Category - Music

The progressive (prog) rock awards were even covered on the BBC this morning (6 September 2012). But more importantly, Rush’s album Clockwork Angels was voted best prog album of the year.

Other notable winners include Rick Wakeman (who I feel sure would have a comment of two on the title of his award, “PROG GOD”), Carl Palmer (“VIRTUOSO” – even though he’s a drummer, and it’s nice to see that what they say about drummers isn’t true), and Genesis (“LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT” – even though they’ve been a pop band since the mid 70s when Phil Collins took over vocals). I can’t remember if the voting for that Genesis category was open (so we plebs could vote) or closed (so the industry could).

Either way, you get some odd results sometimes. At least the Rush one was kosher.

I was at Nottingham’s Rescue Rooms last night to see Crown Jewel Defense (or CJD). I caught wind of them last November when they were one of the excellent support acts for The Darkness. Rock City was sold out that night.

Just like last time I couldn’t fault their set – they were excellent. They put their heart and soul into their performance, and both their music and musicianship were brilliant. Their showmanship goes even further. And I was glad to see that they are now apparently signed to a record label and have a CD/EP out (though it is marked as “self released”) – I bought one, of course.

But they really deserve better than this. Let me explain.

The crowd was sparse – I’d say that there were no more than 50 people present at any time, and most of those were related to the two support acts – The Final Chapter and Summerlin. When CJD came on, I’d say there were maybe 20-30 people in the room, and most of those were clustered away from the stage (very young girls in denim shorts and carefully torn fishnet tights and sneakers (the latest fashion fad) posing at the bar).

You have to again remember that CJD played to a sold out main hall in November to appreciate this difference. They were easily good enough – easily – to justify that crowd then, even if the crowd was there for The Darkness. When CJD played that night, that crowd was turned on.

This time right from the outset there were a handful of people in the small audience who were acting like 5-year olds, running around and playing “tag” with each other (all girls, I should add). The two worst examples, who eventually turned out to be “girlfriends” of support band members, comprised an impish 4-footer and a hulking taller one. For the entire night – before the first band came on until CJD left the stage – they were walking quickly in and out of the audience, around the pillars, and in and out of the room, with the big one chasing the little one. In the brief moments they weren’t playing this game, they were talking to each other in that exaggerated bending-down-and-pointing-in-your-face way, or messing around with the big one’s hat (why the hell you would wear a thick red woolly pom-pom hat indoors when it’s 24°C outside and humid is beyond me). It wasn’t until near the end that I realised they were “attached” to the support bands – such is the nature of teenage love affairs!

The Final Chapter were certainly competent, but not my cup of tea (Bullet For My Valentine clones). The drummer and bass player only looked in their mid-teens so the band was obviously in its early days and enjoying itself. Summerlin was rockier, but I have no time for pointless F-word bad language which comes out in the first three words you say when you take to the stage. Still, they were musically interesting. Good luck to both of them. The audience was at its peak for these two – but as I said it mainly comprised “girlfriends” (I have to put that in inverted commas – when you’re 15 and in love it’s a bit early to be planning for the diamond wedding anniversary. One of my recent pupils was upset one time that her boyfriend had dumped her. That romance had lasted a full 6 weeks) and mums and dads. Most of these left once they’d helped their respective offspring shift their gear from the stage at the end each set.

You have to understand how Rock City – and the Rescue Rooms in particular – operates. During the week it is a student hang out. Whenever you go in, there’s always a student couple or two sitting in dark corners gazing into each other’s eyes as they make their one Happy Hour drink last all night. I also reckon that if you did an age check, the under-14s restriction on gigs isn’t enforced very well. Maybe it’s just me getting older (but don’t forget I deal with 17-year olds all the time, and I know what one looks like), but not many at that show last night looked more than 16 at best, and of the 20 or 30 or so who saw CJD I’d say that half of them had just wandered in from the bar “for a look” (one of the acts mentioned something about getting in free, and thanking the guy who’d organised that). It was clear that they weren’t interested. I‘d paid £6.50 for my ticket, by the way – that’s a week’s worth of beer money to most of those who were in there.

All right, I’m not going to be leaping around the room at my age – I go for the music and the show – but at least I respect what I’m listening to.

I enjoyed CJD and will definitely keep watching out for them whenever they are here. But I really felt for them last night. The lead singer did his best to try to involve the audience by coming out and singing to them, but because they were very young girls they were more ashamed at the attention than anything else. As he pointed out when they supported The Darkness, they’d had a bad experience at the Rescue Rooms previously. God knows how he would rate this one.

