ELP Deluxe Editions In The Works; Band To Reunite In 2010?

ELP are to release two deluxe editions on November 12, through Sanctuary/UMC.
One will feature Works Vols 1 & 2, brought together for the first time. Both were originally released in 1977, Works Volume 1 being a double LP, while Works Volume 2 was a single album. The CDs here have been remastered.
The other deluxe edition is of the 1974 triple live album Welcome Back My Friends To The Show That Never Ends… Ladies & Gentlemen, Emerson, Lake & Palmer. (Possibly the longest album title since Tyrannosaurus Rex’s My People Were Fair And Had Sky In Their Hair… But Now They’re Content To Wear Stars On Their Brows.) Again, the ELP album has been remastered.
Recently, rumours have been rife concerning a 40th anniversary ELP reformation for 2010 – although nothing has so far been confirmed.
Drummer Carl Palmer recently told the Birmingham Post:
“We were going to reform ELP this year but we had a few medical problems involving Keith [Emerson, keyboards].
“One of his hands needs looking at so we had to postpone it. It’s an occupational hazard, with both of my hands having been operated on, but hopefully we can make it happen next year. Our second reformation was from 1991 to 1998 so I suppose we are due another one.”
In addition, Esoteric Records have acquired the ights to ELP’s label, Manticore. Starting in November, there will be a huge reissues campaign, featuring artists like Stray Dog, PFM, Keith Christmas and Pete Sinfield.
For further details, go to www.emersonlakepalmer.com

Lost David Gilmour Produced Unicorn Albums To Be Reissued

11/3/2009 - Philadelphia, PA - Pink Floyd fanatics rejoice with the first time release of two rare David Gilmour produced albums by UK country rock band Unicorn! The CDs 'Blue Pine Trees' and 'Too Many Crooks' will be released by premier reissue label Renaissance Records in conjunction with ItsAboutMusic.com on November 10th. When you think of 'country rock' band's like Firefall, Pure Praire League, Poco, Flying Burrito Bros probably come to mind first, but one band that could well be called the godfathers of the genre actually came from England. The meeting between Unicorn and Pink Floyd's renown guitarist is a curious one.
Early in 1973 Unicorn played at the wedding reception for Transatlantic publicist Ricky Hopper. One of the guests was David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, who at the end of the evening got up and jammed with Unicorn on Neil Young's "Heart of Gold". Afterwards Gilmour told the band that he really liked Country Rock. A week later the Pink Floyd guitarist phoned the band to say that he had just installed a studio at his country retreat and asked if they wanted to demo some songs there. The band immediately accepted. A few days later they travelled up to Essex to Gilmour's estate. He showed them into the studio and said there was no need to bring any of their gear in from the van. Hanging on the walls was his collection of vintage Fender, Gibson, Rickenbacker and Martin guitars and underneath them Fender amplifiers and a Premier drum kit. They recorded three songs and Dave added some Fender Pedal Steel Guitar which he had just brought on his last American tour and was learning to play. They were invited back on several occasions to record.
