Magenta live at the ProgDecennIO,
Zoetermeer, 20 May 2006

IO-pages the Dutch Magazine about Prog had a 10 anniversary, so they decided to to do a festival in De Boerderij - Zoetermeer with an excellent line up. ProgdecennIo 2006 opened with Satilite. A proggy band from Poland, with enjoyable classy prog., a mix from Camel & Genesis. Great drums, some songs even used two drummers, and keyboards. Good act. Two really fine albums; A Street Between Sunrise And Sunset (2003) & Evening Games ('05) and now a DVD. www.satelliteprog.com. Satelite at this site.

Picture made by Arthur Haggenburg SymfoCity Radio

Picture made by Arthur Haggenburg SymfoCity Radio

Mangala Vallis. If there is University called the Old Genesis Uni, then these enthusiastic gentlemen from Italy are graduated cum laude. Excellent playing, wonderful new song in the old Genesis Style. Seeing these men a bit on age is wonderful experience. Good show, nice frontman with some good stories. Please check tem out at Mangala Vallis.it.

Picture made by Arthur Haggenburg SymfoCity Radio

Magenta The True Color Of Prog.

Magenta... what must I write? Take a breath take a deep breath ;-) Did you know that I really had the plan to change my site name in mostlymagenta instead of mostlypink? So that will make clear how I think of this band. I never saw them before, so when IO-pages booked them for their wonderful 10 anniversary festival I was delighted. So my son and I drove from the lovely South to the Boerderij, heavy rains and traffic jam made it a long ride, but what the heck. If you walk up the stairs from De Boerderij and Rob Reed himself is standing on the top of it and you shake hands with him it's a great welcome. Finally meeting this little big man from Wales, this man who made the single of the year in 2005 with all "my" musical friends, who worked on so many projects you can hardly follow (and there's a great new one, check out the Magenta-page) and who peeked with Magenta to the Top Prog bands. So we had a nice chat, other members came a long and of course the famous David R. & Stephen L. joined, fun to meet them all! The gig. They started with a complex epic of 20 minutes The Children Of The Sun... mmm that's unusual, daring, the crowded was totally amazed, perplexed of the power of this song. Solo's from Martin as well Chris, tempo changes, stunning keyboards and I was pleasantly surprised about the new bass player Daniel Fry. Excellent bass loops on his 5 string bass. And Christina? What a great voice and a nice performance! After this wonderful epic the band played a few shorter tracks, 8 - 9 minutes ;-) Yes this is prog on his best. Envy was wonderful, starting slow, with that old Genesis feel (Entangled?) and then the guitar bringing the song to another level, brilliant. The band enjoyed themselves, Chris, Daniel, his brother, and Tina cheering up the crowed. Chris beheaving himself like real energetic guitar hero; fun! Excellent craftsmanship from all of them. A 40 minute set of new songs of Home followed. The new songs were played excellent, didn't heard them yet, but they sounded real Top and were played if the band played them for years. Don't know if the songs that were played are representing the whole new album, but it seemed that they were a bit more mellow. I liked them extremely well. The crowed was so still af 700 mice during the songs and get mental after the last note... Daniel did played some acoustic guitar too, nice giving him the credits with two such a great guitarist already in the band. Chris and Christina did a lot interaction and that was fun to watch. Chris stoole the show several times by his excellent play and jumping in the crowed. And did I mentioned Christina's voice? Superb! Happily Gluttony was played, one of my favourite tracks. The Sound in the Boerderij was excellent, a big applause for the engineers, well done! Pride was played in a short version, nice and Christina; "take my hand ;-)". Althrough I got the idea that the people in this full house weren't really familiar with the songs, there was one song the whole crowed sung a long: "Happy Birthday, happy Birthday to Tina, happy Birthday to you!" White Witch ended the show with a lot of Genesis & Yes mixed by Magenta on their own stylish way. Brilliant show! I'll certainly visit them in September again! And if you're not able to see them, check out the dates below, then try out their dvd The Gathering; a excellent recording from those lovely craftsmen and girl. intro; Opus Children of the sun King of the Sky Envy The Home songs; Hurt, Moving On, The Journey, Towers of Hope, Home, Demons, Dan the Greyhound Man, Massive Attack, The Visionarry, I'm A live Gluttony Excerpt from Pride Encore: White Witch Thanks! Have fun in Norway & Portugal. Nick from the lovely South of the Netherlands. So driving home in the middle of the night, chatting with my son, and listening to the new cd Home. After half an hour; heavy rain, so the listening session became a bit disturbed. Suddenly the Ullian Pipes of Try Donockley filled the car... creepy... I love that man! And a beautiful song carried away by Christina's voice and then the pipes again... Home.

PS1 Of course they sold the single of 2005: The boys and girls of Magenta were heavenly involved of this Project. Arjen Lucassen aka Ayreon was involved too with amazing 3 guitar solo's, he was in fact the first of 50 artists involved who had done his homework! And guess what Arjen was walking around at De Boerderij. So was nice meeting him too. And if you want to have another great evening go and watch his Stream of Passion shows. Tour Dates.

Picture made by Arthur Haggenburg SymfoCity Radio.

Picture made by Arthur Haggenburg SymfoCity Radio.

Picture made by Arthur Haggenburg SymfoCity Radio.

Pictures made by me (!) or if mentioned by Arthur Haggenburg SymfoCity Radio. Thanks Arthur.

20th May 2006 03:00 PM	De Boerderij , Zoetermeer, Holland With Satellite and Mangala Vallis Links: www.iopages.nl www.boerderij.org www.ticketmaster.nl
27th May 2006 08:00 PM	Folken , Stavanger, Norway, 250 Kroner Link: www.folken.no
18th June 2006 08:00 PM	Mr Kyps , Poole, England £8 Link: www.mrkyps.net
15th July 2006 04:00 PM	Gillingham Festival, Dorset , Gillingham, England Free Entry Headlining the afternoon session of the festival. 60 minutes set Link: gillinghamfestival.org.uk
27th July 2006 07:30 PM	Riga Music Bar , Southend-On-Sea, England Link: www.rigamusicbar.co.uk
29th July 2006 08:00 PM	Vizela , Vizela, Portugal Free Entry Link:Carlos Tavares' My Space site
08th Sept 2006 08:00 PM	The Borderline , London, England £12 Magenta only show Link: www.meanfiddler.com
09th Sept 2006 08:00 PM	Spirit of 66, vevriers, Belgium Link: www.spiritof66.be
24th Nov 06 08:00 PM	The Point , Cardiff, Wales Link: www.thepointcardiffbay.com
26th Nov 2006 06:00 PM	The Robin 2, Bilston, UK £12 in advance with guests Credo and Ezra Link: www.therobin.co.uk