Prog Magazine

 

So, more bad news to end the year with. Prog Magazine and it's sister titles, Classic Rock and Metal Hammer are no more! Not because they have not done well, the owners Team Rock have gone under. Prog Mag is actually doing well and in profit, but Team Rock seem to have stretched themselves by foraging into non-publishing arenas. So the magazines have suffered due to mismanagement. This happens all the time. It's the day-to-day workers who suffer. With only a few days till Christmas, many have lost their jobs. Subsequently a crowdfunding page has been set up to help those out of work and already it has raised over £60,000! That shows the level of feeling that readers of these magazines have.

In terms of Prog, I have seen it go from special issues of Classic Rock, to its own full-blown publication. It now has it's own annual awards ceremony and really has helped bring progressive music back into the mainstream and more importantly provided a platform for new bands and artists to show that prog is relevant as a musical force today. I am sure it will be back in some form soon. For now, go to the link below for the crowdfunding page and show your support by giving what you can.

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/ukrockcommunity

 

 

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Greg Lake 1947 - 2016

So, we end 2016 as it began and now only a third of my first musical love affair at the age of 12, ELP exists. Greg Lake was the voice of ELP and that first groundbreaking King Crimson album. To many he will also be the bloke who had that hit back in the 70's with that "I Believe in Father Christmas" song. Going by the coverage of his death in the general media, his stature was bigger than Keith Emerson's. He even got mentioned on the ITV main 6 o'clock news! I never thought I would hear the name King Crimson on the news.

Greg had a beautifully pure, choirboy-like voice and not only a wonderful bassist but prodigous on acoustic and electric guitar. Just listen to his classical guitar playing on "The Sage" or his wah-wah guitar on "Still You Turn Me On" which gives this ballad such an unusual edge.

It's still strange to consider that his first major vocal performance was so distorted on 21st Century Schizoid Man", belying his beautiful baritone which would become such a distinctive feature of English progressive rock. But it was clear that Lake's ambitions and abilities could not be contained within King Crimson, which had huge musical personalities like Robert Fripp and Ian McDonald to contend with. Teaming up with Keith Emerson seemed like a natural progression and with Carl Palmer on board, the trio produced an amazing body of work in the remarkably short period between 1970 and 1973. Though they carried on for a number of years after the peak that was "Brain Salad Surgery", the glory days were the early 70's. Like Emerson, Lake couldn't produce a solo career to match the chemistry that the trio realised. But I think Lake looked on those halcyon days with pride and gratitude that he was involved in making such remarkable music. I remember reading an article in the 70's monthly music magazine Music Scene back in the day, where Lake interviewed around the Get Me a Ladder tour hoped that people would still be listening to ELP music in 40 or 50 years time. Well, they are and Greg Lake was such an important part of that exciting time and will be remembered by me and countless others forever!

 

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Best of 2016 Volume 2

The second in my end of year, favourite tracks, mini-disc compilations. This one sees emphasis placed on what prog does best, the long form epic.

1. Anderson/Stolt - Invention of Knowledge. Surely, this was one of the most anticipated releases of the year. In reality it was good, but overall it was quite tentative and hopefully further collaborative work will see the duo let loose and really go for it!

2. Holon - Time to Go. The second from this wonderful album and another featuring Rhys Marsh on vocals.

3. The Breath - This Dance is Over. Ok, not an epic but the extraordinary vocals of Rioghnach Connolly deserve to be featured in anyone's best of.

4. Karmakanic - God the universe and everything else no one really cares about. An epic, significant song about being insignificant! Jonas Reingold's band have produced their best album and this 23 minute track is the centrepiece and doesn't waste a second!

5. Dream Theater - A New Beginning. The longest track on the bands, lengthy concept album with a great solo by John Petrucci.

6. Pineapple Thief - The Final Thing. Another longest album track, allowing the song to go through some beautifully fluid changes.

 

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Best of the Year 2016 Volume 1

 

I am getting a bit ahead of myself. It's only November, but lots going on in December so I thought I would get this out of the way now while I have the chance. Like last year I have compiled my favourite tracks onto two 80 minute mini-discs. So here is volume 1.

1. Big Big Train - Folklore. The catchy-as-hell title track from the bands latest. After the mighty English Electric double album, could they top that? They did indeed! More folky, but they are on such a peak of songwriting and arranging, the whole album is top notch.