"Unicorn were playing at the wedding reception of an old friend of mine, Rick Hopper," related David Gilmour, "when I first saw them and while I was impressed by their vocal harmonies, their tightness and the fact that it was the drummer that sang the lead vocals, it was the songs themselves that I liked the best. Ken Baker's songs, while firmly seated in the American country rock genre had a very original and unusual wry English feel in the stories he told. The one that really made me notice was 'Sleep Song', about a trip to the dentist. Not a common subject for the popular song. Largely on the strength of this I invited them to my tiny home studio in Essex to record some demos. This was the start of an association that was to cover two and a half albums over the next couple of years."
Things started to happen from then on when Gilmour offered to put up the money to record an album of Unicorn songs. Unicorn soon signed with Pink Floyds manager Steve O'Rourke's EMKA organization, and Ricky Hopper who had introduced them to Dave became their tour manager. Ricky would later discover Kate Bush, then called Kathy Bush. Pete and Pat from Unicorn played on her first demo recordings at Gilmour's studio. Unicorn's first album was recorded in Olympic Studios in Barnes in London. David Gilmour was producing, by his own admission, for the first time. The performances would wind up as the album 'Blue Pine Trees' and parts of the second album 'Too Many Crooks'. The album was mixed at George Martin's Air Studios in London. The engineer was John Middleton and the tape operators were the sons of Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers. Steve O'Rourke took about a week to secure a deal with Charisma Records in the UK, with Capitol Records in the US and EMI International for the rest of the world.
In November 1974 Unicorn set off on their first US tour. At the time Capitol records tour manager, Alan Fry, told them that 'Blue Pine Trees' was number one in the FM action charts (a chart based on the frequency of FM airplay). The first night Unicorn performed at the Whiskey a Go Go on Sunset Strip, where they played in front of what seemed to be the entire Capitol Records staff. Unicorn was the headline band that night and was supported by, a then little known, Patti Smith. On that first tour the band supported bands like Fleetwood Mac, Manfred Mann's Earth Band, Climax Blues Band, Billy Joel, Linda Ronstadt and the Doobie Brothers. At the end of their first US tour Unicorn flew home via New York to return to play at the Marquee club in London with the Sutherland Brothers and Quiver with David Gilmour sitting in. The following year, 1975, was mainly spent recording the second album 'Too Many Crooks' (Released in America as 'Unicorn 2'). It was recorded in Air Studios at Oxford Circus with some additional tracks at Olympic at Barnes. This album included some of Unicorn's best studio performances. The most notable song was "No Way Out of Here" which was later recorded by Dave Gilmour for his first solo album. His version was the most played album track in the US for several weeks. "Listening to the best of their output from before, during and after my own involvement with the band," says Gilmour, "has reminded me of the many great songs and great moments in the studio that we shared all those years ago. It's been a long time coming, but it has been worth the wait."Unicorn - 'Blue Pine Trees', 'Too Many Crooks' (prod. by David Gilmour), will be available from Amazon, iTunes and your local retailer on November 10th.
Other titles scheduled for release by Renaissance Records include Graham Parker &The Rumour 'Live In San Francisco 1979', Network - s/t and 'Nightwork', Duke Jupiter 'White Knuckle Ride', Fran King 'My Sweet Elixir', City Boy 'It's Personal', Phoenix - s/t and 'In Full View' (ex-Argent), Nick Gravenites 'Bluestar', and Roxy Music 'Manifesto Alive' (live 1979).
For more information: www.itsaboutmusic.com

