I am sure that you have all been keeping abreast of the headline acts for Nene Valley Rock Festival, as they have been drip fed into your consciousness. Waiting with eager anticipation in the hope that the next big name to be announced would be a favourite which, if you have already bought them, makes you glad you got the tickets as an early bird. However, if you were not that prudent with your purchases, it might be the tipping point for you to finally buy them. After all, who doesn’t like seeing bands that we can sing along with, or play the rare and precious Fender Air Guitar to?
Yes, the big names have now been announced and what a line up they are! A veritable feast of talent and class. Those alone should persuade anyone who truly appreciates great music to buy tickets now rather than later. I want to be front of stage for all of them so can somebody please save me a place?
But, as with all festivals, there are long lists of bands that are a sort of musical Yin and Yang. You either know of them and think should be higher up the playlist than they are shown, or you simply have never heard of them. The musicians and their music could be just as good as the headliners but they have yet to invade your consciousness. I have found that the big names are satisfying but the unknowns can also be revelations and I have found many a loved band by accident as such events.
The expression ‘Your next favourite band’ is much overused and, I must admit, rankles with me as it makes it sound like I will suddenly hear a few songs and whoosh bang goes almost 5 decades of love for Genesis with some random act replacing it in my heart. It ain’t going to happen but that doesn’t mean that, given half a chance, they can’t become one of your top 10 favourites. Something that has happened with me on more than one occasion.
But what of some of the more obscure acts that you might not have appeared on your radar? With so many stages and acts playing at various times you could miss out on something as you run from concert to concert, diverting to the toilets and bar on the way. Or just give them a miss because you want to sit down and rest your feet for a while. You might struggle to see everything, especially if you are as old and unfit as I am.
So, in an attempt to help with maximising the NVRF experience and pleasure I want to present you with an amuse bouche of a handful of Prog acts that could help help with your concert scheduling, ensuring that you can be in the right place, at the right time, to see something new and make up your own mind as to whether you like them or not.
As the festival has several genres appearing I will, for obvious reasons, focus on the Prog bands which have caught my eye. They might be familiar to you, you might even have seen them at Nene before, or other venues, but I want to show everyone what they would be missing if they don’t attend Nene or go but don’t see some of the bands that are simply listed in alphabetical order, on the third tier of acts.
I will start off with Splink have a catchy and wonderfully bizarre name which is also a computer term or, if you are of a certain age (AKA old), you might remember Jon Pertwee, using it on TV adverts as an acronym to help children, who seemed to be always carry the mandatory ice creams, to cross the road. But what about the band I hear you ask. Okay, I will get on with it.
They are a four piece from Kent who could be best compared to an upbeat Tangerine Dream, if Jean-Luc Ponty had decided to play his violin for them. With four albums under their belt they play resonant music that makes you want to listen to more and, dare I say it move in a way that some might think is dancing; as if Proggers would ever do that! The sort of music, that is evocative of sunny days and I could definitely listen to their full set while I sip on my drink and, once they had finished shout out for more.
Square Wild, a 4 piece band from Manchester, but nobody is perfect and there are worse places to come from. But being a Yorkshireman, I would think that. However, despite that geographical drawback, they did win the award as Prog Magazines Best Unsigned Band of 2022, which is no mean feat. While Lucy, the lead singer was put in the top 10 of female vocalists and winning other awards on the way, they are definitely a band that deserves to be big and hopefully, if you capture their set at Nene you can claim in a few years’ time that you saw them before they made it big. Or as big as Prog bands can get these days.
They are hard to categorise, which is no bad thing as it shows that they innovate rather than recyclers but they are not afraid to mix styles and influences that cover everything from jazz, funk, blues and, thanks to Lucy’s roots, even a sprinkling of Ukrainian music. But if you listen carefully you can catch respectful nods to Red Hot Chili Peppers, Hendrix, Deep Purple and even Rush. Not a bad mix if you ask me.
Simone Galassi did play at Nene last year but he made such a massive impact on those that saw him, and won himself a legion of new fans, that I would be remiss if I didn’t allow the uninitiated the chance to be blown away by his music. Where should I start? Like many musicians he is a man out of time and if he had been around in the 70’s he would have been spoken about in the same sentences that contained luminaries like Rory Gallagher, Gary Moore, Jimmy Paige and Jeff Beck. He might be left handed and play his guitar upside down but he has the skill to carry it off without being accused of being just another mediocre Hendrix wannabe. And let me assure you that is not just empty hyperbole, he really is that good.
I have no idea if he will be playing any other dates in the UK this year so this might be your only chance to see him, so do not miss it. You’ll thank me later.
Next up The Skys, again they have played Nene and having seen them live they instantly became my favourite Lithuanian Prog rock band, which, being honest is not an exhaustive list but it is still bigger than my list of Hip Hop bands from Liechtenstein. Bands which might exist and be plentiful, but who cares?
With Jonas Čiurlionis and Božena Buinicka as the core members they have released a sting of albums that have a list of guest musicians that would make many a more renowned and established band look at them with jealous eyes. These include Snowy White, of Thin Lizzy, Snake Davis, of too many to mention, Durga McBroom of Blue Pearl and Pink Floyd and Robert Townsend, of the Steve Hackett Band, to name but a few.
If you listen to their music I am sure that your first reaction would be the same as mine, they are heavily influenced by Pink Floyd but that is hardly a crime and when the music is mixed with a cool image akin to Lynyrd Skynyrd, without the silly hats, they are onto a winner. But they are more than that and, thanks to Božena’s vocal talents, have also added their own stamp on their music so that it has become their own. Don’t believe me? Then check out ‘When the Western Wind Blows’ and The Pyramid’ on YouTube. If you are not impressed then maybe Prog isn’t really your genre and you should be listening to Dubstep? Only joking, nobody should be listening to Dubstep.
You might have noticed that all the bands that I have focused on, so far, have started with the letter S but that is just accidental alliteration so I will change letter and finish with EBB. When I first saw them live, I was neither familiar with their act nor their music and was left bemused. I started to have a confused internal monologue that contained the expression “What the… heck?” My first reaction was that the Scottish based musical collective were as mad as a box of frogs but, thanks to the way my mind works, that endeared me to them and I was mesmerised by the wonderful theatrics mixed with the tsunami of musical talent. They are all that a live Prog rock band should be and more.
In a fair and just world they should be one of the headlining acts rather than being stuck lower down in the pecking order, but to me that is immaterial as long as I get to see them. And, they do actually top the list in some smaller Prog events so I am sure that they do not feel too hard done by.
Some of you might have been lucky enough to have seen them before and, if you have, you’ll probably be fighting to get the best view of the stage, but for those of you who are EBB virgins, don’t be shy. Go see them, but just be ready to expect the unexpected.
LINKS
Nene Valley Rock Festival – Website | Facebook Group | Trevor NVRF