2. Holon - The Times they are A-Taming. My album of the year. The whole album is so strong, but this features the voice of Rhys Marsh who I admire very much.

3. Grumbling Fur - Strange the Friends. The first track from Furfour. I do love Daniel O'Sullivan's work and this and many others on this great album imbody the spirit of early Eno so much.

4. Pineapple Thief - In Exile. From the fantastic Your Wilderness album. Pineapple Thief have always been a great band, but after Bruce Soords superb solo album of last year, the momentum continues here. Also boasts the best album cover of the year. Carl Glover's found photos are so haunting and fit the mood of the album to a tee!

5. Steven Wilson - Don't Hate Me. All the touring has meant that SW only managed a mini album this year. This re-working of the Porcupine Tree track was a particular highlight with fantastic sax by Theo Travis.

6. Contact - Sensorium. Superb synth rock from Zombi's A E Paterra, very much in the style of Vangelis, circa the Blade Runner end credits.

7. Black Mountain - Space to Bakersfield. The Canadian psychedelic rock band's fourth album ends with this beautifully serene slice of floating, elegiac wistfulness. Driven by languid guitar, which owes as much to Vini Reilly as Dave Gilmour. It feels as if it should go on forever!

8. Grumbling Fur - Milky Light. Doing Eno better than Eno and featuring John Cale like viola, just to add to the Enoness!

9. Opeth - Will O The Wisp. One of the more laid back numbers from their Sorceress album. Very Tull like indeed!

10. Glass Hammer - Eucastrophe. This US band have always produced very fine retro prog, but this years Valkyrie is especially good. The coupling of this track and the following Rapturo, produces the same big, emotional impact which Afterglow achieved on Genesis's Wind and Wuthering.

11. Glass Hammer - Rapturo. See above.

12. Big Big Train - Salisbury Giant. Another prime example of Big Big Train's evocation of pastoral England.

13. Syd Arthur - Coal Mine. So-called Canterbury type band's third album, sees them producing an assured collection of succinct, catchy songs.

Next, volume 2 which includes the epics of the year!

 

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Yes - Tales from Topographic Oceans, Steven Wilson Remix

 

Well, here we are at last! This nearly never happened. After the last Yes Steven Wilson remix, the news was that was to be the last. SW had been working on a remix of TFTO, but the decision was made to put it on ice for now. That left a big gap in the Yes remix series which upset fans so much as they really wanted to hear what SW could do with this album. But after much lobbying by fans in various forums, the project was completed and here we have it.

Word is the surround is pretty good, but I can personally say I love the stereo mix very much indeed. I always felt the original mix lacked dynamics and buried Squire's bass way too much. Wilson's remix has really opened up the instrumental detail and highlights the intricacies, dexterity and punch in Squire's bass playing at last. You can really hear all the metal bashing going on in The Ancient and I am particularly pleased that Howe's guitar figure at the end of The Revealing Science of God is brought to the fore, adding real impact to the end of the piece.

As usual there are lots of extras spread over the 3 CD's and Blu-ray Disc. All packaged in the customery min-vinyl sleeves. However, I feel for this release something extra special should have been done, as the CD format does not do Roger Deans spectacular artwork any favours at all. For one thing you cannot read the original album notes and lyrics at all! Maybe a super deluxe box set could have been produced, including the vinyl edition with the discs and a large format booklet. I really feel with TFTO especially, that only the 12 x 12 format does justice to the artwork which is such an integral part of this album. However, I am griping as the work that has gone into the sonics is quite spectacular and I am just glad this has been released at all!

It may be the last in the series of SW remixes, but from The Yes Album up to Relayer, we have a wonderful set of remixes, which give us such a complete insight into how original and inspired these recordings are.

 

 

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ELP - Brain Salad Surgery BMG Vinyl Edition

I have been buying a lot of vinyl recently! Why? Is this a retrograde step back in time? Has the compact disc failed? Non of the above. For some the resurgence of vinyl is a fashion thing. The latest item to have around your pad. Not to listen to, but to admire. The hipsters may have boosted the popularity for all things vinyl, but not for me. The current vogue for vinyl has piqued my interest in my ignored boxes of vinyl pushed into the garage and attic. The result of resurrecting my collection of vinyl has been threefold: a great emotional rush at re-engaging with records from my youth, at how good some of it sounds and how much I have lost over the years and having not got a clue where it all is! I suppose, just be glad I have what I have!