Wishbone Ash Name Controversy Revealed By Andy Powell

11/7/2009 - Redding, CT USA – Founding member of the legendary classic rock band Wishbone Ash, Andy Powell, is setting the record straight about the recent controversy surrounding the ownership and usage of the group's name. A band fronted by another founding member, Martin Turner, is also being promoted as Wishbone Ash, creating confusion among fans and press.
“It’s local promoters taking advantage of the good work this band has been doing,” said Powell. Most recently, Martin Turner’s German shows have been promoted under the Wishbone Ash moniker, prompting Powell to seek legal recourse. “Myself and the band’s business partners—people who have worked for years to keep the band treading the boards and keeping the recorded catalog current—see it as a raiding party,” said Powell. “I am now taking legal action in respect of this infringement of my trade mark. It’s time to stop this nonsense.”
Powell, a guitar legend in his own right, and the only remaining founding member, has recorded and toured exclusively under the Wishbone Ash banner since 1969--more than 40 years. In the last 20 years alone, Wishbone Ash has released 15 CDs (including nine studio releases) and five DVDs. None of these has featured Martin Turner. The band’s most recent release, The Power of Eternity, has garnered rave reviews from the music press internationally.
During the band’s early history, the lineup changed several times, with founding members leaving and rejoining. When, in 1993, Powell became the sole remaining original member, there was no thought of calling it a day. Powell later registered the trade mark Wishbone Ash in 1998. He has maintained the mark since then, producing numerous DVDs and CDs of new material. In addition to being co-writer on the majority of the recorded works, he’s performed around 4,000 Ash shows worldwide.
"My mandate was to simply carry forward with the band," Powell said, "as has always been the case since 1974 when the first member to leave, Ted Turner, tendered his resignation. This continuity has overwhelmingly always been what the fans have wanted, and they proved that in the early 1990s by backing our recording and promotion of the album Illuminations. At no time did I consider the band dead; we'd been through worse”.
In recent years Martin Turner registered www.wishboneash.co.uk . He then tentatively resurfaced using the name 'Wishbone featuring Martin Turner' performing Wishbone Ash songs from the very early part of the band's career. All was fine for a year or so until the name of Martin Turner’s band was changed to Martin Turner’s Wishbone Ash. His ".co.uk" website started pushing the Wishbone Ash aspect of the name firmly to the fore. Then, making matters worse, some Turner gigs were actually being promoted as ‘Wishbone Ash’ concerts. Fans who turned up expecting the long-running Powell-fronted band were disappointed and confused. Journalists who were unaware of the band’s history sometimes wrote about Turner’s band as if it actually were Wishbone Ash. Inevitably, this sparked claims of ‘passing off ’ from Wishbone Ash and its business partners.
"Over the years, band members had left in a piecemeal fashion to pursue solo careers and other ventures," said Powell. "Anyone who has followed the band knows that Martin Turner, for example, quit in 1980 and again in 1991 after a brief three-year reunion.” After leaving in '91 Martin produced a solo album. “His own website says that he'd 'moved on' from Wishbone Ash, using the name Martin Turner and calling the CD Walking the Reeperbahn,” said Powell. “This had nothing to do with Wishbone Ash and seemed to be a move on Martin Turner's part to distance himself from the band and take his career in another direction. His website actually at one point admitted that I was a continuous member of the one true band and that he was not." Founded in England in 1969, WishboneAsh has released more than 30 albums to date, and has been touted as one of the first dual-guitar rock bands. Rolling Stone magazine counted Ash guitarists Andy Powell and Ted Turner among the world’s top 20 best of all time. The group’s 1972 classic release, Argus, was voted Album Of The Year by readers of UK’s Melody Maker and NME. It was remixed and reissued in 2002 as a special 30th anniversary edition and consequently was the fastest selling reissue in MCA’s history. Powell’s name is synonymous with the Gibson Flying V. Over the years, he has been prominently featured in such notable publications as Guitar, Guitarist and, most recently, Vintage Guitar. He has also recorded with the likes of George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Stewart Copeland and Renaissance.
Wishbone Ash’s current line-up also features former Gringos Locos guitarist Jyrki “Muddy” Manninen, a five-year Ash veteran who brings a rootsy style to the band with his slide playing. Bassist Bob Skeat has been in Wishbone Ash for 12 years and has also in the past, worked with everyone from Colin Blunstone, Gilbert O’Sullivan and Chris Farlowe to Princess Stephanie of Monaco. Interestingly, he worked with Ash’s other 1970s guitar titan, Laurie Wisefield, in Brian May’s musical hit “We Will Rock You.” Drummer Joe Crabtree has worked with the likes of King Crimson's David Cross and Pendragon.
Wishbone Ash has embarked on an intensive tour plan taking the band 'round to next July in celebration of its 40th anniversary. The October tour of the UK began on the 2nd and ends the first week of November. Then in January 2010 the band hits the road again for the Netherlands, Germany and Scandinavia. Canada's blues prodigy, Jimmy Bowskill, will be opening for the band on this six-week tour. For a complete list of tour dates and venues, visit www.wishboneash.com/tourdates. In addition, the band will revisit Warsaw and Poznan in Poland, along with the Czech Republic. A USA East Coast tour is in the final booking stages, planned for March 2010. Italy and Switzerland will also be visited this time around, just prior to the usual spring UK tour. A USA West Coast tour and a possible Far East visit are being discussed for June. The new DVD Wishbone Ash 40 - Live in London was released in Europe on Oct. 10. This 40th anniversary show from Shepherd's Bush Empire was produced by RCN TV, the same team who made the highly acclaimed Wishbone Ash Live in Hamburg DVD.
For more information visit the official Wishbone Ash website: http://www.wishboneash.com

