Abingdon United Football Club, Oxfordshire
Thursday, 17th & Friday, 18th July 2025
Mark Cunningham and his team put on another successful charity prog rock festival at the Northcourt Music Venue at the Abingdon United Football Club in Oxfordshire – all in aid of the Headcase Charity Trust, researching Glioblastoma Multiforme (and more) – the brain cancer that claimed the life of the legendary drummer with Rush, Neil Peart. The festival took place on Friday and Saturday, July 18th to 19th, 2025, with a pre-festival party evening the Thursday beforehand. DAVID EDWARDS has collected his mini update reviews from the weekend, and selected photographs, to hopefully recapture some of the spirit of this great, intimate and friendly UK progressive rock festival and the wonderful performances from all the musicians.
Thursday, 17th July 2025
Fern McNulty (Foxpalmer) kicked off proceedings in a nicely filled bar at the Northcourt in Abingdon on the pre-festival party evening. I’ve seen her in solo acoustic mode supporting The Blackheart Orchestra, but this the first time I’ve seen her in more of a band setting, with Ashish Dyola joining her on electric guitar. It gave her folk/indie/Americana a powerful sonic boost, with a dynamic interplay between her and Ash. Her own compositions, such as That Way, Forever, Tired and Wanted had real emotional clout and bite and Ash’s intricate playing certainly impressed. A good start to the festival!
Next up, the inimitable Buzz Elliott royally entertained the pre-festival audience with a fun-filled and diverse set of covers, with his trusty guitar and lots of effects and loops. The undoubted highlight was a full version of Supper’s Ready, with the attendees in fine voice, and air guitar and keyboards aplenty! Sylvia, extracts from Tubular Bells and Solsbury Hill were other covers of note, but I was particularly impressed how he remembered his Hammerhead classic, Time Will Tell, from the early 80s after all these years…. muscle memory par excellence!
Malcolm Galloway and Mark Gatland produced a dynamic and powerful set, with a diverse range of songs from their extensive back catalogue. Malcolm’s guitar playing was relaxed and free-flowing, and his impassioned vocals cut through well, while Mark drove the bass line as impressively and energetically as ever. Silence is a Statement was a powerful opening, and One Word That Means The World, Nostalgia For Infinity and The Think Tank displayed their full live range. I enjoyed the lesser-known Struggling from their 2020 Feeling Great EP and one of the best versions I’ve heard of Century Rain brought their first set to a satisfying close.
The night continued with a nicely chaotic set of covers with guest musicians and full audience participation. Fern McNulty, Simon Carbery and Mark Cunningham all joined in the fun, with Comfortably Numb, Time, Rocket Man, Sugar Mice, Here Comes The Flood and a final collective Bohemian Rhapsody from all the audience all highlights to fondly remember.
Friday, 18th July 2025
The festival kicked off in earnest with a very enjoyable, fresh and dynamic set from Liverpool-based band, Tavananna. Their sound is largely a mix of intricate instrumental heavy rock and modern prog with post-rock and metal echoes, and it certainly blew away the cobwebs. Their singles, Hope and To The Ground, certainly were engaging, with newer songs, Blast 1, Blast 2 and ‘Song 6’ likely to be on their forthcoming debut album. A song with vocals, currently known as ‘Turkish Tune’ showed a different side to them. Embiye Adali (who also plays with Dominic Sanderson) on keyboards and vocals is an engaging presence, and Reiss Greenwell adds some bite on guitar over the powerful rhythm section. A very promising debut indeed at the festival.
Something definitely different, with the theatrical Maltese art-rock/prog of Viper Soup Complex. The music is an eclectic mingling of many styles and genres, full of dramatic, dark and atmospheric flourishes, with avant-garde and even operatic echoes. The band dovetail together so well, but the focus is undoubtedly the performance art of singer, Annemarie Spiteri – whose stage presence and vocals is completely engaging. Focusing on their new EP, with the tracks, Good Man, Tetrahedron Paradise and The Well in the Labyrinth, and ending with the nightmarish, heaviness of Taxidermy Hotel – it was a complete performance that certainly impressed.
