Hello everybody!
I'm writing this small piece in order to inform you that on this Sunday (29/6) Prog & Roll radio show will be cancelled due to a travel I have to do.
Prog & Roll will be back on next Sunday 6/7/14 at the same time as usual.
Thank you.
Hello all!
I recently discovered this very interesting video documentary about the history of Pink Floyd.
It covers the years 1965-1994 and it's a good & short one. It's almost 40 minutes long, so it doesn't make you tired and bored while watching it. Another good thing is that it contains English subtitles, which helps you understand better what they are talking about. (Just go to 'captions' and select 'on').
So if you are interested, sit back and enjoy it! :)
Two days ago Bob Dylan performed live once more in Athens. (It must have been the 5th time).
As I mentioned in a post here sometime ago, although I respect his work and music, I couldn't find any
reason to go and see his concert. As it seems I was right, because I read many reviews about that concert and almost none of them was good.
I read many complains about the playlist, his performance, about how distant he was on stage etc...
Sorry, but we know all those things. All the times Bob Dylan visited Greece he was like that. Cold and distant. As for his performance... Again sorry, but he is almost 80 years old. What did you expect?
As for the playlist, I can't say anything. Bob Dylan has a huge career and an amazing amount of album releases. So how can it be possible to 'fit' them in an almost 2 hours show?
Anyway, I hope at least all those people who went to see him live, didn't regret it. As for the concert's playlist, you can see it here:
Things Have
Changed
She Belongs To Me
Beyond Here Lies Nothin'
Huck's Tune
The Levee's Gonna Break
Shelter From The Storm
Million Miles
Girl From The North Country
Summer Days
Desolation Row
Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum
Duquesne Whistle
Visions Of Johanna
Thunder On The Mountain
Ballad Of A Thin Man Encore:
All Along The Watchtower
Anton Roolaart is a Dutch born/American raised musician and composer.
He grew up by listening mostly to Classical music because his father loved it very much, and at the age of 13 decided to study classical guitar. As a teeneager he was exposed to the music of bands like Pink Floyd, Yes, Genesis etc, which made him develop a passion for Progressive Rock music. While he was growing up he expanded his musical studies to Jazz guitar, Piano and Drums, and in the year 2007 he released his first personal album named 'Dreamer'. It was a decent and very promising album, but his second one which was released this year is a far better one.
The title of the album is 'The Plight of Lady Oona' and it comes with a beautiful Fantasy-theme painting on the cover. It contains 6 tracks and has a total running time of almost 45 minutes. Anton does most of the work here by himself, including song and lyric writing. But further than that he sings and plays a big variety of instruments including guitars, piano, drums, mandolin, keyboards and bass. But he's not only by himself in this. There are many other guest musicians participating in the album, such as the keyboardist Rave Tesar (Renaissance & Annie Haslam), and Annie Haslam herself singing in one song.
The album's opening song is 'Gravity', a 7-minute-long beautiful and melodic composition which give a first impression to the listener of what's going to follow. Next comes another beautiful piece named 'Stars Fall Down', followed by the album's epic 'The Plight of Lady Oona'. This track is the longest one, with a runing time of almost 14 minutes. Here we listen for the first time the mandolin playing, and also Annie Haslam's beautiful voice, as she is participating as a guest vocalist in this song.
The 4th track 'Standing in the Rain' is a good one, but it doesn't add something more to the album.
Next comes another beautiful piece, the instrumental 'Memoirs' during which we get an idea about Anton's guitar skills with the magnificent classic guitar intro.
The 6th and last song 'Revealing Light' is following the same melodic and mellow style of the album. It's an 8-minute long song which includes a few flute parts, and has a very good vocal performance by Anton.
Concluding this post I want to say that I strongly recommend this album not only to the fans of Progressive Rock music, but to all of you who enjoy a well structed album with very beautiful melodies... My rating would be 3.5 stars out of 5.0
Good morning all!
On last night's Prog & Roll something great and fun happened. We had been informed that Stephan Desbiens would be joining our show as a guest on the chatbox in order to listen to our show, and have a chat with us and our listeners. Stephan Desbiens is a Canadian musician/composer, and was the leader of the band 'Sense'. From 2006 he has his personal project going, 'The D Project', on which many famous (or not) musicians are participating from time to time.On our behalf we prepared a presentation on his latest album 'Making Sense' which is a very interesting album with many beautiful moments, in order to honor him. We knew that in his previous album Stuart Nicholson (the singer and leader of Galahad) participated in a couple of songs, so we spoke and invited him to our show in order to surprise Stephane. And so it happened!
