Damion was in a band project called Vincent Kane,
consisting of Damion (lead vocals), Drew Lowe (guitar, backing
vocals), Colin
Parkinson (Darkroom Project;
bass, backing vocals), Lucas Van Rensburg VIII (drums).
However, the other three are
now in new band Circles
without Damion.
My son just went into the
studio for the first time. He's been writing good songs forever,
but he's never gone in to record correct. He's always in with a
band [...] Now he's figured it out and is doing it right.
Deborah's latest project, due around May 2012, is
"Aroused: The
Lost Sensuality of a Woman" (Twitter), a
feature documentary and photography art book about 16
adult industry performers: Jesse Jane, Belladonna,
Katsuni, Allie Haze, Kayden Kross, April O'Neil, Francesca
Lé, Lisa Ann, Brooklyn Lee, Alexis Texas, Asphyxia
Noir, Teagan Presley, Ash Hollywood, Tanya Tate, Lexi
Belle and Misty Stone.
Her next project is to
shoot a "lost city" in Africa.
In Jan 2012, she shot
actress Gina
Gershon for the cover of Gershon's debut novel.
Silence (Somis
Sound/LILACREATIVE Inc.) was her 10-track debut solo album,
released 2008. It is available in physical form from the Somis
Sound store and digitally (including US and UK iTunes).
The music was largely recorded by Deborah using Apple's
GarageBand software on vocals, percussion, piano, guitar and
synth. The album was co-produced by Deborah and Erik "E-Rok"
Richards (Somis Sound),
who also mixed the album and performs on synths, double and
electric bass, and loops. Deborah and E-Rok also duet on
accordions on "Learn to Love". Mastering and, on "Bitter
Taste", "Good Enough" and "Breathe", additional keys and
programming are by Tyler
Sherman. There was an accompanying coffee table book,
"Paperthin"
(Verlhac,
first print limited edition of 1000 copies, with copy of CD
included). The book consists of Deborah's black and white
photography based on 1930s erotica, with models including Minnie Driver
(Deborah previously did photography work for Driver's solo
album Seastories),
Fergie, P!nk, Natasha
Henstridge, Tilda Swinton, Sophie Dahl and sister Jade. Dahl also wrote a short
article on female sensuality for the book. The book's images
are accompanied by lyrics from the album, while a
digibooklet with selected photos is available with the
purchase of the album from iTunes. The basis for "Paperthin"
was Deborah's first photographic exhibition, "Hollywood
Erotique", in 2004 in Los Angeles, CA.
Deborah has also been doing other photographic work,
including continuing to work with P!nk (she shot the album
cover for Funhouse and further work). She is Art
Director for the Gansevoort Hotel Group and has set up
LILACREATIVE Inc. to cover her creative output. In
mid-2010, she signed to PR and branding company The Burgett Group.
Jade has been finishing her second solo album in Los Angeles;
this was expected 2010, but has yet to appear. She can be heard
singing "Stars" on a promotional video for a calendar she
co-produced with sister Deborah. In May
2011, she uploaded a set of video
performances to YouTube.
She had been writing material with Future Cut (Darren
Lewis and Tunde Babalola; worked with Lily Allen,
Natasha Beddingfield, Kelis), Paul Statham
(worked with Shelly Poole, Sophie Ellis-Bextor) and
others. One of Jade's song with Statham, "Chasing Butterflies",
was to be heard on streaming audio on her MySpace page.
Also available there were demos entitled "How Many Days",
"'Life'", "Give It Up" and "Love Without Gold". A 2007 demo
entitled "Tell Me" is now there. At the end of 2007, she began
working with Leo Z (MySpace page; Leonardo
De Bernadini; worked with Josh Groban, Andrea Bocelli)
on an album. (I am unclear whether this will build on the earlier
work with Statham and Future Cut or is a fresh start.) Her MySpace
page reported that she is also writing material for other artists.
The MySpace page has featured "On the Run", "Your Name", "Tell
Me", "Laughing", "Before It Starts Again...", "Life", "Come and
Get Me...", "Love Without Gold", "Love" and "Time...".
On 27 Apr 2011, Jade tweeted about singing in the studio with Snow Patrol, seemingly as
part of sessions for their new album.
Jade also works as an actress and model. She has a new
documentary project entitled "The Divine9 Project".
Jeff Berlin - bass on An Evening of
Yes Music Plus. Homepage
Berlin has released a new album, High Standards, on his own MAJ Records label with
himself (electric bass), Richard Drexler (Woody
Herman Orchestra; piano, upright bass) and Danny
Gottlieb (Pat Metheny; drums). In Sep/Oct 2011,
Berlin is touring the US in a trio with Scott Henderson (Tribal
Tech, ex-Joe Zawinul, ex-Chick Corea's Elektric Band; guitar)
and Mike Clark
(ex-Herbie Hancock, ex-Wayne Shorter; drums). The
tour is booked by Leonardo Pavkovic and PR is by Billy James.
Tom Brislin - keys on Yessymphonic
tour. On Twitter
Brislin remains a keyboardist, singer and songwriter with his own
band Spiraling, with Paul
Wells (drums), Marty O'Kane (guitar), Bob Hart (bass).
Brislin played a solo show on 15 Jul 2011 in Nashville, TN, to
include material from his next CD, Hurry Up and Smell the Roses, as well as older
material and covers. Brislin joined the opening act Kurt Michaels, who
performed material from his new album, Soaring Back to Earth, on two tracks of which
Brislin guests—see details under Billy
Sherwood, who also guests. He is now working on his debut
solo album and has
sought fan investment for the project.
Al drums in The Infadels
(MySpace page),
along side Bnann Watts (vocals), Matt Gooderson (guitar,
electronics), Wag Marshall-Page (bass) and Richie Vermin
(electronic, percussion). The band play live regularly.
The band's second album, Universe
in Reverse, is out and was produced by Martin "Youth" Glover
(Killing Joke,
Transmission, ex-System 7).
Nina runs her training company, Nina's
People Limited. She is working on her autobiography, saying
in
Jun
2007 that, "I've written three chapters and am looking for
a publisher."
Matt Clifford -
additional keys on ABWH
Clifford continues to work with the Rolling Stones.
Julian Colbeck - additional keys live
with ABWH
Colbeck played with the group Charlie in the late
1970s. A partial reunion of the band under Terry Thomas, with
Colbeck and Martin Smith (slide guitar) has produced the new album
Kitchens of Distinction
(Voiceprint), released 2009.
Voiceprint have re-released Back to Bach (VP522CD)
by Julian Colbeck with Jonathan Cohen (originally released in
1992). The album features re-workings of Bach's fugues, while
guests guitarist Steve Hackett (working with Chris Squire, ex-Genesis, ex-GTR),
Milton McDonald (worked with ABWH,
The Spice Girls), John Keeble (Spandau Ballet),
Mary Hopkin and Brian Keenan.
Dean has continued to do cover art for Yes
(including In the Present, Live from Lyon) and Asia (including a forthcoming 30th anniversary re-release of Asia and the band's next studio album, XXX). He is offering a limited edition
of 36 Roger Dean Collectors Edition copies of Fly from Here, consisting of the usual deluxe
box set plus a limited edition 12"x12" signed and numbered
etching of the new Yes dragon logo (only available with this
Collectors Edition) and a unique, signed and numbered
watercolour and ink painting for each copy. These are only
available through the San
Francisco Art Exchange, who also sell some of Dean's work.
He continues to work on his film project, "Floating Islands"—details on main page. Dean is
designing landscapes based on his art for a virtual reality
project from new company Virtual Space
Entertainment. He describes the project in a Mar
2008
interview for YesFANZ.
In terms of architectural work, in the Mar 2008 interview, Dean
describes plans for 3 or 4 houses in Hawaii and for other
projects, including possibly a hotel.
