Tag: prog

The Turn; Debut Album from Salisbury’s 5 Nights at Adyans

Formed just two years ago at Bishop Wordsworth’s School in Salisbury, award-winning four-piece youth band, 5 Nights at Adyans, look set to release their highly-anticipated debut album, The Turn for the 30th anniversary of the prominent community youth music initiative, Bass Connection, at Salisbury Arts Centre on Saturday 5th September…..

I confess I was uneasy about pressing play on the link they sent. In a chat, a little birdy compared them to Devizes’ export Nothing Rhymes with Orange, likely because said birdy knows how much I like them. While now, NRWO are producing concentrated material merging boundaries, they cut their teeth here with quick and catchy indie-punk-pop. I therefore, assumed this would be along similar lines.

The link sent was 5 Nights at Adyans’ initial takes of songs to appear on the album, in an unedited, raw format. While sometimes raw can work, with thrashy punky sounds it usually doesn’t do the band justice compared to the final masters. However, it’s far from “thrashy,” certainly not “trashy,” and I couldn’t have been more pleasantly surprised as I was.

Five tunes, conveniently one for each night at Adyans; I love them all! But the unexpected twist is this; with an incredibly expressive vocal range to make Jim Morrison blush, there’s a majority of elements more akin to classic prog rock riffs than than the punk annihilation I was expecting because of the wonky verbal comparison I received!

Throughout the tracks they sent, there’s swirly psychedelic elements of a sixties acid band, crashing bridges of The Nice, the blues rock of Cream, intense ballad moments and the unstoppable moody layer-building of Led Zeppelin, rather than anything to come out of Busted or Blink 182. The band recently posted a pastiche of the Oasis album cover for Morning Glory to their Facebook page, with themselves posing as Liam and Noel do on it. Here they joked, asking if their fans thought it would make a good cover design; I’d suggest it gives the wrong impression, as I’d not compare this to ephemeral Britpop either. 

Darling You Got Me came across as a nicely flowing blues-rock introduction, with a hot step to it, and it was all go from the off. But it was the following, Final Location which especially captured my ear, as the tempo slowed to ballad; if there’s punk there it’s subtle at best, matured. It’s gorgeously expressive and emotive, but Final Location isn’t an exception; it becomes the rule. 

Tear it Apart also goes there, albeit upbeat, like Rush. Title track Turn brings the dramatic to an apex. The emotional outpour is in full splendour, would appease anyone coming from an aged rock spectrum, and they’d likely assume 5 Nights at Adyans have been at it since 1976! With this thought in mind, this band could save your multi-generational festival!

At times it’s also the mood-shifting sentiment more akin to soft metal rather than grunge. I mean this as the highest compliment, because moodswing is one thing metal could do exceptionally, when it came to aiming into an eighties pop chart. Think how Guns & Roses timelessly transcend the changing trends with their power ballads, like The Doors did decades earlier, whereas the others “halfway there” and “final countdowning” failed the test of time with their commercially viable pop-rock, now only drunken party night nostalgia can save.

I hope you get what I mean?! Because you can go back to a song like Break on Through to the Other Side; it’s enduring. You can unearth Pink Floyd and listen to them again, find new solace with The Who, but often modern sounds fail to stand that test of time. If the finale of The Turn, Knots has an indie, even grunge twinkle, I’d still liken it more to something classic rock.

There’s no three-minute hero here. All the songs are thoughtfully written and composed, are full-bodied and complete odysseys, but being a debut, I predict, might not necessarily age like fine wine, because here’s a progressive band screaming with potential to produce something far greater than the sum of these current parts, cool though they are. In years to come they should reflect back proudly on this beginning, because it’s exceptionally impressive.

Surprised and impressed, with high hopes, Salisbury-based 5 Nights at Adyans certainly took me on a journey. It never fails to amaze how attuned youth can be, from a sixth form band to achieving remarkable regional recognition recently, vocalist Owen Morgan, guitarist Toby Allen, bassist Jasper Hill and drummer Thomas Clarke might spend 5 Nights at Adyans, but going on this debut, should be spending forthcoming decades concreted into rock history.

Find them on Facebook and Instagram, and await for this debut with as much patience as you can bare!

