After demo sessions in 1979 turned sour, long-serving vocalist Jon Anderson departed from Yes after a decade of performing as both frontman and songwriter. Keyboard player Rick Wakeman departed at the same time, thus leaving the band without two of their key members. They filled the void with vocalist producer Trevor Horn and keyboard player Geoff Downes who, at that time, were both members of pop duo Buggles. The new Yes line up of Horn (vocals), Downes (keys), Steve Howe (guitar), Chris Squire (bass) and Alan White (drums) clicked, but the resulting album – ‘Drama’ (released in August 1980) – is a release which polarises fans.
Tag Archives: prog
New fund-raising xmas single from Marillion available now
As part of their now-traditional fan-club freebie, rock legends Marillion recorded a version of the festive tune ‘Carol of The Bells’. Normally fan-club tracks stay that way, but this year, the band have made an exception.
ARC ANGEL – Harlequins Of Light
With no record companies ever breathing down his neck for a follow up to a hit album, singer-songwriter Jeff Cannata has always been left to his own devices to make records in his own time. While this has meant that he hasn’t always been particularly prolific – with just a couple of albums per decade to his credit since the early 80s – you could never say his work was shoddy. Whenever an album with Cannata at the helm appears, you can be assured it’ll be filled with shiny, multi-layered goodness…and 2013’s ‘Harlequins of Light’, released under the Arc Angel moniker, is no exception.
EVOLETAH – We Ache For The Moon
In the summer of 2012, Australian alt-rock quartet Evoletah released their third album ‘Sleepwalker’. While often showing the makings of a talented bunch of musicians, a lot of the material was indistinct; there were individual tunes to be cherry-picked for enjoyment, but overall, the release felt somewhat samey.
KEVIN AYERS: 16th August 1944 – 18th February 2013
Born in in the 1940s in Herne Bay, Kent, Kevin Ayers had become a cult figure on the UK music scene by his twenties when, via a Canterbury based band called The Wylde Flowers, he founded (The) Soft Machine. While never as commercially successful as Pink Floyd’s ‘Piper At The Gates of Dawn’, their self-titled debut album is now considered a cornerstone of psychedelic music.