Apologies

I am sorry for lack of activity here at QoQuaq Music. We have experienced technical issues but all are fixed.

Yes, we've missed the launch of Yes' Fly from Here but expect a review soon.

Work progressing on Anderson / Rabin / Wakeman project

Rick Wakeman has confirmed via his website, RWCC, that plans for a project between Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin and Rick Wakeman are definitely going ahead.

Here's a quote from Wakeman's site:

Wayne has mentioned to me that he received a lot of e-mails to the site displaying their displeasure at the news that the proposed project with Trevor Rabin and Jon Anderson was not going ahead. I must admit I threw my head in my hands when he told me as it is, to the very best of my knowledge and certainly Jon’s as well, total rubbish.

There are some not very nice people out there who like to stir things up, and believe it or not, we know who some of them are. They are the equivalent to people who start computer viruses and I have no time for them. I have always said that if you hear a rumour, log into this site, and if it’s confirmed here, then it’s true. If it isn’t, then treat it as a rumour started by somebody who thinks they know something, but actually don’t!

Just two days ago I received some music from Jon for the Trevor, Jon and Rick project, and it’s tremendous. I’ve also sent some stuff to both the guys as well, so unless there really is something I don’t know, then all is progressing really well.

-Rick Wakeman

So there you go peeps, a Yes album in July and an Anderson/Rabin/Wakeman album in the works.

Yes press release for new album "Fly From Here". "Drama 2"?

So, as I've mentioned here before, Yes' new album, Fly From Here, is to be released in the summer. Here is the press release from YesWorld.com, this was not written by QoQuaq so is a biased article.

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World's Greatest Prog Rock Band & Grammy Award Winners

YES Announce:

TREVOR HORN To Produce New Album

FLY FROM HERE

To Release on Frontiers Records July 2011

The world's most quintessential Prog Rock band YES, announces today their highly anticipated new album FLY FROM HERE. This marks the first album in ten years with legendary, 2-time Grammy Award winning producer, Trevor Horn.

Horn and YES bassist Chris Squire re-discovered the track "Fly From Here" which has never been recorded as a studio track. “Chris and I were talking one evening about a song ‘Fly From Here’ that we never recorded,” explains Trevor Horn. “I said I was prepared to spend two weeks with ‘YES’ recording that song. When I arrived in America to record it, I was taken prisoner by the band and only allowed my freedom again in return for producing the whole album. It was an offer I couldn’t refuse!”

FLY FROM HERE encompasses YES’ signature brand of mysticism and grand-scale compositions. Maintaining a complex, symphonic sound that features the beautiful harmonies and strong heavy riffs they are known for. “The new album represents the best of YES from the 70s and the 80's with a current twist,” states Squire.

YES are the pioneers for the use of synthesizers and sound effects in modern music, which produced such timeless, symphonic-rock masterworks as "Roundabout", "Close To the Edge" and "Awaken". YES continued to push the cutting edge of art-rock music to their limits, selling over 30 million albums, reaching platinum status multiple times worldwide.

YES’ powerful mainstream progressive compositions have influenced a generation of musicians with a hugely successful and indelible catalogue of music with hit albums such as DRAMA, FRAGILE, CLOSE TO THE EDGE and 90125. Classics such as “Roundabout,” a seminal hit which consistently appears on “the best songs of all-time” lists, and the group’s #1 hit “Owner of a Lonely Heart,” which Horn is responsible for. Taken from the YES album 90125, this single would form part of a unique double, which would see YES and Horn top both the UK and US charts simultaneously.

FLY FROM HERE will be released on Frontiers Records July 2011. More details about the album, its packaging and YES’ live plans for the rest of the year will become available shortly.

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Yes are also touring with their Rite of Spring tour, but are not performing any of the songs from the new album until the Autumn '11.

The currently known musicians performing on the album are:
Benoit David (vocals)
Steve Howe (guitars)
Chris Squire (bass)
Alan White (drums)
Oliver Wakeman (keyboards)
Geoff Downes (keyboards)
Trevor Horn (vocals)

More news will be added to the blog as it is received and, of course, a review in July!

Jon Anderson speaks about Benoît David, Yes and his future plans...

Jon Anderson, long-time vocalist of prog-veteran band Yes has recently, and for the first time, spoken about his replacement in the band, Benoît David - a Canadian vocalist from a Yes tribute act and new-prog band Mystery, a very different sort of replacement from Trevor Horn, who replaced Anderson for the 1980 album Drama.

Jon Anderson is well known for being a very spiritual kind of guy, and doesn't seem the type of chap who'd hold a grudge. He has accepted the limitations his recent bad health has left him with and prevent him from taking up his place - front of stage with Yes.