Maybe I’m being naive, and performing to crowds like this is part of the rocky road upwards. Maybe it’s because I’m used to seeing arena sell-out shows (though I do go to smaller gigs fairly often). Maybe I’m being too harsh on people who are simply too young to behave like adults, even if they’re trying to look like them. I don’t know.

But CJD are really much, MUCH better than this crowd was. They just haven’t cracked the UK yet.

You can listen on their MySpace pages [dead link].

Just saw this news item on Planet Rock. It says that Rush’s new album Clockwork Angels is set to chart in the top 5, having sold nearly 100,000 copies in the US alone.

If it charts at #2, it’ll equal Counterparts’ debut position in 1993. Not bad for a bunch of old fogeys who’ve been at it for 40 years and still going strong!

I also got my Clockwork Angels t-shirts this morning from the Rush Backstage Club. All ready for next May!

It’s worth keeping an eye on Planet Rock because they’re playing some interviews and shows Geddy recorded when Darren Redick interviewed him a few weeks back. You can listen to most of the shows using the on-demand service.

Check out this Rolling Stone interview with Alex about the record and Rush at this time in their careers.

And also in Rolling Stone, this interview with Neil on the same subject.

EDIT 21/6/2012: Wow! It went in at Number 2!

I got my pre-ordered fan pack on Saturday – three weeks ahead of the standard CD release date for Rush’s new album, Clockwork Angels.

The pack contains the album, two large posters (my name is on one of them somewhere as an early pre-orderer), a key ring, and a superb glossy magazine about the band and the album. The album CD itself is housed in a hardback case with a detailed lyric and information booklet (with some superb artwork) bound into it. The whole pack oozes quality.

First thing I did when I got it was rip the tracks to a memory stick so I can listen in the car – and I’ve been doing that ever since I opened the pack.

The album is brilliant. The mixing is such that the sound is heavy and clear, taking its lead from Snakes & Arrows – one of my favourite Rush albums, Presto, suffered a little from what I considered to be a “thin” sound, and I’ve always wished their other albums had been mixed “louder”. But I guess the technology has come a long way in the last 40 years!

I’m not going to do a review of every track – sound is in the ear of the beholder, after all – but the last track, The Garden, is beautiful. The liner notes and lyrics say it all:

LONG AGO I READ A STORY FROM ANOTHER TIMELINE about a character named Candide. He also survived a harrowing series of misadventures and tragedies, then settled on a farm near Constantinople. Listening to a philosophical rant, Candide replied, "That is all very well, but now we must tend our garden."

I have now arrived at that point in my own story. There is a metaphorical garden in the acts and attitudes of a person’s life, and the treasures of that garden are love and respect. I have come to realize that the gathering of love and respect – from others and for myself – has been the real quest of my life.

"Now we must tend our garden."

In this one of many possible worlds, all for the best, or some bizarre test?
It is what it is – and whatever
Time is still the infinite jest

The arrow files when you dream, the hours tick away – the cells tick away
The Watchmaker keeps to his schemes
The hours tick away – they tick away

The measure of a life is a measure of love and respect
So hard to earn, so easily burned
In the fullness of time
A garden to nurture and protect

In the rise and the set of the sun
‘Til the stars go spinning – spinning ’round the night
It is what it is – and forever
Each moment a memory in flight

The arrow flies while you breathe, the hours tick away – the cells tick away
The Watchmaker has time up his sleeve
The hours tick away – they tick away

The treasure of a life is a measure of love and respect
The way you live, the gifts that you give
In the fullness of time
It’s the only return that you expect

The future disappears into memory
With only a moment between
Forever dwells in that moment
Hope is what remains to be seen

I’m really looking forward to hearing that one live next May on the tour. And the rest of the album is of similarly high quality. My only worry is that it might be some sort of message…

Over the weekend, Planet Rock had a special hour-long show with Darren Redick talking to Geddy Lee, and they played most of the tracks. When they came to The Garden, Darren said something about how if this was the last song Rush ever wrote it would be a fitting end. Let’s hope there’s nothing in that statement.

Oh, and it IS a concept album. And you can still buy the fan pack – look on Planet Rock to find out how. I also noticed that it was on the news rack at Asda when I went in tonight – yes, the fan pack including the album! Just think of that: buying a music CD from the news rack. How times have changed!

Fantastic news!!!!

