Led Zeppelin – 3 / In Through The Out Door (deluxe editions)

Alex Somers and Sigur Ros – Black Mirror (music from the TV series)

NERD – No One Ever Really Dies

Tom Rogerson and Brian Eno – Finding Shore

Lifesigns – Cardington

Ty Tabor – Alien Beans

Klaus Schulze – Eternal 70th birthday edition

Klaus Schulze and Solar Moon System – Ultimate Docking

Mogwai – Complete Catalog to date

Eno & Harmonium – Tracks and Traces ‘76

Eno & Hyde – Someday World / High Life

Sunn o))) – Black One

Earth – Earth 2

Songhoy Blues – Résistance

Temples – Sun Structures

Various – Deutsche Elektronische Musik

Go Go Penguin – A Humdrum Star

Bark Psychosis – Codename: Dustsucker

DBA – Skyscraper Souls

Daniel Cavanagh – Monochrome

Brian Eno – Sisters

Black Sabbath – vol. 4

Sunn O))) – Kannon

Zombie Picnic – A Suburb Of Earth / Rise Of A New Ideology

Katatonia – Complete Catalog to date

Yes – Fly From Here, Return Trip

Talk Talk – The Party’s Over / It’s My Life

Jonathan Wilson – Rare Birds

Fish – Fellini Nights

Jack White – Boarding House Reach

Sylvian/Fripp – Damage

Caravan – If I Could Do It All Over Again…

Soft Machine – Third / Fourth / Five / Six / Seven

Levitation – Meanwhile Gardens

King Crimson – Live In Vienna

Moby – Everything Was Beautiful, And Nothing Hurt

Hawkwind – Catalog (24 Albums)

Sigur Ros – Route One

Tangerine Dream – 220 Volt live

Charlotte Hatherley – True Love

Janelle Monae – Dirty Computer

Charlotte Hatherley – Grey Will Fade / The Deep Blue / New Worlds

Doyle Bramhall 2 – Rich Man

Venetian Snares x Daniel Lanois – Venetian Snares x Daniel Lanois

Nik Bartsch’s Ronin – Awase

A Perfect Circle – Eat The Elephant

The Fierce And The Dead – The Euphoric

Gazpacho – Soyuz

Tangerine Dream – Plays Tangerine Dream

Marillion – All One In The UK 2018 Bristol

Spock’s Beard – Noise Floor

Lunatic Soul – Under The Fragmented Sky

Klaus Schulze – Silhouettes

Arctic Monkeys – Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino

Marillion – Brave deluxe

Level 42 – Staring At The Sun / A Physical Presence

Brücken Froese – Beginn

Christina Aguilera – Liberation

Jon Hopkins – Singularity

Nine Inch Nails – Add Violence / Not The Actual Events / Bad Witch

Quaeschning & Schnauss – Synthwaves

Doyle Bramhall 2 – Witness

King Crimson – Tour 2018

Hybrid – Light Of The Fearless

All Saints – Testament

Big Big Train – Merchants Of Light

Underworld and Iggy Pop – Teatime Dub Encounters

Robert Reed – Sanctuary I,II,III

Sons Of Apollo – Psychotic Symphony

The Sea Within – The Sea Within

Ultraphonix – Original Human Music

Burial – Truant / Rival Dealer / Street Halo

The Pineapple Thief – Dissolution

DJ food – Kaleidoscope

ARW – Live At The Apollo

Santana – Moonflower / Lotus

Mogwai – Kin (OST)

Steven Page – Heal Thyself 2

Santana – Santana / Caravanserai

Riverside – Wasteland

The KLF – Recovered and Remastered vol.4

Fish – A Parley With Angels

Dire Straits – Love Over Gold

The Future Sound Of London – Archived 9

Ultramarine – Every Man And Woman Is A Star

Black Peaks – All That Divides

Coheed And Cambria – Vaxis Act 1 – The Unheavenly Creatures

The KLF – Space / This Is What The KLF Is About

Geinoh Yamashirogumi – Akira OST / Ecophony Rinne

Shinto Nakamura – Best Of Mix

Susumu Yokota – Grinning Cat / Laputa / Sakura / Symbol

Cliff Martinez – Solaris OST

Autechre – Tri Repetae

Murcof – Utopia / Remembranza / Martes

Biosphere – Cirque / Dropsonde / Man With A Movie Camera / Microgravity / Shenzhou / Substrata

