Festival preview
HRH Prog 3
www.hrhprog.com
19th - 22nd March, North Wales
T
his year the event (to be held from 19
to 22 March at Camp HRH in Pwllheli,
North Wales) will run alongside the Scifi Weekender - so visitors should be prepared
for strange visions, costumed monsters of
many other mysterious off-world shenanigans.
Headlining the weekend will be the seasoned entertainer Rick Wakeman. He’s been
our favourite composer, ivory tinkler and
all-round prog champion for over 40 years.
Moreover, his skilfully adept cape-wearing
should endear him to the Sci-fi crowd.
Rick’s big solo success came with “The Six
Wives of Henry VIII” back in 1973. But we will
always have a special place in our hearts for
him - due to his amazing keyboard contributions to Bowie’s most famous songs. Would
“Life on Mars?” be even half as good without
the Wakeman piano?
Rick worked on six studio albums with YES
man and Papist” taken
from The Strawbs ‘Witchwood’ album [1971]
to get an idea of how
Papa Wakeman enriched their sound back
then.
Other highly anticipated heroes of the
prog rock universe will
include Magenta with
their amazing vocalist
Christina Booth, The
Enid (currently on their
Bridge tour) and those
wise folksters Steeleye
Span - who released
a stunning conceptual
album titled ‘Winter-
and he is included (by fans and historians)
as an integral player in their ‘classic line up’.
Of course, before his YES years, the Grumpy
Old Man of Prog played with the Strawbs
(curiously, their current line-up boasts Rick’s
own younger son, Adam.) We thoroughly
recommend you try out the song “The Hang-
smith’ in 2013.
We are also excited about some new names.
These include the mysterious Osiris Club,
new-wavers Kitten Pyramid and the psychedelic heavy-hitters Landskap.
metal, as MUSE put on an incredible headline
show. They proved this at Reading and Leeds
2011. Even if you have not listened to much
of their stuff, they are one of those bands that
play songs you didn’t even realise you knew.
Download has always been good at putting
on a range of modern and classic acts, this
year’s Sunday night headliner is KISS. Let’s see
if Gene Simmons still thinks that rock music is
dead, standing in front of the mighty Download crow