Nick's Ramblings

"Passion"- new album and tour

So...where on Earth have I been, it's been nearly a year since the last ramblings?

Well I've been to Wales quite a bit and for most of the time when we were not touring I've been writing the new album, Passion, so I've been locked away in various places working my nuts off on this new album and booking the tour next year.

Over the Summer I have just discovered one of the UK's best kept secrets, the Lleyn peninsular in Wales, it is stunning, the beaches are so wild and beautiful and not crowded. In fact I am discovering a lot of really good places in the UK, over the Summer I walked up Snowdon and did some serious camping and some surfing at Hell's Mouth in Wales. Geez this is one of the most spectacular places on Earth!

me and a giant cormorant in Anglesey

So, what news of Passion - the new album? Which will be out in April 2011 [earlier for Mega Daze people].

Passion + Empathy

So, the first song is called Empathy....actually it isn't now [as of 8/12/10] and in fact Empathy is going to be the second song as I want to split the tracks up a bit. So, the first song is called Passion......... it's a roller coaster of ideas, it opens with a drum loop sample, I wanted to start the album with something totally different to Pure or anything else we've done. With the drum loop there is a mellow feel overall with clean guitar picking and some uber fuzz guitar, and then it comes...... the "unleash hell" section, really powerful and quite heavy and very melodic and as the song progresses in section 2 it becomes much darker with a killer atmosphere [and this is now the bit that's going to be called Empathy!] There are about 4 mood changes in his song [Passion and Empathy now!] It sounds modern and atmospheric, then in the end section the whole thing really builds into a gorgeous guitar melody probably one of the best I have ever written I think....however...... there is a twist , within this guitar melody section is probably the most controversial piece of music I have ever delved into with Pendragon.......a rap

OK...so now I've given you a moment to digest that. It just kinda happened, and popped into my head that a rap would fit so well, I really want to try and get a few different things going on this album and experiment a bit, that is what "progressive music " is after all. I really like The Streets and some other stuff like Devlin, I feel there is a real need to inject something a bit new into the prog genre, this is exactly what Genesis were doing in 1974 with the Lamb, the lifeblood of an artist is to move forward and take some risks, they don't always work...but sometimes they do, and when they do...oh boy, the bar gets set even higher and I wanna do that! I think when you hear it, you'll agree it works so well and has a great emotion.

Feeding Frenzy

The third song is called Feeding Frenzy and is about ego driven quests, I've also nodded to the blood lust/ritualistic concept too, which is very Aztec, reptilian [David Icke fans will find this rings a few bells! ] The music is pretty rocky and has some serious energy, so I think Feeding Frenzy will probably become a live favourite.

This song really has a strong atmosphere about it, but is also incredibly powerful and guitar driven, Peter's bass on this is fantastic. I've added some nice samples too, there's a baby crying , but as it goes on the pitch drops giving this really eerie, menacing feel, and then there's the ratchet which also makes it a bit creepy. The song ends with a guitar on auto wah which makes it sound a bit like a didgeridoo.

This Green And Pleasant Land,

Fourth song is called This Green And Pleasant Land, which is about how in the UK we have pushed the boundaries of multiculturism,political correctness introduction of boundless health and safety directives and legislation that we have virtually entirely eradicated all common sense and human instinct . When you join the fire brigade for example there is a risk element in that job that just simply goes with the territory, you just cannot plan for trouble or legislate it all away, it is a dangerous job end of story. In this song I am talking about my relatives , my uncles and grandfather of the risks and sacrifices they made to give this country it's freedom, but I feel a lot of the work they did has been pissed up the wall and they have been almost made to feel bad about it, it's pretty disheartening. So - the music, opens with a big phased guitar and is very typical Pendragon in style musically, it's deeply emotional and has a very a powerful melody. The song goes through a few sections of classic Pendragon, and then builds into a killer chorus, that sounds both very Pendragon but very modern too. ..then the mayhem kicks in again with a great rock guitar riff into an almost Toolesque mixture of tense drums and guitars riffing away for a very interesting instrumental end with a real big bag of energy.

The rest?

There will be another ramblings very soon with the rest of the album tracks...right now it's Dec 9th 2010 and I still have one more set of lyrics to write. the pressure is getting tough, we are supposed to finish the final mixes by end of Dec and I haven't even started recording the vocals yet.......I'm getting a bit stressed, but it's going to sound killer-on-toast.

I am challenging myself with this album, that's what creating something artistic is all about, and I think it will challenge the fans too but in a good way, I really think this will reach people on a new level....I'm very happy with Passion!

It's hard to really describe this album, there are a lot of guitar driven sections, but then there are a lot of keyboards too, I have avoided [like Pure] the obvious and rather weary I feel, Mini Moog type sounds and gone for much more gritty trance type leads [currently using Omnisphere and an M3]

Don't get me wrong I love a bit o Genesis, but I have a problem with bands that on every single album sound utterly like early Genesis or Marillion, I don't mind a bit of that influence as long as there's other influences in there AS WELL. So..justification in place, there is sound on the M3 called Son Of A Musical Fox, and it utterly epitomises early Genesis.....I just had to use this sound, it's unbelievable, it has 12 string guitars, flute, bells, tambourine...just wait till you get yer ears around this bad boy!