Thomas Koner – Daikan

Sleep Research Facility – Deep Frieze

Thmoas Dvorak – Machinarium Soundtrack

Doyle Bramhall 2 – Shades

St. Vincent – MassEducation

King Crimson – Meltdown (Live in Mexico)

Iamthemorning – Ocean Sounds

John Hackett and Nick Fletcher – Beyond The Stars

Sanguine Hum – Now We Have Power

Haken – Vector

Steven Wilson – Home Invasion (Live at the RAH)

Vennart – To Cure A Blizzard On A Plastic Sea

Eric Clapton – 24 Nights / Layla And Other Love Songs / Unplugged / From The Cradle / 461 Ocean Boulevard / Slowhand

Andy Timmons – Theme From A Perfect Band

Jethro Tull – Warchild / Crest Of A Knave

Toska – Fire By The Silos

Marillion – Clutching At Straws (deluxe)

The Black Crowes – Live

Tangerine Dream – Official Bootleg vol. 2

Kate Bush – Remasters part 1 / The Red Shoes / The Sensual World / Aerial (all 2018 remasters)

Robert Palmer – Addictions Vol 1

The Power Station – The Power Station / Living In Fear

Fish – Sunsets On Empires / Raingods With Zippos

Robert Palmer – Heavy Nova / Riptide

Pre-PNIX The Friday Night Get Amongst Itness 

This was the first Prog Night to feature both Pre and Post events. Let it not be said that we don’t break fresh ground and continuously push the boundaries of what is and what isn’t, taking into account the what could be but frankly after some discussion actually that’s a no no.

After some delightful sounds courtesy of Daniel Cavanagh’s ‘Monochrome’ (an album that’s more Anathema than an Anathema album?) we munched on suspiciously healthy salad wraps before settling into some serious viewage….

• Marillion – The Making Of Fear. The band discuss how it was made and why. Essential viewing for the fans and a lovely peak behind the curtain.
• Steven Wilson – The Making Of To The Bone. A completely different vibe from SW – gone are the deluxe wood panelled live studio rooms of the last few albums and instead he records in what looks like someone’s house that’s been invaded by a large amount of studio gear, by that I mean swamped, there is the feeling that the structure of the building is being held up by the various amps, pedals, instruments – a proper Aladdin’s cave of goodies – if only you can find the power supply!
• Yes – The Making of Fly From Here. Which is essentially a short film about Trevor Horn. With Steve Howe trying to rewrite history in front of your very eyes…….oh dear.

After that we hit the sack……..

The next morning our brave travellers headed up the cycle path in search of nutritious goodness. They failed to find any but did return with ice cream and who doesn’t love ice cream, Snetterton goes utterly nuts for it as you can imagine.

Having returned from the foraging run the weather demanded that we sit in the sun eating ice cream and trolled Pete Cheers who at this point was crawling across the country in various forms of public transport – train, bus, rickshaw, canoe…

Whilst we prayed for Cheers (#prayforcheers) we fed into our ears the following –

• Everything Everything – A Fever Dream
• Eno & Hyde – Someday World
• Public Service Broadcasting – Every Valley

We then retired back to the main room to await the arrival of the one who is in your ears….

He appeared while I dropped the kids off at the pool and thanks to some quick thinking from Flat Sky was able to make me grateful that I had…..and so it began.

 

PNIX Prog Night Nine – The Rush Special

In the run up to the event there had been talk in hushed tones of the fabled ‘ Fez Completion’. The emptying of the Fez in one sitting – it had never been done, some said it was madness to even consider such a thing – the maths just didn’t add up – no one could take that much Prog in one go – besides there just wasn’t enough time….