Rush will be touring the UK in May, 2013, with their Clockwork Angels Tour. It’ll be just two years since they were last here by that time!

You can see more information on the Rush website. but arena dates are as follows:

• 22 May – Manchester MEN
• 24 May – London O2
• 26 May – Birmingham LG
• 28 May – Sheffield Motorpoint
• 30 May – Glasgow SECC

It was just announced (8.45am) on Planet Rock, but isn’t even in their news section yet! Note that there is no Newcastle event this time (at the moment, anyway) – which is a surprise, as the Geordies gave one of the best receptions on the Time Machine Tour last year. The 2013 tour also covers several European dates.

Tickets go on presale this Thursday.

I’m going to do the grand circuit again and go to all of them. Already spoken to my ticket guy and he’s on the case.

I’ve not been to a gig since just before Christmas, but I’ve had these tickets booked for almost that long.

Thick As A Brick (TAAB), by Jethro Tull, was released in 1972, and this tour is the first time it has been played in its entirety since then. Recently, Thick As A Brick 2 (TAAB2) has also been released. Both albums were played tonight.

To anyone who doesn’t know, the original TAAB – on vinyl, so two sides – consisted of just two tracks (which were actually one single song!). It was a deliberate send up of rock pretentiousness and everything that surrounded it. The album claimed to have been written by an 8-year old  – more sending up of some of prog rock’s allegedly pretentious lyrics, and possibly an explanation as to why Ian Anderson now has a Sunday evening show on Planet Rock specifically looking at lyrics, both good and bad.

Taking all that aside, TAAB has some brilliant and memorable riffs. All of those were there tonight, with some modern additions. Apparently, some of TAAB was recorded as single improvisational takes (more information on the Jethro Tull website).

Anyway, the current presentation is a cleverly constructed play – almost an opera – involving all the musicians. Obviously, Ian Anderson’s flute playing is a major highlight, but the rest of the band were absolutely superb. It was a fantastic show

The sections were broken by short comedy skits, showing Anderson’s clever sense of humour. There was a 20 minute intermission between the two albums, allowing me to ascertain that the Assembly Rooms really was charging £4 for a lager – and I won’t call it a pint, because I don’t think it was. And on top of that, it seems that they also don’t allow any sort of photography (some guy was told to stop it when he took a picture on his mobile phone – I’ll blame the Assembly Rooms, as I would have thought Ian Anderson wouldn’t have cared). That was a bugger, because I’d got tickets for the second row, so we were right up close and any photos would have been brilliant. So I’ll just have to do with mid-20th century memories instead of 21st century memorabilia.

We also discovered that Tuesday night is probably the worse night of the week to try and get a curry (everywhere was shut). We eventually found that the Everest Tandoori in Ruddington was about to close, but they stayed open for us and did us a really nice meal.

A great night, with a great show and a great meal to round it off.

Oh, and it really is worth getting hold of the two albums and giving them a listen.

The new Rush single, Headlong Flight, was played on Planet Rock today. This is the official lyric video – play it fullscreen: it’s in HD.

They also announced a North American tour which starts in September and runs until December. Fingers crossed that this will be extended to Europe come the new year – that’s often how Rush does these things.

The new single is very old-style Rush – guitar-driven and heavy. It runs for more than seven minutes. The imagery is in keeping with BU2B and Caravan, which have both been out for some time now. The mix is also very clean, giving a sharp sound.

Having heard it several times now, I have to say it is brilliant – I’m trying hard not to be biased, but really: it is!

The single artwork is also impressive – again, keeping the motifs that started with the Time Machine Tour and which characterised the rear-screen projections for Caravan on that tour, and the singles when they were released.

I can’t wait for Clockwork Angels to be released in June.

Footnote: Although I mentioned my thoughts about them coming to the UK to tour Clockwork Angels in 2013, it occurred to me that 2014 will be R40, and they did only come here last year…

Rush has released details of the Clockwork Angels release date – now confirmed as 11 June in the UK. They’ve also released a trailer for the new single “Headlong Flight”.

<<Embedded video removed as no longer works>>

The cover artwork also looks impressive. And the track listing is confirmed as follows:

• Caravan
• BU2B
• Clockwork Angels
• The Anarchist
• Carnies
• Halo Effect
• Seven Cities Of Gold
• The Wreckers
• Headlong Flight
• BU2B2
• Wish Them Well
• The Garden

Roll on 11 June.

Update: Darren Redick will be giving the single its first UK play on his show this Thursday 19th April over on Planet Rock.