We can have debates about the merits of CD versus vinyl (hello Mr CBQ) but there is something about the tactile and emotional connection to a vinyl record that to be truthful CD has never really achieved. I know this is a pure nostalgia thing going back to my youth, but when I put on a record that I may not have touched or even heard in maybe 20 years, wow does that send an emotional jolt that takes me right back to memories when I first had these records.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand and Brain Salad Surgery by ELP. My, how many times has this been released over the years! Now the catalogue is with BMG and they have released CD as well as vinyl editions. So I have taken the opportunity to own this on vinyl for the first time. It is my favourite ELP album and did buy it when it was released. But, back in 1973 we were a household that did not have a record player. That was not introduced till 1975. I just had a crappy little plastic cassette player. So my listening was purely tape and mono at that! It's a pleasure to have this now on vinyl in all it's die-cut, gatefold glory. This was ELP at the height of their popularity, even the NME celebrated them by releasing excerpts of the album in a free flexi single. How things would change in a few years.

This new issue is taken from the latest remasters by Andy Pearce and Matt Wortham and sounds the best I have heard it. But it's the overall experience of the great package design, which can only be done justice in the vinyl format that makes Brain Salad Surgery one of progs golden greats.

 

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John Foxx - The Complete Cathedral Oceans Vinyl Box Set

The re-establishment of vinyl as a viable recording medium continues unabated. The whole analogue versus digital debate is not for here, but you cannot deny that to look at and hold something as beautiful as this 5 disc set of John Foxx's ambient series of recordings in large format is the best way to appreciate the artwork. Foxx's sumptuous photographs really come alive within the pages of this book styled package, with each of the records slipped into their own sleeves, all held within the spine of the book. It is a thing of beauty indeed, but practically it's not the easiest thing to handle. Getting the records in and out of their sleeves without touching the vinyl surface is a bit tricky. I found the best solution was to transfer each record into an anti-static sleeve, which can then be placed back into the book sections. Then to remove the record, it's just a matter of pulling out the anti-static sleeve with disc. See below for outcome!

The next point is, does ambient based music belong on vinyl? By it's very nature, ambient music is quiet and hence all the potential crackles and pops inherent in vinyl are more discernible. To an extent I agree, but the reproduction here of John Foxx's multilayered choral vocals and sweeping, mournful synths is expansive, deep and warm as I suppose only analogue can realise. Unlike Foxx's other music such as "Metamatic" which is urban, industrial, cold and artificial, the music here is pastoral, human and very English; the soundtrack to overgrown gardens on a summers evening, musically statuesque and refined and not really ambient at all. It deserves to be heard at volume, in order to completely fill the room with the washes of almost hymn like joy.

So, this set is indeed a thing of visual and aural beauty without a doubt. The packaging may be a bit impractical, but it's heartening to see art take precedence over the practicalities.

 

 

 

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Grumbling Fur - Furfour

Fourth album from the duo of Alexander Tucker and Daniel O'Sullivan, hence the title. My relationship with the group is via O'Sullivan whose name I know from the likes of Guapo, Ulver, Miracle (with Zombi's Steve Moore) and Mothlite, whose last album on Kscope was quite excellent.

Grumbling Fur have that experimental feel about them, but at the heart is a keen pop sensibility. Think of some of Brian Eno's songs, at once naive, but also strange and beguiling. Even O'Sullivans multilayered voice brings to mind Eno's. Also coming to mind is Wire's Graham Lewis, whose wonderful He Said project of the 80's also had that mix of skewed pop electronica. Appearing on the album on one track is This Heat's Charles Bullen, giving another indication where this band are situated.

The musical backdrop is lush, dense, with lots of synths and processed percussion. But again, it's the duos deft ability to produce a memorable melody that comes to the fore, making this album so approachable and engaging.

 

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King Crimson - Radical Action Box Set

Following on from the recent Live in Toronto 2CD set comes this epic box set of 3CD's plus blu-ray or plus 2DVD's and blu-ray. Now, that is odd! The standard edition should have been CD and DVD with the deluxe adding the blu-ray or blu-ray on its own. If you have a blu-ray player you ain't gonna play DVD, so why add those with the deluxe edition? They do need to forget about adding DVD plus blu-ray to these sets. It's one or the other!

