Donner Arena 2000 Firmware Update

The gathering of Arena's famous musicians makes a super-group: Mick Pointer (Ex-Marillion) plays the drums, Clive Nolan (Pendragon) the keyboards, and Keith More (Asia) played the guitar until replaced by John Mitchell (Ex-Kino). Vocalist Rob Sowden has been with the band since Immortal? and the bass player is Ian Salmon. There have also been some guest appearances by Tracy Hitchings (singer of Quasar, Strangers on a Train & Landmarq) and Steve Rothery (Marillion's gifted guitarist).
"Songs From The Lion's Cage" is then a very professional Progressive rock, both close to Marillion and hard-rock. "Pride", their second opus issued in 1996 (one year after the previous one) confirmed the high musical level of this band, at a time when they added a touch IQ to their music…

Arena, a band who knows what it means to satisfy their fans. Arena has a fanatic fanclub: The Cage. Arena makes regular CD's just to be had for their members. "Unlocking the Cage" is the third one in this tradition. This disc gives a good view of the evolution of Arena over the five years.
The album opens with “Enter”, an instrumental atmospheric piece written by Clive to be used as the intro for “Moviedrome”, the track with which Arena would start it’s show. Deadcertain to be asked back on stage the band rehearsed “Encore medley” which contains loads of big immortal riffs. The nice thing about this release is the fact that it contains tracks from well over five years thus also from a period in time where very few people knew about their existence…

Voici une représentation filmée au Teatro Filarmonico de Vérone en février 2002 dans une mise en scène de la famille Alagna. Paillasse (en italien Pagliacci, qui signifie « Les clowns ») est un opéra en deux actes écrit et composé par Ruggero Leoncavallo, créé le 21 mai 1892 au Teatro Dal Verme à Milan. L’opéra évoque, à travers la vie d'une troupe de commedia dell'arte, la condition des comédiens de théâtre qui doivent en toute circonstance faire bonne figure en scène, quelles que soient les difficultés de leur vie privée.

The entire tour on 28 CDs sourced from great audience recordings. It gets a bit repetitive due to the unchanging setlist, but three shows standout in particular. 20 November 1999 was an amazing show from lights down and features a rare electric performance of “Before You Accuse Me” as the encore. The blues master at his best.