW
Band: Marillion
Venue: The Prog Stage, High Voltage, London
Date: July 25, 2010
When I saw that Marillion were due to headline the Prog Stage at the first ever High Voltage Festival, I was naturally curious to see how the band had changed over the years. The last time I saw Marillion live was back in 1983, at the Civic Hall in Guildford. And the only Steve Hogarth era Marillion album I own is 2004’s Marbles, which I grew rather fond of, and even used in an episode of the TV series Silent Witness (Xavier’s day job is as a film and TV editor – Ed.).

It’ s a song from Marbles that opens their set. The Invisible Man creeps almost apologetically out of the PA, as Mark Kelly’s swirling keys fill the air, with Pete Trewavas’s thumping bass adding another layer to their complex sound. And then there’s Hogarth, dressed like he’d just come from a funeral, in black, and delivering those almost haunting lyrics in his unique style. Steve Rothery meanwhile looked like he was trying to make his guitar sound louder due to the annoying invasion of Down from the nearby Metal Hammer stage.

I decide to move to the left hand side to try and get a way from Down, although to be honest what I hear of them does actually sound quite good!  As I find a spot where the sound was a lot clearer  I bump into Fish! Well, stone the crows, etc, how weird.

Cover My Eyes is blaring out, and look up at Fish to see if he was Covering His Ears – he’s not. In fact, he has a large telephoto lens pointed at the stage  as if the giant Scotsman is on some sort of spying mission. The Fish face betrays no hint of what he’s thinking anything. I know for a fact  that Fish gets on with most members of the band, so there’s no animosity in the air.

I have to confess it’s weird watching Fish watching Marillion, But I can’t really see him wrapping his lungs around the likes of Slainte Mhath or King, which Hogarth dedicates to astronaut Neil Armstrong, ”80 today, and still going strong”.

The core of Marillion is very much the same, although the rhythm section (also featuring drummer Ian Mosley) has slowed down to an almost, dare I say it, lounge level of progginess! Hogarth, meanwhile is an aquired taste,but as the set proggressed (Double groan – Ed.) I’m sucked in by the frontman’s odd style especially so on This Strange Engine. By the time he’s sung  Afraid Of Sunlight I coulda sworn I was looking at a Vampire!

I have to confess I still prefer the old Marillion with Fish, mainly because the songs are far wackier and more energectic, but having said that I would like to sse the Hogarth’s Marillion in a venue where Down will hopefully not be interfering in the mix, otherwise it will end up sounding like the Hogarth Roundabout. And Marillion don’t deserve that. Meanwhile, if you want so see Fish live he’s playing the Peel in Kingston on August 16.

Words: Malcolm Dome

For heritage bands, festivals are all about being given the chance to reinforce your appeal to older audiences, and to pick up young fans. How do you that? By playing the classic songs. As almost every band of that ilk over these two days appreciates. And then there’s Magnum.

Quite why this superb British band choose to open their set with three comparatively new songs defies belief. Maybe, they want to prove they’re not a nostalgia act? OK, but do that on your own tour. Not here. The Prog stage is packed, and if the band had delivered the right set, the benefits would have been enormous. Get the old-school Magnum devotees going, and the young ones will pick up on the atmosphere. As it is, Magnum blow it – big time. Introducing some classics later on doesn’t help. The damage has been done.

Out on the Metal Hammer stage, things are so much more positive as Clutch deliver a compulsive psychedelic blues set. This is one of the best bands in the world – and they hold the audience spellbound.

Meantime – it’s a whirl at the moment – Joe Bonamassa proves on the main stage that he’s not just a gifted guitarist, but has the voice and the performance potential to be more than just another fretboard fretter.

But wait, what is this on the Prog stage? Ah, it’s Uriah Heep, playing the whole of their 1972 album Demons And Wizards, and doing it with such panache and style, it’s almost as if it’s only just been written. The introduction of Micky Moody on slide guitar is an inspiration, and the crowd is so vast, it’s overspilling into the Helter Skelter area.

Not to be outdone, Opeth have the crowd backed up on the Metal Hammer stage, as they prove they’re among the prog metal giants. This is a powerful, progressively-inclined set from a band at the top of their game.