The Passion concept

The concept is about how people have channelled their passion and energy into various paths which have started out as being all very laudable then the ego kicks in and steers them off the track, to get a picture of what I mean, one of my bug bears are religious sects and cults which are often strangely very rich and corporate This seems to be at odds with any kind of spiritual relationship and starts to dive away from whichever God you/they/one may happen to have a relationship with.

It's also the same with governments, politicians and individuals

Without wishing to end up sounding like Sting, I think a lot of human problems stem from a lack of empathy with each other. One has to dig deep to find this and sometimes it's hard , but it is the way the world could move forward much more quickly and effectively I think. In a way we've lost our spiritual way, which apparently went down the pan with the Atlanteans and we have obviously moved towards the opposite of that, a more ego driven, selfish society with decreasing amounts of common sense and self sacrifice.

A new DVD?

Yup we're making another , I really wanted to do this somewhere different or at least do it at a standing venue, but costs, logistics just are not allowing this to happen, so we are back as Teatr Slaski in Katowice , but we'll be changing the set list again from the other DVDs at least and are looking at doing this as a High Definition release.

You can rest assured though,. the picture and sound quality from the Slaski Theater will be top notch.

What of all the gigs we have done this year?

Sweden Rock

High Voltage

First show was in La Coruna in North West Spain. We played as part of a festival run by our good friend Raffa. Steve Hackett, Colin Bass and Jan Schellas [from Camel!] RPWL, Agents of mercy were amongst the acts. Hackett for me is something of a hero, being a major part of my growing up and as the guitarist in Genesis and as solo artist [Voyage Of The Acolyte being one of the best albums ever] I was a bit of a "fan". It was truly great talking to him about music and to see that he still has such a great desire to pioneer new areas of music and has such enthusiasm for it..a true artist. Great also to meet Colin and Jan from Camel. The gig had a great vibe and was ruthlessly well organised , but could have done with a few more people. It's a new festival and hopefully will get the attention it so deserves in future. La Coruna is a beautiful place and so every prog fan worth his salt should be adding this one to the 'best annual trips' list.

Mystery The next show was Rosfest in Gettysburg in the USA. This was at the Majestic theatre which is much better than the previous place in Phoenixville. the great thing about the Amercians is that they buy their ticket they go to the show and they really are 100% up for it. The audience were really ready for Pendragon and were so welcoming. What I like about this show is that it is so easy to communicate with the audience, they want the show to entertain them so are totally behind you which makes working on stage a pleasure. The show, needless to say, was utterly fantastic and we met some great people. I met an old friend called Bunny from Stroud who relocated to Arkansas some years ago. Bunny actually promoted one of the very first Pendragon shows at the Cirencester Agricultural college where the drunk rugby team tried to invade the stage and drive a car into the hall. By means of retaliation we turned our amps up full blast and just deafened them with an impromptu version of Johhny B Goode.

Then it was back to the UK for a few shows .

Stroud in Glos, our hometown. We haven't played Stroud for about 25 years and always wanted to play the Sub Rooms as this is where the big bands visiting used to play. It was a brilliant night with a packed out venue made all the better for the vocal performances from the OCD [the Pendragon hardcore unit]. On these shows we wanted to play more material from Not Of This World, so included If I Were The Wind and the title track Not Of This World, which sounds great especially nice to play Green Eyed Angel again. The acoustics in the venue are notoriously hell, but not hell enough for our sound man Bernhard, who with his German efficiency made it sound more than bearable.

The Robin in Bilston was the next UK show and again proved that the UK shows are really gaining a lot more ground in terms of turnouts and reaction. We had Dee Expus supporting at this show who were incredibly loud, but are definitely one of the best new bands to emerge recently.

Then it was off for a quick jaunt around Europe in the tour bus.

First was Spirit Of 66 in Verviers, man that Belgium chocolate is killer good! We have a guy who comes to the Belgian shows who is a chocolateer and last time brought me a bag of the stuff, I had to fight Nolan off for the rest of the tour and in the end had to hide it under my bunk. The Spirit was packed and to be honest I thought was the best, most responsive crowd we have ever had there. The promoter Francis is a great guy and always gets this amazing Chinese food in for the band.

Next is Reichenbach, the Bergkeller. You cannot talk about the Bergkeller without mentioning Uwe, he is the promoter of the venue, and the gig is basically his front lounge, the place cannot measure much more than 10m x 10m but he crams 140 people in there, there is no stage and you could literally reach across the stage to the bar and refill yer pint. Uwe insists on coming "onstage" during the gig with champagne for the band and during the day plies you with a vile green liqueur whose name translates as 'green root' , which is exactly what it is ......it is very hard to do this gig sober.

Then it is onto the Colosaal in Aschaffenburg, a really great venue near Frankfurt In Germany. Again one of the best reactions we have had from the crowd there, in fact a truly deafening response and the town itself is uber "Christmassy". Aschaffenburg apparently is where everyone goes to guy their Christmas decorations because of this. Geat gig and onto Z7 in Pratteln Switzerland. This place can really go when you've got a good crowd in there, I mean a decent sized crowd and this night was our biggest crowd ever for Z7. Bands often try to get the Z7 in the middle of the tour as they have a washing machine and tumble drier, so it's the perfect opportunity to get all those pants and socks clean.

Also the catering is always amazing, lots to choose from chicken , fish, pasta ,don't forget that old phrase 'an army marches on its stomach', well Nolan's army anyway.....

Then it's back to the UK for some more hometown gigs.