Dunnery's The New Progressives Tour featuring
The Brand New It Bites consisted of UK dates in Oct/Nov 2010. The
New Progressives project will re-record and tour material by
Dunnery's former band It Bites, and more. The core band are
Francis Dunnery (vocals, guitar), Tom
Brislin (Spiraling, ex-The Syn, worked with Yes,
Camel; keys), Brett
Kull (echolyn;
guitar, engineer, mix), Paul Ramsey (echolyn; drums)
and Jamie Bishop
(bass), i.e. most of the
backing band for The Syn's 2009 live dates.
There's a Whole New World Out
There is a new 2CD album with the same core line-up and
along similar lines, mostly re-recordings of old It Bites ("Kiss
Like Judas", "Old Man & the Angel", "Hunting the Whale",
"Underneath Your Pillow", "Sister Sarah", "Yellow Christian",
"Murder of Planet Earth") and Dunnery solo material, but also
including a cover of Genesis' "Back in NYC". John Mitchell (It Bites, Kino, Frost*, Arena, ex-John
Wetton, ex-iCon; guitar), Theo Travis (Soft
Machine Legacy, The
Tangent, Travis & Fripp, ex-Gong, ex-Porcupine Tree; sax)
and Simon Rogers (Also Eden) guest.
Now out is Prayer Cycle: Path to Zero
(PR page), released by
Across the Universe Records (audio
sample here). This 7-track, "classically-influenced" album
was written and produced by Elias. Nearly 5 years in the making, Path to Zero is a sequel to
1999's The
Prayer Cycle and also a benefit album, with all
proceeds to anti-nuclear weapons organisation Global Zero. Tracks:
"Atomic Mother", with Sting,
Trudie Styler (Sting's wife; vocals), Rahat
Fateh Ali Khan (vocals)
"Many Suns", with Alex Ebert (Ima Robot, Edward
Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros; vocals), Lilli Elias (Jonathan's
daughter; vocals)
"Devotion", with Jon Anderson (worked
with Elias on Elias's Requiem
for the Americas, Yes's Union and Robert Downey Jr.'s The Futurist; vocals), Richard Bona (vocals),
Rahat Fateh Ali Khan (vocals), Dadawa; in Sep
2010, Anderson uploaded an extract of this piece as "Born Again"
to his Facebook
page
"Path to Zero"—an archival recording of a poem ("Moonshine
Night") by Jim Morrison (The Doors), with new
music; with actor Robert Downey Jr., Joanne Shenandoah (vocals),
Sinéad O'Connor
and Serj Tankian (System of a Down); although
previously bootlegged, the Morrison recording has never been
officially released
Q:
What
exactly
went wrong on the Yes-album Union that you produced in 1991?
[...]
A: I didn’t realize how dark the baggage was within that band
and how much they hated each other... I knew they had broken
up many times and shuffled members in and out, I didn’t
realize the reason that that happened was because of their
egos and personal feelings for each other. I honestly believe
I was the central focus of hatred for Rick Wakeman and Steve
Howe, who couldn’t stand each other. Even though Jon Anderson
was the co-producer of the record, and was constantly urging
me to work with other players, which we subsequently did, he
took none of the heat because they were so scared of him. I
also urged Rick to play a Hammond and not his cheezy midi
synthesizers. He didn’t realize the best work they had done
was done 20 years earlier. [...] I also find it interesting
that 20 years later that Jon is on my new Prayer Cycle follow
up record and has nothing to do with the band anymore. I think
that speaks volumes.
Elias is also working on an album with Yungchen Lhamo.
Elias runs Elias
Arts with his brother Scott and Alex
Lasarenko, supplying music for film and television. The
company also employs Michael Sherwood and
Jimmy
Haun, among others. Haun and Elias were working with singer Lindsey Haun (MySpace page;
Jimmy's daughter). Elias continues to do music for various adverts
and has also scored the forthcoming film "Son of No One", directed
by Dito Montiel. David Foster -
additional guitar on Time and a Word. Official
website
Bruce Gowdy -
guitar with a Yes of Squire/Sherwood/White/Kaye before Union.
MySpace page
The four original members of Unruly Child—Gowdy
(guitar), Guy Allison (ex-World Trade; keys), Jay Schellen (GPS, ex-CIRCA:, ex-Asia, ex-Conspiracy, ex-World Trade, ex-Peter Banks; drums,
percussion), Marcie
Michelle (formerly Mark) Free (ex-King Kobra;
vocals)—have re-united to record a new album, Worlds Collide (Frontiers Records), due 15 Oct
in Europe and 26 Oct in the US. Larry Antonio (MySpace page;
worked with Air Supply, Ambrosia, Ricky Martin) is on
bass. The album was reportedly to be written by
Gowdy/Allison/Free. Cover by Hugh Syme (worked with Rush,
Whitesnake). Tracks: "Show Me the Money", "Insane",
"When We were Young", "Tell Another Lie", "Love is Blind", "When
Worlds Collide", "Talk to Me", "Life Death", "Read My Mind",
"Neverland", "Very First Time", "You Don't Understand". The band
are considering touring in support, probably summer 2011. A video for
"Very First Time" is available.
The band has material in
preparation for a follow-up album, but are focusing first on a
re-mixed and expanded version of Free's 1996 solo album, Tormented, with bonus tracks and new
material. They are also seeking rights to their first album in
order to re-release it.
Gowdy continues
to work with Mercedes.
He produced her debut album Rock-n-Soul Blvd. Gowdy also produced The Day the World
Awoke by Marcus Eaton and The Lobby. Gowdy continues to
work as a producer and songwriter for albums and TV/film.
A recent score was for the re-make of the thriller
"Straw Dogs", out 16 Sep in the US. The film was directed,
produced and written by Rod Lurie and is a remake of Sam
Peckinpah's 1971 film, which in turn was based on the Gordon
Williams novel "The Siege of Trencher's Farm". A score album
is released in the US on 13 Sep. Groupé previously
did scores for Lurie's films "Deterrence" and "The
Contender".
Groupé recently won the 2011 Emmy for Best Original
Score - Short Subject Film for "Residue", a documentary
about US involvement in Cambodia, directed by Jared Davis.
He also did the score to "Hold at
All Costs", a TV documentary about the Korean War for
PBS.
Haun was involved in a serious road traffic accident in early Jan
2011. However, he is now recovering well. In Jul 2011, he said on
Facebook: "Just an update. I'm doing so much better. Physical
therapy has been a long road but a success and I can finally play
again."
Haun was formerly in CIRCA:, with
Billy Sherwood, Tony Kaye and Jay Schellen—see here for details. Haun, Sherwood
and Kaye also combined forces with Bobby Kimball (ex-Toto)
in Yoso, but Haun then left Yoso
and CIRCA: to concentrate on his commercial work.
Haun recorded some material in the
first incarnation of The Key, with Billy Sherwood, around 1992.
One of their songs, co-written by Haun/Sherwood, is, in a new
version, on Sherwood's next solo
album.
Aaron works as a producer. He has been working with Arrows of
Love, which includes Kid
Harpoon (worked with Trevor Horn) on bass and
grew out of the disbanded Hush the Many (Heed the Few), who had
also been working with Aaron. Other production work includes an EP
for Hungry Man
and a forthcoming EP from The Train
Chronicles. He also been doing remixing with Goldierocks for acts
including The Kooks, Crystal Fighter, Holloways and Ou Est Le
Swimming Pool? (worked with Trevor Horn).
Aaron also DJs regularly in London. Various of his own pieces can
be heard on his website and MySpace page.
Aaron, Daniel Cross (Record-Play music
consultancy) and Jo Maeva set up a record label called TAPE in early 2009, which is
administrated through Stiff
Records (sister label to dad Trevor's ZTT). Their launch event was in
Sep 2009 in London. Aaron is CEO of Mai Plues music publishing
company, which is administed by Unforgettable Songs. Aaron was
interviewed by Zoë Street Howe
(Steve Howe's daughter-in-law) for her new book "How's
Your Dad? Living in the Shadow of a Rock Star Parent"—see here.
