Steven Wilson

A superb evening tonight with Steve Wilson. His band are just awesome and the new album came across fantastically. Rock royalty in attendance with Steve Hackett sitting alongside Steve's mum in the royal box.

The boys even showed those Porcupine fellas a thing or two with a stunning rendition of Radioactive Toy. A fabulous evening.

Nice one Adrian. Thanks.

Sounds good.

John.

Musically the best show in 30 years of gig going.

6 guys at the top of their tree working in complete unison, and so obviously enjoying it.

The Raven in its  entirety, plenty from Grace (all the best ones - nothing Tolkeinesque ;-)) and finished with a rendition of RadioActive toy that was so good it needed to be experienced.

Still stunned as to just how breathtakingly good that show was.

Steve Wilson has moved to a league several above what he used to be in for certain.

Steve and Lontano

You guys are not helping my current state of mixed emotions.  I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that I was not aware of Steve Wilson in any form before this thread started.  I am now a late, but total, convert and think that the Raven is a great album.  I spent a lot of Saturday listening to it and was extolling its virtues to an old pal in the evening.  He too seems to have lived in a Steve Wilson black hole.

Still feeling good on Sunday morning and whilst looking for more info on the web I noticed a reference to Glasgow 2013.  Happiness soon left as I realised that only the night before he had played in Glasgow and I had just missed the boat.  Or, more accurately, the train as just to add insult the Glasgow train went by the bottom of the garden at that point.  And now you tell us how great the concerts you went to were.  The only silver lining to this cloud is that I still have so much of his music to discover and can at least look forward to that journey.

I took an interest in hearing this album as my friend Guthrie Govan is featured on guitar. I have listened to the album several times and I still don't know whether or not I like it. It seems to draw heavily on certain  characteristics from the heyday of progressive rock and the influence of early King Crimson is also evident to my ears. It is certainly an interesting album and I really like Guthrie's guitar work. He is without doubt, a fine player, as are the other musicians on the album.

While the back catalogue of Steve Wilson is mercifully short (Grace & Insurgentes unless you include the very early PT?) he has a huge amount of offshoots ( Storm Corrosion, Blackfield, NoMan & Porcupine Tree to name a few) all of which will empty your wallet with consummate ease.

Unfortunately, pesonal choices aside - most if not all are worth the effort of finding and listening. Not all are easy first time grabs, some really do grow.

Enjoy the journey.

Where Mr Wilson heads next only he can say. 

I only played the album 3 times in the week before the gig, just enough to get familiar with the songs. This was easily the best of the 3 Wilson solo band gig's I've seen, helped no end with the addition of guitarist Guthrie Govan. The performance last night really showed the strength of the new songs and highlighted the wonderful songs from 'Grace' & 'Insurgentes'. When you see & hear musicians this good at the top of their game, you wish it were possible to take away a 'live' video to see again at home (well Tonym's house to be more precise ). I think Guthrie has really raised the level of the band and it shows the understanding of his role in the band as 'Support' with the occaisional 'Lead'.  I've become a big fan of Adam Holzman, who I think has really developed his 'Rock' technique to add to his 'Jazz' artistry. I think The Royal Festival Hall is the rightful home of this band and they should not step down to the Shepherds Bush Empire again. Looking forward to the next gig.

I will try and catch 'The Aristocrats' on their next tour, where Guthrie is centre stage, along with Marco & Bryan Beller (on bass).

One other important observation from seeing Steven Wilson over the last 8 years, is his ability to explore new compositional avenues. I guess when Steven started the King Crimson back catalogue project, a 'lightbulb' moment occured during the early KC remixes and Steven embarked on jazz ideas that required jazz players. Undoughtedly Adam Holzman was key to realising this from 'Grace For Drowning' onwards and seeing Adam perform 'live' has been a pleasure.

I'm seeing Emily Barker & The Red Clay Halo on Friday night. It will take some adjusting .

Denis

Gary

Certainly enjoyed the gig. Musicianship a plenty. And you can't beat seeing Nick Beggs playing the Chapman stick. Rib rattlingly good!!!

The album is a real grower - give it time. Drive Home is my favourite.

Tony

This was not publicised Pre release,  I wish I had know this was going to be available,  I would not have preordered the CD.

David

DenisA ... You might want to check out a club in Chelmsford called The Bassment. Guthrie used to play in there every Thursday evening with a superb jazz fusion band. If Guthrie was not available his gig was often dep'd by Dave Kilminster (Currently on tour with Roger Waters)

I don't know if Guthrie is still doing this gig but it is a great place to go and hear some great players

HR,

My nephew told me Guthrie played in Chelmsford sometimes, so thanks for naming the club .

I guess touring with the SW band & Aristocrats this year is going to make the 'local' gig harder to fit in. I'll keep my eyes peeled & let you know if he hits Essex. I think he plays with his brother Seth, & Pete Riley, as he did on his solo album 'Erotic Cakes'.

Denis

The band in Chelmsford did indeed feature Seth and Pete, together with John Dutton on keys and saxophonist extraordinaire Zak Barrett. I met Guthrie through Zak and we played occasional gigs as a trio.

I doubt that Guthrie is contactable at present but I will call Zak within the next few days and find out what's happening.