News 2017

 

Band Gig Reviewed in Prog Magazine

 

A reviewer for Prog Magazine, Fraser Lewry, came to our Old Mill, Plumstead gig on September 23rd and the review is now out in Issue 81 of Prog Magazine, which has sold out on line but is still available in good retail outlets. Here is a quote from the review,

"the music is genuinely ambitious, with thoughtful, grown-up arrangements. Samuels' subtle guitar work underpins everything, while Martin Ash's dazzling violin and Stevie Mitchell's flute and sax lead the way. Ash is particularly entertaining, with a shaggy hair/beard combo and a proclivity for leaping about. It all sits somewhere between Solstice, Lindisfarne and The Moody Blues, and the first half highlights include the wistful, whimsical Children of the Stars, and a version of Wolves At The Gate that feels genuinely cinematic, even in these surroundings".

                      

 

 

 


 

 

Band Rock @ A New Day Festival

We played to a massive crowd at "A New Day Festival" on Saturday 26th August and completely sold out of albums on the merchandising stall on the day! Over the rest of the day a number of people stopped us to tell us how great they thought we were and, since our spot, we have been contacted by a number of reviewers, magazine editors and venue organisers, all showing interest in our band! Here are some comments we received from new fans made following our performance at the festival.

"Never heard of your band until the New Day Festival last weekend. After a few minutes listening I had to get off my arse, leave the beer tent and walk down the hill to the front and watch the whole set!! I wondered why you weren't higher up the set list."
Keith Holness

"Find of the festival for me! The set was too short. Would have like at least another 15 minutes."
Ian Ralph Huckin

"Love this band"
Kim Fletcher (Mott The Dog)

 

 

 

 


 

Overpopulation Project

Elaine has written a special song and envisages a project to raise global awareness of the growing issue of world overpopulation with its exacerbating effects on the unsustainablilty of modern, human lifestyles on planet earth. The continued growth in human population on our planet is going to accelerate global warming, with its increasingly erratic and more violent weather systems as well as rising sea levels. It will also compound the already serious impacts of pollution plus overuse of natural resources, which is causing the extinction of entire species!

Elaine has already shared the idea with local and national environmental groups, such as "SWLEN" (the South West London Environmental Network) and "Population Matters", who have all said they like the song.

She will be recording the song professionally, with the Kindred Spirit Band (including string quartet arrangements) this winter and has been contacting university animation students across the world, who might be looking for a worthwhile project to work on, for their courses this coming academic year. She hopes to have a number of video animations to accompany the song, to share with the world by next spring / summer.

The song has been recorded as a basic demo and been released on the special project web page. If you would like to see the lyrics, have a listen to the demo version and keep an eye on the progess of the project, click here for the page, which Elaine will keep updated.

 

 


 

Band Score a First at Fleet Festival on August 5th

 

Relive the day and watch the video...

 

 


 

Performer Opportunities in September

 


 

Music Glue Web Sites
 

It seems that "Music Glue" has become the latest "must have" web site for your band, if you want to be taken seriously on the live music scene! Music Glue says about itself that it is "used by artists, managers, labels and merchandising companies to sell music, merchandise, tickets and experiences direct to fans". Perhaps it provides the latest, best way to get interest from audiences! Whatever it is, there are plenty of festivals and events which won't consider you to perform with them unless you have a "Music Glue" web site! We bit the bullet and have produced both a band and a duo web site. Click on the links below and see what you think of them!

 

www.musicglue.com/kindredspiritband

 

www.musicglue.com/kindredspiritduo

 

 


April Gig Reviews


 

Rendez-Vous Tall Ship Regatta

Kindred Spirit Duo - Elaine & Martin

This was a tiring but enjoyable festival and a fun way to spend the Easter Weekend! We had thought we were going to be doing 14 hours of street performing, using my Roland Street cube for my voice and guitar and with Martin dancing about with the passers by while playing the violin. It turned out to be a much bigger affair than that with numerous stage performances and only two street performances over the entire festival!

On the Sunday we watched the Tall Ships sail past on their way to Canada, waving a farewell and Clive shot a video of the ships, putting our rendition (from the weekend's gigs) of "Catch The Wind", my song from  the "Dance of Life" album about a sailor getting pressganged, and a selection of hornpipes (including the "Captain Pugwash" theme)! Here it is:-

 

Clive also made us an "Irish Showreel", to help Martin and I get more duo gigs (since the Irish themes seem particularly popular), which has quite a bit of footage from the Rendez-Vous Tall Ships Regatta stages. Here it is below.

 

 


 

Four Play Festival @ The Acoustic Couch, Bracknell, April 8th 2017

with Multi Story, Jade Vine & Spriggan Mist

 

At the Four Play Festival, our drummer was unable to make it due to illness! We still did a good job without him though, even though it gave us a more exposed sound and Clive has produced a super video of "beast inside" song "Run Red", which we have released as our "Video of the month". Have a listen and see how we sounded! There are lovely solos captured in this video!

 

Review of the Four Play Festival from Neil Mach, AdPontes

 


 

Nineteen73 Live Festival @ The Robin 2, Bilston, April 2nd 2017

with Magenta, Cairo & Midnight Sun

The band kicked off this super day long festival at the Robin 2, Bilston to a room of hard core prog fans, winning them over especially when Martin leapt off the 4 foot high stage unexpectedly towards the end of the final number, rocking out on the violin! Legendary prog rockers, Magenta, were really, brilliant and Midnight Sun and Cairo were very, very good too! You will find some video footage of Martin's leap and a gallery of photos on our Kindred Spirit Band Facebook page.

 


March Gig Reviews


 

Curved Air Support @ Claygate Festival

The band had a great night on March 12th at Claygate Festival with a packed and appreciative crowd. Legendary prog rockers, Curved Air, were awesome! Click on the link for a page with more description, photos and see the Kindred Spirit Band performing at this gig!

Read more

 


 

 

Prog Mag Feature

The Kindred Spirit Band, full page, "Limelight" feature, written by Rachel Mann, is out now in the February edition of Prog Mag.
If you would like to read a PDF of it, click on the magazine image below.

And here it is on the on line Prog Magazine Features page Teamrock where an album track, from the "Phoenix Rising" album, illustrating the "folk rock meets classical with a scientific edge" tag has also been given.

 


 

Martin Ash Unleashed!

 Our exciting, electric violin player, Martin Ash, jumped off the front of the stage at our first gig - to the surprise of the rest of the band - and ran about amongst the audience - still playing his solo! If  you take a look back at the 2016 News page, you can see him doing this!

He will often "go wild" at gigs to the delight of audiences. Up until now though, he has been tethered with a lead from his violin to his effects pedals. Excitingly, he has just become unleashed; he has acquired a wireless system for his electric violin and will be able to wander freely!

I wonder what the maximum distance between the transmitter and receiver is?

 

 

 

            

 


 

Latest in the shock story!

In the last couple of weeks Future Publishing has stepped in for Team Rock and Prog (plus the other magazines they produce) have been resurrected! A photographer has been assigned to do a photo shoot of the Kindred Spirit Band shortly and the full page feature is back on! Read more about the story..

 

 

 

[News 2016]


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