Dylan
Howe leads a number of related line-ups. He
has been working with pianist Will
Butterworth (MySpace
page) as Stravinsky Duo
playing arranagements of Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring"
and "The Firebird". In a Nov
2009 article, Butterworth described the shows as "50
per cent scored arrangement and 50 per cent improvisation".
They played in the UK live and their debut album, The Rite of Spring Part 1
(Motorik
Recordings), is out in the US and UK; it can also be
heard through their MySpace
page on streaming audio. Tracks: "Introduction 1",
"Introduction 2", "The Augurs of Spring 1", "The Augurs of
Spring 2", "Mock Abduction 1", "Mock Abduction 2", "Spring
Round Dances", "Games of the Rival Tribes", "Procession of
the Wise Elders", "Dance of the Earth". In the liner notes,
Dylan thanks his parents and Yes; a Jan
2010 article explains, "Howe traces his enthusiasm for
Stravinsky to the time when Yes used Firebird Suite as
an intro tape". A Part 2
covering "The Firebird" has been expected and a DVD covering
a specially filmed performance of "The Rite of Spring" is
due soon. In an interviewc. Jul 2011, Howe
said:
I first heard
Stravinsky at a very young age because the finale of the
Firebird Suite was Yes' intro music and I had wanted to
do something with it at some point. I started playing
with [...] Will Butterworth and we often played duo
together to practice so it felt right to see if we could
adapt The Rite Of Spring and Firebird together.
We spent a year on it using the original orchestra
score, the Two Hands reduction score and Leonard
Bernstein’s 1950's recording as a definitive version. I
really like where we went with it and I think the new
DVD will show how it has evolved even from our recent
2010 recording. We're also working on expanding it with
a quartet or quintet this year so it's quite an organic
thing
The Dylan Howe Qu4rtet—D. Howe (drums), Tim Thornton (double
bass), Ross Stanley (Steve Howe Trio, Brandon Allen Trio,
ex-Jamie Cullum; piano, synths), Brandon Allen (Dylan
Howe & The Subterraneans; tenor sax)—played a
UK
tour
Feb/Mar
2011. The 18 Mar show in Chatham was a quintet with
Steve Fishwick (Steve
Fishwick Quartet; trumpet), Paul Booth (sax) and Tom
Cawley (piano), while the 31 Mar show featured a first set
by the Stravinsky Duo. A live DVD from the tour, a show at Pizza Express
Dean Street in London, is due. Further dates follow Sep
2011-Jan 2012, with a line-up of Howe, Fishwick, Mark
Hodgson (double bass) and Tom Cawley (piano) at a Sep
show, Howe, Stanley, Hodgson and Allen at an Oct show; and
a quintet with Howe, Hodgson, Fishwick, Cawley and Paul
Booth (tenor sax) in Jan.
In the aforementioned 2011 interview,
Howe said: "My next moves are to finish an album of my David
Bowie (Berlin period) adaptations and release that maybe
this year [2011] and to complete writing an album of
original material." Dylan
Howe
& The Subterraneans is a project consisting of
music inspired and based on David Bowie's albums Low
and Heroes, and also influenced by Phillip Glass'
adaptations of the same source material. Arrangements are by
Howe/Ross Stanley, while the band has included a jazz sextet
(based on Howe's earlier Quintet), Adrian Utley
(Portishead), Gilad Atzmon (alto sax), a string
section (initially announced to be The Neukoln Strings) and
guest vocalists. There have been plans for artwork and
projections to be done by Sir Peter Blake; demo artwork so
far has been by Howe. Robert Wyatt (ex-Soft Machine)
may also work with the group. In Mar/Apr 2007, they recorded
demos of four pieces ("Art Decade", "Warszawa", "V2
Schneider", "Some Are"), which can be heard on their
MySpace
page. "Warszawa" was also included on Howe's Translations 2. Produced
by Howe, these recordings featured a quintet of
Howe/Stanley/Hill/Collins/Allen, with Utley, Atzmon, Ben
Davis (cello), Nalyd Ewoh (vocals on "Some Are"). There was
a "work in progress" launch in Nov 2007 in London with a
line-up of D. Howe, Stanley, Hill, Robson, Sam Crockatt
(sax) with Utley, Atzmon, The Solid Strings (Sonia
Slany—violin, Stuart Hall—violin, Steve Tees—viola, Nick
Cooper—cello), Tim Dickinson (vocals), plus Hugh Cornwell
(ex-The Stranglers) as featured guest vocalist.
Dylan Howe and Ross Stanley also continue in the Steve Howe Trio with Dylan's
father, Steve.
He continues to play with Wilko Johnson's
trio. Johnson was formerly in Dr. Feelgood and The
Blockheads, and the trio is rounded out by bassist Norman
Watt-Roy, still currently in The Blockheads. They tour the
UK 15 Sep-9 Oct, as well as scattered other dates, and are
working on a new album. They appeared on the BBC's Later... With Jools Holland
on 27 Sep.
Buy from Amazon (UK):
Buy MP3 version from Amazon
(UK):
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(US):
Dylan has played in Tamco (MySpace page), led by Tammy Payne (Jukes, McKay; vocals)
and Jim Barr (Get the Blessing,
worked with Portishead;
bass), with D. Howe (drums), Dan Moore (worked with
Andy Shepperd; Hammond), Neil Smith (Liftmen; guitar).
Their
debut album Don't Think Twice
(Edition Records) was
released in 2010.
Virgil performs on drums and vocals in London-based guitar
trio Little Barrie (Japanese site; MySpace; Facebook; Twitter). The
others in the band are Barrie Cadogan (worked with
Primal Scream, Morrissey, Paul Weller, St Etienne, The
Chemical Brothers; vocals, guitar) and Lewis
Wharton (bass, vocals). Their new album, produced by Edwyn
Collins, is called King of
the Waves; tracks: "Surf Hell" (first single and
used on Channel 4's Sirens
series), "How Come", "Does the Halo Rust", "Precious
Pressure", "King of the Waves", "Now We're Nowhere", "Dream
to Live", "Tip It Over", "I Can't Wait", "New Diamond Love",
"Money in Paper" (Collins on backing vocals). The band play
live.
In Oct 2008 in London, Virgil Howe played his first solo
show, with Amorphous
Androgynous, The Future
Sound of London side-project, as the backing band. On
vocals were expected to be wife Jen
Howe, Karime Kendra (The Killer Meters)
and Dave Sanderson. Virgil was also playing with Amorphous
Androgynous. He drummed in the band for a recording of
"Falling Down", written by Noel
Gallagher (ex-Oasis), used on the cover
disc of Mojo
magazine Feb 2010 issue. (The track also features Kerim
Gunes on bass, who plays with Howe in The Dirty Feel—see
below.)
Virgil Howe is working with a number of other acts. The Dirty Feel (MySpace page)
consists of Virgil (drums, vocals), Kerim 'Kez'
Gunes (worked with Amorphous Androgynous; bass,
vocals) and Nick
Hirsch (guitar, vocals). The band play mainly in and
around London, but also across the UK. The
Killer Meters consists of Karime Kendra (daughter
of Ty Karim and Kent Harris; vocals), Henry
Broadbent (keys) and Stephen Wilcox (sax) and all three
members of The Dirty Feel. They seem to have begun as a
tribute act to The Meters, but moved on to original
material. Breakin' Out (Breakin
Bread BNB 052) is out in the UK and features the
previously released singles "Dance Move Shake!" (b/w "Black
Mountain") and "Freak" (b/w "Stomp"). Tracks: "Consolidation
Blues", "Freak", "Dance Move Shake!", "Say Dirty",
"Tropical", "Desperate Times", "Come Back", "High Low",
"Cramp Your Style" (cover of song by All the People
feat. Robert Moore), "Change Your Mind", "Black
Mountain", "I Aint Lyin" (cover of song by Ty Karim),
"Stomp (Part 1)", "Stomp (Part 2)", "Rainbow Of Love". Mar
2011 saw a single release on Breakin Bread (BNB064)
with an A-side of Virgil Howe & Shawn Lee's "Electronic
Brain Break" and a B-side of Virgil's "Go Go Gadget Break".
