Well, that was quite a summer! We played some wonderful festivals finishing up at the excellent Nene Valley Rock Festival last Sunday via a wonderful night at the Stables on the Saturday. Amazing to see nearly 400 of you there!.. and icing on the cake to have Steve Rothery and Steven Wilson join us for the evening!
It’s been great to catch up with many of you along the way and we’re already looking forward to the final show of the year at Trading Boundaries on November 1st. Tickets here if you'd like to join us.
Return To Cropredy
As you may already know, we’ve recently begun a new chapter working with the US boutique label, Progrock.com Essentials, and I’ve been busy preparing all the material for our first release together. This will be the Blu-ray/CD version of Return To Cropredy... but more on that later.
Meanwhile, we’re celebrating the release of a fabulous limited edition 250 copy gold coloured double LP courtesy of Richard Swan through his label, Wild Thyme Records. Richard’s ensured this is a beautifully presented record and I’m thrilled with the result. Huge thanks to Richard and the 130+ people who supported the release by pre-ordering. Your copies may already have started to arrive and I hope you’ll be as happy with it as we are.
Here's what PROG MAG's Gary McKenzie had to say...
There’s around 100 copies of the Return To Cropredy vinyl left so if you’d like one please order from Fairsound via this link. Once that stock is exhausted we’ll make further copies available via our website and, of course, at future shows.
So back to the Blu-Ray/CD, which will also be available as a fancy looking flash drive for anyone who’d like the contents digitally.
The package includes the complete Cropredy Concert Film, a brilliant new Shaun Blake documentary, ‘New Light’, featuring the band + Clive Bunker, Gregory Spawton, Jerry Ewing and Steven Wilson, along with extras including the complete interviews with Greg and Steven plus the live album both on CD and as 24bit audio.
Our good friend Shaun Blake, who heads up top animation company Studio 43, has already worked closely with the band as the creator of both the Sia and Light Up album covers. Last year he expressed an interest in making a Solstice documentary aimed at introducing new people to the history, background and current line up and, of course I was delighted, but knew it would be a massive task... and Shaun wasn't the first to attempt it.
Well he launched into it and what a job he's done! After a year of filming interviews and the epic task of editing them all together into a cohesive story, Shaun has produced something really exceptional. I’m blown away to be honest. The production values are second to none and the way he’s worked through hours of footage and crosscut between talking heads to make the story flow is just brilliant!
New Studio Album
Throughout the year we've managed to road test virtually all the music for the next album and in August recording started in earnest. Myself and Pete spent four days in the studio with engineer Ben Maxwell and came out the other end with drums laid down for the whole thing. Pete totally smashed it!! Legend!
Over the next couple of months we'll be busy getting all the parts down and the album mixed and mastered by the end of the year. The plan is to release in March and play a run of shows in April so please watch this space.Trading Boundaries next and then our first show of 2025 will be March 9th at the amazing Fusion 6 Festival in Stourport, but before all that...
On October 17th Ebony Buckle will be launching her fabulous new album "Hearts Get Started" at The Camden Club, London supported by none other than my younger son's band OCULAR.
Definitely one to catch and really hope to see you there!
Tickets and Info https://events.talentbanq.com/events/talentbanq/1288893
Here's Ebony's latest video to get you in the mood.
Ok, I'll leave you with some photos from this year's shows courtesy Howard Rankin, Ayush Newatia and many more besides 🙏
From us all... Thank you so much for all your support and hope to see you soon!
Andy X