At the start of our show, Stephane logged in and we started chating about his latest album, the musicians he used for the recordings, some live performances they will give this summer etc. In the meantime we were playing songs from his album mixed with other songs. Almost 40 minutes later Stuart Nicholson joined the chatbox as well, and Stephane seemed surprised and very happy about it. The conversation was very interesting, and some of our listeners were participating as well. And a bit later Stephan's producer and lyricist joined the chatbox. (His name is Francis Foy, and many years ago he worked for some time with Pink Floyd as a sound engineer if I understood well). He was a very friendly and funny guy, and he set the chatbox on fire!
Because everybody seemed to enjoy the whole thing, we decided to expand our show for half hour, and so we did.
In my opinion it was a very nice show, we had a very warm and friendly "atmosphere" in the chatbox, and as it seemed our listeners and our guests had some great time.
As for the whole playlist you can see it here:
LIFE LINE
PROJECT: Join us! / THE D PROJECT: Rearview Mirror / FOCUS: Hocus Pocus / THE D
PROJECT: Making Sense / RAINBOW: Eyes of the World / GIARDINI DI MIRO: Time on
Time / THE D PROJECT: What is Real / DREAM THEATER: Under a Glass Moon / THE D
PROJECT: Nothing here is Innocent & Missing Star / GALAHAD: Termination /
RUSH: The Spirit of Radio / THE D PROJECT: Spanish Castle / MARILLION: Script
for a Jester’s Tear / THE D PROJECT: Dagger / CAMEL: Camelogue / COCKNEY REBEL:
Psychomodo / DAVID BOWIE: Cracked Actor / THE D PROJECT: Out of Range-Out of
Time / STEVEN WILSON: Postcard / SUPERTRAMP: Crime of the Century.
I would like to thank all of you who logged in last night, and of course Stephan Desbiens, Stuart Nicholson and Francis Foy. It was a great night, and all those who couldn't log in missed one of Prog & Roll's finest moments...
WARNING: Spoilers ahead! Now that we reached the end of season 4 of Game of Thrones, I think it's a good time to write here my opinion and my thoughts on the subject.
First of all I must say that many years ago I've read the first 3 books and I still remember many of the things which happen, but not all of course. I remember the strongest moments, like for example Ned Stark's beheading, 'The Red Wedding', Jeofrey's death, the fight between 'The Mountain' and 'The Viper', etc. And although I've read the books, and many of the surprises are no surprises to me, I must admit that I'm really enjoying watching the series.The adaptation is excellent, the production is really expensive, most of the actors are fitting perfectly in their roles etc... But of course there has been a few changes every now and then which are not in the books, but that's normal. (For example in the last episode of the 4rth season do you remember the fight between Brien of Tarth and "The Hound"? Well, that never happened in the books). But these are some details which help the story move further on, and add a few more action scenes, so it's ok I guess... As for my opinion on this 4rth season, I believe it was the best one so far, followed by the first one. Many things happened, it contained lots of action and lots of "strong" moments, and very important things took place almost from the start. Not like season 2 & 3 on which you were just waiting for episode 9 in order for something important or impressive to happen. We saw Jeoffrey die, and Tyrion's trial, we saw the big fight between "The Moutain" and "The Viper", we watched the glorious 9th episode in which was the fierce battle on the wall, and in the last episode we saw Tyrion's escape after shooting his father with the crossbow. Not bad eh?
If my memory is right, there are still some things left out from the third book, which most probably will be added in the 5th season. But further than that, I have no idea what will happen next, because I stopped reading after the 3rd book.
And to be honest I'm kind of glad, because from now on I will be really curious to see the sequel of this really epic story.
So, the only thing left is to wait for a whole year in order to see what's coming next...
Here you can watch a couple of trailers from season 4...
Hello all! In last night's Prog & Roll we wanted to make an "Epic" and noisy start, so we decided that during the first half-hour we would play Heavy Metal and Epic Metal. But after that first part, we slowed the rhythm a lot, and we played songs by some classic Progressive Rock bands. Later on, we continiued with some "fresh" tunes, and as usual we concluded our show with some relaxed and melodic songs.
