THE BOOK OF CALEB

Now this is an absolute blast from the past for me. These guys were formed all the way back in 1985, won the UK Yamaha Band Competition in 1987 and were awarded 'Best Band' at the international final at the Budokan, Tokyo. I first became aware of them in 1994 when I reviewed their wonderful debut 'Do You Believe?', which they followed up quite quickly with 'Change' in 1995 (both appear in TPU Vol. 2). They toured with the likes of It Bites, FM and Magnum, and then, nothing. I have no idea what happened to them after that, and for some reason they are not even listed on ProgArchives. Then out of the blue I recently heard from drummer Andy Coffey asking if I would be interested in hearing their new 6-part EP, which has been mixed as a single twenty minute piece. Of course I would, and must admit to being surprised that not only is Andy still there from those days but also keyboard player Graham Woodcock and guitarist Chris Dorman, and while they used to be a quintet they are now a quartet with singer Steve Murray also providing bass.

My first question on hearing this, is where on earth have the guys been and what have they been doing for the last 25+ years? This is fresh and new, melodic with strong links into Neo: they do cross the boundaries between prog and AOR, which was the direction they were moving in when I last heard them. In Murray they have a superb singer, not afraid to hit the high notes and hold them, but what really strikes the listener is the power of the music, the way it is driven hard from the back, and while Dorman can be restrained and add nuances, he also likes power chords. Woodcock works in a similar vein, sitting back at times and taking control at others. The result is an EP which is highly enjoyable the very first time it is played, and only gets better the more times it is listened to.

The sections do make sense as individual pieces of music, so they can be split if wanted, but I prefer to play it as it was intended in that the changes are more dramatic, yet they are linked. We get some nice lengthy instrumental passages which allows the guys to really show their stuff. Hopefully this release will help the guys gain some momentum and get back into the spotlight where they belong, as this is not a band relying on past glories (many of today's progheads will not be aware of the anyway) but instead has produced something dramatic and exciting.