Progtastic 1...

Playlist
Anathema – We’re Here Because We’re Here
Neal Morse – Testimony 2

After a night of much snoring and blowing of the trumpets of Satan, it was up to a lovely morning...



The moon could just be seen and no more as we breakfasted...



Your correspondent was prepared for a day of ROCK...



...sort of...

A walk along to the bus stop, replenishing our Oyster Cards on the way...

A short bus journey up to Victoria Park...

Dr Prog was amazed at my audacity as I led him past the huge queue and straight through the VIP entrance - even though we were clearly not VIPs...



Here's the Doc enjoying our queue jumping start to the day...



I left him watching the Von Hertzen Brothers soundchecking (the Doc is a fanboy of this band)...



..and took a walk around the site to the main stage, where Dream Theater will play tomorrow night...



..then, back to the Prog Stage through the very picturesque setting...



..stopping off at one of the stalls to purchase a 2CD set of early 70's synth-musik from Klaus Schulze...

Well, not from Klaus Schulze himself, he wasn't at the stall...

The Von Hertzens got the day off to a rocking start...



...if you look closely you can see the Progmeister in the front row, just to the right of second orange jacketed security man from the left - he's the beardy weirdy bloke in the kind of khaki coloured cap...



We both then took a wander through the park...



..and enjoyed a refreshing cider...



..the first of many...

Next up, Amplifier, playing a selection of tracks from their latest album "The Octopus"...

Being prog, it is, of course, a double CD...

Although not too impressed with them at the time, I have since acquired said album and can advise that it does indeed rock...

A blast from the past next, as Caravan took to the stage to play a set based on songs from their recently re-released 40 year old classic "In the Land of Grey and Pink"...

The large crowd enjoyed this widdly widdly stuff - as did your prog loving duo of old tubes...



...there was even a spoons solo...



A rousing reception for the veterans...



Next, the relatively youthful Anathema...

I have their latest album "We're Here Because We're here" and I like it but the bands rather arrogant "you owe us an ovation just for being here" attitude put me off them a bit...

Nonetheless, top notch prog...



Hundreds of people then took to the stage to set it up for Neal Morse's eight piece band...



Frankly, this performance was miles ahead of anything else today (or tomorrow, perhaps with the exception of Dream Theater)...



What a very nice man he seems to be...



They played as much as they could of the new 2CD set "Testimony 2" which provides the background story of how it was Mr Morse came to find Jesus and leave Spock's Beard to head out on a solo career of several excellent, though Jesus-centric, albums...



Like every band, there was no leeway at all for over-running, no matter how popular - the two gents at the far right ordered everyone from the stage...



..so that it could be set up for headliners, Barclay James Harvest...

They faced a tough task following Mr Morse but they rose to the challenge and both the Doc and I were extremely impressed with their tight set, excellent musicianship and general (unlike Anathema for example) non-head up their own arse-ishness...



A splendid end to a splendid day of Prog...

We wandered back to the main stage and caught a few moments of Judas Priest....


...but, neither of us ever having had the slightest interest in this band, we decided to head back to the hotel as the sun started to set over the park...



The Prog Stage was ready for tomorrow...



The day came to rather an annoying end though due to loud (non-prog, non-good) music being blasted out at a party in a gym next to our hotel room, allowing us zero sleep following the watching of reasonable sci-fi film "Eagle Eye"...

Eventually the police were called and the sound system was duly shut down around 3am...

Tired...

Highlight of the Day : Neal Morse...