PROG & ROLL Radio Show: The Grand Finale!

Hello all!
As I mentioned before, due to some drastic changes in our lives, we had to abandon our radio show.
So, last night we had our last broadcast in a special 3-hour show.
  We wanted to do something different for this last show, so we asked from our audience to send us their song-requests and we would play them, together with the songs we would choose.
We received enough requests, and many mails from people who expressed their sorrow about this sudden stop. We were also very sad, but we had in mind to make a really great show in order to thank them for their support all those months. And I believe we did it!
   Last night we had many people in the audience, the chatbox was again on fire, and I have to admit that those 3 hours passed very fast! Once more the lead singer of the band Galahad (Stuart Nicholson) logged in and listened to our show, but he was also very active in the chatbox.
   And when the clock showed it was time to finish, I admit it was difficult. For us first of all, and for many people who were listening. Almost everybody stayed until the last minute, and the end was very touchy.
  This time we didn't play our little 'game' with the audience grading the songs, so no Top-5 this time. We just listened to music while chatting, and enjoyed this last show.
As for the songs we played, here you can see the whole playlist. (Where you see the letter (r) it means that it was a request).
 Iron Maiden: Murders in the Rue Morgue / Galahad: Battle Scars (r) / Rush: Spirit of Radio / Rainbow: Stargazer (r) / Ozzy Ozbourne: Goodbye to Romance (r) / Archive: Again (r) / Nick Cave: 15 feet of pure white snow (r) / The Sensational Alex Harvey Band: Hammer Song (r) / Queen: Great King Ratt / Porcupine Tree: Yellow Hedgerow Dreamscape (r) / Peter Hammill: Red Shift / Haggard: The Day as Heaven Wept / Dunwich: La Cassa del' Alchimista / Spriguns of Tolgus: Flodden Field (r) / Beatles: Across the Universe (r) / Genesis: For Absent Friends / Marillion: That Time of the Night (r) / Barclay James Harvest: After the Day (r) / Procol Harum: A Whiter Shade of Pale (r) / Genesis: The Knife (r) / Galahad: Reach for the Sun / Emerson Lake and Palmer: Jerusalem / Van Der Graaf Generator: Pilgrims (r) / Jethro Tull: Velvet Green / Focus: House of the King / Kitaro: Carvansary / Annie Haslam: Still Life / Lisa Gerrard: Largo.

  I want to thank all of you who supported our show all those months, and for your kind words.
We promise to find a way to overcome the difficulties we are facing at the moment, and try to re-start Prog & Roll after a few months.
   Till then, have a great summer and Prog on!
Thank you all! :)

GFreedom's Juke Box Nο.49

Hello all!
   Since it is Saturday once more, I'm writing here my best 5 songs for the last week.
From all the music I've listened, (and this time was really lots!) I tried really much to find only 5 songs in order to write them here.
It wasn't easy I can assure you.
So, those are my 5 best songs from this past week:

 Genesis: The Knife (Trespass) - 1970
 Rainbow: Stargazer (Rising) - 1976
 Lisa  Gerrard: Laurelei (The Mirror Pool) - 1995
 Haggard: Per Aspera ad Astra (Per Aspera ad Astra) - 2004
 Van Der Graaf Generator: Childlike Faith in Childhood's End (Still Life) - 1976

    I would be very glad if some people write their top-5 songs or albums for this last week, as a comment in this blog, or at G+. It's really interesting to see other people's music preferences...
   Another thing I want to mention here is that there is a possibility not to be able to write posts in this blog for sometime. I will write an extra post about that matter in the following days.
  Anyway, that's all for the moment. Have a great weekend all! :)

PROG & ROLL Radio Show: The End...