Again one of my favourite shows is Glasgow the Ferry , like Rosfest the audience are a pleasure to communicate with and you always get great banter back from the crowd, totally enjoyable, the enthusiasm is fantastic and to be honest I could tour my arse off in Scotland. We had a great support too, a stripped down Abel Ganz, who when they are in this mode play this wonderful Celtic music with real authentic Celtic instruments, utterly haunting and beautiful.

We haven't played in Newcastle for about 25 years, and apart from the brilliant hardcore who came , it was not our best attended gig of all time, I seem to remember the one 25 years ago had about the same turnout. On the day of the show the British Defence League decided to have a rally, as a protest against another rally for a merging culture's bunch, the name of which escapes me, needless to say the atmosphere in the high street was horrible, and kind of marred the gig a bit, but it was truly great to meet some Geordie diehard fans.

Then onto Leciester Musician, the last show of the batch. This was a slightly odd gig, as for some reason it seemed quite difficult to communicate with the crowd, and then there was the tuba incident. Halfway through one of the songs there was a horrific deafening bang, as one of our crew accidentally kicked a DI Box or something......But I was thinking on my feet and introduced him as our new tuba player , who I would be sacking on Monday...I think we got away with it.

And then there were the big gigs...... Sweden Rock. Extremely well organised , and very well attended, this is one of the biggest festivals in Europe. We had a good slot, 6pm on Friday evening , so it was all looking good. The way they organised it, the crossover of bands was very sympathetic, so you didn't get one prog type band clashing with another etc, there was also two hours to set up and soundcheck, during which time the public would wander off to other stages, so you weren't completely giving your show away in front of a crowd before the real thing.....High Voltage could learn a lot from this , as at HV the soundchecking, equipment movements and logistics were a total nightmare, and not really very well organised, eg if you couldn't get a piece of gear working at HV, the time was deducted from your set which why I think Steve Hackett could only play for 40 mins at HV.

So......Sweden, we played on the Sweden stage which is pretty big [the photo on the front of the website is of this gig] , the only problem with this stage is that it is tucked away around a corner, so you really had to want to see Pendragon, unfortunately, we are not very well known in Sweden so to start with there were probably 2,000 people [not bad though eh?!!] and as the set progressed the crowd got bigger and bigger, from the stage I could actually see people making their way towards our stage in droves which was great, and the reaction was utterly brilliant, this is the fist time we have ever played in Scandinavia let alone Sweden and we were well pleased by the reaction from the crowd. Amazing gig, and a real landmark for us!

We stayed for a few days and caught Guns And Roses - who infuriated me for coming on stage so late , and I was ready to hate them...but they were brilliant, a great show, Axl was still a great singer and frontman, but the guitarists were incredible. Gary Moore, also great, as were Wasp, Cinderella, Quireboys, Y and T [Y + T were also on the same stage as us, I went up to one of the guys and said are you Y or are you T and without a trace of irony he replied....er..no..I'm Derek! Great guys and great band love to see them again. I even watched some Suicidal Tendencies who were entertaining too.

Last show of the Summer...the big one ..High Voltage Victoria Park London. To say some of the organisation was poor would be an understatement, and I think some of the bands were treated like shit. Our kids were outside waiting to get in, they were on the guest list but were told they had to pay a mandatory 'donation' to charity for cancer of a minimum of £15 each, there was no warning beforehand, no explanation, just if you don't pay you can't come in...this our kids, they didn't have 15p let alone 15 quid! Wilce complained bitterly and was met the angry retort of 'so you don't care about people with cancer' .I think that was really out of order.

The other thing which we raised was that many people hadn't received their tickets through the post so were told to queue and get them from the box office on the day, again we complained to the organisers that if the door opened at 12 noon and Touchstone are due to go on at 1pm, and they have to queue at the box office which opens at 12 noon , there is fair chance they are going to miss the early bands....their repsonse? "well no one really bothers to see the first bands...anyway tell your fans to get there early" ...this was the attitude. Sucks doesn't it?

They told us no other bands have hassled them about box office opening times/ queues etc etc. Well that's because I would really like our fans to be able to see us, and I actually do care about people getting their full value for money, it's irrelevant if they don't want to see the early bands, that should be their choice, not some freakin' oik who doesn't give damn....gggrrrrrrrrrr.

BUT. The gig was amazing, yes it was stressful as hell trying to get the gear set up in 25 minutes from scratch but we were luckily the only band on the whole weekend where nobody was playing on the main stage, only a metal band doing their thing on the Metal Hammer stage. So just about everyone who came through the turnstile was faced with us...

We opened up with Indigo, then into Eraserhead, Freakshow, and finished the set with Masters Of Illusion. All in the our allocated 40 minutes!

First and only show of the Autumn, was Veruno in Italy.....ahhhhhhhh, really relaxing, warm weather, amazing scenery and brilliant audience, I really enjoyed this show and could have stayed there all week...

I should point out that over this years shows we have delved a bit more into Not Of This World, and played the title track, all of it and If I Were The Wind, which worked really well, and will probably feature in next years set list too.[and DVD]

Next live shows Mega Daze Swindon in March!