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Henge Frontman Matthew C. Whitaker Solo Tour Comes to Frome

Featured Image: Antony Barkworth-Knight

Despite intentionally making his tricks go wrong, Tommy Cooper was actually a skilled magician and member of The Magic Circle. SpongeBob SquarePants creator Stephen Hillenburg was a marine biologist, and Benny Hill really was a milkman. In order to deride an art effectively you must first master it. It therefore stands to reason Matthew C. Whitaker, frontman of the cosplay prog-rave outfit HENGE, also has some highly acclaimed solo material….

Matthew takes his February album Songs for the Weary on the road solo this October, opening in Belgium and the Netherlands before touring across the UK, including Frome’s Cheese & Grain’s sister venue The Tree House on Wednesday 21st October.

The one and only time I’ve seen Henge was at the Cheese, making haste for the county border after fondly reviewing their album Journey to Voltus B last year, and it was a gig I’d need to be abducted and lobotomised to forget. Matthew’s solo material can be equally as cosmic, as it drifts through gentle pieces for classical guitar, lush string arrangements, and subtle electronics, but it also contrasts vastly, and is a particularly mellower experience than Henge.

There’s cool jazz sax, whistles, fingerpicked guitar and delicate yet quirky observations in these hushed and patient patterns, taking you along with it as it drifts through space. Songs for the Weary has found a home on BBC Radio 6 Music, with singles Lucid Dreamer and Chestnut Tree championed by Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie, Craig Charles, and Deb Grant.

The run follows a widely praised set of UK and European dates earlier this year, when Whitaker was joined on stage by the album’s producer and multi-instrumentalist Alan Keary. This time, he takes to the stage completely solo.

Manchester-based musician and composer Matthew sings about losing a train of thought, which is apt, it twinkles through you like Bowie at his most exquisite or Paul’s later work with The Beatles, backed by Peter, Paul and Mary, for an episode of Button Moon.

And before you say it, milkman is an art; it can take years to master the three-bottle-grip whilst being chased by an enraged Yorkshire terrier up a garden path.

More info on Matthew C. Whitaker

The UK tour dates look like this:

11/10/26 – Lancaster Music Festival, Lancaster

13/10/26 – Nice N Sleazy, Glasgow

14/10/26 – Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh

18/10/26 – Storyhouse, Chester

19/10/26 – The Bullingdon, Oxford

20/10/26 – Colchester Arts Centre, Colchester

21/10/26 – The Tree House, Frome

24/10/26 – The Grand, Clitheroe

26/10/26 – The Hare And Hounds, Birmingham

27/10/26 – Signature Brew, London

29/10/26 – Amped, Huddersfield

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Ruby Darbyshire: God is Offline

Wiltshire singer-songwriter Ruby Darbyshire, you’re most likely familiar with, unless you joined Devizine family reader’s circle today, has a new song on YouTube, one she’s…

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HOT OFF THE PRESS – JP Oldfield to release new EP this Autumn

by Ian Diddams
image by JP Oldfield

Rising Devizes star and promoter at “The Fold”, JP Oldfield last Friday revealed the information he is to release a new six track EP on September 26th this year.

Those privy to this revelation at “The Fold” last Friday also heard five of the tracks off that EP and Devizine can assure readers its one more than worthy of consideration.

JP explained “It’s going to be a concept EP based on a story I have written to go alongside the EP that is loosely influenced by the rime of the ancient mariner. It hopefully will have 6 tracks and will really be pushing the limits of what can be defined as an EP. There will be physical copies for sale that will come with a copy of the story to read alongside it, I’m trying to make the whole thing an experience with the story running the whole way through.It’s currently unnamed at this point in time and probably will be until August when I get all the artwork finalized. I’m in the studio later next month finishing all the music off. It’s been quite the awesome but full-on undertaking!”

I am sure prog fans will be no doubt in tune with the idea and if the tracks played last Friday from that EP – Song 2 (real name to be decided), “Further from Heaven”, “No Rest”, “The Best I Can” and “Heavy Was the Rain”– are anything to go by so will anybody else that is prepared to sit and listen.

Furthermore JP is playing an EP release gig on that same day at “The Fold”. So, make a date in your diaries to see one of Devizes’ rising stars and grab a copy of the EP and the story at the same time … and it’s the night before my birthday so you can also buy me a pint!