WHAT’S SO SPECIAL ABOUT STRINGS, ANYWAY? - An observation, incorporating Marillion – With Friend’s at St Davids I’m ambivalent about live albums. I’m *really* ambivalent about “orchestral rock” albums And Marillion are genuinely something of a conundrum. Which if nothing else, stops rabid Marillion fans (who will by now already have the album anyway), from..

PINEAPPLE THIEF – LIVECAST 22 April 2021: ‘VERY NEARLY LIVE (BUT NOT QUITE)’
It’s a sobering possibility that there’s a generation of young people who may never experience the excitement, mutually exchanged body fluids, and archly bonding euphoria of a sweaty, alcohol enhanced live event in a club venue, packed like sardines yet utterly wrapped up in the moment. Such has been the paradigm shift of the last..

TOOL – FEAR INOCULUM (RCA)
Tool : Fear Inoculum – Is stasis the new Prog? 13 Years. There’s no real point starting with anything else. 13 Years. If you were a Tool-loving crocodile who’d had a mosh-happy childhood to 10,000 Days, you’d have gone to your grave without hearing anything new from Messrs. Carey, Jones, Keenan and Chancellor. (although as..

KING CRIMSON – Royal Albert Hall, June 2019
Nostalgia isn’t what it might have been – King Crimson at 50 at the Royal Albert Hall It’s something of an indication of the longevity of progressive, post-psychedelic music, that we’re currently witnessing a slew of 50th anniversaries – last year it was Yes, this year it’s King Crimson. By some distance the most volatile..