Support for the whole of the Passion tour will be Twelfth Night vocalist Andy Sears, who will do a kind of one man show covering some classic Twelfth Night stuff and solo material.

ok, more Passion news coming soon

Merry Christmas to you all!

lots of love

Nick

Tour Dates

25/26 March, Mega Daze UK, Swindon, UK - Riffs Bar (SOLD OUT)

April 2nd/3rd - Mega Daze Europe - De Boerderij - Holland

April 10 - Oberhausen - Zentrum Altenberg - Germany

April 11 - Reichenbach - Bergkeller - Germany

April 12 - Poznan - Blue Note - Poland

April 13 - Gdansk - Parlament - Poland

April 14 - Bydogoscz - Filharmonia Pomorska - Poland

April 15 - Warsaw - Progresja - Poland

April 16 - Krakow - Loch Ness - Poland

April 17 - Bielsko Biala - BCK - Poland

April 18 - Wroklaw - Firlej - Poland

April 20 - Katowice Teatr Śląski -

April 22 - Pratteln - Z7 - Switzerland

April 24 - Aschaffenburg - Colos-Saal - Germany

April 25 - Lyon - Ninkasi Kao - France, tickets: Built by France's Facebook or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

April 26 - Verona - Club Il Giardino - Italy

April 27 - Rome - Stazione Birra - Italy

April 28 - Trezzo sull'adda [Milan] - Live Music Club - Italy

April 29 - Barcelona - Bikini - Spain, and you may also get ticket from Never Land Concerts

April 30 - Madrid - is confirmed - Spain, venue is still to be sorted but likely to be Carocol

May 2011

May 1 - Lisbon - Santiago Alquimista - Portugal

May 2 - A Coruna - Colon Theatre - now be confirmed - Spain

May 3 - Billere [Pau] -Ampli - France , tickets: Built by France's Facebook or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

May 4 - Bordeaux - BT 59 - France www.bt59.com

May 5 - Paris - Divan Du Monde - France www.divandumonde.com, tickets: Built by France's Facebook or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

May 6 - Verviers - Spirit of '66 - Belgium www.spiritof66.be/index.html

May 27 - Cardiff - The Globe - now confirmed - UK tickets are available locally from Ticketline-02920 230130 (www.ticketlineuk.com) and Spillers Records 02920 224905.

May 28 - Kingston-Upon-Thames - The Peel - UK

May 29 - Kingston-Upon-Thames - The Peel - UK

May 30 - Bilston - The Robin 2 - UK

June 2011

June 2 - Birkenhead - Pacific Road - UK

June 3 - Glasgow - The Ferry - UK

June 4 - Sheffield - Wath Montgomery Hall - UK

Hello Scotland

And so...the Peel , Rotherham and Scotland.

Scotland was probably the wild card here as we haven't been there for 20 odd years.....and ended up being the utter utter utter opposite of last time we played there, when I got threatened by the promoter, paid £2.56, and had two tyres blow out on the van on the way home...oh yes and we lost about £1k in costs.

Glasgow.....ROOOOCCCCKKKKEEEDDDD, it was fantastic, so was the Peel and Rotherham, the Peel seemed a little bit quieter than normal, but we've put this down to the fact that the place was so seriously packed, there simply wasn't enough oxygen in the building to breath or space to get yer hands in the air! Rotherham, can be quite a tough gig, the sound isn't usually very good in that Wath hall, there just seems to be a weird vibe there which can make it odd, but this time was excellent, and the audience seemed to be really behind the band and very responsive.

Peter Gee...after a few pints

Glasgow was brilliant! It was a really bright sunny day and the Ferry is err...... a boat , so we could just sit on the ferry decking drinking coffee in the sunshine admiring the incredible new development that has recently been going on on the Clyde, it was almost like being in Sydney with their fandabidozy Armadillo opera house type building.
Also, we have had a ton of emails from people who came to the Glasgow show to throw in their appreciation for the band getting up there, to be honest this is the biggest public after show reaction we have had for a gig for quite some time and really made us feel welcome and happy to get back to Scotland.

Bit of a nightmare week...

Nightmare number 1 , how do you get a stroppy sound engineer from Dusseldorf to Verona to mix the Pendragon show? Easy, tell him to get up at 3.30am drive 2 hours to Weeze airport [not Dusseldorf] and put him on a flight to Venice! Geez...yup that's what the promoters gone and done to poor ol' Davey Sievers [sound guy], so after many heated emails ..I told Davey to get a f***ing Gondola!

He arrived in Verona at 8.30....CET

Nightmare Number 2.
After 3 tough, soulsearching years of putting together Pure, financing it, touring it, promoting it etc, just as we were rising above the surface financially....we heard this week that SPV Germany, our German distributors, have gone bust.......owing us a mere £25,000 + . yup that is my money to live on for the next 2 years ....I' m massively pissed off, but for some stupid reason that remains unbeknowst to me, have the ability to view things from the "oh well at least we've all still got our arms and legs" school of thought......sometimes I wonder where I got my bollocks from [not to metion....my own trumpet!!!]....and so on we go!

So, that means in the past 12 months , Pinnacle [the UK's largest indie distributor] has gone down the pan, along with PHD Canada, and now SPV, all owing us money to the tune of a round £30,000.......................as John Cleese says in Clockwise, it's not so much the despair.........it's the hope...............

STOP PRESS...we have just received some of the SPV money....hale-frikkin-leulia!

Anyway , we just got back from Verona today, and the Dream Theater show is next week, which is gonna be incredible, I really don't know how their fans will react to us, but this is a huge challenge going out in front of a different audience , we will be out of our safety zone......yum yum...bring it on!