So, these discs showcase the complete playlist of the live Crimson repertoire of 2015. The CD's are based around the best performances which Jakko has selected and the video portion is based around a Japan concert. I admit I haven't viewed that yet, as I have only concentrated on the audio. It does sound great and the performances are top notch. The expanded lineup allows for all the details and nuances of the album versions, like on Larks' Tongues, both parts reproduced here and enhanced upon. For me the highlight is the rather funky rendition of The Talking Drum, that was rather a surprise.

The discs are presented as more of a live in the studio performance as all audience participation has been removed. Fripp's idea for this lineup is more of a performance unit, rather than studio vehicle, so I can see his thinking here. There are new pieces presented here, which are all typical Crimson fare. Radical Action, Meltdown and Suitable Grounds for the Blues sit well with the classic pieces. It's all good stuff and there is plenty here to enjoy. It's good to see that for the recent tour, they have expanded the playlist with material from Lizard, a personal favourite. I was also playing Industry, from Three of a Perfect Pair the other day and it struck me that this would be ideal for this lineup. Lots of percussion work going on and the denounement of the piece would really come alive, rearranged with Mel Collins on sax. So there is plenty for this band to get their teeth into in the future.

The packaging is as expected, top notch. All discs are housed in two separate digipaks, together with a 36 page booklet all of which fit neatly into a slipcase. Of course that is not all the Crimson for this year. We have the SW remixes of Beat and Three of a Perfect Pair plus the 80's box set which includes those plus Discipline and related studio and live material. There will also be the 2016 Tourbox, which follows the previous two boxes in design and should contain lots of interesting stuff. So lots for the KC buff to look forward to!

 

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Holon - The Time is Always Now

 

Let's get straight at this. The debut album by Holon is my favourite of the year so far. So who is Holon? No idea. As far as I can tell its a solo album by Ronny Pedersen. I assume he is Norwegian in origin, as I haven't found too much about him. What drew me to this project was that it's produced by Rhys Marsh, who also sings on a couple of tracks, plays and co-arranges the album. I am a big fan of Rhys Marsh, so I took a punt and went for this album. I am so glad I did. I can see why Rhys was attracted to this as it shares a lot of his sonic sensibilities. Epic 70's prog with psychedelic tones and even a hint of late 60's pop melodic textures with 80's electronica thrown into the mix. It's a heady brew, but its so strong with most tracks over the 7 minute mark, allowing ample room to develop. It just clicked with me from the outset and if you are tapped into Rhys Marsh's ouvre, then this album is a must have. It's essential!

 

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Returning

 

I'm returning to this blog again. It's been months of neglect due to continual hospital visits and nurses administering intravenous antibiotics to the wife who has bone infection. But all that is not for this blog. I have posted some stuff on Instagram and renewed the listening tower as shown above, which included upgrading the vinyl playback unit to a quite nice audio-technics turntable. Accordingly vinyl has taken some prominence, but the number of upcoming CD based box sets is quite astonishing.

Usually around October is the key month for new releases, but this year has seen an unprecedented number of deluxe box sets. We have coming up new boxes by Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, Steve Hillage, King Crimson (the annual box of course), Pink Floyd and Philip Glass. It's all quite mind blowing really. Especially the mammoth 22 disc Hillage set!! I cannot wait for that. Not just for all the unreleased stuff, but a huge 188 page book too. The proofs of that I have seen on facebook make this a must have box set. The Crimson box is based around the 80's era of the band. At last Steven Wilson's remix of Beat and Three of a Perfect Pair gets a release. Also, his remix of Tales from Topographic Oceans is due for release very soon. Oh, I nearly forgot the UK box set. Hopefully the whole sorry saga of that is soon coming to an end and we will at last get that. Back very soon.

 

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King Crimson - Live in Toronto

I have always had a problem with the Live at Orpheum CD/DVD release of last year. I just found it lacklustre. Not because of the running time, but it just sounded unexciting. I think Jakko mixed it way too quiet and that somehow lost some of the dynamics of the recording and also mixed it so tightly that a lot of the detail of what was going on was lost. For instance one of the key percussion elements on the studio version of "One More Red Nightmare" were the handclaps. Those are present on the live version, but mixed so low that they are barely discernible. Also, the concept of three drummers is lost as the tight mixing makes it again difficult to discern one drummer from another. I know what Jakko was trying to achieve here. A polished, produced album in the tradition of something like USA. But whereas Fripp's mixing decisions for that album resulted in powerful versions of tracks like "Easy Money" and the improv "Asbury Park" in comparison to the raw live mixes which we have heard since, Jakko's mixes don't do the new lineup any favours.

