A New Prog Supergroup?

This has been a really interesting week! Following a lot of online chat and discussion recently, four guys got together at AM Rehearsal Studios in Cumbernauld on Wednesday 28th January 2015 with no agenda, just a blank sheet and open minds. It also turned out to be a horrendously snowy night so, with a nod to Steve Hackett, we ended up driving home through Narnia.

Those four guys were myself on guitar & vocals, Mike Baxter (ex Shoot The Moon / Identity Crisis) on keyboards, Gordon Mackie (ex Cry Wolf / Abel Ganz / Identity Crisis) on bass and Kenny Weir (ex Abel Ganz) on drums. From my point of view the ultimate "dream band"? Most definitely!

Worth pointing out that we're also supported in the background by Mr Hew Montgomery who, in addition to having just launched his own new band Grand Tour, and album "Heavy On The Beach" is offering encouragement behind the scenes. Cheers Hew!

We kicked off with an attempt at a cover of Genesis' "Squonk" which, although vaguely recognisable, fell apart slightly as I hadn't nailed the structure. Work shall be done from my quarter to remedy this. We then moved on to play around with some of my demoed material - starting with "Her Ghost In The Fog". This track, which I claimed back from The Shine after being fucked up in the studio during the recording of our last album "Greed", took on exactly the kind of life I envisaged from the writing stage thanks to Mr Baxter's playing and vision. It then took an unexpected turn which made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up when Kenny & Gordon introduced a "Watcher Of The Skies" type Morse Code rhythm pattern into it - WOW! Just stunning! When complete, this track will be amazing! We then parked this and moved onto a piece Mike had brought, dating back to the 1986 Identity Crisis days. Fantastic track and I thought "Wait a minute...", dug through my lyrics from my embryonic solo album "The Girl With The Red Umbrella" and found that the lyrics for "The Source" married beautifully with Mike's music.

Moving forward I can't wait for the next session with this group of guys as it's really quite special! Although there's a historical influence running between the members, this hopefully will be something new, powerful and well worth hearing!