Starting to get some more ideas for the next album. The music is probably going to be quite challenging, in most respects we got away with the more ambitious elements of Pure, in fact people really liked the diverse aspect of Pure, and so did I. It simply must be challening for me as a musician to be interesting. Pure getting the awards and accolades it got in the DPRP polls, Classic Rock and other general stunning reviews, has really lifted the band to a new level..so the gamble of 'ooh do you think we should use that vocal effect that Cher used' etc etc paid off hansomely and makes me feel alive.

Phew... the Verona show. ya know....we ought to play more in Italy, it was a really good gig, and very enthusiastic people. But I cannot get my head around these "stand and deliver" toilets . ..[see last ramblings for pic] ..why oh why oh why........you have to virtually get naked to use them.

I took Max for his 14th Birthday, he loved it , ice cream, pizza, rock star for a weekend....

Also, how come it's all about carbs in Italy , lots of pasta, bread, potatoes?? Not a vegetable in sight.....wierd, although we did have a superb Chinese with some deep fried ice cream. Also had a good trip into Verona to check out Juliet's balcony and drink some beer.

We're off to Lisbon to open for Dream Theater next week, see ya when we get back [unless you live in Lisbon and are coming to the show!] it's gonna take us about a week to get down there and back, all for 40 minutes on stage! But a VERY important 40 mintues, I really think we can make this count and maybe then we can get to do a few more DT shows next year.

cheers

Nick

Goodbye Michael Jackson

So, there it is................Michael Jackson has gone. In some bizarre way, I almost expect him to come jumping out of a giant cake shouting , "there...fooled ya", it hasn't really sunk in, those words.......... Michael Jackson is dead.

Many people probably wouldn't have associated me or Pendragon with Jackson, but as a matter of fact he was a huge influence on me and there have been these strange epochs when I really admired Jackson, and actually was massively inspired by his music and drive which rubbed off on me to try and get somewhere as a musician and keep going when the going got tough.
The first serious epoch was when Off The Wall came out and I heard Rock With You, it was just such an excellent song, it really affected me along with the title track Off The Wall, I used to sing these songs at the top of my voice in my bedroom.
But it was probably the ballads that really struck me. I don't care if you think I'm a big sentimental softy, but I can remember when One Day In You Life was re released mid 80's, of course I vaguely knew the song from it's original release in the 70's, but to me this is one of the most powerful soul songs ever written. Also...yes yes yes I know it's frikkin soppy, but I remember watching the film Ben with my brother.......it is utterly, utterly, utterly heartbreaking and when at the end that rat comes back and Michael Jackson starts singing Ben, it is a real lump in the throat moment,...honestly it's hugely moving! Check it out if you can.

The next Jackson epoch was around the time when Pendragon had hit an almighty low, in the late 80's, I was working on a bread delivery round, and wondering if I would ever make a career out of music, and I got hold of Bad...which to be honest I preferred to Thriller, I just loved those songs, also from there I got into many of the old Jackson 5 songs, and some of Michael's early solo stuff, and it all had such an incredibly powerful affect on me, it was just before I met Anthea, my [then] wife and I was playing the song Happy all the time, and Music and Me..I can't tell you how much these songs kept me going in some very dark moments.
Clive and I were both huge Jackson fans, and we went to see him at Cardiff Arms Park on the Bad tour, it was incredible.
A lot of people around that time were into Madonna, but to me there was no performer like Jacko, the way he could dance and translate those movements into human cinema was just magical [check out his moves in Black and White], he was also hugely more vocally talented that Madonna , and had soul!

Once the band was off and running again in the 90's I kinda forgot the Jacko thing a bit, but still loved his album Dangerous, I remember I sat and worked out all the piano to Gone Too Soon. I dunno if anyone knows this but I used to do an extremely good vocal impression of Jackson as his range was quite similar to mine.

The thing is that Michael Jackson was a big inspiration to me when things were not going too well with life and the band, and somewhere in the back of my mind I thought I would probaby meet him one day. But that isn't going to happen now. Initially when I heard that he had died, it didn't really sink in, but when I stop to think about his death, layers of times and places unfold in my mind, and I start to feel something very powerful about him not being here.

It seems that even in death Michael Jackson has exited in an odd way...just like the odd way he was in life, and this bizarre and sudden exit , just when he had been cleared of something so life changing as "being accused of child abuse" and about the return to what he was known for, performing music, he is gone just in a blink of an eye.
I don't care what anyone says, but I was horrified that when he was on trial for child abuse , some people said, yeah I think he did it............... based on what? .how would they know , how could they know, it would be a terrible thing if he did do it , but just as bad a thing to be accused of if he didn't. Can you imagine, you , yourself living with being accused of something like that, knowing that you were innocent?

His life was never going to be simple. I just hope that now he's in a place where things make more sense. I know he changed so many people's lives for the better, God Bless you Michael, I'll miss you

Nob and Nobility

Merry Christmas..huh huh huh....well the festive season....well no bollocks, the Christmas Season! I don't care how politically incorrect that is , It's CHRIST----MUS!!!! Always has been always will be..yes the birth of sweet baby Jesus ...and that's final!

