Wednesday, November 30, 2016

CRIPPLED BLACK PHOENIX Live in Athens, Greece (23/11/2016). A small review and the consert's setlist



  On the 26th of November, Crippled Black Phoenix landed in Athens for a live gig at Fuzz club, a rather small but beautiful venue.
  Despite the terrible weather and the heavy rain, enough people gathered, including me and my wife. We were one of the first that arrived actually, so we were on the first line, right in front of Justin Greaves, the band’s leader. 
  I have seen CBP a couple of years ago, but this time was different. The band had a new line-up, including 8 members, and a new - and very good - album to promote; so everything was sounding very promising.
  After the very good Greek supporting act, it was the time of Justin Greaves and his bandmates to come to the stage, supported by the sounds of Dead Imperial intro, and some – simple but nice  – visual effects. One by one took their places, checked their equipments and the storm begun! They played for almost 2.5 hours presenting a powerful - and kind of noisy in parts – setlist, that was based on their new album ‘Bronze’. (If you are interested you can read the review I wrote about ‘Bronze’ here:  http://gfreedomathina.blogspot.gr/2016/11/crippled-black-phoenix-bronze-2016.html
  CBP have a special bond with Greece and their local fans, that’s why every time they play here they give everything they got on stage! A proof of that was, when at the last song of the concert Justin Greaves went berserk, and came down with his guitar and became one with the crowd.
  Trying to compare the concert I’ve seen two years ago with this one, I think that I liked the setlist of the other concert more, because it was including some songs I really love (like Fantastic Justice for example), but this time the band performed better.
The sound wasn’t as good as it should, and especially the backing vocals had a big problem. I still remember the keyboard player singing, but nobody was listening to her voice.
  After the concert’s epic finale with the usual Burnt Reynolds including the - also usual - crowd’s sing along and Justin’s crazy attitude, we remained in the area and met with Justin Greaves and Daniel Änghede. They signed on the setlist as you can see in the picture, took some pictures altogether, had a chat, and we talked about having them as special guests in Prog & Roll radio show. I don’t
know if it is going to happen, time will tell I guess…

  Concluding this piece, I have to say that it was a very good performance, everybody (including the band) had some great time, and now the only thing that remains is to see when they will visit Greece again; and be sure that they will…



 
 



Tuesday, November 29, 2016

The Stranglers live in Athens, Greece. (20/11/2016). The concert's setlist.

A few days ago the famous English band The Stranglers gave a live gig in Athens.
I didn't go to the concert, but I read some rather positive comments and reviews about their
performance.
In case you are interested, here's the setlist from that night:
Tank
Straighten Out
(Get a) Grip (On Yourself)
I’ve Been Wild
5 Minutes
Relentless
Nice And Sleazy
Golden Brown
Midnight Summer Dream
Always The Sun
Skin Deep
Hanging Around
Nuclear Device
Norfolk Coast
Something Better Change
Peaches
Time Was Once On My Side
Lost Control
Duchess
No More Heroes

Encore:
Walk On By
All Day And All Of The Night



Monday, November 28, 2016

PROG & ROLL Radio Show (27/11/2016). The complete playlist and more...



Hello all!
  Last night Prog & Roll Radio show was online once more as usual, and I dare to say that it was a very interesting show. During the (extended) first hour, we had on the chat box 3 members of the UK-based Progressive Rock band The Far Meadow, and together with our listeners we had a very pleasant chat altogether. During this first hour, we played 4 songs taken out of their new album Given the Impossible, mixed with songs from other new releases. And right after that, the final stage of the ‘Song of the Month’ contest begun.
   As some of you know already, we are playing this ‘grade the song’ game with our listeners, where we encourage them to grade the songs we are playing in our shows. At the end of each show, we pick the one or two songs with the highest average rating, and we are playing them altogether once more during the last show of each month. This time we had 6 songs that were participating in this final stage, all of them very good ones, so the competition was fierce once more. There was a song which - in our opinion - was the absolute favourite, but as it seemed there are no favourites when it comes to the people’s opinion. At the end of the show all of us learned which was the best song of November, according to our audience’s grades. So, our listener’s decided that the best song we played during our November shows  is: Imagine by John Lennon. In the following list you can see the 6 songs that participated in the contest, and inside the parenthesis is the average score.
MAGO DEL OZ: La Costa Del Silencio (6.60) / PETER GABRIEL: Solsbury Hill (6.33) / CARAVAN: Winter Wine (6.93) / PROCOL HARUM: Something Magic (6.71) / KING CRIMSON: Starless (7.50) / JOHN LENNON: Imagine (7.92).
  As you can understand from the list, the absolute favourite I mentioned above, was of course 'Starless' by King Crimson, but 'Imagine' proved to be more famous among our listeners.
So, Imagine was added in Prog & Roll’s Top-10 list for the season 2015-2016, together with Nimrodel by Camel, which won last month’s contest.
I would like to say a very big thanks to all those who tuned in last night. And especially to Marguerite, Paul and Chris from The Far Meadow. I hope everybody enjoyed the show.
Thank you all very much!
Here you can take a look at the whole playlist:
1st Part: THE GIFT: Sweeper of Dreams / CRYSTAL PALACE: The Day That Doesn’t End / THE FAR MEADOW: Prove it Then-Hang on-Industry (Medley) / THE NEAL MORSE BAND: City of Destruction / ANIMA MUNDI: Flowers / OPETH: Will O the Wisp / MESSENGER: Nocturne / THE FAR MEADOW: A Gentle Warrior / EVERSHIP: Silver Light.
2nd Part: SONG OF THE MONTH CONTEST: MAGO DEL OZ: La Costa Del Silencio / PETER GABRIEL: Solsbury Hill / CARAVAN: Winter Wine / PROCOL HARUM: Something Magic / KING CRIMSON: Starless / JOHN LENNON: Imagine.

