In 1996 a group of British neo-prog veterans decided to get together and do a one-off tour featuring the music from each of their bands, and also film one of their shows for DVD. NEO is what they called themselves, and Broadcast is that DVD. It captures bandmates Andy Edwards (IQ) on drums, John Jowitt (IQ, Jadis, Arena) on bass, Clive Nolan (Pendragon, Arena, Shadowland) on keyboards, Mark Westwood (Martin Orford Band) on guitar, along with special guests Alan Reed (Pallas) on lead vocals, Nick Barrett (Pendragon) on guitar and lead vocals, and John Barnsfield (ex-Pendragon) on keyboards performing live at the Wyspianski (Slaski) Theatre in Katowice, Poland on October 31st, 2006.
NEO was sandwiched in the middle of an impressive bill, headlined by fellow British neo-proggers Pendragon, and opened by Swedish prog-metalers Andromeda. Each of the band's performances were filmed by Poland's Metal Mind Productions and released as separate DVDs in June of this year. NEO's performance kicks off with what I thought was one of the highlights of the show, the heavy duty prog-rock instrumental "Overture", which also opens IQ's excellent 1997 album Subterranea. Another IQ number, "Erosion" is performed next, and bassist John Jowitt does a pretty respectable job with the lead vocals.
At this point they welcome Alan Reed to the stage, which prompts a three song Pallas set featuring "For The Greater Glory", "Hide and Seek", and "Crown of Thorns", and with Reed at the helm they sounded pretty true to the originals. Although I have never been much more than just a mild fan of this Scottish band, Pallas have delivered some real gems during their sparse 23 year career, and "The Greater Glory" is certainly one of them. You may notice a strong resemblance to Fish-era Marillion in their sound, especially Reed's vocals.
Reed sticks around for two more songs, lending his voice to the Arena classic "The Hanging Tree", and IQ's "The Enemy Smacks". With only one or two of the original band members present, and especially without the original singers, most of these songs were like watching a good tribute band performance - which is essentially what NEO was - a tribute band to themselves. For the next song, Nolan steps out from behind the keyboards to sing one of his Shadowland numbers, "Mindgames," which had the mood of an acoustic folk song performed in some old British pub by a bunch of neighborhood regulars. Nolan should really stay behind the keyboards.
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