So it all went without incident, or did it? The shows at the Boerderij in Holland and Christmad in Leamington were legendary...there was love in the building those two nights. The Boerderij sold out about 2 months before the show and Leamington was seriously packed out too, 600+ attendees. Leamington sold around 450 tickets in advance which is probably the biggest advance tickets sales we've ever had in the UK.
Both gigs were incredible , the audiences were really up for it and the split set thing seemed to work really well with the first half being all of Pure in order of the album and then over two hours of back catalogue material, which included recently wheeled out tracks Oh Divineo and If I Were The Wind, the latter proving itself to be a monster live track riddled with emotion at the end. The break after Pure seemed just enough for everyone to get a ciggy break and a quick drink, 3 hours straight through is a helluva long time to be standing in one spot!
Also nice to bring out some Christmas turkeys, Saved By You [Holland only] , Solid Heart, Red Shoes and fun filled rendition of Fairytale Of New York in Leamington with Tina from Magenta...utter magic!

The one thing I try to be careful not to do is take myself too seriously if I am talking to the crowd, yes I give my opinions on stuff, but I hope to God it doesn't come across all preachy and Bono esque...I'd hate myself for that [hee hee], but I get passionate about stuff, I like to talk about "things" and explain some of the songs, yes there's a message but I want it to be humourous as well sometimes. In the Eraserhead intro, I'm fascinated about the possibility, and I mean the possibility that climate change is not man made, because I cannot stand this new religion that people immerse themselves in without much questioning. There are some brilliant You Tubes out there and Brasscheck TV that will show another side to the "official" version of the World-as -we -are- told- to- believe- and -if-you-don't-you-are some-kind-of-heretic.[remember anyone who spoke out was automatically "enemy of the people" in communist Russia?] Did you know that only in the last 30 years Galileo was officially forgiven by the Catholic church for claiming that the world wasn't flat?.........fear of being ostracised is so powerful don't you think?

Also M Morris's mate thought Pendragon were like a good school band playing to their mates........well the one thing we do is be ourselves and I'm sorry if chatting to people and just enjoying the moment seems a bit amateurish, but that's who we are, personally I hate it when bands don't say anything or their song intros are whineing [and start sounding Irish for some reason?]and moan on forever.........it's so frikkin dreary and the audience feel obliged to shout "hooray" when their sorry arsed hero says "fuck!" or, "yeah I was smokin' a joint right" !.........Sad

Anway like I said...so as not to take myself too seriously Michael Morris and friend...NOB OFF!.......JUST NOB OFF! [yes I know, amazingly childish of me, but I've got a ton of snow right now outside my door and I'm feeling a just a little cabin fevered....geez I need to go surfing]

OK, gigs , this is the first draft of some shows next year......SOME DATES MIGHT CHANGE, but I just wanted to let you know what to expect to whet your appetites

April
Fri 2nd Spain La Coruna Finisterrae festival
Fri 30th Rosfest PA USA confirmed!

May
Fri 7th The Subscription Rooms Stroud UK confirmed!

Sun 16th The Robin 2 Bilston UK confirmed!
Tues 18th Spirit of 66 Verviers Belgium confirmed!
Wed 19th Bergkeller Reichenbach Germany confirmed!
Thurs 20th Colosaal Aschaffenburg Germany confirmed!
Fri 21st Z7 Pratteln Switzerland confirmed!

Fri 28th The Ferry Glasgow UK
Sun 30th The Musician Leicester

July
Sat 24th High Voltage Festival Victoria Park UK confirmed!

As you can see we are doing a whole load more gigs, including the pinch-me-I-must-be-freakin-dreaming, High Voltage. This is surely the festival that you only dream of playing,........ even though I am not a big ELP fan, this is going to be a really major event and a great opportunity for us to show the world what we are capable of.

Just check out the poster!

http://www.highvoltagefestival.com/home.htm

Also Pendragon are coming back to America, Scotland, and doing a bunch of shows in Europe and UK. We are only doing a small tour in May as we cannot do a big tour without a new album, this is just a stop gap till the new album is out. And Holy smokes...a gig in Stroud! Yes after some 25 years we are going back to play in our hometown at the Sub Rooms,[ my school did Joseph's Tech Dreamcoat here where I was about 6.....I was in the chorus] hopefully we'll get a good turn out and reaction. I have been in contact with a guy we used to call Major Tom, who promoted one of our first ever shows in Stroud when he was a loud mouthed orange haired 20 year old punk from Canada, his name is Tom Lodge and he's now a DJ at radio Caroline and lives back in Canada.
The Sub Rooms show is being co promoted by our old and long suffering ex manager Greg Lines from 20 years ago, ya can take the man outta the music biz but ya can't take the music biz outta the man! We're really excited about getting back to Stroud and all the shows coming up this year.

Geez , we're doing so many shows at the moment with Steve Hackett..I have to keep reminding myself that this is real..Hackett was such a huge influence on me and stuff like Voyage Of The Acolyte changed my life, and there he is...on the same bill as us. It's a bit of a dream.
Also heard Andy Latimer is getting better which is fantastic news and Camel were asked to play High Voltage..I just hope he is well enough to make this happen. Andy used to say how lucky Pendragon were to have a coherent band "on tap" we could go out and play live with. I still love Camel, I got Breathless and Nude for Christmas, I know some people think Breathless is a bit poppy, but it's an album that many of my non prog mates grew up with and Camel managed to appeal to a lot of different types of people. Echoes, Summer Lightning, Breathless and Rainbow's End are truly brilliant and take me right back to 1978 when I used to play this album on a cassette recorder in my tractor on the farm.

