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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

Dear friends

I hope this finds you well and thanks for opening our latest newsletter.

It's been another busy month with some awesome shows, new videos and, of course, continued writing for the next album.

But here's the big news of the moment... our new live album!

Return To Cropredy

Double LP on 180 gram coloured vinyl.

We're delighted to announce our campaign for this strictly limited double vinyl release via Richard Swan's label, Wild Thyme Records.

This is the full set from our Cropredy 2023 appearance and records the extraordinary experience of playing to 20,000 music lovers.

The idea is this: Fairsound (part of Press-On Vinyl) have a model that avoids artists fronting the huge cost of a vinyl release by asking you to pre-order the album. As soon as the order threshold is reached the album goes into production with an estimated delivery to your door in September. So it's a big ask but... should for any reason the run not go ahead, you will be reimbursed in full via your payment method.

In thanks for your support, your Fairsound receipt will include a link to the Return To Cropredy digital download. Just follow the link to access a choice of 24 bit wav, flac or mp3 audio formats and the gatefold sleeve artwork featuring live photos by the inimitable Howard Rankin.

You might want to create an account on Fairsound first, although I didn't, and below is the browser receipt that opens up once you've made your payment . Just click the 'Audio Download' button and you'll go straight through to the files.

The pre-order price is £29.50 (+£4.42 flat rate shipping) and you can relax in the knowledge that Richard will ensure the press and sleeve is of the highest quality. Of course, we’ll be buying copies ourselves for the merch stall but these will certainly have to be at a higher price, so supporting the release does have some small benefit to you... and is hugely helpful to us!

I must warn you though, the album is also planned for release late autumn as part of a Blu-ray/CD package featuring the concert film and the rather splendid Shaun Blake documentary currently in production.

Thanks so much in advance should you choose to support this release!

Find the details and pre-order link here on our Fairsound artist page

Gigs

Just two since the last newsletter but both were wonderful events at The 100 Club and The Soundle Music Festival respectively.

Massive love and thanks to the 225 people who brought 100 Club tickets + our 30 'new to the band' guests! You filled the room with an energy I've not experienced since our Marquee headlines back in the day. Thank you all so much for being there!

Ebony opened the show with a sensational set, this time with Nick Burns (singing and playing pretty much everything) and fab drummer, Laura Williams filling the room with high energy and emotion. Magical!

Particular thanks must go to Chris Parkins at London Prog Gigs for doing a superb job of promoting the show.

The Soundle was another great night with our usually undemonstrative sound engineer, Loz, enthusiastically declaring it our best ever performance!! Funny that because we were in the middle of discussing the cock ups as he bounced up to tell us 😁

Again Bob Cheatham and his team deserve huge recognition and gratitude for running another excellent event that's entirely a labour of love. Where would we be without these guys?

100 Club queue. Pic: Paddy Eason
100 Club live shots: Howard Rankin
Soundle Music Festival  : Pics: Marc Auger

The next gig's a bit special for us and marks 40 years since we played Stonehenge Free Festival, the last before Thatcher instigated Operation Solstice (oh the irony)) and some of the worst scenes of police brutality the country had witnessed. Have a look here if you can stomach it.

But it'll be a very different vibe on June 22nd when both Solstice and Ebony Buckle play Solsticefest at Stonehenge Campsite just a couple of miles from the stones themselves.

Ebony Buckle - 6pm
Solstice - 7.30pm

Info and tickets - https://stonehengefestivals.co.uk/

Here's the rest of the shows for 2024. I would be wonderful to see you if you can make it. The Stables is filling up fast so please do check the link if you fancy joining us.

August 17th ~ A New Day Festival, Mount Ephraim, Faversham, Kent
Tickets/Info

August 26th ~ Towersey Festival, Claydon Estate, Buckingham
Tickets/Info

September 7th ~ The Stables, Milton Keynes with Ebony Buckle
Tickets/Info

September 8th ~ Nene Valley Rock Festival, Peterborough
Tickets/Info

November 1st ~ Trading Boundaries, Fletching, East Sussex with Ebony
Tickets/Info

Videos

Here we are at MK11, Milton Keynes, having fun in seven. No title as yet for this one that may, or may not, make the next album. As always, suggestions welcome 😁

And another new track, this time with a (sort of) title and also from our MK11 show.

It's all very niche but for anyone who dares paying a visit to 'Andy's Guitar Corner', the latest requests were for the chords to A New Day and Bulbul Tarang.... ssshh 😁

Ebony Buckle

For fans of our wonderful harmony singer, Ebony Buckle, it's an exciting time with a brilliant new album on the way produced by Nick Burns (I know, I've heard it!). 'Hearts Get Started' releases on October 4th with a launch show at The Camden Club on October 17th.

In the run up to the album Ebony will release four singles the first of which, Fall Behind, arrives on July 5th so look out for that. She also has some great shows coming up including several opening for Solstice so please check out out gig list here for details.

Ok, that's about it for now so thank you so much for your support and we very much hope to catch you at a show. Failing that there's plenty of live material online and, of course, there's that double live vinyl from Cropredy.

Love and thanks from us all
Andy X

Soundle pic: Graham Harris

Good morning and a very happy, if belated, 2024 to you!

Blimey, what happened to January? Well quite a lot happened in it, so I thought it high time for a quick update.

Dear friends

I hope this finds you well as the days start to draw out.

We're full of optimism for 2024 and there's all sorts of positive things happening behind the scenes but, for now, we just can't wait to get out on the road again! We have two weekends of rehearsals (yes we all have day jobs 😁) and then it's off to the Netherlands to play the Boerderij.