Buy from Amazon.co.uk (UK):
Virgil Howe also works as a DJ/producer/remixer.
He did a remix in 2010 of Marc Hype & Jim Dunloop's single "Al
Naafiysh". Virgil has also produced some demos for wife Jen.
Zoë Street Howe works as a radio DJ and has also written a
number of books. Her latest is "How's
Your
Dad?
Living in the Shadow of a Rock Star Parent" (Omnibus Press), for which
she interviewed the children of well-known musicians, including
husband Dylan, Aaron Horn (son of Trevor Horn), Baxter Dury (Ian
Dury), Julian Lennon (John Lennon), Calico Cooper (Alice Cooper),
Jazz Domino Holly (Joe Strummer), Natascha Elinore (Jack Bruce),
Harry Waters (Roger Waters), Scarlet Page (Jimmy Page) and others.
Jobson's
recent work has been in three linked projects of UKZ, U-Z
(Ultimate Zero) and a reunion of UK.
His return to progressive rock was in the band UKZ, with Trey Gunn
(ex-King Crimson) among others. The band released an EP;
material for a full album was written, but this has yet to appear.
As an adjunct to UKZ, Jobson formed what he describes as an
"offshoot 'solo' project" called the Ultimate Zero Project or U-Z.
U-Z, with a rotating line-up, tour live with a set list mainly based
on UK material. With the involvement of John Wetton (Asia, ex-King
Crimson, worked with Billy Sherwood), U-Z has spawned a
sporadic but ongoing UK reunion.
In an Apr 2011 interview for issue 62 of Progression magazine, Jobson suggests doing
further tours with other prog names, mentioning Jon
Anderson and Sonja Kristina (Curved Air) among
others. In an Aug 2011
interview, he described talking to Kristina "about working
together in the future because [Curved Air's] Darryl [Way] isn't
doing it anymore and we talked about the possibility to play some
Curved Air music with the U-Z project with Sonja as a guest at some
point in the future." In that interview, Jobson also talked more
broadly about his plans. He described how, "I still don't consider
myself in a group, what I'm doing today are my solo projects so I
can say definitively that my days in a band, like a democratic band,
are over." He goes on, describing his recent live work, saying, "I
decide what we play and how we play it, where we play and, you know,
that suits me better." He also said, "I'm not out of retail
completely, but I'm not sure if I will record a full album again,
because I doubt if the album is a viable tool anymore."
Ultimate
Zero Project
Most recently, Jobson headlined the Zappanale Festival in Germany on
21 Aug 2011. He also played the Netherlands on 19 Aug, with a
line-up of Alex Machacek
(UKZ, works with Marco Minnemann, works with Terry Bozzio; guitar),
Marco Minnemann (UKZ,
Mike Keneally; drums) and Marc Bonilla (Keith
Emerson Band, California Transit Authority, ex-Toy Matinee; bass,
vocals).
we play music that influenced
me, music I wrote, and other music [...] give people a chance to
hear that music once again. It satiates the need of the
progressive rock public to hear the tunes they never got the
chance to hear played live before. At the same time it
takes the old songs off the table for any of the future projects
I might want to do. If I wanted to do something wild with
UKZ in concert for instance, I wouldn’t feel the need to play
Alaska or Nothing To Lose [...] my goal is to find the right
balance between what people want from me and what I want for
myself, and it’s particularly hard at the moment to find that
balance [...] the promoters always want to use the brand names
like “UK,” or they want “Eddie Jobson from UK, playing UK”, so
with a new project like UKZ, playing live is a much harder thing
to do.
U-Z played 3 Japanese dates in Jun 2010, then headlined at NEARfest 2010 (Bethlehem, PA)
and a Jun show at Whittier, CA presented by CalProg. The line-up was Jobson
(keys, violin), Minnemann (drums), Bonilla (vocals, guitar), TJ Helmerich (Dweezil
Zappa, ex-Planet X; guitar,
vocals), Billy Sheehan (ex-Steve
Vai, Niacin, Mr. Big,
ex-Derek Sherinian; bass) and Mike Mangini (ex-Extreme,
ex-Steve Vai, ex-Annihilator; drums). The NEARfest set
included "In the Dead of Night", "Nevermore", "Alaska", "Danger
Money", "Carrying No Cross", "Caesar's Palace Blues" (all
originally by UK), "The Sahara of Snow Pt. 2"
(originally by UK; first released by Bruford), "Bitches
Crystal" (originally by ELP), "Starless" and "Red"
(both originally by King Crimson), a Jobson violin solo
and a drum duet. The show was filmed in HD for a possible release.
U-Z began with 3 US east coast dates in Aug 2009 with Minnemann
(drums, guitar), Gunn (Stick), Simon Phillips (ex-Asia, Derek Sherinian, ex-Mike Oldfield,
ex-Toto, worked with Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin, John Wetton; drums),
Greg Howe (ex-Michael Jackson, Victor Wooten; guitar,
except for the New York show) and Christopher Paul Robinson
(MySpace page;
worked with Trilok Gurtu, Alan Pasqua;
guitar in New York). 17 Aug set: "Transporter/Walking from Pastel"
(Jobson solo)/instrumental section/"Awakening" (originally
by Mahavishnu Orchestra)/Phillips drum solo/"Awakening"
reprise, "Larks' Tongues in Aspic Part 2" (King Crimson),
"Carrying No Cross", "Memories of Vienna/Nostalgia"/violin solo
(Jobson solo), "Alaska/Presto Vivace/In the Dead of Night"
(UK), "Vital Transformation" (Mahavishnu Orchestra)/Minnemann
drum
solo, "Tu-95" (UKZ), "The Only Thing She Needs (Parts
1 & 2)" (UK), "Nevermore" excerpt, "Caesar's
Palace Blues". (There were no vocals, with the vocal parts played on
guitar.) In an Aug 2009
interview, Jobson said of the project that he "can throw in
more obscure tracks, tracks that never get played — Curved Air, Roxy
Music." Jobson said in another interview that month that the
last-minute inclusion of Gunn (who replaced the originally announced
Michael Bernier (StickMen))
meant that the set had to be closer to what UKZ had been playing:
"We've had to drop a couple of numbers and he is still getting his
head around a couple of Mahavishnu Orchestra tracks". U-Z then
returned for Polish dates in Nov 2009 with John Wetton (Asia, ex-UK, ex-King Crimson): see below. Two Russian dates 9-10 Nov plus Rome
on 11 Nov followed with a line-up of Jobson, G. Howe, Minnemann and
Riccardo "Ric" Fierabracci (bass), sharing billing with the Adrian
Belew Power Trio. Belew also guested with U-Z.