PA

New York Prog Ensemble IZZ Set To Release New CD

11/5/2009 - New York, NY - The progressive community is buzzing with anticipation of the upcoming release by New York prog ensemble IZZ. In the past decade the group has released several highly acclaimed albums and have acumulated a large dedicated following in the process. The band's newest CD The Darkened Room is scheduled for release on November 17th and is part of an ongoing series. "This is sort of a 'Part One' of a two-part album series," says John Galgano, who plays bass with the band. "We have already started recording on the next part. There is a concept but we'd prefer to let people take from it what they get out of it, without the influence of our explanation."

"There are many new bands out there in the prog rock scene who try to recreate the spirit of the good old Seventies. I for one always thought that IZZ isn't simply one of them. Yes, they may have lent some aspects of that retro sound but IZZ is a truly special case here. The term 'recreating' doesn't really cover their potential of the band, so 'reinventing' could be a better one instead." - DPRP

Although IZZ has its own unique sound there are several influences: "Each person in the band brings a different aspect of music with them, but there is certainly a shared passion for The Beatles, Genesis and Yes," says Brian Coralian, who with fellow drummer Greg DiMiceli makes up IZZ's potent double-drumming duo. "But as individuals, our musical influences and experiences run the 'genre' gamut from jazz to musical theater to classical to latin to celtic." Some individual artists/bands who influence the members of IZZ are Radiohead, Jeff Buckley, King Crimson, Jonatha Brooke, St. Vincent, ABBA, Ben Folds, Marillion and Dave Brubeck just to name a few.

IZZ’s new studio album, The Darkened Room, offers the listener music which is at once both adventurous yet still uniquely IZZ. "Each band member gives amazing performances on this new record," says guitarist Paul Bremner, "but each of us really keeps the song and melody at the forefront of our minds and I think that is evident throughout the entire album.

"The current line-up for The Darkened Room is:

Tom Galgano: keyboards, vocals

Greg DiMiceli: drums and percussion

Brian Coralian: electronic and acoustic drums and percussion

Paul Bremner: electric and acoustic guitar

John Galgano: bass guitar, acoustic/electric guitar, vocals

Anmarie Byrnes: vocals

"I think with IZZ, the message is first and always about the music and more specifically, the melody," says Tom Galgano, keyboardist, vocalist and the band's producer and engineer. "The band members share a common passion for developing melody and feel that much of the great music of the past has a common thread - a memorable melody. So, one of our goals is always about attempting our best to bring forth memorable, catchy, interesting and creative music." "Without question one of the brightest lights on the American symphonic prog scene, IZZ melds classic and modern prog influences, strong melodies, and stirring guitar and synthesizer solos into a familar yet refreshing musical stew. The new IZZ album album My River Flows, their third full-length recording, shows the band's full musical palette: from accessible yet complex songs mixing their Yes, Beatles, and Gentle Giant affinities with a Radiohead spice to a dynamic, spiritually uplifting multi-part symphonic suite." - NEARfest website

Even before the release of IZZ's new opus, the band is back in the studio recording the second part. "What is probably more a focus at this point is completing the recording of Part 2 of this album series," John explains. "We've already started the recording process and hope to have a follow up to The Darkened Room soon. However, since all the members of IZZ consider the band to be a band that you need to experience live, we will definitely sprinkle in a good amount of live performances to promote and play out material for The Darkened Room."

In other news, IZZ was recently featured in the 2008 3RP Festival DVD along with the Flower Kings, Neal Morse, Spock's Beard, California Guitar Trio and others. The DVD is available to purchase on the 3RP official website www.3rprogfest.com. In addition, IZZ is starting work on their own DVD that would include the band's electrifying performance at NEARFest 2007. IZZ's The Darkened Room will be available from Amazon, CDBaby, iTunes and your favorite online retailer.

Vist the official IZZ website at http://www.izznet.com/ for the most updated information.