Anderson recently gave a telephone interview with The Hamilton Spectator, and sounded rather at peace with his place in the world and with his former band mates. "They were busy. They were just guys who had to make a living" he says.

Anderson admits that he is in no shape for touring with Yes, unable to do 4-5 shows per week. An asthma attack in 2008, which almost killed him, has left him unable to push himself as he once did, similar to his close friend and former Yes keyboardist, Rick Wakeman who suffers with heart problems and can no longer tour (he is replaced in the band by his son, Oliver Wakeman). The two have recently released an acoustic album titled The Living Tree and was released last year, a short UK tour followed.

Regarding his replacement, Benoît David, Anderson seems flattered "imitation is the biggest form of flattery" he says. It seems that Anderson is now truly retired from Yes but he holds out some hope of spending time with his old friends.

Anderson is currently working on 2 operas and 3 musicals and says "you can't think the best music I ever made was in 1972". Which is a bold statement considering that Yes released Close to the Edge and Fragile around that time, and The Living Tree certainly doesn't hold a candle to them. Yes are also to release a new album this summer, Fly From Here, the first since 2001's Magnification and is also produced by Trevor Horn.

Anderson has said nothing more of his sequel to Olias of Sunhillow, which is apparently called Songs of Zamran, son of Olias.

One thing is very clear - we have not heard the last of Jon Anderson...

Roger Waters & Nick Mason speak about the future of Pink Floyd

During an interview with the BBC recently, Pink Floyd drummer, Nick Mason, stated that he doubts that the band will ever tour again but doesn't rule out any more one-off performances.

He said: "The answer is, no-one's said we will never work again. I think it's very unlikely we are going to go out on tour - I think Roger's [Waters] really happy working on his own now, it's hard to see him thinking he'd like to come back. It's hard to see Dave [Gilmour] thinking he'd really like to work full time with Roger."

He went on to say: "On the other hand, I live in hope we would absolutely do another Live 8 or play together for the right reasons. Certainly the other two know my stance on this."

He did not speak of the death of band-mate, Richard Wright who died in 2008.

Roger Waters, ex-bassist with Pink Floyd (who left the band in 1985), has also recently spoken out, quashing any rumours of a Pink Floyd re-union, following rumours sparked by his recent appearance with David Gilmour at a Hoping Foundation charity gig, where the pair played an impromptu version of "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)" and Gilmour's upcoming special appearance at one of Waters' UK The Wall shows.

My Readers

Just looking over the stats for the blog here at Blogger.com and I've found that I have readers in more countries than I realised!
QoQuaq Music is read in:

UK
USA
Canada
Mexico
Netherlands
Germany
Russia
Australia
Poland
Hungary

While I'm at it, the most popular web browser for viewing the blog in is Firefox, and Windows is the most common opperating system.

Remember you can follow the blog on Twitter - @QoQuaqMusic.

The Division Bell

The Division Bell CD cover

The Division Bell is the final Pink Floyd studio album, released in 1994. It saw the end of one of prog rock's biggest bands, and one of the world's favourites.

The album has received mixed reviews in the past, and was slated by ex-band member, Roger Waters at the time of it's release, although he's never mentioned it (or it's predecessor, A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987)) since.

Work began on this album, rather slowly at the start of 1993, when David Gilmour that the band needed to make an album which sounded more like a "real Pink Floyd album..." and not simply a David Gilmour album with a Pink Floyd tag. A little known fact is that the late Richard Wright did not even perform on A Momentary Lapse of Reason, Gilmour (along with session musicians, including Jon Carin) performed the keyboard parts, the bass parts were handled by Gilmour and Guy Pratt. The Division Bell would be different. The album contains, for the first time since 1975's Wish You Were Here, music written by Wright ("Cluster One", "What Do You Want From Me", "Marooned", "Wearing the Inside Out" & "Keep Talking"). Another first since Wish You Were Here is a track about former band mate, Syd Barrett ("Poles Apart") with lyrics written by Gilmour, Nick Laird-Clowes (from The Dream Academy) and Gilmour's wife (then girlfriend) Polly Samson. Samson wrote a majority of the album's lyrics.

The album's overall theme is communication, or lack of it. "What Do You Want From Me" is about an argument between a couple who do not talk enough. Musically and lyrically it's very pleasing, another example of Floyd writing a song which the everyman can relate to.
"Poles Apart" is another song about Syd Barrett, Pink Floyd's 'lost genius', the following tour also showed images of Syd during the show, as well as the first performances of "Astronomy Domine" since the early '70s.

