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Highway ’24 Festival

Eiger Studios, Leeds
Saturday, 21st September 2024

After two years in Hull, Al Winter and This Winter Machine, moved their annual day festival to Leeds for a highly enjoyable full day of prog at the nicely filled, quirky and intimate Eiger Studios, with a host of excellent musicians to entertain the knowledgeable and enthusiastic audience of proggers, to prove it’s not all grim up North when it comes to progressive rock. Starting in the early afternoon, the attendees enjoyed a diverse and talented set of musicians throughout the day and into late evening.

PAUL BRUNTON

Paul Brunton at Highway '24 Festival in Leeds

A pleasing, relaxing opening acoustic guitar set from Paul Brunton (from the Prog Explorations Plus Facebook group leader and stalwart Team Machine member) was well received. Playing a nicely diverse selection of covers by Elbow (Magnificent (She Says)), Strawbs (New World), a moving Mike and the Mechanics (The Living Years), The Moody Blues (The Story in Your Eyes), This Winter Machine (Flying) and final, defiant Tears For Fears (Shout), that went down well with the friendly and pleasing audience. Nice guitar work and Paul’s vocals have a Caravan-style, Richard Sinclair-like softness and delicacy at times, but they could deliver power and poignancy when called upon. It takes a lot to open a festival well, even amongst friends, and he deserves much praise for that.

CANDACRAIG

Candacraig at Highway '24 Festival in Leeds

it was lovely to see the prog-folk duo of Martin Nicholls and Sharon Cannings once again and enjoy their atmospheric and evocative songs. Gliding (Parts 1 and 2) saw the ethereal introduction turn into a more powerful song, with Sharon’s rich, haunting vocals and Martin’s acoustic and electric guitar accompaniment casting a spell over the early afternoon attendees. Last Transmission was melancholically thoughtful with minimalist piano, and the darker feel continued with the dreamy and eerie The End of the World. Fortune Favours the Brave picked up the tempo with more driving folk, before One More Time and the moving Autumn in New York. The M R James-inspired Oh Whistle and I’ll Come to You, worked well, with its simple resonating piano, yearning vocals and the closing mournful guitar effects. The guitar-led Ash Tree hit the right contemplative tone later, on but the more jovial, folk-influenced, Hero of Barnsdale (a homage to Robin Hood) proved a satisfying conclusion to the set. Increasingly confident and sure-footed live, these lovely musicians are on tour soon, playing Marillion’s Brave, which would be well worth seeing, if you can.

SIMON GODFREY

Simon Godfrey & Friends at Highway '24 Festival in Leeds

Making a welcome return to live performing on this side of the pond from his home in Philadelphia, the former Tinyfish frontman delivered a lovely, acoustic guitar-led set with a suitable glint in his eye, with the help of the ever-dependable Gareth Cole on electric guitar (making his first guest appearance with Simon) with some nice, spoken word, character interludes from Simon’s former colleague Rob Ramsay. Starting with Dust and Wires and a pleasing Tearing Up the Room from his 2014 solo album, Motherland, the set was dominated by three Tinyfish tracks; Driving All Night, a sparkling The Big Red Spark and an epic All Hands Lost – which were great for me to hear played live at last. No songs from his enjoyable new solo album, How I Was Defeated, but I’m sure the short tour following will showcase a few of these. Welcome back Simon!

STUCKFISH

Stuckfish at Highway '24 Festival in Leeds

Coming off a much-praised support slot with Big Big Train a couple of days earlier in Whitley Bay, and a well-received new album, Northumbrian progressive rock band Stuckfish dived into a performance full of confidence and spirit, that took in all their four albums. The melodic rock of Calling was followed by the atmospheric The Bridge (That Spans The Edge Of Time), before playing a brace of new tracks from IV; Lifeline and JFKX (Just Fr Kicks)- full of melodic rock energy and verve, with an epic version of Fallen Angels, with new keyboardist Paul McNally bringing a sweeping flow to the proggy keyboards. The powerful AOR-tinged Shadows & Moonbeams, with its impressive vocal harmonies, is sure to be a live mainstay for many years. The jazz-tinged Yearn, the Rush-like Age of Renewal and the marching majesty of Days of Innocence really demonstrated Phil Stuckey’s intense vocals, with the wonderful melodic and lyrical bass of Phil Morey and the sheer dynamism of Adam Sayer’s drumming. However, it was Ade Fisher’s guitar soloing on The Watcher that rounded off the set impeccably and gave the band a much-deserved standing ovation.

THIS WINTER MACHINE

This Winter Machine at Highway '24 Festival in Leeds

It’s been another eventful year for This Winter Machine, since they debuted their excellent album, The Clockwork Man, the previous September at the Highway 2 Hull festival. However, with Grace & Fire guitarist Aaron Gidney filling in on guitar on recent gigs, I am pleased to report that I really enjoyed TWM’s set as they successfully trawled through all their four albums. Aaron does a great job and adds fire and sparkle to the old classics, with Leigh Perkins painting bright and vibrant colours on keyboards. Dave Close and Alan Wilson were as driving and dependable rhythmically as ever and despite a few monitoring issues, vocalist Al Winter sang with real power and depth. The refreshing, varied set was almost a ‘best of’, one, with The Storm (Part 1) from Kites, a crowd-pleasing Delta from A Tower of Clocks, and a brace from The Clockwork Man; the multi-faceted Solitude, Silence and Steam, followed by an emotive Hole in the Sky. There was a good singalong to the chorus of This Heart’s Alive, and it was great to hear a revitalised The Wheel from the debut album. The swirling instrumental Whirlpool showed the band off marvellously, and then an energised Fractured, for me the standout track from The Man Who Never Was, to round off a very well-pitched and enthusiastic set. For the band to play so well, despite the pressure of organising such an event, deserves the highest of praise. Well done!

MAGENTA

Magenta at Highway '24 Festival in Leeds

A truly stunning and heartwarming headline set by the Welsh prog giants Magenta ended the festival marvellously. Smiles aplenty from the lovely Christina Booth on vocals along with an animated Chris Fry on guitar, the studious Rob Reed on keyboards and the youthful, dynamic rhythm section of Dan Fry and Aled Lloyd on bass and drums respectively. Starting with a breezy version of one of their earlier singles, Speechless, they proceeded to stun the audience with one of my all-time prog favourites, Gluttony, from the classic album, Seven. Chris’s Yes-style guitar runs complemented Christina’s emotive vocals so well. They then ran through a range of diverse and popular songs full of light, shade, melody and emotion, with Christina’s angelic voice and Chris’s guitar pyrotechnics on top form. Songs like I’m Alive, Pearl, King of the Skies, Anger, Towers of Hope, Demons etc. all received huge cheers and applause, and I really didn’t want it to end. However, a joyous, sweeping version of The Lizard King, from The Twenty Seven Club, as an encore was the perfect way to end their performance – we even got the clapping rhythm right, to Christina’s approval. This wonderful band rarely make it to the North of the country these days, and so it was so special to see them receive the enthusiastic ovation they fully deserved. Long may they continue!


All in all, a very satisfying and enjoyable day of progressive rock amongst great company in Leeds. The venue might have been a modest one, but the event itself felt very impressive in scale – and thanks go to Al Winter, This Winter Machine, Team Machine, the staff, the friendly and appreciative attendees and last, but not least, the talented musicians for their efforts and supporting this day festival. Whether it happens again, or not, I take away some lovely memories that will last for some time to come.