There is a 2-disc compilation of live U-Z
material from 2009, Ultimate Zero
Tour - Live. Tracks come from 4 shows: Bydgoszcz and
Krakow, Poland (Jobson—keys, electric violin, Wetton—vocals, bass,
acoustic guitar, Levin—stick, G Howe—guitar, Minnemann—drums);
Boston, USA (Jobson, Gunn—touch guitar, G Howe, Minnemann,
Phillips—drums); and Perm, Russia (Jobson, Fierabracci—bass, G Howe,
Minnemann). Tracks: disc U:
"Alaska" (5:06)—from the Perm show
"Presto Vivace" (0:34)—from the Perm show
"In the Dead of Night" (6:40)—from a Polish show
"Starless" (11:56)—from a Polish show
"Zero 1 (Ric)" (3:10)—from the Perm show
"Book of Saturday" (3:06)—from a Polish show
"Zero 2 (Marco)" (4:55)
"One More Red Nightmare" (7:15)—from a Polish show
"Caesar's Palace Blues" (4:55)—from a Polish show
"Sahara of Snow Pt. II" (3:48)—from a Polish show
disc Z:
"Zero 3 (Tony)" (3:15)—from the Bydgoszcz show
"Red" (6:17)—from the Perm show
"Zero 4 (Trey)" (1:21)—from the Boston show
"Awakening" (7:34)—from the Boston show
"Zero 5 (Eddie): Ice Festival, Theme of Secrets, Prelude"
(9:09)
"Carrying No Cross" (12:04)—from a Polish show
"The Only Thing She Needs" (8:01)—from a Polish show
"Nevermore (ending)" (3:27)—from a Polish show
A remixed re-release is due
spring 2012. In the Aug 2011 interview, he explained what
he would be doing with the album:
When I mixed the album at the
end of last year [...] I wanted to recreate that live hall
experience [...] What I didn’t realize is that nobody else does
it that way. So when the record went out, a lot of the people’s
reactions were ‘oh it sounds like a bootleg’. It doesn’t sound
like a bootleg at all, but I did have a lot of hall ambiance
[...] I didn’t make it a “produced” studio-sounding album. I
didn’t realize people are so used to live albums sounding like
studio albums
[...] I decided that maybe it was a bad choice on my part to mix
it that way [...] It will be hard for me to make it a
studio-sounding album and still capture that emotional content
and the excitement of live, but that’s what I’m working on right
now. By the way, the album has only been available on the
Zealotslounge website and maybe one or two other websites, for
instance the King Crimson website. So as far as I’m concerned
the album hasn’t actually been released outside of Japan [...]
as I don’t consider that the album has been fully released, I am
taking some license to remix it, along with creating a ‘deluxe’
packaging version.
UKZ UKZ consisted of Jobson (keys,
Hammond, violin), Aaron Lippert (involved with Legacy;
vocals), Trey Gunn (ex-King Crimson, works with
Marco Minnemann; 10-string Warr touch guitar), Alex Machacek (works
with
Marco Minnemann,
worked with Terry Bozzio; guitar) and Marco Minnemann (Mike
Keneally;
drums). The band released their debut, 4-track EP
"Radiation" (Glo Digital). The band were working on further new
material. Their debut live show was in Jan 2009 (with support from Tony Levin's StickMen). Attendance was ~3-400. 4
Japanese dates in Jun 2009 followed. First night set: "Night After
Night", "Alaska", "The Only Thing She Needs", "Houston", Jobson solo
("Theme of Secrets"/"Prelude"/"Nostalgia"), Gunn/Minnemann duet
("Jacaranda"), "Legend"/"Austin Powers" (performed by Machacek, Gunn
and Minnemann), Minnemann solo, "TU-95", "Rendevouz 6:02", "Carrying
No Cross", "Radiation", "In the Dead of Night"; encore: "Larks'
Tongues in Aspic Part 2"; second encore: "Caesar's Palace Blues",
"The Sahara of Snow Part 2".
UK John Wetton (Asia, ex-King Crimson; bass,
vocals) joined Jobson's U-Z project for Polish
dates in Nov 2009 with a set mostly of UK material, and material
from these shows is included on Ultimate Zero Tour - Live.
Wetton and Jobson (keys, violin) then formally re-formed UK for a
tour in Apr 2011. The band played 15-16 Apr in Tokyo, Japan (dates
sold out) and three US dates, 8-23 Apr. The band was rounded out by
Alex Machacek (UKZ, worked with Marco Minnemann, Terry Bozzio; guitar)
and Marco Minnemann (UKZ,
U-Z, Mike Keneally; drums). The set
list included material by UK and King Crimson: "In the Dead of
Night/By the Light of Day/Presto Vivace and Reprise", "Danger
Money", "Thirty Years", "Alaska/Time to Kill", "Starless", "Carrying
No Cross", Minnemann solo, Jobson solo, "Book of Saturday",
"Nevermore" (first time the piece has been performed in its
entirety), "One More Red Nightmare/Caesar's Palace
Blues/Sahara of Snow Pt. II", encore: "Night After Night" (omitted
23 Apr), "The Only Thing She Needs", "Rendezvous 6:02". About
300-350 people attended the opening night, and around 400+ attended
the 23 Apr show. A number of well-known musicians were in the
audience during the US dates, including Jordan Rudess (Dream
Theater) and Derek Shulman (ex-Gentle Giant, worked
with Yes). Jobson has indicated that Allan Holdsworth and
Terry Bozzio were approached about the reunion, but declined to take
part. As for dates elsewhere, Wetton said to his Guestbook (Apr
2011) that, "UK has been offered to promoters in the UK, but with
little or no interest."
A reunion tour is now going
ahead with the Danger Money/Night After Night trio of
Wetton, Jobson and drummer Terry
Bozzio (HoBoLeMa,
works with Alex Machacek, ex-Frank Zappa, worked
with Pat Mastelotto). Jobson described the
tour to his Zealots' Lounge as a "one-off" and said he is "working
on 30 cities around the world". 9 North American dates 2-18 May have been announced. The band
are seeking dates in Europe and South America, but these will be
with a different line-up of Wetton, Jobson, Machacek and another
drummer. The Dec 2011 issue of Classic Rock Presents... Prog said that "there are hints that if
all goes well on this short trek, then it might lead to the trio
thinking about doing a new studio album."
the Japanese promoters ‘sold’
it as a UK reunion. But it wasn’t that for me, it was just
part of the U-Z project, a vehicle to pay tribute to the Prog
era.
He went on: "I don't intend to do any new music with John [Wetton],
but we may do some more shows together; he'd be more than welcome to
be a guest with the U-Z Project basically anytime he wants, but
John's priority is Asia and I recognize that. Besides, I wouldn't
want to spend the whole time reenacting UK, it's a double-edged
sword." An interview in the Jun 2011 issue of Classic Rock Presents... Prog
with Wetton has this:
"It's definitely one step at
a time [...] It's not driven by me; it's Eddie Jobson's baby. I
don't feel like a 50 per cent partner, but that's okay. If some
more gigs come up I would like to do them if they fit what I'm
doing with Asia."
There are no plans for a new UK studio album. "I don't think
there's any future beyond the nostalgia and having a great time
on stage. I see it as a joyous celebration of music which still
stands up. [...]"
Wetton also described his involvement in the project to his
Guestbook in Apr 2011:
For anyone who is confused,
let me clarify my understanding for the UK Reunion.
I do care passionately about the band ( the ueber-talented
Minnemann and Machacek are nonpareil, Eddie's ability is ,as
ever, simply staggering),and the material (the UK songs are a
document of my life in '78/'79, and all of the King Crimson
songs we play have my name on them).
I was not responsible for putting this whole show together,
Eddie is very much driving this bus----it's his career.
Therefore I keep a low profile --- of my own volition, I might
add---I do no interviews, attend no Zealot functions, and
my on-stage banter is minimal. This is all absolutely ok by me
[...]
I very much enjoy our celebratory evening of progressive
rock classics, I am proud of what we created
In an early 2011 interview for Progression
magazine, Jobson said the video from the April 2011 tour may be
included on a re-released version of the Ultimate Zero Tour - Live
album. However, the plan is
now to release a standalone DVD of this material, due spring 2012.
In the Aug 2011 interview, he says: "my next project is to make a
DVD of the so-called "UK reunion" concerts in Japan [...] I film all
of my concerts with six little HD cameras, I've been doing that for
a couple of years now."
Promoters were approached in Aug 2009 with a proposal for a European
tour by UK in Feb/Mar 2010, with Jobson, Wetton, G. Howe and
Minnemann, but it is unclear who was behind this approach and such a
tour did not happen.