HA! and again HA! we laughed in the face of the naysayers and the counting on more than one hand types who said it couldn’t be done…..besides thanks to the early arrival of Cheers we were kicking off at about 1500 – loads of time…..The Fez Of Choosing was filled and away we went……what follows is the order in which the Fez Of Choosing guided our listening….

1. Jon &Vangelis – Short Stories (PC)
2. Hawkwind – Hall Of The Mountain Grill (PC – Pete Cheers’ Leftfield Doozy)
3. Caravan – For Girls Who Grow Plump In The Night (UT)
4. Lonely Robot – Please Come Home (FS)
5. Anathema – Weather Systems (FS)
6. Rush – Power Windows (UT)
7. Roger Waters – Is This The Life We Really Want? (UT)
8. Rush – Permanent Waves (PC)
9. Big Big Train – English Electric pt.2 (PC)
10. Porcupine Tree – In Absentia (FS)
11. Robert Fripp and David Sylvian – The First Day (UT)

 

Now the eagle eyed amongst you will note that that is only 11 albums – however both myself and Flat had put Power Windows in, causing much hilarity and thigh slapping 70% of the time on 3/8ths of the days that fell on 1 of 3 occurrences in 9 out of 12 possible outcomes.

Editors note – during the proceedings The Box Of Wrong was opened and ‘enjoyed’. Those who tasted the pickled plums will not taste pickled plums again.

Flat Sky ensured that Prog Night remains fresh by putting in artists that had never featured on an album based Prog Night before, although they did feature individual tracks as part of the playlist orientated early events (thanks to the Prog Night archives for valuable assistance). Pete Cheers raised his own bar with regards to his Leftfield Doozy choice and I was amazed that I didn’t put any Marillion in…..

The important thing is that we achieved Fez Completion and had filled our ears with astoundingly good sounds. As is the way of the Prog Night. Also the social medias were awash with #PNIX tweets/toots/posts and of course Pete’s Pnix Pics. What else was there to do but to brush ourselves off and head to the sleeping department ready to face the frankly odious task that we had set ourselves for the next morning…….

 

Post PNIX – The Sunday after the Friday before

The records do not show at what point it was decided that we would ‘revisit’ the last Yes studio album ‘Heaven and Earth’ over breakfast but that is exactly what we did. After a night fraught with disturbing dreams caused by the backwash of what we were about to subject ourselves to we sat huddling hot beverages and munching loudly on toast to try and drown out the true horror that was emanating from the speakers.

Insipid.

Turgid.

I can’t type any more other than to say that it’s only the brilliant Roger Dean artwork and packaging that has stopped the cd being hurled out of a fast-moving car or fed to some particularly angry rodents.

After the hugely offensive item had been removed from the player we settled down to some Squackett just to show what can happen when Squire gets going. We then followed that with some live Fish and played Prog Connections ahoy.

Then seemingly too soon it was time for Flat Sky to venture forth back to the westerly bits of the West Country…. The Cheers and I took advantage of a break in the non raining weather for a brief excursion to get milk and also to follow the SCPC cleansing team to render the main room safe after the toxic filth that had spilled from the speakers earlier.

Warning: DO NOT attempt to repeat the experiment detailed above. Those taking part were highly trained individuals with years of experience. Listening to that kind of shit can damage you for life.

Once we returned we sat down to begin the serious work that is the Post Prog Night experience – here’s what we covered….

• Caravan – If I Could Do It All Over Again, I’d Do It All Over You
• Soft Machine – Third
• Roxy Music – Live in London 2001 (DVD)
• Hawkwind – Levitation
• JMJ – Sessions 2000
• Snippets of Deep Forrest and Enigma

 

The Caravan and Soft Machine were prompted by the NEEEEEED to research a bit more around the Canterbury Scene, the Roxy because it’s Roxy and a damn fine slab of Prog/Art/Pop and features castanets. Hawkwind was continuing the direction led by Pete Cheers’ Leftfield Doozy and the rest was prompted by the unveiling of E+A Night – an extravaganza of Electronica and Ambient music which will occupy the space allowing Prog Night Ten (PNX) to occur on the tenth anniversary of Prog Night (lawks).

