Eighteen months ago, I helplessly fell in love all over again. Not far into We Claim the Moon, the opening track of Love, the unmistakable, exhilarating sound of The Flower Kings cascaded over me, and a big cheesy ‘welcome home’…
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Three and a half minutes into High and Just Proceedings, the debut album from Finnish band Hypnoma, the mood decisively changes. The time signature shifts, the soundscape calms, and a guitar rises above everything around it. Serene. Weightless. Unfettered. I…
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Eventim Apollo, London Thursday, 1 October 2026 Nobody asks the question out loud at the Eventim Apollo on Thursday night, yet it hangs, in some shape or form, over every song we hear. Marillion open with Gaza. Seventeen minutes of…
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300 years is a mere drop in the ocean when transcendence inspires you to explore the limits of human creativity. Johann Sebastian Bach yearned to touch the infinite and used counterpoint to try to do so: one line of melody…
View More Raphael Weinroth-Browne – Empyrean
New Theatre, Oxford Thursday, 10 September 2026 I have never considered myself a devoted Yes fan. I play their music when I’m in the mood, but they are not a band I regularly revisit with the same deep craving or…
View More Jon Anderson & The Band Geeks
Wembley Stadium, London Sunday, 6 September 2026 Forever, Together Early in the set, the show pauses. Jon Bon Jovi spotted someone in the crowd who was clearly unwell and struggling. He paused the band, called for help and…
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Eighteen seconds into ᎠᏌᏃ ᎩᎦᎨ (The Red Dress), something vaguely familiar catches your attention. A sound you feel you know: a voice, a flute, definitely something human, but gone before you can actually put your finger on it. It returns…
View More RematriNation – ᎠᏌᏃ ᎩᎦᎨ (The Red Dress)
When the promo arrived, I didn’t pay too much attention to the blurb. I downloaded the files and hit play. The opening chords of Blue Door came from nowhere: joyous, startling and immediately demanding attention. Heavy guitar chords call an…
View More Dick Van Der Heijde – Locked-In
Introduction 3:23 am. It has become my favourite time of the morning. No. Seriously. If you’ve been there, and I bet most of us have, you’ll know it is a feeling unlike any other hour. The silence in the darkness…
View More Alone Together – A Progressive Journey Through Loneliness
New Theatre Oxford Thursday, 14 May 2026 This means nothing to me, Oh Vienna Except. It is actually Oxford, on a rainy Thursday night in May. “The feeling has gone, only you and I, it means nothing to me.” Yet,…
View More Midge Ure