Wetton and Jobson had not played together since circa 1999 and the abortive UK
reunion project Legacy (see below). In
1999, there was an aborted previous plan to re-unite UK for a
project entitled Legacy.
The project began life under the UK name, but then became a Jobson
solo project, before being abandoned. Bill
Bruford (percussion), Tony
Levin (bass), Francis Dunnery, Steve Hackett and others,
guested on 1999 recording sessions. While initially involved, John Wetton ceased to be
part of the project early on, with Aaron Lippert (now in UKZ) planned to replace him on vocals.
Jobson described the concept: "We have taken on the daunting subject
of the aftermath of Communism, or of any despotic regime, and the
will of the people to survive." In Nov 2006, Jobson had this
to say:
an album does need to be an
expression of where you are musically, sonically, socially,
politically etc. at the time. 'Legacy' was started in 1995
and much of it was conceived then; unfortunately, the sonic
choices I would make in 2007 are quite different from the
ones I made in 1995. Furthermore, a solo album would be a
different animal than a UK album - even if I did compose all
of it myself. Songs were written with John in mind, not to
mention possible guitar parts for Holdsworth, Fripp and
others.
There is also an ownership issue with some of
the recordings which will render some performances
unusable.
It is clear to me that any usable compositional
ideas and performances that, legally, I still have full
rights to should be reviewed and probably reworked to
reflect twelve years of further technical and musical
growth.
And:
But, truth be told... I ran
out of steam. At some point, I'll see what I can retrieve.
Let me take this time to apologize to those who did support the
project (for whatever length of time), for the disappointment of
those anticipating its release, and even to John for my aiming
too high and taking too long.
Asked in an Aug
2009 interview about whether we will ever see or hear the
project, Jobson said:
I don’t know is the answer to
that. I don’t just do things to get it out there and to try and
sell records. I do things [...] to continue developing,
exploring, learning and growing and trying to be an artist.
[...] it gets to the point where I have to ask myself how cost
effective is it for me to sit, for even just two months, and
pull all this stuff together to try and make something out of it
when the music is fifteen or twenty years old and I've kind of
moved on to other things. Even though it's interesting how many
people are going to bother to buy it? Shouldn't my time be more
focused on moving forward? So that’s where I get to a lot.
Having said that some of this footage should probably come out
at some point because it's really cool [laughs].
He also said, "I've also got tons of film footage of everybody
recording as well. Stuff nobody has even seen. I've got Tony Levin,
Bruford, the choir and everybody." To a fan after the 23 Apr 2011 UK show, Jobson said
the Legacy material would
not be released as an album, but that he is likely to use bits from
it, commenting that he had some interesting pieces with Bruford and
Hackett. In an Aug 2011
interview, he said:
The process of creating is
where my passion is; it is not necessary for me to actually have
other people hear it. [...] I worked on the “Legacy” album for
years, on and off, and at some point I felt I had got out what I
needed to get out of it and I didn’t feel the need anymore to
finish it. I had learnt a lot, I had some wonderful experiences,
and that had been quite enough for me: going around the world to
make it, conducting the Prague Philharmonic, working with the
“Bulgarian Women” in a cathedral, singing my music; working in
New York with Tony Levin; working in Peter Gabriel’s studio with
Steve Hackett and Bill Bruford, filming everything as well – so
I had even been learning about video and documentary making.
[...]
I’d even written some Bulgarian poems in the archaic style of
Bulgarian folk poetry. It led to me working with a professor of
Balkan poetry from the university of Boston to create the poems
for the Bulgarian choir to sing. People keep asking me ‘why
don’t you release it’ or ‘will you ever release it’? The answer
is NO, I won’t release it because I never took it to the final
stage, the mechanical stage: sequencing the album, mixing
everything, making a design for the album cover and getting it
all manufactured, making deals with distributors, publishing
companies, getting the albums in the shops, you know, that kind
of stuff for me is fairly tedious.
Three tracks from Legacy did appear on Voices
of Life (Globe
Music, GLMMA-2000-2), the Bulgarian Women's Choir's
compilation—details
in Yescography. Globe Music is Jobson's
own label and Jobson has continued to work with the Bulgarian
Women's Choir.
Jobson has remastered the three
original U.K. albums, U.K., Danger Money and Night
After
Night, out on his Globe Music label in the US and Japan. In Apr 2009, Jobson
discussed these releases, the absence of bonus tracks and the
possibility of archival releases, saying:
Having already shut down
planned rereleases of these albums containing superfluous
'bonus' tracks, I very much wanted to leave the albums
untouched, other than some sonic enhancement and minor
repackaging.
There may be an opportunity in the future to release some live
recordings, but there are a fair number of ownership and quality
issues with such an endeavour.
He has also said, "There is no real studio vault material for U.K.
The only vault material is live recordings used for radio broadcast,
things like that." And: "There may be a few live recordings that are
OK to go out."
Archival/online releases
In the 1980s, Jobson worked on a follow-up to his 1983 The Green Album, to be called
The Pink Album, but the
project was never finished. One piece from the album,
"Antarctica", was released through his Zealots' Lounge
subscription website. To a fan after the 23 Apr 2011 UK show,
Jobson said he had plans to release the album. Further bits and
bobs from Jobson's career have been released through the Zealots'
Lounge site.
Sidonie
Jordan - Peter Banks' ex-wife, a.k.a. Sydney Foxx
Jordan is still performing.
Gary Langan - engineer on 90125
Langan continues to work with Trevor Horn
on various projects—see
under Horn. The second Buggles album, Adventures
in
Modern
Recording, which Langan largely engineered, was
re-released on CD with multiple bonus tracks, and Langan did front
of house sound for the one-off Buggles show in Sep 2010: see
under Horn.
Alex Lasarenko
- additional keyboards on Union
Lasarenko
is
creative director (New York) at Elias
Associates, leading the company with brothers Scott and
Jonathan
Elias. He continues to work doing music
for films and commercials.
Now out is a new collaborative
instrumental album by a trio of Tony Levin (bass, Stick),
Alan White (drums, percussion) and David Torn (worked
with Bill Bruford, Terry Bozzio, Jeff Beck, David Bowie, John
Legend; guitar, textural events). (Levin previously played
with Torn with Bill Bruford.) See details
on main page.
However, Levin's
main project at present is Stick Men, with Levin (Chapman Stick,
vocals), Pat Mastelotto (KTU, ex-King Crimson,
The Flower Kings; drums, percussion, vocals) and Markus
Reuter (works with Mastelotto; touch-style
guitars).
Levin was in
the last line-up of King
Crimson, with Mastelotto (percussion), Robert Fripp
(guitar), Adrian Belew
(guitar, keys, vocals) and Gavin Harrison (Porcupine Tree; drums).
The band played a short tour of the eastern US in Aug 2008, but
have not worked since and comments from Fripp in Dec 2009
suggested the band has now ceased operations permanently. News of
archival Crimson releases is under Bruford.
While King Crimson is inactive, Levin is involved in a number of
Crimson spin-offs. Sep/Oct 2011 saw the Two of a Perfect Trio tour
of the US/Canada with sets by the Stick
Men (towards 1 hour long), then by the Adrian Belew Power
Trio (Belew—guitar, Julie Slick—bass, Tobias Ralph—drums; set
towards 1 hour long), then Belew/Levin/Mastelotto play a few King
Crimson pieces, and eventually all 6 musicians play some further
Crimson material. In all, the total Crimson set is ~1 hour long.