Magenta Release Yes Classic As Download Single

Magenta are excited to announce that they will release a version of the Yes classic Wonderous Stories as a download-only single, on Tigermoth Records, on November 15th.
The song, which will come in three alternative versions, will be available to download from all normal download sites – including Amazon and Itunes worldwide. Rob Reed talks about the bands reasons for the release:
“We are often compared favourably to Yes, and many of our fans have been asking us to have a go at a Yes piece for a while. We have been playing Wonderous Stories as part of our set during our recent run of acoustic gigs, and it was great fun to do and really well received, so we thought we’d take it into the studio and give it the full-band Magenta treatment. We think that we’ve brought something new to the song while maintaining total respect for the original, and we really hope people enjoy it.”
Wonderous Stories, from the Going For the One album, was Yes’ biggest UK hit, reaching number 7 in September 1977.
The three versions of the song will be:

1.Wonderous Stories : Full Mix

2.Wonderous Stories : Instrumental Mix

3.Wonderous Stories : Acoustic Mix
The band have also produced a video for the song, and an excerpt can be seen below. The complete video will be made available on the day of release.
http://www.vimeo.com/7429531
www.magenta-web.com

Greg Amov Of Systems Theory Passes At Age 59

From the Music...What Else Blog:
it is with regret, but also relief, that I pass on that Systems Theory band-member, long-time Multi-Value/dbms programmer and computer teacher Greg Amov died last night after a hard few months battling cancer for the second time. Some of you may recall that he had esophageal cancer three years ago. Eventually it came back, became systemic, and it was the cancer that had spread to his brain that took him away from us.Amidst the turmoil and sorrow of his death, I'd like to say that it was very peaceful and quiet at his end, which was a relief after all the physical struggle of the last few weeks. It was clear to everyone around him during the afternoon that it would be sometime Tuesday, so his family convened to be with him. His wife was at his side when the final breath was taken.I do not yet know exactly what sort of memorial there will be, or when / where it will be held. But something appropriate to Greg's life and beliefs will be organized soon. I will pass on that information when I have it.Thanks to all that contacted the family through me and through Systems Theory to express hope, support, sympathy, wishes for a speeding passing, etc. That various branches of the progressive music community, and those that he worked with closely on recent programming projects, had been in touch with me meant a great a deal to Greg. Hundreds of emails, text messages and comments were posted to various forums in his final weeks, and that he was so well-regarded and admired means a great deal to me personally as his best friend of 32 years.In the midst of the sadness of his passing, let me add a bright note. Last night I got access to Greg's pair of music computers (named "Fripp" and "Eno" after two stellar musicians he admired). Everything that I could have hoped to find musically was there -- the masters for his two OOP CDs were there, plus several unreleased completed projects, some long-forgotten projects, and new tunes earmarked for both solo, Systems Theory and ViolinCyndee. So there will be new music under his name in the next year or so, as well as the re-release of wonderful "The Dark Within The Dark" (2001) and "Gecko Highway" (2005) albums.Gregory Michael Amov, b. Nov 6th 1959, d. Nov 3rd 2009, RIP.

Steve Sly Steps Down From Progday

This just in from the Progday message board:
All,
After much thought and consideration I have made the decision to step down as the overall coordinator for ProgDay. This has not been an easy decision for me nor one that I have taken lightly. ProgDay is a very special event, and has been a part of my life for more than a decade now. There is no one specific reason why I have chosen not to continue with the festival, but there are several factors in both my personal and professional life that have led me this decision. ProgDay is a year round activity that requires a significant investment of time, money, and sweat to pull off. In the end I think I have just burned out on it to an extent and feel that this is a good time to pull away. I have made many very good friends over the years with my association with ProgDay, and appreciate the extreme effort and hard work that everyone in the organization has put in to be able to pull the festival off each year.
The good news is that the ProgDay organization is still in tact and plans for the 2010 edition of the festival are progressing as I write this. More announcements will be coming soon regarding next year.
Finally I would like to thank everyone that I have worked with in the ProgDay organization and everyone who has attended the festival in the past 12 years. I am sure I will see many of you down the road at various prog related events and future ProgDays.
Steve Sly
ProgDay 1997 - 2009

More updates on Progday as they come here on Globalprogressive rock news