PROCKFEST - Bünde/Germany - November 2006

well, you were certainly in a minority there Badabec, I was at the festival, and during ALL bands there was a lot of activity in the areas outside the main hall, during Pendragon however it was deserted in these areas, everyone was in the hall watching the band......the only people I saw leave were "The Watch" and their "entourage"........

Still there is no accounting for taste............

The first day:


Abarax

I did not like that band, in my opinion each song sounded the same way and because of that I went out in the middle of their set to buy some prog CD's at the two great CD stands. What I realized while watching them was, that the entire band was not really moving, for example the two singers were standing behind the microphone and turned their back to the public and did not move. You could feel that the band members (especially the younger ones) were very excited. However, I think they have potential, give them 2 or 3 more years and they will find their own, unique sound.

Riverside

A pretty good band was the polish group called Riverside. I have never heard anything about them and I have to admit that I was really surprised how good they are! They tend to be prog metal I think, some shouting was in their music, they were rocking the public. What sucked was that some idiotic guys in the public were shouting some song titles etc but that was of course not Riversides fault, they just said "Ok, the next song is..." and ignored these guys. Like I said their music was awesome and I really enjoyed the short keyboard solo that reminded me a little bit on Emerson, Lake And Palmer. Great band!

The Flower Kings

The Flower Kings were the heyday of the evening, in my opinion. They rocked the stage so much, I was freaking out whilst they played songs like "I Am The Sun (Part One)" or "Back In The World Of Adventures". These guys are outstanding musicians, you could feel that right from the beginning until the end. Roines solos really hooked me out of my shoes, the drum solo was great, the same thing with the awesome, extremely fast bass solo. Sometimes you could clearly hear where they have their roots: they sometimes really sounded a bit like Yes. Wow, what a band!


The second day:


Flamborough Head

Flamborough Head were convincing with beautiful flute and keyboard parts, they often reminded me on such bands like Wobbler or Anglagard, though they have their own style. The only thing I did not like that much, was the lead singer's female voice (though she sang really good, but I can not really stand female voices in rock music). I'll alaways remind Flamborough Head as a band which plays beautiful medieval and dreamy music.

The Watch

The Watch was definately the best band of the entire festival, if you ask me. They played prog that sounded like Genesis, the lead-singer seems to have the same voice as Genesis' Peter Gabriel and the music was as complex as the Genesis stuff. We heard long songs, interesting lyrics and an outstanding keyboard solo that could have been played by the keyboard legend Keith Emerson. The lead singer changed his clothes in the middle of the set and he was moving and behaving like Peter Gabriel. You could even hear some Steve Hackett-solos here. Wow! As the band had finished their set they had to come back on stage again for two times because everybody wanted to hear them again. I'll definately buy both of their albums in the next time...

Pendragon

The best band was followed by the worst band. Really, I don't know why this band calls itself prog, it was symphonic pop and sometimes it was not even symphonic. Only because they may have some songs which are longer than 10 minutes in their set it does not mean that they play progressive rock. However, I was leaving after the first four or five songs because they bored me to death. Pretty disappointing, isn't it?



All in all the Prockfest was great and it would be a pleasure to see it happening again in the next year!

Completely successfull 2nd part of PROCKFEST ...

FLAMBOROUGH HEAD started the day - neoprog with some folk elements and excellent vocals.
THE WATCH followed with very complex songs - a reminiscence to the early GENESIS.
Finally PENDRAGON rrrrrrrocked the house supported by some special guests (former members of the band).

PROCKFEST was a very satisfying event and I'm sure it will continued next year.

The first day has ended ...
Unfortunately ABARAX and RIVERSIDE suffered from bad sound quality.

The FLOWER KINGS closed the evening with an excellent performance ...

I just got this mail out from the Pendies...... news of the extra date in Holland, and news of how EXTRA SPECIAL these Autumn european dates are going to be!!!

also, I have now wrapped up plans to be at this Festival in Germany (YIPEEEE!!!) so See you's all there!!!


Pendragon In Holland!

Pendragon have added a new date to the November excursion at
Plato Popodium Helmond, Saturday November 10th.

For more info on tickets etc

www.plato.helmondweb.nl

[they also have this website , but there have been some problems with it lately www.poppodiumplato.nl]


AMAZING NEWS!

Some of the guys from the Pendragon Jewel 21st Anniversary will be coming along to play a couple of songs as well for ALL the shows in November [Lille 9th, Helmond 10th, Bunde Prockfest 11th]

These guys were some of the original members of Pendragon and we are sure this will make these gigs hugely special!! We are bringing along John Barnfield [the writer of songs like Excalibur and Oh Divineo], Rik Carter [the keyboard player on The Jewel and Fly High Fall Far mini album] and Julian Baker [the original 2nd guitarist with Pendragon]
www.pendragon.mu

I am keeping my fingers crossed for a trip over to Germany for this!
i got the festival bug at Summers End, and now am hoping to sort out things to come over to Germany!

Hope to say hello to you all there!!!

I'll be there! I already have my tickets for both days. Only 132 km from my home so no problem. Maybe we could meet!

http://www.diebahn.de

if you travel with RE/RB you have to change the train in Osnabrück

A little bit Heimatkunde: Bünde has nearly 45.000 inhabitants and is between Hannover, Bielefeld and Osnabrück.

If there is no chance to go by car the best way is by train - it will take not more than 2 hours from Bremen with an IC and the Stadtgarten is not far away from the railway station.

Hope to see u ...


Edited by Uwe Zickel - September 23 2006 at 16:43

WOW!  anyone flying in from the northeastern US or Montreal area?  Got a spot in your luggage?  don't I wish!