The Cape Incident
Oh what a night! If you were looking at the status updates on Facebook last night and the bizarre photos this morning, allow me to explain:
Some of you know that myself, tuataralad and apaisleybigfoot went to Summers End - a prog festival - last year and, well for no other reason that pure mischief really, we thought it would be a good idea to wear gold capes. It's a prog rock festival ; capes; geddit? Well sadly the majority of folks at this particular festival just didn't. The bands seemed to be amused, but we got a lot of very curious glances and even one or two quite hostile reactions. It's a bit of fun guys - I mean, I love prog quite considerably more than the next guy, but you know, when you really listen it, it's pretty silly a lot of the time.
Last night Pallas played in Glasgow. Pallas were one of the bands in the neo-prog wave of the early 80's gigging around Glasgow at the same sort of time as Marillion were gaining a following. Sadly for Pallas though, various bad luck with record labels, the fickle fashions of the 1980s, and drunken stage frightened vocalists meant that not only did their debut album arrive 2 years too late, it also wasn't the album they'd wanted it to be, and they never broke out of that scene. Now with prog gaining a bit of a following again, and their original fanbase still wanting to see them, they're back with a new vocalist, a new record deal and a new album in the works. Anyway, I digress, the point is that they're a top prog act, and we thought we should go - and since the old Summers End crowd were back together we should once again don our gold capes and be - The Prog Crusaders!
apaisleybigfoot however, eager one presumes to avoid the faux pas of Summers End, messaged the bass player Graeme Murray via Facebook asking what Pallas' official stance on cape wearing was. It kind of mushroomed from there into some sort of dare, whereby if we wore our capes, he too would don one for the encore. Apparently his is black, like Darth Vader's, and he does the housework in it. Soon there was an official announcement on the Pallas page announcing that the Prog Crusaders were coming down and everyone should put on their best Rick Wakeman. We couldn't not do it now.
The reaction couldn't have been more different to Summers End. It was a small crowd and we like to think we contributed a bit to the fun vibe that took over the Ferry for the night. People were laughing, and having fun with it all and when Graeme saw us he had to confess that we had called his bluff, and his cape was "at home"....
What followed was a blinding gig. Only the third or fourth time the band had been on stage with their new vocalist and already we were saying how much better than the previous he was. It was like he'd been in the band forever - and the new material he's working on with them sounded amazing. Anyway, at some point or another we hit on the idea that we had to lend a cape to Graeme for the encore. So, when the band left the stage after the second set, apaisleybigfoot went to the dressing room door and handed over his cape and sure enough when the band re-emerged, he was resplendent in gold lamee. I think he liked it. Maybe a bit too much.
Then the rest of the band started to get cape envy, and there was much banter on stage, so myself and tuataralad donated ours too and the band played the encore in capes. It was prog-perfect! We went to the dressing room to retrieve our garments of prog, where Graeme was grinning broadly, obviously sharing our sentiments "too many people take this stuff way too seriously" he said, "thanks for bringing a bit of fun." At last! Someone gets it!
A brilliant gig, a great night, and what brilliant sports the band were for entering into our little bit of self ridicule. We're prog fans for gawd's sake. If we can't have a laugh at our own expense we're in real trouble.
Some of you know that myself, tuataralad and apaisleybigfoot went to Summers End - a prog festival - last year and, well for no other reason that pure mischief really, we thought it would be a good idea to wear gold capes. It's a prog rock festival ; capes; geddit? Well sadly the majority of folks at this particular festival just didn't. The bands seemed to be amused, but we got a lot of very curious glances and even one or two quite hostile reactions. It's a bit of fun guys - I mean, I love prog quite considerably more than the next guy, but you know, when you really listen it, it's pretty silly a lot of the time.
Last night Pallas played in Glasgow. Pallas were one of the bands in the neo-prog wave of the early 80's gigging around Glasgow at the same sort of time as Marillion were gaining a following. Sadly for Pallas though, various bad luck with record labels, the fickle fashions of the 1980s, and drunken stage frightened vocalists meant that not only did their debut album arrive 2 years too late, it also wasn't the album they'd wanted it to be, and they never broke out of that scene. Now with prog gaining a bit of a following again, and their original fanbase still wanting to see them, they're back with a new vocalist, a new record deal and a new album in the works. Anyway, I digress, the point is that they're a top prog act, and we thought we should go - and since the old Summers End crowd were back together we should once again don our gold capes and be - The Prog Crusaders!
apaisleybigfoot however, eager one presumes to avoid the faux pas of Summers End, messaged the bass player Graeme Murray via Facebook asking what Pallas' official stance on cape wearing was. It kind of mushroomed from there into some sort of dare, whereby if we wore our capes, he too would don one for the encore. Apparently his is black, like Darth Vader's, and he does the housework in it. Soon there was an official announcement on the Pallas page announcing that the Prog Crusaders were coming down and everyone should put on their best Rick Wakeman. We couldn't not do it now.
The reaction couldn't have been more different to Summers End. It was a small crowd and we like to think we contributed a bit to the fun vibe that took over the Ferry for the night. People were laughing, and having fun with it all and when Graeme saw us he had to confess that we had called his bluff, and his cape was "at home"....
What followed was a blinding gig. Only the third or fourth time the band had been on stage with their new vocalist and already we were saying how much better than the previous he was. It was like he'd been in the band forever - and the new material he's working on with them sounded amazing. Anyway, at some point or another we hit on the idea that we had to lend a cape to Graeme for the encore. So, when the band left the stage after the second set, apaisleybigfoot went to the dressing room door and handed over his cape and sure enough when the band re-emerged, he was resplendent in gold lamee. I think he liked it. Maybe a bit too much.
Then the rest of the band started to get cape envy, and there was much banter on stage, so myself and tuataralad donated ours too and the band played the encore in capes. It was prog-perfect! We went to the dressing room to retrieve our garments of prog, where Graeme was grinning broadly, obviously sharing our sentiments "too many people take this stuff way too seriously" he said, "thanks for bringing a bit of fun." At last! Someone gets it!
A brilliant gig, a great night, and what brilliant sports the band were for entering into our little bit of self ridicule. We're prog fans for gawd's sake. If we can't have a laugh at our own expense we're in real trouble.