Sets have varied from night to night. As examples, the Stick Men
set list in Carrboro was "Smudge", "Soup", "Breathless" (from
Robert Fripp's Exposure), "Slow Glide", "Relentless", their
cover of Stravinsky's "Firebird Suite" in 4 movements; set list in
Phoenixville: "Smudge", "Supercollider", "Slow Glide",
"Breathless", "Relentless", "Firebird Suite"; the set in San
Franciso included "VROOM VROOOM". The Adrian Belew Power
Trio set includes material from Belew's albums Young Lions, Inner Revolution, Op Zop Too Wah and e; in San Franciso, they
included a King Crimson tune. Belew/Levin/Mastelotto have played
pieces including "3 of a Perfect Pair", "Elephant Talk" and
"Sleepless". In San Franciso, they were then joined by Reuter for
"Red". "Red" was not played on the opening night. At some other
shows, I think it was played by the full 6-piece band. Crimson
material played by all 6 has included "B'Boom", "Thrak",
"Dinosaur", "Frame by Frame", "Indiscipline", "Thela Hun Ginjeet".
The opening night had an attendance of ~500. Alan
White attended the Seattle show.
Levin, Mastelotto and Belew
also previously held the 3 of a Perfect
Pair Camp in Aug 2011. The trio played an associated
show on 25 Aug, largely of King Crimson pieces,
including "3 of a Perfect Pair", "Elephant Talk",
"Frame by Frame", "Indiscipline", "Thela Hun Ginjeet",
"Sleepless", "Dinosaur", "One Time", "Thrak" and "Red".
Partway through the show, they were joined by Slick and
Ralph for a preview of the Two of a Perfect Trio tour. A second Camp is planned
for summer 2012.
Out is A Scarcity of
Miracles, by Jakszyk, Fripp and Collins. The album
is labelled a King Crimson ProjeKct, reflecting its ties to
the band. The line-up consists of Jakko M Jakszyk (ex-21st
Century Schizoid Band, worked with Dave Stewart; guitars,
vocals, keys, guzheng), Robert Fripp (guitar, Soundscapes)
and Mel Collins (ex-21st Century Schizoid Band,
ex-King Crimson, worked with Chris Squire; alto
and soprano saxophone, flute) with Tony Levin (bass, Stick)
and Gavin Harrison (drums, percussion). Tracks:
Meanwhile, Levin
(bass, Stick) and Mastelotto (drums, percussion, electronics) are
also working in HoBoLeMa, an improvisational group with drummer Terry Bozzio (ex-UK, ex-Bozzio Levin Stevens,
ex-Frank Zappa) and guitarist Allan Holdsworth
(ex-UK, ex-Gong, ex-Soft Machine, ex-Level 42). They
toured the US and Europe in 2010.
Levin or Levin and Mastelotto have sporadically been joining the
California Guitar Trio
live. Levin and Mastelotto are among guests on the Trio's album, Echoes, while
Levin played live with them in Aug 2010 in New Zealand.
L'Image were formed in the mid-1970s, consisting of Levin, Steve
Gadd, Mike Mainieri, Warren Bernhardt (sometimes joined by David
Spinozza on guitar live). The band soon split up, but reconvened
to record their debut album, 2.0,
in Oct 2008. The album is now out. The band played the US in 2009
and Europe in 2010. The band are now recording a second album,
planned for a summer 2011 release to coincide with further touring
in Jul.
Levin guests on 2 tracks of Grace for Drowning, the new
solo album from Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree, Blackfield,
worked with King Crimson, Caravan). Other guests on the
album include Steve Hackett (Squackett,
ex-Genesis, ex-GTR), Dave Kerzner
(working with Billy Sherwood,
worked with Jon Anderson, ex-Giraffe),
Jordan Rudess (Dream Theater), Theo Travis
(Gong, The Tangent, Soft Machine Legacy, worked with Robert
Fripp), Pat Mastelotto (Stick Men, ex-King
Crimson), Trey Gunn (UKZ,
ex-King Crimson), Dave Stewart (ex-Bruford,
ex-National Health, ex-Hatfield and the North), Nick Beggs (Steve
Hackett, Kajagoogoo, ex-Steve Howe, ex-Iona) and Markus
Reuter (Stick Men). The album charted at #34 in the
UK (2 Oct) and #22 in the Netherlands. It has been nominated for the Best Surround
Sound Grammy.
Levin
has long worked with Peter
Gabriel. Gabriel is planning to re-release
his solo catalogue, most of which Levin plays on, with bonus
tracks etc.
In Feb
2007, Geoff Downes described
a prog rock project with himself on keys, Levin, Michael
Holmes (IQ),
Nick D'Virgilio (Spock's Beard, ex-Genesis), Thomas
Lang (ex-John Wetton; drums) and
Rob Aubrey (worked with Wetton/Downes;
engineer)—see
more under Downes. The
project is not expected until 2012.
Levin (bass), D'Virgilio
(drums), Martin Orford (ex-IQ; flute) and Gary Chandler (Jadis;
guitar) all guest on Steve Thorne's latest solo album, Crimes &
Reasons, due 2012.
Levin has done numerous other sessions. His website lists many further
session appearances.
Milton McDonald - additional guitar
with ABWH. MySpace
page
McDonald appears on Julian Colbeck's 1992 Back to Bach, re-released in
2009—details under Colbeck.
Macchia was nominated in the Best Instrumental Arranger category
of the Grammys
for a piece from his album Landscapes,
but lost to Thomas Newman for his work on the "WALL-E" score.
Mark Mancina - producer and composer on
Union
Mancina is doing soundtrack work.
Eddie Offord -
production and engineering on numerous Yes albums
Offord lives in South Carolina and
has largely retired from the music business, although he does
occasional engineer and production work.
Steve Porcaro - additional keyboards on
"Open Your Eyes" and Union
Ryan drums in and produces Grouplove (MySpace; Facebook). The
rest of the group are Christian Zucconi (lead vocals,
guitar), Sean Gadd (bass), Hannah Hooper
(worked with Trevor
Rabin; vocals, keys, artwork) and Ryan's
childhood friend, Andrew Wessen (lead guitar); they are
managed by Nicky and Ben Berger. The band have toured the
US, Europe and Australia in 2010/1. An eponymous EP is
out; tracks: "Colours" (debut single), "Naked Kids",
"Goldcoast" (written by Zucconi/Hooper/R. Rabin/Gadd),
"Getaway Car", "Dont Say Oh Well", "Get Giddy". "Gold
Coast" appeared in the film "The
Sorcerer's
Apprentice", produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and for
which dad
Trevor did the score. The EP was recorded in
Trevor's garage while
the band were staying at his house. (Zucconi plays a
white acoustic Yairi guitar of Trevor's as well.)
"Colours" made #18 in the US Alternative chart and #32
in the US Rock chart; it also made #47 in the Canadian
Alternative chart. Their debut album, Never Trust a Happy Song
(Atlantic), is out and made #21 in Australia; it was recorded in
Ryan's apartment in Los Angeles, CA, and was mixed by
Michael H Brauer. In a Sep
2011 interview with Arlene Weiss, Ryan described the
songwriting process for the album:
It just depends on the
song. Several songs on this album were originally
partial old demo’s Christian had kept from his past,
that we then reinterpreted as a band. [...] Sometimes
Hannah or Sean or Andrew will have a similar raw lyric
or melody idea that the others take and reinterpret, or
add on to. It’s very collaborative and everyone’s
writing roles shift around in each song.
[...]
Sometimes it started
with a little verse idea from Sean, or an old demo idea
from Christian. Sometimes I would just hear melodies
working over someone else’s guitar line and I’d sing
them to the others and they’d learn to play them and
then that would become a lead guitar solo or synth line.
It was really all over the place.
Buy from Amazon (UK):
Buy from Amazon (US):
Ryan also produces, including working with Outasight and Kenzie May.
His production team is called Captain Cuts and also
includes Ryan McMahon and Ben Berger.
Ryan plays on his father's forthcoming jazz-rock solo project, Jacaranda (see here).
Phyllis is retired. Their MySpace page has several songs by the
couple's band.
The late Bobby Sherwood's big band charts, thought lost for many
years, have been located. Their elder son, Michael,
has produced and conducted the music with a 16-piece big band,
with Bobby's nephew, trumpeter Carl Saunders.
The Bobby
Sherwood MySpace page has samples.