Following a well deserved trip to the chippy we feasted on the following –

• Yes – Yessongs 1972 film (restored footage)
• Rush – Classic Albums (2112 and Moving Picture)
• Marillion – Childhood Memories (documentary about the writing/recording/touring of Misplaced Childhood)

Yessongs filmed at the Rainbow theatre in London in 1972 is a perfect demonstration of why Heaven and Earth cannot be viewed with anything but utter contempt, this concert film shows Yes at one of their peak moments – Anderson, Howe, Squire, Wakeman and White absolutely tearing the stage apart with incredible versions of what are now Yes classics. To think that Heaven and Earth deserves to be refered to as a Yes album just

The rest of this ‘discussion’ as been removed due to the rather offensive nature of the language used.

The Rush and Marillion documentaries go pretty deep inside the chosen albums and both offer some lovely little snippets of ‘well I did not know that’. More essential viewing for the hardcore proggers which left us ready retire…..

 

The next morning Cheers departed and that was the end of that.

 

PNIX – ‘We dived deep into the seas of Prog and swam like Gods’ 

John Wick

Jack Reacher

Arq

Jack Ryan

Jaco

The Bourne Legacy

Seven Psychopaths

Lo And Behold

Suicide Squad

Doctor Strange

Arrival

OJ – Made In America

Money Ball

Inglorious Basterds

Oceans 11,12,13

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Passengers

47 Ronin

The Lego Batman Movie

Zootopia

Hell Or High Water

Thank You For Smoking

The Big Short

Guardians Of The Galaxy 2

Ghost In The Shell

Alien Covenant

Baby Driver

Law Abiding Citizen

Spider-Man Homecoming

Bladerunner 2049 (at cinema)

Mission Impossible 5 Rogue Nation

The Hitman’s Bodyguard

Four Rooms

Mindhorn

Halt And Catch Fire S1,2,3

Narcos S1,2

Master Of None S1

The Librarians

The OA

The Sopranos S1

Shooter S1

BackStrom

iZombie S1,2

Elementary S5

Lucifer S2

The Americans S1,2

Santa Clarita Diet

Iron Fist

You Are Wanted

Vikings S4

Mad Men S4,5,6,7

Bojack Horseman S1

Homeland S1,2,3,4,5

Line Of Duty S1,2

Sense8 S1

Life In Pieces S1,2

Detectorists S1,2

Bosch S3

12 Monkeys S1,2

Fargo S1,2

American Gods S1

Westworld S1

The Man In The High Castle S2

Glow S1

Sense8 S2

Comrade Detective

iZombie S3

Ozark S1

Better Call Saul S1,2,3

Znation S1

Bojack Horseman S2,3

Catastrophe S3

Game Of Thrones S7

Preacher S2

The Defenders

Norsemen S1

The Tick S1

Quacks

Bojack Horseman S4

Timeless S1

Upstart Crow S2

House Of Cards S3,4,5

Archer S3,4,5,6,7,8

Killjoys S1

Veep S6

The Good Place S1

Hell On Wheels S1,2,3,4,5

Patriot S1

Stranger Things 2

Mindhunter S1

The Expanse S2

Lucifer S3

Black Sails S1,2,3,4

Robot Wars

Blue Planet 2

Narcos S3

The Americans S3

The Punisher S1

Wormwood

Manhunt – Unabomber

La Casa De Papel

Rick And Morty

Neil Gaiman – The Ocean At The End Of The Lane

Nick Cave – The Death Of Bunny Munro

Richard Kalich – The Central Park Trilogy

Neal Stephenson – The Diamond Age

Simon Winstanley – Field One / Field Two

Stephen Donaldson – The Augur’s Gambit

Justin Depaoli – The Assassin’s Blade Trilogy

Leif Persson – Backstrom 1+2

V.E. Swab – Darker Shade Of Magic (1,2,3)