A couple more albums to check out...Steve Thorne Into The Ether, fantastic record, it's got everything and Steve's voice just gets better and better. The Incident Porcupine Tree - the thing about PT is that they always interest you enough to want to listen again and again. I am curious about the lyrics on this album, and initially thought it was very "bitty", but there are some great songs Time Flies being the obvious first love. I generally like what SW does and it's always imaginative
but this album takes a bit more getting into..and that's no bad thing!

As for new Pendragon material, bits and pieces are shaping up, I have a couple of very rocked out sections, in fact the beginning of the album is quite different as it starts with a kind of sample fast hip hop rhythm with some nice atmospheric guitar, bass, keyboards and melodic vocals, before thundering into a driving guitar riff.
I've been working on it this afternoon [Sun 10th Jan] and it's got some killer power sections that are just gonna kill live! Very excited.
I also found a sound which is Uber early Genesis, resplendant with 12 string guitars, finger cymbals and mellotron, very very very retro but gorgeous which I adapted with a hot chord progression, so we have the extremes, hip hop [ha ha. don't worry!] - and classic 70's prog .....the mixture works like hell , and will blow yer socks off, as the main Pendragon ingredient "melody" will be the key to its success.
I have a lot of fragments of chord progressions, keyboard sounds and riffs but not much in the way of a cohesive direction. At the moment I don't know where the hell the new album will take me, safe to say it will be another step on from Pure, with a lot of rock, a lot of energy and some gorgeous melodies.

Ok, really looking forward to seeing you all on tour again...we're working in a set list change or two, just a bit , but expect an epic that hasn't been played for a few years and a few songs from Pure and Christmad set lists!

Happy New Year

Nick

Gigs, Summer, New Songs

Ahhhhh.....a long Summer break........I needed that, well to be honest it was about the longest break we've had over the last 2 years. The work really started around Sept 2007 for Pure, we were recording bits of it by Jan 2008, and released Oct 2008, wait a minute that means it was a year since Mega Daze! Hey Happy Mega Daze Anniversary, it brings back very very happy memories of the beginning of a really mad year....and a REALLY good one for Pendragon.

So a bit of a break was in order, after the Fish convention in Aug I recharged the batteries and went camping , surfing and moto crossing...bliss.

Shine On You Crazy Diamond.......gate
Check out this puppy, I received one of the best emails ever regarding our tribute to Syd Barrett You Tube Shine On You Crazy Diamond, it went :

Subject: I'd like to contact Pendragon

I have just viewed the video of the Pink Floyd track and you should be
ashamed for trying to take credit for the intro guitar work you clearly are
not playing. A joke and total plagiarism.

I actually thought it sounded fantastic until I realized it was actually
Pink Floyd and you were miming?

God man do you have no shame? I am a professional musician and have never seen anything so bad.

And my response was :

before I totally lose my rag with you...perhaps you'd have the decency and above all, some courage to at least put your name to this email?

I DID actually play this live, it is 100% genuine.[if you were a pro musician you would have noticed the bum notes later on]

You have to admit...that is one helluva compliment though for someone to act so indignantly and REALLY think it was Floyd overdubbed...and be soooooooo monumentally WRONG!!!!!

But I will concede one point, the video is badly out of sync with the music particularly at the start for some reason, also there is another guitarist playing the rhythmic chops

I await your response

Nick Barrett

Here it is in case you haven't seen it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1h05X9TzVE

Gigs, gigs, glorious gigs!
The Fish convention was stupendous, I kinda knew it would be. It was at the same place as we are doing Christmad on Dec 12th, it's a fantastic venue and fantastic town, I can imagine at Christmas it will be uber "Christamassy" and THE place to be for a Christmas show ; )
So the Fish crowd? Well it's always a bit of a challenge playing to someone else's audience, you never know if they will laugh at yer jokes, hate yer music or what, but to be honest I really think Fish's crowd are very similar to a Pendragon crowd, more so perhaps than a Marillion crowd [well these days anyway]....hee hee particularly after the "This album is so good we didn't need to give it away .....gate" , the advert that we put on the back cover of Classic Rock mag where people thought we were having a pop at Marillion because they'd said they were giving their album away on the net, and when some of their fans saw our ad they went ape on the Marill forum.....totally hilarious, some forum people have no sense of humour! It was supposed to be a dig in the ribs for all those po faced idiots who say "well you should update your business model, and give music away to make more fans...blah blah rubbish"

Just got back from the Summer's End show ...and wow! It was utterly kicking, I don't think I was expecting such a great and focused reaction, and the band just played like mad to the audience. There was one hideous technical problem with my pitch shifter in Comatose 1, basically the thing didn't...er pitch shift so when I came in with those detuned power chords they were completely out of key which really threw me off, also with a full blown cold the brain was a bit foggy.
But over all a great gig....I had a bit of a lay in on Monday morning though....well most of the day actually and commited the cardinal sin of watching daytime TV, X Factor re run..hee hee.

twits..not Danni though.............. maybe not Cheryl either

Holidays, surfing, camping and motocross .....gate
I spent a few weeks of the Summer holidays going camping to my favourite secret spot in Devon on 3 different occasions, where there is nobody else about and you are allowed to have a campfire. Firstly I went with Max and my MXing mate Win and his kids. Secondly with Wilce where we drove down to Tintagel and St Ives. I love St Ives, it's one of my favourite places in the UK, it feels so much like a seperate island and is full of creative places like art galleries, surf shops and so forth. I saw this pewter life size cast called "Wryly Kylie" and was so tempted to buy it on an impulse....but for £300 I had to draw the line, it was a cast of what was meant to be a life size model of Kylies bum and legs......but I panicked at the last minute and decided it was only one step away from those 80's pictures that people had of of men holding babies, and black, white and red sofas.