But this new release is the complete set from November last year and mixed by David Singleton, who has a real understanding of live King Crimson recordings as he has been involved in such a capacity since the early 90's. Here he has got the mix levels right. He has stated in his diary from the DGM web site that he tried turning the levels down, but felt it was necessary to keep them as presented here in order to show off the band in full, powerful mode. That decision was right! At last this version of the band is properly showcased, with the whole ethos of having three drummers in the front line fully defined. The complexity, power and precision of each player and how they come together as a performing unit is fully presented here. One drummer and guitarist on the right and another on the left channel with the third drummer in the centre. You can clearly define each players contribution to the arrangements, especially important on something like "Sailor's Tale" where the cymbal opening is played by each player in turn. A nice touch that! Other highlights are a complete "Larks' Tongues in Apsic Part 1" including all the little effects which Jamie Muir added to the studio version, including the laughing toy box at the end. Level 5 and VROOOM are given different slants with Mel Collins additions taking those pieces away from their more polished Belew-era lineup origins. There are hints at some new material too, especially promising on Radical Action and Meltdown.

After the Live at Orpheum set I didn't think this new King Crimson was very exciting or interesting. This new set has completely changed my mind and I can see how this lineup can take material from any era of the band and make it their own and more importantly sound fresh, powerful and purposeful!

 

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Emerson, Lake and Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery SACD

With the news of the death of Keith Emerson I have been revisiting ELP recordings of course. I have heard so many versions of Brain Salad Surgery over the years and own plenty too! Before the catalogue moved to Sony, Universal released a number of deluxe editions which BSS was one back in 2008. It was a mess! From what was actually on the disc to all the errors in the booklet, this looked like a rushed job. The package had 3 discs, one of which I call the "hidden" SACD. Hidden because, apart from the SACD symbol on the discs, nowhere on the packaging or booklet does it mention the third disc is actually a hybrid SACD. The first disc is the original album on CD, remastered by Pachal Byrne. The SACD has that as the CD layer and also the stereo layer of the SACD, so making disc 1 completely redundant! The multichannel layer has the 5.1 mix which was produced for Rhino's 2000 DVD-Audio version of BSS. I have only ever played the SACD on my Sony unit which does not have multichannel capability. So I have only heard the Paschal Byrne stereo remaster. It however just occurred to me that I could play this on my universal player which has SACD stereo and multichannel playback through HDMI into the amp. Though I don't have surround sound my amp should automatically downmix the surround tracks into stereo so I could hear that Rhino mix. I did just that and the results were astounding! Whereas I found the recent Jakko Jakszyk remix very odd and quite radical in some places, this Rhino mix is more akin to the original mix but more detailed, powerful and very exciting indeed. It's a great listen. There are subtle changes, but nothing that jars as much as the recent mix. It's just overall a hugely detailed, clear, punchy experience. It may be my favourite BSS yet. I just wish I sussed this out earlier. What a twat!

 

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Keith Emerson 1944 - 2016

 

Words simply cannot express the importance of Keith Emerson on my life. I was 11 years old, back in 1972 around a friends parents house. His big brother had on a record and I heard all these strange noises coming from the speakers, things I had never heard before. The album sleeve had these strange blank framed paintings hung on a wall. That was The Old Castle and the album was Pictures at an Exhibition. That was the start of a musical journey that has lasted to this day. But it was Emersons glorious Moog playing that set it all off and has made music the single most pleasure in my life. Made it more important than food or water. Music is ingrained into my soul and it's all thanks to the music of ELP. But especially thanks to Keith Emerson. He has been with me all those years and now he is gone!