Ann Leckie – Ancillary Justice / Mercy / Sword

Adrian Barnes – Nod

Nnedi Okrafor – The Book Of Phoenix

B. Catling – The Vorrh

Warren Ellis – Normal

Tricia O’Sullivan – Occupy Me

Ted Chiang – Stories Of Your Life And Others

Pratchett + Baxter – The Long Earth Series

Blake Crouch – Dark Matter

Stephen King – The Dark Tower 1

Ernest Cline – Ready Player One

Chris Brookmyre – Dead Girl Walking / Black Widow

Jon Ronson – So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed

David Eagleman – Incognito – The Secret Lives Of The Brain

Richard Kadrey – Sandman Slim

Neil Gaiman – Norse Mythology

Richard Kadrey – Metrophage

K. A. Bedford – Time Machines Repaired While You Wait

Owen Jones – The Establishment

Adrian Tchaikovsky – Children Of Time

Marcus Sakey – Afterlife

Paul Hegarty & Martin Halliwell – Beyond And Before

Adam Rutherford – A Brief History Of Everyone Who Ever Lived

Jared Diamond – Guns, Germs And Steel

Patrick Weekes – The Prophecy Con / The Paladin Caper

Robert Louis Stevenson – Treasure Island

Steve McHugh – The Promise Of Wrath

Prog Night Eight (PNVIII) ProgN8 The Tangerine Dream Special

(no lizards were harmed in the production of this event)

In contrast to the previous Prog night – Flat Sky and Pete Cheers arrived via train without out too much ado. Yes Flat decided to help out by sending Pete photos that had Pete followed them would have led him a merry dance in the direction labelled ‘wrong’, but by 1600 everyone was in situ and beveraged, ready to get their prog on…..

the Fez Of Choosing dispensed the following:

1. Vangelis – Rosetta (PC)
2. Tangerine Dream – Tyger (FS)
3. Mike Oldfield – Return To Ommadawn (PC)
4. Tangerine Dream – Firestarter OST (PC)
5. Tim Bowness – Lost In The Ghost Light (UT)
6. Genesis – Foxtrot (FS)
7. Marillion – Fugazi (PC)
8. Neal Morse Band – The Similitude Of A Dream [disc 1] (FS)
9. Haken – Affinity (FS)
10. Tangerine Dream – Tangram (UT)

Left in the Fez Of Choosing –

1. Mike Oldfield – Return To Ommadawn (UT)
2. iamthemorning – Lighthouse (UT)

It became obvious that Uncle Mike’s RTO was going to get played at all costs! And rightly so – it’s the album we never thought would happen but always hoped would.

At which point our heroes called it a night and retired

 

Post Prog Night Sunday Special (PPNSS)

Breakfast was taken alongside the sounds of

1. iamthemorning – Lighthouse
2. Big Big Train – Grimspound

After those two crackers the Post Prog Night Yomp occurred in delightful sunshine and a rather large amount of pollen. Troopers Hill made it’s first appearance and on the return journey we picked up a few provisions (ICE CREAM!) and I discovered I have a Screwfix within 10 minutes walk of Thangcentral – which is great because they

I’ve been told by Snetterton that this is not the forum for an outpouring of Screwfix love so I’ll get back to the prog. Ahem.

We lunched in the garden (oh please do come they say) with

• Nordic Giants – A Seance Of Dark Delusions

before returning inside for

• Max Richter – The Three Worlds Of Virginia Woolf.

At this point Thangcentral bade farewell to Flat Sky and myself and Cheers carried out an experiment involving an A3 glass picture frame, a height and a thrown towel. Smashing.

• Marillion – Out Of The Box [disc 3 singles night]

started the AV section of the day before we moved on to the

5.1 Special

• Mike Oldfield – RTO
• Yes – Perpetual Change, Heart Of The Sunrise, And You And I

then it was back to the DVDs for

• Yes – Symphonic Live

we only got halfway through this before we switched to You Tube for

• Yes – Union
• Yes – The Lost Broadcasts.