Lastly we went camping with my Dad [he's 83!!] who got me into camping when we were kids , he loved it, whiskey round the campfire talking politics...fantastic.
I did a fair amount of surfing and chopped in my old Stewart 9' long board for a 10' 1" Blacker, a huge great beast of a board, that catches just about any wave going, it's damned heavy though, not the sort of thing you want on the back of the head on a Winter's day at low tide Croyde....no sireee bub!

Dear ol' Prog Gramps...Mick Pointer said he fancied a go on the motocrosser, so one Saturday afternoon he pitched up for a quick blast round the new track that has just opened down the road from me. But he fell off, at about 3 miles per hour, and really hurt his knee, poor sod cos he said he was really starting to enjoy it. 2 weeks later my mate Win came off it too, and tore the ligaments in his knee. It became known as the "killer bike" , and was in line for being sold anyway....so the "off's" only expedited the whole sale process.I now have a 4 stroke , much more grown up [Kawasaki KX250F...yum yum yum]

Mick 'eat my dust' Pointer "rippin it up" on the killer krosser

new gear...gate
this has really pissed me off, cos I never buy gear unless I am really certain I like it, and spent months trawling around music shops trying out new guitars, amps, and all sorts of gear. My current set up is getting old, the Fender Twin reverb amp is a 1977 silver face, and while it is an utter classic amp, doesn't like being bumped about on Polish roads! So I got an Orange Thunderverb 50 amp which sounds great, a PRS Custom 24 guitar which sounds great and a TC Electronics G system which sounds great .....but when I started to rehearse the set with with them all together, it sounded crap...so after 2 days of jiggery pokery, I went back to the old set up. I still need to get some forward motion on this new set up but dunno when yet ....I'll keep you posted.

I did however move upto Pro Tools 8 and a Digi 03 with an iMac to run it all. So now Summer's End is out of the way, I have a clear 2 months before the next shows to get cracking on writing some new material.

new music
Well, as we've been gigging a fair bit and doing a lot of promo work I haven't done much writing so far, I have some brief guitar ideas on tape and some lyrical ideas, and a concept is starting to form. It's always the same with every album, hundreds of fragmented words, chords, sounds and ideas that somehow will evolve into a cohesive album somewhere in the future. Overall, I can see another slight shift in direction, as I feel once again much prog music has taken root with little innovation and refuses to move forward, so I see the new Pendragon incorporating some rather drastic influences again but still coupled with our own melodies and style.

I liked the more direct approach with the lyrics on Pure and will probably use the same kind of process, which is basically using phrases and words that sound modern but also are about things, and have some kind of subject matter . Again I find a lot of prog bands use what me and Clive call Dusty Bin lyrics, remember that tv programme from the 80's? You never had a chance in hell of unravelling what the clues were meant to mean to be able to win, like lyrics that makes no sense what so ever, just endless abstracts. Perhaps in places I might also use some humour....there's definitely not enough humour in prog!

There are some very interesting bands out there who ARE making some exciting music and using different sounds , or old sounds but in a new way, one of my favourite songs at the moment is Twilight As My Guide by Mars Volta, the vocals and sounds are so different and interesting , but it also has a superb melody too....I love this kind of thing. Also there is a band called MGMT who have an album called Oracular Spectacular which is very prog and they don't even know it! Very imaginative, very interesting lyrically and musically.

new shows
nothing definite yet, but we are thinking of putting together a small tour around April/May next year of about 10 dates as I will be really digging into writing the new album between the Christmas shows and Spring. We hope to cover UK, Europe and ....maybe something in the US, more news to come soon! We have talked about airing more material from Not Of This World, in a way, it hasn't been played much in the last few years, while every other album has been raided pretty extensively...[apart from Kowtow's The Haunting, and a few shorter songs]
The Christmad set should see a few changes to the setlist as well.

backstage at Leamington...more than just a venue

other stuff
We're about to reduce some of the prices on the studio albums to fall in line with general cd prices these days, hopefully it will bring in a lot of new people to the band, especially after Pure and the Summer shows, the band seems to be really stepping up to bigger and bigger things, eg the Boerderij is nearly sold out two months in advance, and sales for Christmad tickets are probably the best we've ever had for a UK show...yup I'm happy as a pig in clover!

We have some new merch for sale too, Pure hoodies, retro Masquerade T.shirts , and Pure is also coming out on Indigo coloured vinyl, hopefully before Christmas!

As you may have seen we've advertised our heads off in Classic Rock mag/Prog special and have been giving out promo cds which has brought a lot of new people to the band.

I've also been doing some videoing for the screens at the live shows, I got this amazing ultra slow motion camera called an Exilim which takes something like 1,000 frames / second, the effect is staggering , you can film a balloon full of water, burst the balloon, and get a balloon shaped thing that is just the remaining water, which then slowly falls apart. I was trying to get some animals tongues, so went to the zoo a couple of times but it didn't work out too well, but I think I can get the same effect filming some willing cows down the road, I asked my accountant if the zoo trips were tax deductable...."yes as long as you didn't have fun!" I also filmed some waves which are amazing...very very creative stuff

ok, till soon

Nick xxx