Everybody who reads my blog will know by now that due to my wife's serious illness, I cannot go far to gigs, which basically limits me to 1 hour travel from my home in South Wales; So there was no way I could have been at Trading Boundaries for this fabulous event. But, Lisa Wetton, Dylan Wetton and QEDG Management manged to put together a fabulous evening which included a Live Stream to the whole evening's performance. So I was happy to hand over my cash in remembrance of the first Prog hero I ever had a chance to meet and to help the MacMillan Charity. You can read all about it here in my Tribute to John. Just click on the link.
The family chose the intimate setting of Trading Boundaries which has a great reputation for putting on special Prog gigs including amongst other the Downes Braide Association.
First up was the Keyboard Master himself, Mr (who should surely be Sir by now) Rick Wakeman.
He was off to London so he played the early set tonight.
Short and sweet he gave us his rendition of Bowie's Life On Mars, on which he played and then a version of The Beatle's Eleanor Rigby in the style of Provokiev. Staples of his live set for the last 10 years or so,
Life On Mars
With Rick safely on his way back to the Smoke, we then welcomed our Host/Compere for the evening, Prog Magazine's Jerry Ewing.
In a stroke of what turned out to be absolute genius, the family chose youngsters from the Paul Green Rock Academy as the night's rotating House Band.
The youngsters all played a blinder tonight, Stepping in when needed with limited fuss and extreme professionalism for ones so young. Also, let's face it, King Crimson isn't the easiest music to play at the best of times, let alone live and in such prestigious company. The youngsters seemed at ease and didn't look overawed at all as they supported the 'stars' of the evening. For the purpose of the review, I'll call them 'The Orchestra', suitably grandiose for a gig of such stature.
Now, I'll say here and now, I'm not the biggest King Crimson fan, most of their music leaves me somewhat cold but I am obviously aware of their importance in the world of prog Music and beyond.
John was with them from 1972 to 1974 and was involved in three of their most important albums.
Larks Tongue In Aspic (1973) Starless & Bible Black (1974) and Red (1974)
So excuse my ignorance if I get something wrong in this section.
The Majority of the first half of the show was made up of The Orchestra performing songs from these three seminal albums.
First up we had Easy Money.
Easy Money
For this track, The orchestra was joined by Ex Crimson man Dave Cross on Electric Violin. He still has the chops to play music this intricate and sometimes you couldn't tell the difference between him and the lead guitar.
This was followed by splendid version of Exiles.
Exiles
Book Of Saturday got a tremendous response and Fallen Angel saw the introduction of another King Crimson legend, Mel Collins on Clarinet'
Paul Green himself then took to the stage to talk about his hopes for the evening and the quality and attitude of his students playing tonight. They did him proud. They've just supported Jon Anderson on his current UK Tour so have some invaluable experience under their belts and the chance to play with more of Prog Music's elite performers.
Paul said he was sorry to give his students his favourite King Crimson song to play, Fracture. And they did him proud. With the help of guitarist Dave Kilminster, who'll you'll normally find accompanying a certain Roger Waters on stage and record, the guys also played Crimson's Red.
Fracture
It's not often you see Roger Dean turn up at a gig but he was there to share his memories of John, especially talking about the first ASIA album cover. And he often has exhibitions of his work at our venue tonight, Trading Boundaries.
Two more Prog Legend took to the stage next - The Lonely Robot himself, John Mitchell and IQ's Keyboard Maestro, Martin Orford.
They treated us to two of tonight's highlights, for me anyway. Two tracks from the splendid but short lived band UK, who operated from 1977 - 1980 with John Wetton.
First up was debut album opener, the epic, In The Dead Of Night.
In The Dead Of Night
I loved UK as a band and wish they had left us with more than just two albums. Indeed, John told me himself that he had seen UK as a missed opportunity.
With John Mitchell leaving the stage to Martin, he gave a beautiful version of 6: 02 from the second UK album, Danger Money.
Rendezvous 6:02
Another of Prog's legends took to the stage next, Mr Steve Hackett. He was joined tonight by the artist who really impressed me the most tonight, vocalist and multi instrumentalist Harry Whitley, who was simply brilliant tonight.
They kicked off with an unexpected version of the Bob Dylan classic, All Along The Watchtower.
Afterglow
The Orchestra then jined Steve on stage for a rendition of Genesis' Afterglow, which John Wetton sang as part of Steve's Genesis Revisited project.
The Orchestra then remained on the stage and gave a splendid rendition of John Wetton solo song, Woman
We were almost at the end of Part One of the show, and what will be Part One of this review too, when John Mitchell & Martin Orford came back to give another beautiful version of John's solo song, Battle Lines
Battle lines
To finish Part One Jerry introduced Roger Chapman & Jim Cregan of Family, with whom John recorded the classic Bandstand album in 1972.
They played the album opener, Burlesque which went down a storm.
Burlesque
My Friend The Sun
My friend The Sun. This closed the first half of the show.
During the interval, I'm positive I heard Rick Wakeman's After The Ball in the background. One of the best things he's ever done, to be found on his White Rock Soundtrack
After The Ball
SEE YOU IN PART TWO!!
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