CRF Spring Fest 2010 - 3rd April, Haddenham (Nr Ely) CB6 3XD.

[mikeb]

In addition to the late summer festival itself, Cambridge Rock Festival has been running a variety of evening gigs in the Cambridge area throughout the year for some considerable time now but the program of events for this year features a new all-day'er - The CRF Spring Fest

CRF Spring Fest is an indoor event to be held at the Arkenstall Centre, Station Road, Haddenham, Cambs. CB6 3XD and will feature a full programme of bands plus food and of course that all important well stocked Real Ale bar for all your beverage needs ... which will be especially useful for wetting this new baby's head of course although (way too cold and fizzy ) keg beer, soft drinks and other stuff will no doubt also be available for any thirsty non real ale drinkers of course. No specific timing has been announced as yet other than to say that it will be running for a full 12 hours so expect something like midday to midnight or thereabouts I guess.

The full line-up is also still to be formally released but bands announced as playing CRF Spring Fest so far are as follows:

• The most excellent Welsh prog rockers Karnataka

• Brilliant Pink Floyd tribute band Pure Floyd Show

• Great local Cambridge blues band Taildragger

• And Tinlin who simply have to be the best acoustic duo that I've seen in a very long while.

Tickets are available now via The Official CRF Website or by calling the CRF Box Office on 01 353 749 749 or 0845 299 0845. The full day ticket price is £25 for the first 150 earlybird tickets sold before 14th February and £35 thereafter. Kick off your festival season in style this year with earlybird tickets for the CRF Spring Fest !

More details and the complete CRF Spring Fest lineup will hopefully be published fairly soon but please wander over to The Official CRF website for the most up to date info on Cambridge Rock Festival 2010 (this years venue and dates to be confirmed very shortly), the new CRF Spring Fest and all of the local gigs. Local gigs are also mostly hosted at The Arkenstall Centre and generally include a curry supper, yum.yum.yum along with that all important Real Ale bar again.

Latest confirmed full line-up

Edited March 29, 2010 by mikeb

[Paul ™]

Nice one.. The Pure Floyd Show are brilliant!

[mikeb]

I've seen them a few times now and they certainly are pretty good. Not in the same league as APFS of course but a talented bunch of guys and always a real good gig

The latest addition to the CRF Spring Fest lineup is Winter In Eden a "female fronted 5-peice Symphonic Metal band" apparently, aka something a tad Goth I guess ! I've never even heard of them I'm afraid never mind seen them before but following a li'l help from Mr.Google, I'm definitely liking what I hear from the samples on their website and some stuff I found on good old youtube

Fate Will Oblige (studio)

Edited February 7, 2010 by mikeb

[mikeb]

The latest addition to the line-up is Emerald Sky who are opening CRF Spring Fest and will be on stage at 1100 hours.

Timing for the event has also now been confirmed as 1100 - 2300 with doors opening at 1030. Food from a menu varying throughout the day and a real ale bar are available all day, so why not grab a breakfast roll, yum.yum.yum along with an ale to wash it down in true festival style of course and enjoy Cambridge based all-female rock band Emerald Sky get the festival off to a rocking start !

The earlybird ticket offer has also been extended to the end of February so that's almost another 2 weeks to get a full day ticket for CRF SpringFest at just £25

Edited February 17, 2010 by mikeb

[grumpyhack]

Great to see that Mostly Autumn have now been added to the main August fest.

[mikeb]

Yup, noticed that they'd been quietly sneaked onto the confirmed list when I checked the other night. Good news although an MA without Heather Findlay it would appear now mind you Apparently Livvy Sparnenn will be doing the honours in future tho and a new album is coming real soon.

[mikeb]

The last chance to get your hands on tickets for just £25 is fast approaching - the Early Bird tickets offer ends at the end of the month which is this coming Sunday. The confirmed line-up is currently as below and although individual band stage times have not yet been officially published, doors open at 1030 hours with Emerald Sky opening the festival at 1100 hours and Karnataka closing the festival at 2300 hours.