Hello everybody!
   I'm writing this post to inform you that our radio show Prog & Roll reached at an end.
Due to some difficulties we are facing in our lives we have to stop here. There is a possibility that maybe after some months we will be able to start again, but nothing is certain.
   So, on this Sunday 9/6 we will have our last broadcast. We will make a special last show, because we want to close with something nice. First of all we asked from our audience to send us a mail with a song that they would love to play for them in this last show. We have many requests so far, and we will play them all! For that reason our playlist will be kind of mixed, and we will play many music styles. Further than this, because of the many requests, but also because it will be the last show, we decided to expand it to almost 3 hours. (Instead of 2). So get ready for a radio Rock 'party' this Sunday night!
We would really love to see many of you join us, so altogether will enjoy3 hours of good Rock music.
   I want to remind you once more that the broadcast is in English and Greek language, so everybody will be able to understand what we are talking about. Our program will start at 20.00CET and as I mention before it will last 3 hours. (For those who are confused with the hour, here is a small example: 20.00CET means: Greek time 22.00, Italy time: 21.00, English time: 20.00)
   You can join in by clicking at this link: Just in Case Progressive Radio
Hope to see you there...
Thank you in advance! :)

Riverside Live in Athens (2/6/2013)

That was a concert I would have really liked to see, but unfortunately I wasn't able to be there.
So as usual, I did a small research, read a few reviews, and I'm writing a post here based on those reviews.
  Riverside in one of the bands that their fame grows really very fast in the last years. They play  ProgressiveMetal, and they are really good. Their influences seems to be bands like Dream Theater and Tool, but also classic bands like Pink Floyd for example. The released 5 records so far, with the last one being released in January 2013. So this tour they are on right now, is the promotion tour for this last album.
   During this tour they gave 2 concerts in Greece, one in Thessaloniki and one in Athens.
The reviews I was able to find were about the Athens concert only, so I will write only about this concert.
   The played in a club with capacity no more than 1.200 people, but it wasn't full. From what I read off, I'm guessing there must have been 800 people at maximum there. Really pitty...
   The band stepped on the stage on the exact time that had been announced, and they stayed there for almost 2 hours. They had a very good light show, but the real impressive thing was their sound. Loud and perfectly clear from the first 'till the last minute! Their set list was based on their last 3 records, and they didn't play almost any song from the first 2. That was kind of dissapointment for some fans, but in my opinion it does make sense, because after the first two records they changed their sound and style a lot.
   They played all the songs similar to the record versions, but they did tried a few small changes which improved them in most occasions. They gave the impression of a very 'tight' band and their total performance was excellent!
  Further than these, the singer had a small surprise in his sleeve for the fans: At some point he gave a small speech in very good Greek, showing his respect to the audience.
In a nutshell the band showed on stage that it exceeds in quality and talent, and it's only a matter of time to become the 'next big thing'
   Here you can see the whole playlist:

 New Generation Slave

The Depth Of Self-Delusion

Feel Like Falling

Driven To Destruction

Living In The Past

02 Panic Room (epilogue)

We Got Used To Us

Egoist Hedonist

02 Panic Room

Escalator Shrine

Encore 1:

Left Out

Encore 2:

Conceiving You

Celebrity Touch

PROG & ROLL Radio Show: 'Song of the Month' Contest...

   Last night we had one more Prog & Roll radio show, unfortunatelly the one-before-the-end...
Our last show will be on next Sunday. But that's a matter I will inform you later about.
   As we are doing on every month's first show, last night we had the contest for 'the song of the month'.
Which means that during the second hour we played the songs that had the highest average rankings in whole month. (According to our audience's grades of course). And last night our listeners had to grade them again, in order to find out which song will win the contest. Before we start, I had two songs in mind, and I was almost sure that one of these two will win. And I was right! The big surprise for me though was the song that achieved to reach the second place. To be honest I wasn't expecting it to reach so high. But that's the fun when people are voting and grading the songs. You can never know what the result will be.
So, we had 11 songs in our list, and  here's the final ranking:

1. Pink Floyd: Goodbye Blue Sky (points average) : 9.22  (Song of the Month)
2. Aphrodite's Child: The Four Horsemen ............  : 8.86
3. The Who: Won't Get Fooled Again .................  : 8.45
4. David Bowie: Starman ....................................  : 8.23
5. Jethro Tull: Bouree .........................................  : 8.10
6. B.O.C: Astronomy ........................................  : 8.06
7. Myrath: Merciless Times ................................  : 8.00
8. Camel: Eyes of Ireland ...................................  : 7.90
9. Procol Harum: Grand Hotel (Live) ..................  : 7.78
10. Strawbs: Witchwood ....................................  : 7.62
11. Spock's Beard: On a Perfect Day .................  : 7.25