 

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Andy Jackson - 73 Days at Sea

 

This is Andy's second album for Esoteric and follows on from a similar stylistic viewpoint which "Signal to Noise" hinted at. There is an obvious Pink Floyd feel here, not surprising giving his connection with that band and David Gilmour as engineer and producer. However, I think on this latest album he is making strides to develop his own particular, individual sound. The songs are all connected by a singular concept of water and that gives the overall album a cohesion, with Andy's lush production and loose, languid guitar playing evoking a singular, dreamy, hazy voyage throughout. I am reminded of Robert Wyatt's "Rock Bottom" which similarly evoked a dreamy, aquatic soundscape. The unhurried nature of the album enables the melodies to slowly evolve and a few listens are required for the songs to truly give up their riches. It's great to hear the unmistakeable sqawling sax of ex-VdGG David Jackson (no relation) on the epic Drownings, adding another sonic element to the proceedings.

This is an unusual, but impressive album. It sounds great as expected, not only on the CD but especially the hi-res stereo on the accompanying DVD which also has a surround mix which I am sure makes for an even more immersive, watery experience!

 

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Daevid Allen Weird Quartet - Elevenses

Poor showing of postings due to weeks of feeling shit due to illness. Nearly fighting fit again! Anyway, here we have the final recordings by Daevid Allen before his flying off in the celestial teapot! It's a great selection of all that was great about Allen throughout his career from Soft Machine, through to Gong and beyond. I don't know the other musicians apart from Paul Sears who was a member of the magnificent US Canterbury styled outfit The Muffins. This collection has that whimsical, yet instrumentally complex structure which characterised the best of the Canterbury bands. There is even a hint of early Pere Ubu in the wonky synths and playfulness. That Allen was very ill when this was made is remarkable. His voice is in fine form and his guitar playing even better. For me, along with Sid Barrett I have always felt that Allen was one of the great guitar experimenters of the late 60's. His trademark glissando guitar is here, sounding as cosmic as always, but his guitar playing is aggressive, fierce, edgy, belying his years or health. Of course this is a quartet and the other musicians are excellent throughout, but it's Allen's presence which takes this to a magical level.

This is a superb collection of songs and instrumentals and is a fine, final testament to the wonderful, individual genius that was Daevid Allen.

 

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Steven Wilson - 4.5 (decimal version)

Early year release for Steven Wilson's stop-gap mini album. Though at 37 minutes, this would count as a fully fledged album in the old analogue days. What we have is some odds and sods from his last few studio recordings which didn't fit the bill as they tend to say. The opening track "My Book of Regrets" has a distinctly XTC flavour to my ears. Wilson's vocals even take on a Colin Moulding accent! The other tracks are a mix of instrumental pieces, which are slight but effective none the less, especially "Vermillioncore" which hints at a more riffing, metallic direction perhaps. The final track is a remodel of Porcupine Trees "Don't Hate Me". Here is it has been given a splendid facelift, with chorus vocals by Ninet Tayeb, great Fender Rhodes playing by Adam Holzman, a blow-out sax solo by Theo Travis, all ending with a beautifully elegiac guitar solo by Wilson himself. Nice to see him play solo again! The whole thing sounds sumptuous on the blu-ray hi-res, though I would have liked the CD and blu-ray packaged together and why not include the blu-ray bonus Lazarus (2015) on the CD? That's a bit mean! But all in all this will do for now quite nicely!

 

 

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David Bowie 1947 - 2016

 

This was the plan. First album of the year and first review. New Bowie album and it was a good one. Very good in fact! Received CD on Friday and played it over the weekend. Radio alarm goes off Monday morning, I am still half awake. I sort of wake up to the sort of memory that the radio presenter mentioned that David Bowie had died. Just a horrible dream. He only has a new album released a few days before and birthday. But my goodness it's true! Totally shocked. It's all over TV, twitter, facebook. Everyone mentions their disbelief at the news, such was the magnitude of his reputation. Even my wife's nurse mention this and people who normally don't talk about music mention it.

So a day has passed and it's still hard to believe. That he, his family, friends and associates kept the news of his illness quiet is staggering in this day of easy access social media. The new album and accompanying videos have taken on new significance in the knowledge that he knew his time was limited. We can now see different meaning to it all.

His death means that we all head to his catalogue to remind us of his songs. I am then reminded at what a legacy. He covered so much ground and even now there is so much there in those recordings that is still fresh and innovative. My period was from Low to Scary Monsters. After that I dabbled in and out. Loved Heathen and Blackstar promised to be a firm favourite.

Other people will say more about him and more eloquently than I can. But it all comes down to the fact we will never see the like of him again!

 

 

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