It's A Mystery!           An Album of Songs With John's sixth project, I find myself asking a question. Why, beyond glancing at the Affirmative Family, do I dig into this particular series of contemporary music that began to emerge from John Holden in 2018? It's definitely about intelligence.  John offers storytelling across a wide range of subjects, from murder mysteries and ancient artefacts to recent political history and, of course, light satirical observations on how the world is moving. That intelligence, therefore, sits in the tradition of Fairport Convention's storytelling, but unlike a certain rock keyboard player, the music echoes the curious effect of discovering Tutankhamun's Tomb, the bombing and resurrection of Coventry Cathedral, an Olympic race, and, come to that, Venice. It's also about being self-effacing; John is in that old tradition of the North. He does not have a posh accent, which means, in English...

 We Hear A Sound and Altering Our Returning The two old men at the back of the theatre were curious. What would the young guns make of their music? ------------------------- For years, Jon has been deconstructing or reimagining the work with which he has made his name. Not unlike many people holed up in 2020/21, he decided on a different tack: let's go back to the source, play the '70s music with a bunch of guys who have the musical intellect to find the original music and give it new life.  By find, I mean find the spirit of the music as it was designed, as William Bruford used to say. As we are talking drums, Andy Ascolese strikes me as someone who understands Bill's space and brevity better than anyone bar Dylan Howe, whilst sounding, not playing, like a rock drummer. He also has a ton of energy. But there are moments where, in the blink of an eye, he is an orchestral percussionist. Nothing, and then a statement of the tune, rhythmically, or a brief clatter around the ...

There are really just two questions for me, Is the organiser back?  Has he opened the door and entered the House of Castellano, or merely thrown some fairy dust over it?  The Organiser In 1980, when the tectonic plates of Yes shifted, shaking the very foundations that had driven them to such incredible heights, the roots of the earthquake lay with Jon. He had decided he was no longer "the organiser" but a songwriter, who wanted to make more spontaneous music.  In 2023, he returned to an idea he had pursued on two previous occasions: to re-establish himself at the forefront of Yes's most demanding music, the music that has become known as the main sequence. So, he dialled B for Band Geeks.  They and Jon delighted everyone on their tour last spring, receiving standing ovations wherever they went. The idea then begins to spin around in Jon's mind about another possibility; new music with the young Turks who played the classics with such elan, energy, flair and skill....

  A Full House  Note  This will be my first review under my Nom De Plume as a writer. I would like to thank all those who have read my blog over the years. It has now passed fifty thousand views despite recent modest activity. My intention is to broaden its subject matter as well as talk about my up and coming novel, "Hermes" the history it delves into, the speculations it offers and the conclusions one draws from a study of the past and the developing future.  Proximity and Chance   The emergence of this new project from John made me both excited but nervous, much like the previous one. The reason is simple after being so thrilled by his previous work and his evolution as a musician I was concerned whether he could maintain the momentum and offer something new and interesting, which genuinely added to his canon. I need not have worried.    Rather than a track by track and musician call out I am going to offer a more organic less Germanic review, m...

  There's a fire burning When you are fifty years in to your exploration of music, the same rules apply as they do to all the elements of your life, almost. It's not quite expand or die, more expand, circle or die.  From my first single (Martha Reeves & The Vandellas, Dancing in The Street) to yesterday’s Radio 3 jewels, gems and mysteries and everywhere in between I have been trying to hear music better. I hear harmonics, progressions and melodic connections that I could not have begun to appreciate in 1968. The nuances are more apparent, the structure clearer and yet ultimately, like all art, more than anything in 2023, I want to be moved and touched. What of the other side of the equation, the musician whose age I share? Trevor’s stated intent for his first solo vocal project since 1989, was to grow his musical vocabulary and try literally anything and see what happens. At an intellectual level, my one burning question was, would he be able to deploy all the e...

  Kintsugi With John's fourth project he has moved into an area rarely inhabited by the kind of bands that he and I share an interest in. Bands become a victim of their own momentum and feed on themselves. John, on the other hand, has no other consideration than to make music.  I have been thinking of artists that set aside naked ambition and just instinctively create. The Beatles "White Album" written in Rishikesh has that feel. Joni Mitchell's "Hijira" is more focused than "Hissing"; it feels more naked, more to the point, as if you get a more clearly distilled vision of the artist. Perhaps Steve Winwood's "Arc of a Diver" is an artist arriving at a destination, rather than striving restlessly for more 'something.' Thats what I feel I am receiving with Kintsugi. Part of that is because John has taken more personal responsibility over the playing and part is due to his absolute determination to feed the songs rather than the ...