Friday came and Rogor Mortis arrived at chez Keithie just in time for dinner. It must have been OK because we were still walking the next morning.

After filling up the car with fuel we headed off West to Chippenham with a feeling of expectation. We were not dissapointed.

We got to the venue and decided that some stomach liner would be in order as we discovered that there was an en-suite bar at the concert hall and they were serving Guinness and Cider. It turned out to be a good call!!!!!!!!!!

The merchandising stalls opened early and so we thought it would be a good idea to check them out before the masses arrived. There were a lot of good CDs on sale, some rarities too and Rogor dug deep and bought another 11 albums to add to his collection. Your humble reporter, however, thought better of it as Pam had just seen the latest Keithie aquisition arrive and was asking questions like "Who the HELL is Captain Beyond?". I thought I might wait for the individual bands stalls to open later in the day but amazingly I never got around to it so returned home CD and T-shirtless. History had been made.

All of a sudden the door to the hall opened and the room got brighter. It could only mean one thing. We turned around and there was mossy. What a beautiful lady she is! Next to her was her son Phil (good looking boy) and her man Michael, all 6 foot five of him (it's rare that I have to strain my neck to look at someone but with him........my neck still hurts although that might have been from the moshing that went on later).

After the hugs we decided to make our way to the bar (amazing, eh?) and the first of a few pints were quaffed in no time at all.

There was some more activity on stage and before we knew it the event organisor, Shaun, was introducing the first band.

Tantalus came on and played for an hour and a bit. There were a few problems with the sound for the first few numbers but they eventually got it right and played a rather good set. I thought it difficult to describe them but I think they sounded like Iona at times. One song which included an alto recorder was rather beautiful.

mossy and Phil were a bit tired as they had only arrived in the UK at 6:30am that day and Michael had been awake since 3am as he had to go to the airport to pick them up. I think they enjoyed the set though. We met up with the guitarist later in the day and Phil got his autograph.

We returned to the bar for another pint and before we knew it The Tangent were starting. There was a problem in that someone had taken Roine Stolte's English lyric sheet so Andy Tillson did all the vocals and made a really good job of it too.

This was a scaled down Tangent though. No Guy Manning and no Theo Travis. Andy played all the reed parts on keyboards. Still great though. It's amazing how the brain compensates when your in a live, blissed out environment.

They played really well. Needless to say I went into seventh heaven when "The Canterbury Sequence" was done and RM and I were down the front dancing and singing along.

What a superb bunch of musicians they are!!!!! I was really impressed with the guitar solos of Roine, the Bass lines of Jonas and the superb drumming of Zoltan. Sam Baine was in fine form too. Very attractive lady indeed. She can play too .

The Tangent played most of the material they have released on their two albums and all I can say is if you get the chance to see them, even this scaled down version, take it. You will not be disappointed!!! They even finished up with a version of "America" a la Nice but the Organ was too far down in the mix I thought and it didn't really come across to my ears. No problem though, the rest of the set was brilliant and I stand by my "Go see them" comment.

There was a two hour break then so we took the opportunity to walk into Chippenham and grab a curry..........and a few more pints.

When we got back to the hall. Pineapple thief were setting up and hadn't yet done a sound check. They did a very brief run through and went straight into their set.

They did quite a few numbers from their latest album "12 stories down" and I have to say I was a little disappointed....sorry guys. Too sombre for my taste. Beautifully played though and the songs from the earlier albums were more to my taste. I thought that with the acoustic guitar high in the mix they reminded me of Radiohead and when I mentioned this to RM a guy standing next to me said "I've just said the same thing to my friend". A very good band if not totally to my my taste. There were a lot of their fans there though and they went down well with the crowd as a whole.

A few more pints and then it was time for IQ. I was impressed with their show. VERY impressed indeed. They played a set of nearly 2 and a half hours with excellent slide projections. They played songs from "Dark matter" (obviously) and others from throughout their history. A great set indeed.

I came to the conclusion that IQ are better than the current Marillion line up and Pete Nicholls is a better frontman than Hogarth....sorry VAX. It just seems that they're an entity and not just the singers backing band.

Two thirds of the way through the set mossy, Phil and Michael had to leave as they were VERY tired. We took a bit of a time out and a few photos were taken as a reminder of the day. We said our goodbyes and then RM and I got back to the music.

When it was over, we staggered back to our hotel and ran into a wedding reception that was going on in the bar there. I must be getting old because a few years ago we might have tried to crash the party but all I could think about was sleep.

All in all a FABULOUS day. I hope the second day went as well as the first and I hope that Shaun can get it together again next year. He mentioned that he was trying to get Jan Akkerman and Thijs van Leer to reform the classic Focus line up for it!!!! Time will tell.

See here for a few pics of the day.

http://hometown.aol.co.uk/KeithieW/P...gor+Mortis.jpg
http://hometown.aol.co.uk/KeithieW/P...4/Tantalus.jpg
http://hometown.aol.co.uk/KeithieW/P...04/Tangent.jpg
http://hometown.aol.co.uk/KeithieW/P...2004/Roine.jpg
http://hometown.aol.co.uk/KeithieW/P...pple+thief.JPG
http://hometown.aol.co.uk/KeithieW/P...t+2004/iq1.jpg
http://hometown.aol.co.uk/KeithieW/P...t+2004/iq2.jpg