As for the whole playlist, you can see it here:
ANXIETY: The
Descent of the Myriads / SPITFIRE: Macedonia / IRON MAIDEN: Alexander the Great
/ KANSAS: Point of Know Return / YES: Starship Trooper / GENTLE GIANT: Wreck /
GENESIS: The Knife / LORIEN: The Divide / CRIPPLED BLACK PHOENIX: Northern
Comfort / RPWL: Roses / ARENA: Medusa / GALAHAD: Richelieu’s Prayer / ALAN
PARSON’S PROJECT: Cask of Amontillado / STYX: Suite Madame Blue / CHRIS DE
BURGH: Spaceman Came Travelling / ILLUSION: Wings across the Sea / CAMEL: Eyes
of Ireland.
I want to thank all those who joined our show last night, hoping you enjoyed the music and the show in general.
See you again online, on next Sunday the same time...
Hey all!
We just reached the weekend at last!
Very busy week this last one, but I still found some time to listen
to music always. Despite the preparations for tomorrow's radio show, I wasn't so much in the mood for Progressive Rock as you will understand from the songs in my Top-5 list.
So, from all the songs I listened during this week I believe these are my best 5: GREEN ON RED: 16 Ways (Gas Food Lodging - 1985) JETHRO TULL: We Used to Know (Stand Up - 1969) MADRUGADA: What's on Your Mind? (Madrugada - 2008) JOAN BAEZ: Prison Trilogy (Come from the Shadows - 1972) CRIPPLED BLACK PHOENIX: Northern Comfort (White Light Generator - 2014)
I will conclude this post by adding 2 videos with songs from my list. Today I chose Green on Red's '16 Ways', and 'We Used to Know' by Jethro Tull.
Enjoy your weekend everybody!
Thanks for reading :)
Crippled Black Phoenix is one of the most unique & interesting bands which appeared in the last decade in the music business.
Although they started as a side-project band, soon they were evolved into a full time band, having as trademark their unique sound which combines many different music styles. Another "trademark" is the endless members change in these last years, up to a point which you can never be sure which their line-up will be after a few months. (There has been already about 30 musicians in their ranks since 2004).
They have released 7 studio albums so far, and all of them have something different to offer to the listeners.
Speaking for myself, every new release is something pleasant, because I never know what to expect from them.
Their previous album 'No Sadness or Farewell' was maybe their weakest one, and I wasn't sure what to expect next. But this new album made me re-gain my faith in the band.
Let's take it from the start: 'White Light Generator' contains 11 songs, and has a total running time of almost 70 minutes. The opening track is a Ricky Nelson's cover version (Sweeter than You), which I still wonder why it was included in the album. It's a sweet and mellow ballad, but has nothing to do with the rest of the album. (That's not the first time CBP are doing that. Also in 'I Vigilante' we were wondering for the same reasons about the album's last song).
Next comes one of the strongest moments of the album, the song 'No!' (Part.1&2), and the things are suddenly serious, bringing to our memory some of the band's older wonderful moments. And right at the moment when your expectations grow, the next 3 songs mildly let you down because they dont have anything interesting to offer (Without being bad songs though). And then we reach 'Northern Comfort'. (Track No.6). From the first notes you realise that here we have something really good! This song is a really great composition from the start till the end. Especially the last part after the 4th minute with the female backing vocals is an apocalypse! It was not by accident the band's choice to make this song the album's first video-clip.
'Northern Comfort' is followed by 'Wake me up when it's time to sleep', and the rhythm is slowing down a lot. But further than that, the song has a very beautiful melody, and for me it's one of the best songs here.
But after this song there is again a 2-song- "gap" before we reach 'We Remember You' which is the 3rd very strong composition in this album. It's a rather melancholic tune, with a glorious and unexpected finale. As for the last song 'A Brighter Tomorrow', I don't think I would have a problem if it wasn't included here. And to be honest, I would like more 'We Remember You' as the album's closing song.
So, in a nutshell 'White Light Generator' is a very 'decent' album, which includes some really remarkable moments. I think if it was a bit smaller in lenght it would have been better though.
Totally recommended to the fans of Crippled Black Phoenix (but not only those).
If I had to rate it, I would give 3.0 stars out of 5.0
I will conclude this post by adding a video for you to watch. It's the band's official video clip from the song 'Northern Comfort'. Enjoy, and thank you for reading...
Good morning all!