    It was a very good show in my opinion, we had many people online, and as it seemed everybody had some great time. Now we have one more show on next Sunday, and we will try to make it a really great one!
   Gfreedom Team was to thank all of you who logged in last night, and participated in every way.
See you again on next Sunday' Prog & Roll folks. 'Till then, take care! :)
And here's the video of the winning song...

                                 

GFreedom's Juke Box Nο.48

Good morning everybody!
Today is the first day of Summer, so have a great Summer! :)
But it is also Saturday, which means it's the time to write here my best 5 songs for the last week.
Whithout further ado, here they are:

Mostly Autumn: We come & we go (The Last Bright Light) - 2001
Myrath: Merciless Times (Tales of the Sands) - 2013
Roxy Music: Do the Strand (For your Pleasure) - 1973
Spock's Beard: On a Perfect Day (Spock's Beard) - 2006
Metallica: Mercyful Fate (meddley) (Garage Days Inc) - 1998

And as usual, I recommned to everyone who might be in the mood, to write his/hers best songs or albums for this last week. You can write it as a comment here on the bolg, or at G+.
Don't forget that tomorrow night in Prog & Roll Radio show, we have our big contest for 'The Song of the month'! I hope to see some of you there...
Have a great weekend! :)

PROG & ROLL Radio Show: 2 shows before the end...

Hello all!
It is my great sadness to announce that our radio show 'Prog & Roll' is reaching its end.
Due to some major changes to our lifes, we can't continue doing it any more...
We hope that we will be able to start again after a few months, but I couldn't bet on it.
   So here's what's going to happen at our next two shows:
SUNDAY 2/6: We will have our big competition for 'The song of the month'. We have 11 great songs in the list that will fight for the title. As usual, our audience will be grading the songs, and according to their grades, we will calculate each song's average score, and at the end of our show we will find out the winner. That competition will take place during the second hour. The first hour we will have our normal program.
SUNDAY 9/6: This will be the last Prog & Roll, and we want to do something special. First of all, it will last 2.5 hours instead of 2. Further than this, we thought as a 'thank you' to do the following: We will ask from our audience, and each one of you that  believes he/she will be able to listen to us, to ask for 1 song that he/she would like to listen that night. We will play all the requested songs, and we will make a special announcement for each song. But except the requests we will prepare a really super playlist!
   We plan to make that night really special for everybody who will be there with us.
So, if you think that you want to join us on our special last radio show, you can send us the song that you would like to listen to this e-mail adress: GFreedomTeam@gmail.com
  I will write another post next week about this last show, but I wanted to inform you about all these things beforehand.
Thank you very much!

Tales from the Progressive Oceans Part.11

                                    PETER HAMMILL: Fool's Mate (1971)

   Fool's Mate was released in 1971, and it was the first solo album Peter Hammill ever recorded. The title is a reference in both Chess and Tarot cards. The album was recorded in 1971 in the the midst of one of Van Der Graaf's most creative periods. Peter Hammill decided to record this album in order to include some of his songs that were too short or too simple than the material Van Der Graaf were using for their records.
On the record sleeve there is a note written by Peter Hammill declaring the following: "This isn't intended to be any kind of statement of my present musical position, but at the same time, it is an album which involves a great deal of me, the person, basically a return to the roots."
   The record contains 12 songs in total, which in their majority are based in piano and acoustic guitar. There are many wonderfull melodic and sad moments in this record, indicating the personal feelings of Peter Hammill. The lyrics are simpler and not so much sophisticated as they are in his later works, but that doesn't seem to be any kind of problem. (For me at least).
  The musicians that helped him in the recordings, are the members of Van Der Graaf Generator, plus a couple of members from the folk band Lindisfane, and with the addition of the guitarist Robert Fripp. (King Crimson).
The UK music press had a very positive approach on Fool's Mate, and a few music magazines named it as the 'The Album of the Year'.
   Fool's Mate is one of my most favorite records of Peter Hammill's solo career, and in my opinion the best moments here are the songs: Candle, Happy, Vision & The Birds.
Here you can see the whole playlist of the album, and on the following video's you can listen to a couple of songs.
   Fool's Mate (1971)
   "Imperial Zeppelin"
   "Candle" - 4:16
   "Happy" - 2:36
   "Solitude" - 4:56
   "Vision" - 3:13
   "Re-Awakening" - 4:01
   "Sunshine" - 3:56
   "Child" - 4:25
   "Summer Song (In The Autumn)" - 2:13
   "Viking" - 4:44
   "The Birds" - 3:38
   "I Once Wrote Some Poems"

