Progtastic 2...

Playlist

Neal Morse – Testimony 2

Heaven And Hell – The Devil You Know

Justin Currie – The Great War

Dream Theater – Black Clouds and Silver Linings

Slept till 10:45, sort of - just snoozing really - and, post getting up at 3:30 on Friday morning and the snoring and trumpets of Satan on Friday night, I was by now, extremely tired indeed...

Another splendid day, weatherwise...

Same routine as yesterday but we hit the breakfast trough just in the nick of time...

Back to the fray, though our later arrival meant no need to skip any queues...

We arrived at the prog stage just in time for Pallas's rousing set, based around their recent "XXV" album...

Very impressive and said LP since acquired...

The sun was blazing but your easily burnt correspondent was able to cower in the shadow of the stage...

Next, the very weird and, frankly not really very entertaining, The Enid took to the stage and proceeded to play two very complex tuneless pieces followed by a medley of "The Dambusters Theme", "Also Sprach Zarathustra" and "Land of Hope and Glory"...

"but Dave, isn't that the essence of prog?" I hear you ask...

"No" - complexity for the sake of complexity is never good...

To the drinks tent for a discussion with one of the young bar-girls re prog and dubstep (she showed us her "dubstep" tattoo)...

Neither Dr Prog nor I has a "prog" tattoo anywhere on our bodies...

Well, Dr Prog assures me he doesn't - I'm not going to check....

Back to the music and next up were Curved Air...

Their opening instrumental number impressed but, while it was nice to see teen heart-throb of young great-coated men of the seventies Sonja Kristina join the band, she's really not the best singer in the world and, save the big hit "Back Street Luv", they did not impress...

Their last, another instrumental, the Curved Air staple "Vivaldi" was deemed "no bad"...

A big crowd though...

Mostly Autumn played a good set featuring much Pink Floyd type guitar soloing from the band's main man and much tambourine bashing from their relatively new lead songstress, resplendant in long dark evening gown...

They were followed by my Prog Stage highlight of the day, Spock's Beard, with temporary lead singer Tim Leonard - a  very good job he made of it too...

But then, towards the end of the set, Neal Morse rejoined the band for, I think, the first time since leaving to worship the Jesus the Christ...

A good moment indeed...

However, despite this momentous prog-related event, Mr Stage manager insisted the Beard stick to their alloted paltry 45 minutes stage time allowance...

Booo...

Now the crowd awaited Prog headliners Jethro Tull...

Your baldy chum and his prog-loving friend seen here right at the front...

The Tull did not disappoint - in fact they were around 100 times better than their gig at Edinburgh's Usher Hall a few years back...

Nonetheless, I forewent the end of their set (which included a rousing encore of "Locomotive Breath" with Joe Bonnamassa joining them on guitar) to head over to the main stage so as not to miss any of Dream Theater's upcoming two hour set...

So, I left Dr Prog enjoying Jethro Tull..

..and walked over to the other side of the park...

Just in time for the start of DT's set, complete with new drummer Mike Mangini...

The sun was going over the yardarm and more cider was purchased...

The DT's played some very, very loud, very,very widdly, mighty impressive prog-metal to rather a large appreciative crowd, including Mr CBQ...

..who was soon re-joined by the Doc...

As darkness fell, we got the full effect of the light show - obviously this pathetic pic doesn't do it justice...

We stayed to the bitter end...

..and, due to the crowds, had to walk most of the way back to the hotel, stopping off on the way for some refreshment...

Sadly, more annoying thumping non-prog, non-good music disturbed us and we were, thankfully, moved to a new room around 1:30 am...

At last a decent sleep...

Highlight of the day : Spock's Beard, Jethro Tull, Dream Theater....