TAKE A BOW
This month we’ve been to the Stone Free and Download festivals, as well as shows by A Perfect Circle, Gazpacho, Jenny Hval, Neal Morse, Mostly Autumn, Bent Knee, Al Di Meola and more.
VENUE 02 arena, london
DATE 18/06/2018
Providing a mix of hard rock, metal and prog, Stone Free takes place at London’s O2 Arena and its more intimate satellite the IndigO2 over two days. Sunday is traditionally the prog rock day at the Arena, with past headliners including Rick Wakeman. 2018 marks the third year of the festival, but despite the positive things that could be written about it – and there are many – poor ticket sales suggest that only a brave man would bet upon it happening again.
Stone Free won’t be the first festival to struggle with ticket sales this summer, and neither will it be the last. There are simply too many festivals and insufficient established headline acts to put bums on seats.
This year’s sole proggers at the IndigO2, Godsticks are watched by 14 people at the beginning of the venue’s shift. The rumbling menace of Guilt from the Welshmen’s new album Faced With Rage provides a useful bridge between the previous day’s more classic rock elements and the progressive delights to follow. If there’s any disappointment at the miserly turnout, it doesn’t show, the band departing with a cheery cry of: “We’ve been Godsticks – good morning!”
Several hours later, the prog day begins in earnest inside the main O2 auditorium. This time we’re seated, but the array of bizarre multicoloured objects at the back of the hall fails dismally to disguise the evening’s poor attendance.
Introduced by Prog editor Jerry Ewing as, “One of the greatest modern-day progressive artists,” Anathema fully deserve their spot on one of the world’s biggest and most prestigious stages. A 40-minute timeframe only allows the band to reveal a mere thumbprint of their ability, but this negative is balanced out by the use of clever back-projected visuals and a nearpristine front-of-house sound.
Much of the set is ambient in nature, a sublime Untouchable Pt 1 enriched by the perfectly blended vocals of Vincent Cavanagh and Lee Douglas. And when Anathema depart to the sound of that song’s sequel, the results are simply breathtaking.
The subsequent presence of British blues rock guitarist Joanne Shaw Taylor is baffling, undermining the show’s focus and flow… what were the organisers thinking?
Luckily, help is at hand. Backed by a watertight four-piece group, Roger Hodgson arrives to almost casually dispatch a string of Supertramp greats – Take The Long Way Home, School, Breakfast In America, Hide In Your Shell, The Logical Song and Lord Is It Mine – right off the bat.
“I’ve only got an hour, so I’m going to play the songs I think you’ll want to hear,” the 68-year-old tells us, and by golly he’s right. Hodgson is in fine voice and Dreamer, one of the all-time great pop-pomp-prog anthems, gets the crowd on its feet. Much like Hodgson himself, Fool’s Overture, from Even In The Quietest Moments…, is quintessentially English, and after raising the roof again with Give A Little Bit, Hodgson’s encore of It’s Raining Again is fully deserved.
By the time the headliners arrive, the main arena is somewhere between one-third and a quarter full. Take your pick as to whether a pair of sold-out Hammersmith Apollo shows from a year ago, Father’s Day, inter-brand loyalty or the World Cup is to blame.
Whatever the reason, a stage backdrop welcomes Jon Anderson, Trevor
Rabin and Rick Wakeman as “Quintessential Yes”. This is fighting talk, of course. Also, said banner namechecks the act’s current 50th anniversary year – unlike Anderson, none of the co-existing ‘Yes’ were members back in 1968. Clearly, some heritage reclamation is going on here. And why not? On evidence this strong, few could disagree that ARW hold the upper hand over their esteemed rivals.
An entrancing mix of Rabin-era material and 1970s classics begins with Cinema and Hold On, channelling Wakeman’s extravagant, squealing keys, Rabin’s unmistakable guitar and the still-impressive vocals of Anderson. That’s followed by Perpetual Change, I’ve
Seen All Good People, And You And I and a sprawling rendition of Awaken.
At 73, and despite a serious illness that almost killed him, Anderson cannot have too many tours like this left. However, amid bouts of harp-plucking, synchronised clapping and the gentle chiming of Tibetan temple bells, the man who once declared himself “the masterconductor of Yes” remains at the heart of it all. A grinning Wakeman goes walkabout with his keytar during Owner Of A Lonely
Heart, and as the band sign off with Roundabout, it’s impossible not to be swept away by the show’s joy.
The next set of albums will reveal exactly which band really can be considered the “Quintessential
Yes”. It’s going to be fascinating.