Last night GFreedom Team was the host in one Prog & Roll radio show. This time we had a special guest 'live' on the chatbox during the show. He was Anton Roolaart, the Dutch-born composer & musician who joined us from his home in New Jersey, and for 2 hours we were chating while listening to music. On our behalf we made a presentation of his latest album 'The Plight of Lady Oona' which is a very beautiful and melodic one.
I think it was a very interesting and pleasant show, and everybody seemed to enjoy it. As for the playlist, you can see it here: STEVE HACKETT: The return of the Giant Hogweed / BLOOD CEREMONY: Witchwood / ANTON ROOLAART: Gravity & Stars Fall Down / CURVED AIR: Easy / RENAISSANCE: The Vultures Fly High / ANTON ROOLAART: The Plight of Lady Oona (Feat. Annie Haslam) / AYREON: Time Beyond Time / ANTON ROOLAART: Standing in the Rain & Memoires / OPETH: In my Time of Need / PORCUPINE TREE: Always Never / ANTON ROOLAART: Revealing Light / MYSTERY: Snowhite / MAGIC PIE: The Clown / QUEEN: Grat King Ratt. I want to thank Anton Roolart who joined our show, and all of you who logged in, hoping that you enjoyed the music.
See you again online on next Sunday the same time.
Cheers! :)
Hello all!
Once more it's time to post here my weekly Top-5 songlist.
During this week I listened to lots of music, and from different kinds I must say.
That's why my Top-5 is a bit mixed up.
So, there are the songs I chose to include in my best 5 for this week: DAVID BOWIE: The Cygnet Committee (Space Oddity - 1969) PURESSENCE: India (Puressence - 1996) CHRIS DE BURGH: Crusader (Crusader - 1979) GENESIS: The Knife (Trespass - 1970) OPETH: In my Time of Need (Damnation - 2003)
And as usual I'll conclude this post with 2 videos from my Top-5 list. On the first video you can listen t othe wonderful 'Crusader' by Chris De Burgh, and on the second one I chose 'In my Time of Need' by Opeth.
Enjoy the music folks, and have a nice weekend! :)
Hello all! I'm writing this in order to inform you that on this Sunday's Prog & Roll Radio Show we will have as a "Special Guest" live on the chatbox Anton Roolaart.
Anton is a very promising new musician, and he will log in at the time of the show, and he will be chating with us and all those who will be online at that time. We will present his latest album "The Plight of Lady Oona" on which there is a very Special Guest singing. And this "Special Guest" is no other than Annie Haslam from Renaissance. Here's a small biography about him taken from "Prog Archives" in case you want to take a look: When you find an artist like ANTON ROOLAART who
combines both approaches, we are before a musician who deserves to be
supported because has the courage to respect and keep alive the early
spirit of Symphonic but also the vision to accept that times change and
something new has to be added to what is already available. ANTON
was born in Netherlands but being very young, he moved with his family
to United States, he grew listening Classical music that his father
loved so much and shared with him, at the age of 13 decides to study
Classical guitar before exploring the secrets of the instrument by his
own. As a teenager he was exposed to the Classic Prog acts like
Yes Genesis and Pink Floyd which made him develop a passion for the
challenging genre what made him start to write some songs and perform
his material in numerous clubs on the Charlotte NC area while studying
electrical and multi-track sound engineering in College. In the
next years and being obsessive about the evolution and development of
Progressive Rock he decided to expand his studies to Jazz guitar, Piano
and Drums, which have been very important for the release of his debut
album "Dreamer". Following his career in music he created
ProgRockRadio.com to contribute to the knowledge of the genre and
performed as vocalist in the Spanish based band JESDAT on their debut
"City Lights" and with who he's working for their next project. Around
the year 2003 ANTON decides it's time to release his first solo effort
and starts to work on it, after years of careful work and absolute
dedication mostly in his home studio and today, April 24, 2007,
"Dreamer" is officially releasesed. But we're not talking only
about ANTON ROOLAART, he counts with the participation of such musicians
as the talented keyboardist "Rave Tesar" (RENAISSANCE - ANNIE HASSLAM);
"Rich Berends" (MASTERMIND) and "Charles DesCarfino", both on drums
plus "Vincent Puryear" on Bass.This excellent album combines the
spirit of British Symphonic, Flemish roots and modern technologies and
it's an excellent addition for any Progressive Rock Collection. And here you can listen to a song taken from his latest album, so you can have a small idea:
Hey folks!