Returning 4 years after their appearance at the inaugural Prog For Peart festival, the progressive/psychedelic band from London played an impressive and atmospheric set drawing largely from their new album In Rabbits & Corners (which was officially released the next day). Simon Carbery on vocals and guitar and Rick Startin on keyboards, shape the sound, with a strong rhythm section of John Silver and Ed Kontargyris, but their unique sound comes from Naomi Belshaw’s mesmeric violin. The moving I Told You I Will and the atmospheric Trickledown was followed by the vibrant Underground Rivers, all from the new album, before a pleasing return to mystical Angels of Peckham and then the ethereal The Odd Particle. However, it was a stunning rendition of the new 17-minute epic, Nothing Between Us & Heaven that showed off the wonderful ensemble playing and maturity they have now reached. Marvellous!
Another consummate and professional performance from the melodic prog rock band, Ghost of the Machine, in front of a suitably enthusiastic audience. Charlie Bramald remains a great vocalist and front man, and the band support him like a well-oiled machine! The epic Scissors from their debut began things, before focussing on 4 tracks from their latest album, Empires Must Fall, with Keepers Of The Light, The Days That Never Were, After The War, and finally the majestic Panopticon. The dual guitars of Scotty Owens and Graham Garbett and rippling keyboards of Mark Hagan, all supported by the remarkably tight rhythm section Stuart McAuley and Andy Milner, ensured a veritable feast of melodic prog in the late afternoon.
A thoroughly enjoyable slab of melodic progressive rock from this South Wales band from 1979-81, who got back together 40 years later and have recorded two cracking albums since, The World As We Knew It, and Dreams, Myths and Machines. The band chose a nice range of songs from both of these, which were both accessible and melodic and yet not without progressive complexity at times – with 80s classic rock and neo-prog touches. Time Traveller, Saving California, I’m Alive and Constantinople all impressed early on, with Assassin’s Cloak, Armed Combat, Flowerbride and Don’t Look Back ending proceedings strongly. John Harris handled the vocals and guitar confidently, ably supported by Tony Lewis on bass and Greg Havers on drums. Tom Edmunds and Nigel Hopkins were drafted in to cover backing vocals, additional guitar and keyboards and deserve much praise. I look forward to their third album in the near future and even more live dates, hopefully.
In the absence of Comedy of Errors, the long-established Midlands-based Pink Floyd tribute band stepped in at very short notice and put in a credible and crowd-pleasing performance in the evening. Starting with Shine On… and then progressing through a selection from Dark Side of the Moon, including Time, Money and Brain Damage/Eclipse. The 8-piece, including keyboardist Pete Riley of Freedom to Glide, surprised with the welcome inclusion of Pigs (3 Different Ones) and an extract from Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun, later closing with the ever-popular Wish You Were Here and Comfortably Numb. Good, wholesome, nostalgic fayre.
The Polish band Amarok headlined the Friday night with a wonderfully immersive and intense set, largely drawn from their two more recent albums, Hope and Hero. Starting with Hope Is, the show built organically with the lead vocals and guitar layering of Michał Wojtas creating evocative audio imagery, propelled by the percussion and vocals of Marta Wojtas, the hypnotic, insistent and powerful rhythms from drummer Konrad Zieliński and the multi-instrumental colours painted by Kornel Popławski.
Insomnia, Welcome, Queen, Surreal, Hero and It’s Not The End were just some of the many highlights, and long-time associate, Colin Bass, of Camel, joined them for a couple of tracks as well. Modern, atmospheric, groove-driven, progressive/art rock with mesmerising cinematic soundscapes – an undoubted festival highlight for most, and a reminder of what a broad church of styles prog rock can be.