 

Points to note – The 5.1 of RTO really works, Steve Howe needs to stop now.

Yes Union live is pretty bloody amazing – they are tearing the place up

The early stuff (’69,’70+’71) was an eye opener not only in terms of how much ‘balls’ the young Yes had but also how tripped out German music TV shows were – excellent!

Before you know what happened Monday morning appears and Pete Cheers takes himself back to Brighton via a less than optimal train journey – a fate suffered by Flat Sky the day before….oi trains, sort yourselves out!

That wraps up PNVIII, next is PNIX which if memory serves is a Rush Special – get your Geddy out!

 

Now if you’d excuse me I have a lizard to touch…..

Prog Night Seven (PNVII) The Word Of Jon Special

Public transport, where do I start…..well, both Flat Sky and Pete Cheers came via the train and in both cases had trains cancelled on them, Flat ended up walking from Bristol Temple Meads and Pete ended up in a kidney costing taxi ride from Westbury. Shocking.

Anyhow, once Flat and myself had taken part in a Pre Prog Night listening of all 3 discs of King Crimson’s ‘Radical Action To Unseat The Hold Of Monkey Mind’ and Pete Cheers had navigated his way across country, we were all in situ and ready to start pulling albums from the Fez Of Choosing.

The albums that came out were….

1. Big Big Train – Folklore (PC)
2. Steve Janson – Tender Extinction (RW)
3. Riverside – Shrine Of New Generation Slaves (FS)
4. Rush – Roll The Bones (FS)
5. Vangelis – The City (PC)
6. Jon Anderson – In The City Of Angels (FS)
7. Marillion – F.E.A.R. (RW)
8. Jon Anderson – Animation (RW)
9. Gaudi + Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan – Dub Quwwali (PC)

Remaining in the Fez –

1. Anderson/Stolt – Invention Of Knowledge (PC)
2. Jon+Vangelis – Private Collection (RW)
3. Ozric Tentacles – Strangeitude (FS)

Interestingly enough no one put Jon’s ‘Song Of Seven’ in, perhaps because we’ve all heard it quite a lot, or maybe thinking that someone else would have put it in. Also no Yes albums – but as we discussed, it would be kinda cheap to put a Yes album in when there is so much other Jon around.

Post Prog Night Sunday Special (PPNSS)

The Neal Morse Band – The Similitude Of A Dream’. The first listen for this rather large body of albumage. A double disc of a doozy, each one over 50 minutes. suffice to say that we all agreed that on the first listen it got a thumbs up but would really need more plays to get amongst it fully. At this point in the proceedings Flat Sky departed, heading south on the cycle path towards the train station.

Talking of getting  amongst it, Cheers and myself took a wander up the Bristol/Bath cycle path ‘nothing major, just a spot of fresh air’. Ahem.. some two hours later we returned having wandered further than we initially intended, the extra mileage prompted by some pondering of where the original tracks would have laid and did they merge here, well looking at the back of the houses and the gaps there, yes I think they may have, look at the bridge footings there, oh look a platform…..

Anyway, having finally returned slightly chilled we enjoyed …

Big Big Train – ‘Stone And Steel’ Blu-ray

The Making Of Peter Cheers ‘He’s In Your Ears’ Limited Edition Digital Download

Yes – The Making Of ‘Fly From Here’ DVD

Yes – ‘Songs From Tsonga 35th Anniversary Concert’ DVD

At which point it was time to call it a day.

 

I sit typing this while the vinyl of Jon’s Animation spins on the Thangcentral deck. A masterpiece of an album and a reminder that we all need Jon in our lives.

I would go so far as to say if more people had Jon in their lives the world would be a much better place…….

Before I sign off, a massively huge enthankingment to Flat Sky and Pete Cheers for braving the trails and tribulations to get here, as ever there was lashings of awesome sauce! 

May the Word Of Jon be with you.