• Karnataka

• Winter In Eden

• Pure Floyd Show

• Taildragger

• Tinlin

• Emerald Sky

Here's a quick bit of an introduction for the headline act for those who may not have come across them before or haven't seen/heard them for a few years. Originally formed in 1996 as a 3-piece band by Ian Jones, the Celtic Prog Rockers Kanataka evolved and grew in number to a 5-piece until in August 2004, they suddenly and quite unexpectedly announced they had disbanded. The band was resurrected by Ian Jones a year or two later and after various line-up changes, the current line-up of Ian Jones (bass), Lisa Fury (vocals), Enrico Pinna (guitars), Gonzalo Carrera (keyboard) and Ian Harris (drums) toured in 2008 with the focus being on previously unheard new material rather than older material from former incarnations of the band. Karnataka have just released their 4th album "The Gathering Light" which not only is the first release from the current line-up but is the first album to be released since since "Delicate Flame of Desire" in 2003. The Gathering Light has been the fastest selling Karnataka album to date with the first pressing of the new album selling out in 7 days and receiving a good many excellent reviews, not least of which being Rick Wakeman stating that "...British Prog Rock doesn't get better than this...." when featuring "Your World" from the new album on his Saturday Planet Rock radio show earlier this month.

... The Gathering Light stands true to Karnataka's heritage, yet illustrates significant artistic growth since the former lineup's Delicate Flame of Desire release six years ago. Progressive rock influences are more apparent, especially through Gonzalo Carrera's Yes-influenced keyboard work.

... While the progress in Karnataka's sound is evident in several artistic dimensions, the guitar and keyboard-based instrumental arrangements are as notable as the overall improvement in vocal production. Lisa Fury has a delicate yet powerful voice that works well solo, with backing harmonies atop gentle acoustic arrangements and gliding over the top of the rockier tunes as well. Enrico Pinna's electric guitar passages and solos are awe-inspiring while the album overall is complemented by Enrico's acoustic guitar work as well.

... the care taken in the writing, recording and production of The Gathering Light has delivered an outstanding progressive rock album that will continue to expand interest in the band and this new lineup. Long running length of the individual tracks and overall album dictate that time be set aside to give it the attention it clearly deserves. This is an excellent album to begin 2010.

The above direct quotes are taken from a detailed review of The Gathering Light by "Musical Discoveries", a site renowned for actively following and promoting contemporary, progressive and crossover music featuring female vocalists. The full review can be found here

Other reviews and band information:

Prog Archives, Ravenheart Music, Where Worlds Collide, Amazon.com, Play.com, Get Ready To Rock

Edited February 26, 2010 by mikeb

[mikeb]

Two more bands have been added to the line-up for CRF Springfest making a grand total of 8 bands playing during the day:

1. IO Earth

2. Lime Shark

I've also added a shiny new line-up graphic to the first post in this thread with the confirmed full line-up for easy reference. BTW, I'm not entirely sure if it's intentional or otherwise mind you but the £25 earlybird ticket price is still coming up when buying tix online ! So that's a full 12 hour event featuring 8 great bands, 15-20 quality real ales in the Beerfest Marquee and food from a varying menu available throughout the day all for 25 notes I would suspect that the full ticket price of £35 will quite possibly apply to tix bought at the door tho.

I've not heard them before but IO Earth are a relatively new Birmingham based 6-piece Prog Rock band formed in 2007 although their music certainly appears to span the genres from Ambient through to Jazz ! In January 2010, IOEarth were named the ‘Artist of the Month’ on the Melodic Revolution Records website and received a nomination for the Best Debut Album in the 2009 Prog Awards as well as being nominated for Best Recording. The album received a 7/10 rating from Classic Rock Magazine and an apparently amazing review but sadly, I can't find a copy of this online. A very interesting band and one that I think I'm going to have to discover much more about. Loving that sax

IO Earth - Smokey Wood

Edited March 30, 2010 by mikeb