THE PROGS!

The Progs

at 'The Half Moon' Putney

Sunday 27th November 2005

The glory days for prog may be gone, but the ghosts of those departed times refuse to go away. Like any tortured soul they will not rest until they find peace through vengeance. In the case of the prog world, until every music journalist and radio DJ is slain – ‘Omen’ style! The spirits were very much in evidence on the evening of Sunday the 27^th of November, 2005. In a dark room at the back of a pub in Putney, five guys including Doug Melbourne on Keyboards (formally with Re-Genesis, unless this guy was new) took to a small stage and celebrated some of the best rock music ever written.  I was delighted to have shared the experience with fellow PA forumers Simon (sigod) and Chris (Syzygy) and an appreciative crowd, which included at least 5 women! Although they were probably the grandchildren of the band....

The biggest problem faced by a band like The Progs is the daunting task of having to emulate so many different artists, but in all fairness they pulled it off  Their set list consisted of (not in order):

KE9 1^st Impression
Watcher of the Skies
Firth of Fifth
Cinema Show
Never Let go
Money
Comfortably numb
Epitaph

ITCOTCK
Starship Trooper
Roundabout
Sylvia
Aqualung

(Simon/Chris - Please fill in the gaps!)

Clearly the vocalist was faced with the most daunting job; having to emulate Peter Gabriel, Ian Anderson, Jon Anderson, Greg Lake, Dave Gilmour etc and as their opener – Karn Evil No9 – proved, Greg Lake was this guys closest match. Their rendition of the ELP classic was brilliantly executed by all the musicians and was a great start to the evening. The KC songs were also well played and obviously suited the singers range.  For me the hi-lights were the three Genesis songs, especially Cinema Show, the instrumental section of which was superb. I was listening keenly to the rhythm section and making inevitable comparisons to the performance on Seconds Out. Completely unfair, of course as The Progs were not benefiting from two drummers. Nevertheless, the drummer played with the precision and power required to make the track work. ‘Watcher of the Skies’ sounded brilliant too, despite the lack of real Mellotron, a detail clearly noted not only by us, but by the keyboard player of Genesis tribute band ‘In the Cage’ who was also in the crowd.  I’m not sure if the keyboard player was making use of Mellotron samples, or if his string and vocal sounds were synthetic. The former, I think.

The singer was happy to acknowledge that he found Yes songs very demanding. His range was clearly in the Greg Lake ball park, not Jon Andersons, and some of those notes were just out of his reach. I did consider attaching a bulldog clip to his nether regions, in the hope that we may also squeeze some Rush out of him, but it was not to be. On the one hand, dropping the Yes songs from their set may seem like a good idea, but on the other hand how is a band supposed to pay tribute to the golden age of prog without playing Yes?

Generally the sound and the performance were fine. Perhaps the lead guitar could have been louder at times, notably in the ‘Wurm’ section of Starship Trooper. I was looking forward to that great moment when Howes lead guitar releases us from the tension of that superb build up, but sadly the lead guitar was drowned in keyboards and crashing cymbals.  The set ended perhaps a little predictably with ‘Comfortably Numb’ but hey, why not? It is a great song to end on.

A good band and a great evening. I would happily part with money to see them again.

So, The Progs.... I think I was last in the Half Moon in Putney about 15 years ago, but nothing much has changed except the prices. The back room retains its unique ambience, the stage is still only slightly larger than the average dining table and there's only one person on the bar in the music room. One new feature was the presence of a well known archive member in, as promised, a rather fetching sombrero. Had it not been for the Mexican theme night he would have been really easy to spot...

Anyway, the band themselves took to the stage and launched into a sprightly version of Karn Evil 9 (1st Impression). The vocalist has a strong voice in the same register as Greg Lake, and the keyboard player turned out to be a bit of a whiz. The other 3 - guitar, bass and drums - laid down a good solid foundation, and the years rolled back like a bad special effect. Suddenly I was 15 again, couldn't figure out that tricky chord in Hocus Pocus, hadn't done my maths homework and that fit girl on the bus had still unaccountably failed to notice me*. Thankfully they called it a day at the end of the 1st Impression, before my acne had a chance to reappear. From there on in it was a joyous nostalgia trip all the way, with selections from DSOTM, Fragile, SEBTP, Foxtrot and ITCOTCK to name but several. The vocalist stuck pretty much to his Greg Lake sound throughout, rather than trying to impersonate all the different vocalists, and the set was mostly better for it. One number, Never Let Go by Camel, was actually an improvement on the original - the classic line up of Camel never had a strong vocalist, so The Progs' version made all the difference. The Genesis selections were the high point of the evening, in particular Cinema Show. This rendition was livened up by problems tuning the bass/12 string doubleneck, followed by a bit of a fumbled attempt at Rutherford's finger breaking intro, but that just proves it's live and once they got going they more than did justice to the original. Firth of Fifth included the full piano intro and the keyboard player also added a little motif of his own in place of Gabriel's flute solo, and with your eyes shut you'd be hard pressed to notice that they weren't using a real mellotron on Watcher of the Skies.