                                   

                                         

                                                                                                                                        

Prog & Roll Radio show on 26/5/2013 The Complete Playlist & Top-5

Last night we had one more Prog & Roll radio show.
  I want to believe that we played some good music, and our listeners enjoy it. It seemed so at least...
Once more, we played our little game, by asking to our audience grade the songs we play, and according to their grades every Monday morning I'm presenting here each show's Top-5 songs.
And here is last night's Top-5:

1. Blue Oyster Cult: Astronomy
2. Jethro Tull: Bouree
3. Aphrodite's Child: The 4 Horsemen
4. The Beatles: While my Guitar Gently Weeps
5. The Enid: One and the Many

   From these 5 songs, the first 4 achieved to gather the average number that is needed in order to be able to participate to the final stage of the competition for 'The Song of the Month', that will take place on next Sunday's show. So, on next Sunday 2/6/2013 prepare yourselves for a great radio show! On the first hour we will have our usual program, but on the second hour we will have the big contest, on which our audience will choose The Song of the Month. We have 12 great songs in our list, and from those 12 songs one will be the winner. On next Sunday at the end of our show we will know which one.
   And here I'm posting the whole playlist from last night's Prog & Roll:

THE ENID: One & the Many /  SPRING: The Prisoner / THE MOODY BLUES: The Land of Make Believe / JETHRO TULL: Bouree / ΒLUE OYSTER CULT: Astronomy / RUSH: Cinderella Man / PAVLOV’S DOG: Late November / BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST: May Day / PENDRAGON: The Masquerade Overture / IT’S A BEAUTIFUL DAY: Bombay Calling (Music contest) / TIM BUCKLEY: Pleasant Street / THE BEATLES: While my Guitar Gently Weeps / TRAFFIC: Coloured Rain / CHICAGO: Questions 67&68 / ULTIMATE SPINACH: Jazz Thing / APHRODOTE’S CHILD: The 4 horsemen / PINK FLOYD: Carefull with that Axe Eugene / GOD IS AN ASTRONAUT: Lost Kingdom / AUTUMN MOONLIGHT: The Sky Over Your Shoulders / STEVE HACKETT: Chamber of 32 Doors / PETER GABRIEL: Here comes the Flood.

  I want to thank all of you who logged in and participated in our show. I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did! :)

GFreedom Team Presents: MYRATH: Tales of the Sands (2011)

   This afternoon GFreedom Team will present the whole album from the not-so-famous Tynisian (!) band MYRATH.
Myrath is a Progressive Metal band, with 3 records so far, all of them good. They play a weird blend of heavy metal mixed with local folk rhythms. I found their music very interesting and rather unique. We will present their last album that was released in 2011.
 So, this afternoon if you are in the mood for some interesting music, join us.
 You can listen to us by clicking to this link: Just In Case Prog Radio
  I'm just informing you that this in not a live show with microphones etc. We will be online though at the time of the presentation, chatting through the chatbox, giving info when needen etc...  Just a relaxing hour listening to a very interesting record.
  The presentation starts at 18.00GMT (20.00 Greek Time).
  And for those who never heard of Myrath before, here's the official video from a song included in the album we will be presenting tonight.
Thank you... :)