Friday, November 25, 2016

PROG & ROLL Radio Show presents the ‘Song of the Month’ contest, and welcomes The Far Meadow…



  I’m writing this post in order to inform you about what is going to happen in the forthcoming Prog & Roll Radio Show, on the 27th of November 2016.
  First of all, we are glad to announce that we will have in our chatbox some members of the UK-based Progressive Rock band The Far Meadow as our special guests. During the first hour of the show we will play some songs taken from their new studio album ‘Given the Impossible’ mixed with songs from other new releases, and have the usual relaxed and fun chat with them.
  And right after that, the final stage of the ‘Song of the Month’ contest will take place. 
So, during the second hour of the show, we are going to play the songs that achieved the highest average score, according to the points our listeners gave, throughout the whole month. This time we will ask from our listeners to grade these songs once more, but in a more “serious” manner let’s say. And at the end of the show we are going to learn which is going to be the song of the month for November, and at the same time the 2nd song in Prog & Roll’s Top-10 list. (At this point I would like to remind you that, October’s song of the month according to our audience’s grades, was Nimrodel by Camel).
  So, in case you are free and in the mood for some good music and a very friendly and fun company on the chatbox, tune in to Prog & Roll. Our show is online on every Sunday at 20.00 UK time, and the broadcasting is mostly in English, but in some occasions in Greek as well.
You can listen to Prog & Roll, simply by clicking the following link at the time I mentioned above: 
I hope to “see” you there.😏
Thank you!

Monday, November 21, 2016

PROG & ROLL Radio Show (20/11/2016). The complete playlist...



Hello all!
  Prog & Roll radio show was on air again last night, at the usual time in the usual internet radio station.
  This time we tried to do something slightly different and –as it proved - very interesting.
  During the 2 parts of the first hour, we did small “tribute” in two bands and their members; meaning that we provided info about their personal careers and played some songs from their solo albums. Our audience seemed to love the idea, so we are going to repeat it in the future. So, the first half hour was dedicated to The Beatles and their members, and the second  half hour to Genesis and their members. After that, we continued with our program as usual.
  Further than that, we played 2 songs from Patchwork Cacophony’s brand new album, because JustIn Case Radio, dedicated the last week to this beautiful new album. So, we thought we should contribute to that, by playing one extra song.
Here you can take a look at the whole playlist:
1St Part: THE BEATLES: I Want you (She’s so Heavy) / PAUL Mc CARTNEY & WINGS: Let me Roll it / GEORGE HARRISON: My Sweet Lord / RINGO STARR: Photograph / JOHN LENNON: Imagine.
2nd Part: GENESIS: Lillywhite Lilith / PETER GABRIEL: Solsbury Hill / TONY BANKS: Lucky Me / MIKE RUTHERFORD: Time and Time Again / PHIL COLLINS: In the Air Tonight / STEVE HACKETT: Narnia.
3rd Part: PATCHWORK CACOPHONY: Maybe / FRUITCAKE: Just a Little bit More Time / SUBSIGNAL: The Sea / PORCUPINE TREE: Prodigal.
4th Part: PATCHWORK CACOPHONY: Every Day / ARENA: How did it Come to This / MYSTERY: Delusion Rain.
The next Prog & Roll radio show is going to be on air on Sunday the 27th of November and it is going to be a special one, for two reasons. I am not going to reveal anything yet, but I will inform you in a few days with a post I will write here, in this blog.
A very big thanks to all those who tuned in last night and listened to our show. I hope you enjoyed it!