Holland Music

In America the golden season for music festivals ended up in late '69 with the Altamont's accidents, a few months after Woodstock. In the early seventies in Europe there was still space for some "good vibrations", as proved by the Kralingen Pop festival, near Rotterdam, on June 1970. The event, documented by the movie Stamping Ground, is often remembered as the European Woodstock, because of the presence of many artists that had already played on that historical three-days concert, like Santana, Jefferson Airplane, Canned Heat, Country Joe. But the Kralingen festival also showed how vital was the British scene on that period, offering great perfomances by bands like Pink Floyd, Soft Machine, East Of Eden, Caravan, Fairport Convention, Family, T. Rex…

One of the Pioneers on the British Neo Prog scene (apologies to Martin ORFORD - I know you hate the Neo Prog concept), IQ is one of the few bands from the 80's and 90's scene that superbly delivers a full symphonic, rich in emotion music. The outstanding vocals of Peter NICHOLLS give the band its trademark, but the keyboard arrangements from the multiband man Martin ORFORD (JADIS) really add to the atmosphere here. Not enough, the guitar work from Mike HOLMES completes the last essential ingredient of the band's musicianship.

"The Wake" - recorded live at De Boerderij, Holland, June 19, 2010

Jools Hollans's highly succeful Rhythm and Blues Orchestra truly come into their absolute own on this DVD. Jools and the Orchestra do all manner of big band styles; they can play the blues with B.B. King, boogie woogie with Robert Plant, get soulful with Solomon Burke or swing Sinatra-style with Huey from the Fun LOvin' Criminals. Now thanks to this DVD, you can pour yourself a drink, surround yourself with the cream of British celebrity and sing along to some of the greatest songs in pop music anytime you like. Ladies and gentlemen, Let's Party!

Neither quite rock, nor quite jazz, both men believe in a music with immediacy, with authorship, and without boundaries or safety nets. Their instant compositions resonate with happy coincidence, brilliant technique, human accident, unforced error, missed chances, astonishing good luck, hidden intentions, oblique references and the full catalogue of happenstance that is mirrored in all human existence, and is just the kind of place in which both men can live and breathe and have their being.