But you can’t actually stand still for even a moment, because next on the Prog stage are Argent. The original line-up together for the first time in 37 years. It’s slightly amusing to hear that Rod Argent is just a little louder than everyone else. But the band do bear his name, and while due respect is paid to Russ Ballard, you know Rod is at the epicentre. But the set is spectacular – starting with It’s Only Money Parts I And 2, taking in Hold Your Head Up and God Gave Rock ‘N’ Roll To You… even The Zombies’ She’s Not There and Rainbow’s hit Since You’ve Been Gone, written by Ballard. Watch out for a full tour – it’s worth the effort.

Joe Elliott is leading his troops – well,  the Quireboys – through a Down ‘N’ Outz set of Mott The Hoople related covers on the main stage. It’s entertaining, but the real star is a three-year-old girl in the crowd who shows the sort of moves that could make her a star in 15 years. Everyone, it seems, is trying to video and photograph her. It sums up this festival that 40-somethings on stage are playing songs almost older than themselves and getting a three-year-old into the music. Priceless. The generation barrier is hereby abolished. But it’s when Ian Hunter walks on that everything takes off. The man’s a rock star. And the way he leads with an acoustic guitar on Once Bitten, Twice Shy is a lesson.

Headlining the Metal Hammer stage, Down are energetic and dynamic, to the point of being close to stealing the whole festival. It’s just stunning. Almost matched, albeit in a rather more low key fashion, by Marillion on the Prog stage. With Fish oddly watching in the crowd, they are mesmerising by accentuating the music not the personalities.

And so to ELP. The headliners on the main stage. Back together for the first time in nearly a decade-and-a-half. This is the band, more than any other, who made most of the world hate prog – and made all of us who love the music so dedicated to them. Bombastic? Yes. Self-indulgent? Absolutely. Losing the musical plot? Totally. But would we have them any other way? No. Tonight, they show once again why prog is despised by the ignorant majority and loved by the cognoscenti. Whether we seem them again is irrelevant. We’ve got to see them one last time.

For no other reason – and there are plenty of others – High Voltage is a triumph. But you know what? Overall, it’s been the best festival this year, because it was bold and brave enough to bring back ELP,  to back prog and to give us a bill that was all killer, no filler. Roll on 2011.

WHERE: London Victoria Park

WHEN: July 24 and 25

‘Custom built by rock fans for rock fans’ goes the quote – and that’s no hype. Because this festival has been created by the promoters with one thought in mind: what would we like to see, and how would we like to be treated?

Over the days, across three stages (Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog), there’s an entire spectrum of excellent bands. The giants such as ELP, ZZ Top,  Black Label Society, Transtlantic, Marillion and Down. There’s the reunion of the original Argent line-up. There’s Uriah Heep doing the whole of their classic album Demons And Wizards (with guest guitarist Micky Moody). And Martin Turner’s Wishbone Ash doing Argus in its entirety. There are the young talents like The Reasoning, Touchstone, New Device and Lethargy getting the chance to impress. There’s the chance to see Joe Elliott and Ian Hunter together in the Down ‘N’ Outz. And there’s also the chance to pay a fitting homage to Ronnie James Dio with the last ever Heaven & Hell performance.

You’ll also have the chance of getting official souvenir edition CDs on the spot of performances from seven bands on the bill: ELP, Marillion, Asia, Argent, Focus, Uriah Heep and Martin Turner’s Wishbone Ash. This is being done by Concert Live, the instant music specialists.

But there’s a lot more going on beyond the three stages. For a start there’s Eagle Vision pop-up cinema, showing some of the best rock and metal documentaries, and also playing host to Q&A sessions with both Rick Wakeman and Randy Bachman.

The famed Ace Café relocates to the festival, serving up some fine rock ‘n’ roll and also a display of rare hot rods and classic motorbikes. There’s also an exhibition of vintage cars and bikes, out together by the Classic Car Club. You can also enter an air guitar competition, overseen by Air Guitar UK, and visit the Ronnie James Dio Tribute Gallery.

It’s gonna be two special days of all round, essential rock entertainment.

Find out more at www.highvoltagefestival.co.uk