For all of you who are fans (or not) of 'The Lord of the Rings', here's a really hillarious video from the video series "Honest Trailers".
There are many of them, but this one is really great I believe.
So sit back, and enjoy the "Honest Trailer" of 'The Lord of the Rings'! :)
Hey all!
Since the 4rth season of Game of Thrones is slowly reaching to an end, I though of sharing a really funny video I found sometime ago.
At the end of the season 4 I will write here my review, but before that let's have some fun! ;)
Don't misunderstand my post, I am a fan of Game of Thrones as well, I have read the books years ago, and now I'm watching the series. But I think this video is hillarious, so I'm posting it here for you to watch.
No matter if you are watching Game of Thrones or not, I'm sure you'll have some fun with it...
Enjoy the "Honest Trailer" of Game of Thrones! :)
Hello all! Last night we had one more Prog & Roll Radio Show, and this time GFreedom Team was complete, as my co-host returned from her travel. In last night's playlist we decided to make a small tribute to the Greek Rock music scene during the first half hour, and another small tribute to the classic Hard-Rock of the '70's during the second half hour. After that the show went normally as usual. I think the music in general was very interesting and the people who were listening seemed to enjoy it. They also learned a few songs or bands they never heard of before, and that was another good point. As for the whole playlist, you can see it here: 1st Part: WE.OWN.THE.SKY:
Alterecho / INTERSTELLAR OVERDRIVE: Shade / VERBAL DELIRIUM: So Close and yet
so far Away / WILL-O-THE WISP: Elbereth / CICCADA: She Went for Love. 2nd Part: RORY
GALLAGHER: I’m not Awake yet / DEEP PURPLE: Fireball / LED ZEPPELIN: The Rover
/ THIN LIZZY: Killer on the Loose / URIAH HEEP: Sweet Freedom. 3rd Part: FOCUS:
Sugar Island / HORSLIPS: Trouble / TAMALONE: Good Earth Wine / CRESSIDA: To
Play Your Little Game / FRUMPY: Indian Rope Man / JANE: Daytime / CARAVAN: Golf
Girl. 4rth Part: IQ: From the
Outside in / PORCUPINE TREE: Waiting Phase One / FISH: High Wood / COMEDY OF
ERRORS: Remembrance / PROCOL HARUM: A Salty Dog.
I want to thank all of you who joined our show last night, and I hope you enjoyed it. I'll "see you" online on next Sunday night...
Two days ago Bob Dylan performed live once more in Athens. (It must have been the 5th time).
Anton Roolaart is a Dutch born/American raised musician and composer.
Good morning all!
Now that we reached the end of season 4 of Game of Thrones, I think it's a good time to write here my opinion and my thoughts on the subject.
And although I've read the books, and many of the surprises are no surprises to me, I must admit that I'm really enjoying watching the series.The adaptation is excellent, the production is really expensive, most of the actors are fitting perfectly in their roles etc... But of course there has been a few changes every now and then which are not in the books, but that's normal. (For example in the last episode of the 4rth season do you remember the fight between Brien of Tarth and "The Hound"? Well, that never happened in the books). But these are some details which help the story move further on, and add a few more action scenes, so it's ok I guess...
We saw Jeoffrey die, and Tyrion's trial, we saw the big fight between "The Moutain" and "The Viper", we watched the glorious 9th episode in which was the fierce battle on the wall, and in the last episode we saw Tyrion's escape after shooting his father with the crossbow. Not bad eh?
In last night's Prog & Roll we wanted to make an "Epic" and noisy start, so we decided that during the first half-hour we would play Heavy Metal and Epic Metal. But after that first part, we slowed the rhythm a lot, and we played songs by some classic Progressive Rock bands. Later on, we continiued with some "fresh" tunes, and as usual we concluded our show with some relaxed and melodic songs.
Hey all!
Crippled Black Phoenix is one of the most unique & interesting bands which appeared in the last decade in the music business. 
Good morning all!
Hello all!
Last night we had one more Prog & Roll Radio Show, and this time GFreedom Team was complete, as my co-host returned from her travel. In last night's playlist we decided to make a small tribute to the Greek Rock music scene during the first half hour, and another small tribute to the classic Hard-Rock of the '70's during the second half hour. After that the show went normally as usual. I think the music in general was very interesting and the people who were listening seemed to enjoy it. They also learned a few songs or bands they never heard of before, and that was another good point. 