Not all the songs came across that well. The Yes numbers were played competently, but there's only one Jon Anderson. To be fair, the vocalist didn't try to emulate the Accrington pixie's unique style and did a creditable job of wrapping his larynx around those impenetrable lyrics, but the Yessongs didn't work as well as most of the set. He also came unstuck with Ian Anderson - his interpretation of Aqualung fell a bit flat, not because of any technical shortcomings but because he didn't really get into character the way that Anderson does with so little apparent effort. These are minor gripes, however - for most of the set I was singing along and grinning like a loon, and I left more than satisfied with the evening's entertainment. The chance to enjoy all this in the company of like minded souls Simon and Andy was a huge bonus, and I hope that Prog club thrives in the future - many thanks to Simon for getting it off the ground!

The Progs do exactly what it says on the tin, and do it extremely well for the most part. There are no radical reinterpretations, but they do add little touches of their own and play the songs with real commitment and skill. If they play again anywhere within striking distance I'll be there, and I'd recommend making the effort to see them if they're playing in your neck of the woods.

*I never did figure out that chord, and the fit girl on the bus was merely one of a legion of attractive women who failed to register my existence. I did, however, pass my maths o level

Phil wrote: Heck I'm really sorry I couldn't make this event, it sounded great, the idea of a band even attempting to switch from Karn Evil 9 to Watcher of the Skies to Roundabout to Money...wow! But more important was the idea (courtesy of sigod) of a group of proggers getting together for a gig and to re-live old times. Sorry I couldn't make it (childcare issues...) and hope to meet with you guys in the future..... ps were there really 5 women in the audience?!

To be fair there were probably a few more women than that, and I'm not counting the ones with beards..

BTW Phil, sigod and I are going to see IQ on Saturday 10th of Dec at The Mean Fiddler - dont think Chris can make it unfortunately - so let one of us know if you wanna meet up.

chopper wrote: Thanks for the reviews guys, sounds like this lot are worth seeing. Hopefully I can meet up with you at a gig in the near future (can't make the IQ one though). Is the Half Moon the one on the mini-roundabout? - I think I played there once years ago.

Cant remember a mini roundabout, but there was patrol station on the other side of the road (Shell I think) It's on Lower Richmond Road.

Are you London based, Alan? It would be good to meet up for a gig sometime.

chopper wrote: Blacksword wrote: chopper wrote: Thanks for the reviews guys, sounds like this lot are worth seeing. Hopefully I can meet up with you at a gig in the near future (can't make the IQ one though). Is the Half Moon the one on the mini-roundabout? - I think I played there once years ago. Cant remember a mini roundabout, but there was patrol station on the other side of the road (Shell I think) It's on Lower Richmond Road. Are you London based, Alan? It would be good to meet up for a gig sometime. I think that's the place, maybe there wasn't a mini-roundabout (mind you it was about 20 years ago, my memory's a bit hazy!). Well, I work in London but I live in Essex, so it's a bit of a trek to the other side of London at weekends. I used to live in Wimbledon so that would have been easier. I really should get out for some more gigs so hopefully we'll meet up soon. There's not many decent venues my way, I saw Greg Lake at Dartford and he also played Southend. If we can't find any suitable gigs then we should have a meeting of sigod's prog club.

I live in Bracknell in Berkshire. I'm about 25 miles from London. There's usually gigs in Reading but nothing that remotely interests me, so I have to travel to London. I have not been going to many gigs in recent years. The Progs was the first since July when I saw REM in Hyde Park, before that it was Rush (twice!) last year.

I'm sure we'll all meet up eventually.

sigod wrote: Sigod arrives late to the table (as always) with yet another review of the evening however as most of the points have been excellently covered by my honourable Prog Archive colleagues (Messer Blacksword and Syzygy to you) I shall restrict myself to a personal summation.   Progressive rock has a hard enough time trying to retain its place in the grass roots of music and without bands like The Progs, our world would be a sorrier place as a result. True, you can say they this band doesn’t actually ‘produce’ any original music but at the end of the day, I find myself wondering if the spirit of such an event isn’t just as important. As has been mentioned before, the room was peopled with like minded individuals who I suspect, given the chance, would quite happily saunter down to almost any gig if there was a progressive element to the music. The simple fact of the matter is that without any new bands to see and support, we have to make do with the material that already exists. The Progs (as a band and as a concept) exploit this rather neat niche with both grace and style. I can’t really fault the evening as a whole but it should be noted that as ever, when songs get complicated, the musicians turn inward and their eyes invariably fix upon their instruments (oo-er matron) rather than performing to the crowd. A minor niggle  to be sure but it explains for example, why Gabriel often resorted to dressing up as a flower to offset the lack of communication between a band concentring on getting the notes right and an audience eager for a show. That said, it was the band’s first gig for nine months and they had to cover a multitude of styles so such a complaint should be seen in proper perspective. The evening was always going to be augmented for me by the presence of other Prog archive members and I do urge anyone who is reading this to consider a similar course of action. It made my evening and I look forward to many such events in the future. The Progs rocked – progressively…   Roll on IQ.

I noticed that too, and it's a good point you make about Gabriel. Genesis obviously thought about these things.

They were playing complicated music and I salute them for pulling it off as well as they did!

Roll on IQ indeed!  I've been watching my IQ20 DVD to get me in the mood. Be warned Simon, by the time Saturday comes I'll be like a kid in a sweetshop...on acid. Be warned, also I dance like Bez..