Pink Floyd performing "One of These Days" in Philadelphia, 1994

"Marooned" is a very peaceful instrumental co-written between Gilmour and Wright with some outstanding use of a pitch-shifter pedal on Gilmour's guitar to get a very oceanic sound. Part of it features on the Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd.
"Wearing the Inside Out" is a Rick Wright written track (with lyrics by Anthony Moore) and also features him on lead vocals (first time since "Time" from Dark Side of the Moon). It's a very sombre song, featuring the return of Dick Parry on saxophone (who plays sax on "Money", "Us and Them" and "Shine On You Crazy Diamond") and toured extensively with the Floyd. This song was never played on the '94 tour but did feature on Gilmour's 2006 On An Island tour. This was due to Rick not having the confidence to sing it live.
"Coming Back to Life" is the only song entirely written by Gilmour, and like "Sorrow" from the previous album, it stands out as being one of the album's best pieces, with some great guitar soloing, it was also a favourite on future Floyd and Gilmour shows.
"Take It Back", "Keep Talking" and "Lost for Words" are some of this album's lower points for me. "Take It Back" sounds a little too much like a U2 song for me, a little too 'pop' for Pink Floyd, though it worked well live (see the PULSE DVD). "Keep Talking" continues the communication theme and features some spoken phrases by Stephen Hawking, in all honesty I don't know if these phrases were picked from somewhere or if Hawking recorded them for the Floyd, I find this a little hard to believe, but you never know. I can't find any reliable info on this. "Lost for Words" let's itself down with the line "they tell me to please go fuck myself...", I've always believed that swearing isn't necessary in songs, especially with bands of Pink Floyd's calibre (and I know "fuck" appears in "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" from Animals too), but other than that it's a mediocre acoustic number which rarely got played on tour.
The album closes with "High Hopes", definitely the album's most liked track by Floyd fans, it's an electro-acoustic song, featuring some of Gilmour's finest music, it was played at every show on the Division Bell Tour and at nearly every gig that Gilmour has done since. It is also the longest track on the album, and features one of Gilmour's most notable solos.

All in all this is one of the better Pink Floyd albums, up there with Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and The Wall. Whereas Waters purists will probably dislike the album, dismissing it as "not Pink Floyd" other, less closed minded people should enjoy it. It's varied sounds and textures as well as very well written lyrics by Samson make this album a delight to listen to.

If you like this album then I strongly recommend the PULSE album and DVD. The live releases from the 1994 Division Bell tour.

Tracklisting:

1. Cluster One (5:58)
2. What Do You Want from Me (4:21)
3. Poles Apart (7:04)
4. Marooned (5:29)
5. A Great Day for Freedom (4:17)
6. Wearing the Inside Out (6:49)
7. Take it Back (6:12)
8. Coming Back to Life (6:18)
9. Keep Talking (6:11)
10. Lost for Words (5:14)
11. High Hopes (8:31)

QoQuaq recommends:

"Poles Apart", "Marooned", "Coming Back to Life" and "High Hopes".

Rating:

4/5

Title: The Division Bell
Label: EMI
Genre: Progressive rock / soft rock
Release date: 28th March 1994

This album is available at Amazon and iTunes.

Roger Waters - The Wall Live 2011

In anticipation of Roger Waters bringing his live version of Pink Floyd's The Wall to Europe and the UK this year, and in preparation for the next album review, which will be a Pink Floyd album, I will stick some video's of some of Roger's American shows. Enjoy.

"The Happiest Days of Our Lives / Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)"





"Mother"






"Run Like Hell"

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Phil Collins retires from music

Phil Collins performing with Genesis in 2007

On Friday, 4th March 2011, Phil Collins announced that he is retiring from the music business. The ex-Genesis drummer and singer said "[it is] a good time to stop", adding: "I don't think anyone's going to miss me."

The star joined Genesis in 1970 as drummer(replacing John Mayhew, appearing on all albums from Nursey Cryme onwards) and later replaced Peter Gabriel as lead singer. In the 1980s he had hits such as "In The Air Tonight", "Against All Odds" and "Two Hearts", while continuing with Genesis.
Collins is one of the all-time great drummers, up there with John Bonham (Led Zeppelin), Keith Moon (The Who), Bill Bruford (Yes, King Crimson) and Nick Mason (Pink Floyd).

I'm Back!

I am finally back after suffering severe internet problems since November.
I am happy to say that QoQuaq Music will be bringing you some more reviews of prog (and non-prog) albums very soon.

I wish to thank my readers for being patient.