Michael Sherwood's has been working in Kite with Ted Jacobs
(presumably a new name for their band Ju-Ju).
He
is
also in GLP
with Christian
Nesmith (son of and worked with Michael Nesmith; guitar)
and
the
two now have a MySpace
page as NezWood with multiple songs. Other band members in
GLP include Tom Felicetta, Chirstopher "Topher" Allis (Elias Arts; drums) and Steve McCormick.
Earlier in 2007, he had four pieces on streaming audio at his MySpace page: "Face
of the Sun" with Nesmith and "Pearblossom Highway", "Numbers Game"
and "Everybody's Watching" with Ted Jacobs. The site then had
"Pearblossom Highway", "Numbers Game" and two new pieces, "Almost
Perfect Love" and "The Ship", all credited to Kite. There are now
two further unlabelled pieces, "This Blue World" and "6 Days from
Sunday". The latter song and another, "The Upside", were used on
the TV series Scrubs in
2006. M. Sherwood (keys), Nesmith (guitars) and Allis (drums) are
all also in singer Circe Link's
band (MySpace page).
Singer/songwriter Audra Mae is Michael
and Billy Sherwood's grandniece (and Judy Garland's great
grandniece). A 5-song EP, Haunt,
featured Michael on keyboards and Ryan Rabin
(Trevor's son; ex-The Outline) on drums. (3 of the EP's
songs were re-recorded for her album, The Happiest Lamb.)
He was planning to record an album of his father Bobby's big band
music—details under Bobby
Sherwood. Michael has also been working freelance and doing
music for film, TV and commercials.
In Jun 2006, Jill Sinclair was accidentally hit in the neck with
an air rifle pellet while in her garden. As a result, Sinclair has
been unresponsive in a coma since.
The King
Crimson
Collectors' Club includes several releases
including lyrics from Sinfield. Further details about the Club are
under Bruford.
Esoteric
have re-released a 2CD remastered and expanded version of
Sinfield's solo album Still on the Manticore
imprint (mantcd21003). this includes the two bonus tracks from the
1994 Stillusion expanded
re-release and further early mixes. Tracks: CD1, the album
mix—"The Song of the Sea Goat", "Under the Sky", "Will It be You",
"Wholefood Boogie", "Still", "Envelopes of Yesterday", "The
Piper", "A House of Hopes and Dreams", "The Night People"; CD2,
early mixes and bonus tracks—"Hanging Fire" (previously released
on Stillusion), "Still
(first mix)", "The Song of the Sea Goat", "Under the Sky",
"Wholefood Boogie", "Envelopes of Yesterday", "The Piper", "A
House of Hopes and Dreams", "The Night People", "Still (second
mix)", "Can You Forgive a Fool?"(previously released on Stillusion).
Carmen Squire works as an actress, primarily doing
voice-over work. She also writes and sings.
Carmen is in Astrella
Celeste's band (MySpace
page). Astrella (Donovan Leitch's
daughter) has released the single "Dream" and EP
Blue Star, both on Donovan Discs, in the US and UK.
"Dream" and material on Blue Star were co-written
by Kevin Hunter (Sheryl Crow) and
produced by Yoad
Nevo (worked with Sugababes and
Goldfrapp). The band consists of Astrella
(vocals), Carmen (backing vocals, rhythm guitar live), Rat
Scabies (ex-The Damned; drums),
Andy Hobson (The Pretenders; bass),
Nevo (guitar, mandolin), Ofer Shabi (guitar), Joe Atkinson
(Hammond), Colin Graham (Mica Paris; trumpet,
flugelhorn) and Fayyaz Virji (trombone).
Nikki Squire (vocals) and Nigel McLaren (bass, backing vocals)
re-formed Esquire
and have been working on some new material in London with Robbie
Blunt (ex-Robert Plant; guitar), Lisa LaRue (MySpace page; worked
with
John Payne, Gilli Smyth, Tommy Zvoncheck; keys) and
others. Seven pieces are available as digital downloads from their MySpace page:
"Stay Low" (with LaRue and backing vocals by Master Cassian
Munro), "Where is the Love", "Ministry of Life", "Friends &
Enemies", "She Said" (with Blunt), "It's Over", "Tonight" (with
Blunt). Most of there can also be heard as streaming files.
There is also some unreleased Esquire material from over the
years which could be released. She was interviewed in Notes from the
Edge #232, in which she discussed some other possible
forthcoming projects.
Headspace (MySpace page; YouTube channel)
consists of Adam Wakeman (keys), Damian Wilson
(ex-Rick Wakeman,
ex-Jeronimo Road; vocals), Pete Rinaldi (guitar), Lee
Pomeroy (ex-Rick Wakeman; bass),
Richard Brook (The
London Music School, ex-Victoria Beckham; drums).
Their debut 4-track EP, I Am... (HDSPC02), is out and available to
buy online; tracks can also be heard on their MySpace
page. Their debut concept album is due around Sep/Oct 2011.
The band have played several UK/Ireland dates, mainly supporting
Ozzy Osbourne (with whom Adam also plays). Their set list in
Jun/Jul 2008 was "Never Let Go", "Bodysuit", "Sane Life", "Wasted
Apology and Sober".
Adam was reported to be working
on a remix album, in a dance/chill out style, of tracks that
he has produced.
Adam is in Black
Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne's band. Adam
co-wrote 5 songs on Osbourne's 2010 album Scream with Osbourne and producer Kevin Churko, and
plays on the whole album, which debuted at #12 in the UK chart (27
Jun; #1 in the Rock chart). He also regularly tours with Travis
and with Will Young.
Adam (keys, vocals) is now in new band Snakecharmer, with Micky Moody (ex-Whitesnake,
ex-Company of Snakes, ex-Juicy Lucy, ex-Snafu; guitar,
slide guitar, vocals), Neil Murray (ex-Whitesnake,
ex-Company of Snakes, ex-National
Health, ex-Brian May, ex-Gary Moore, ex-Black Sabbath, "We Will
Rock You"; bass), Laurie
Wisefield (ex-Wishbone Ash, ex-Tina
Turner, "We Will Rock You"; guitar,
vocals), Harry James (Magnum,
ex-Thunder; drums, vocals) and Chris Ousey (Heartland,
ex-Virginia Wolf; lead vocals). The band will play
Whitesnake material and other songs from the members' back
catalogues. Live dates are expected.
Session work has included for the UK #1 (and Ireland #2) "Never
Leave You" by Tinchy Stryder feat. Amelle Berrabah; and
Frankmusik's "Confusion Girl" (UK #27), both produced by Fraser T.
Smith. Adam also played piano on "I Got Soul", the charity
single for War Child UK,
produced by Smith and featuring Stryder, Frankmusik, Pixie Lott,
N-Dubz, VV Brown, the London Community Choir and others (UK #10,
Ireland #19).
Congratulations to Jemma who
gave birth to a daughter, Melody, in late July 2011.
Jemma is a songwriter, pianist and vocalist, with a publishing
and recording contract. She sang backing vocals and some lead on
her father Rick's albums Retro and
Retro 2, and on his CD and DVD Amazing Grace—see details under Rick.
Nina (Wakeman) Carter - Rick's ex-wife: under Carter
above Oscar Wakeman -
Rick's son
Tim Weidner -
production on Magnification, mixing on Fragile
DVD-A/Ultimate Yes. Sarm
Management
Weidner has been working with Trevor Horn as an
engineer, mixer and/or programmer on a variety of projects,
including Jeff Beck's Emotion
& Commotion—see details
under Horn. Most notably, he has engineered and mixed Yes's
new album, Fly from Here, produced
by Horn.
Jesse assisted Klaus Badelt on
the score for the new disaster movie "Poseidon".
A score album is out. Jesse works as a ProTools operator for
Trevor Rabin.
and vinyl
also
available. 
and vinyl
also
available.
and vinyl
also
available.