Sunday, April 6th.
We landed at 9 at Tainto Bay,Puerto Plata, Domincan Republic. We got off and walked through a small tourist village designed to fleece the cruise ship tourists. We hadn’t signed up for any excursions and Mark is not a swimmer so we didn’t go to the beach. We just walked around the little shopping area to stretch our legs and found a coffee shop where we had an ice coffee so Mark could check into with home using the wi-fi and we were joined by two women from Manchester. As they were single women not influneced by husbands musical tastes, I asked about their prog connection and the one said she was a huge fan of the melodic side of the genre, like Genesis, for years, and has a ‘museum’ of prog posters and ticket stubs in her basement, and her friend has tagged along for the last three years with her on the Edge Cruises. Interesting to talk to them and their take on things. I saw Charlie from Haken walking by with his big breasted grotesquely tattooed wife and their no longer little boy, who’d I’d watched playing in the sand 11 years ago. He was now a young teenager and walked with the attitude of not being happy where he was with his parents. I saw the lead guy from Big Big Train, Gregory Spawton and had a chance to talk to him about my connection to the band via Nick, Rickard and Dave Gregory. He had great things to say about Dave and his musicality but confirmed that he left the band because of the rigors of touring and tour bus life with his diabetes. I had a bit of a chat too with their manager, Nick, about the business and how all the members of BBT are musicians who have to make their livihood via multiple outlets, hence things like Rickard playing in two bands and all the Steven Wilson band members being on the ship and playing in other groups. I had Mark take a photo of me with the two of them. Then we walked back to the ship and sat on the balcony for an hour just talking about music, what we’d seen on the cruise thus far and life experiences. I walked up to deck 12 and found the keyboard player from Karmechanic, Lalle Larsen. He was very friendly and we had a great chat about music and the bands on board and bands from the past. He played keyboards in Hackett’s band. He is the musical director of the ABBA cover concept of Rival and plays in the band. He talked about the need to diversify and play in multiple bands to make a living and the trials of balancing all the schedules and a life at home with a family and his young son. We went to see Majic Pie at 1. They are one of the bands I knew nothing about but there was a bit of a buzz about them. They are from Norway and were pretty good. After lunch we went to the pool deck to see Pendragon who along with IQ were cast as NeoProg and have been around since the mid eighties, 50 years! While waiting for them to set up I spotted Peter Nichols of IQ and went to see him. He was happily talking to a couple of fans. He was asked what he did before he retired from working last year and he said that for the last 11 years, including through COVID, he worked as personal care worker in a home for dementia patients. One of the guys said that he saw IQ as a opener for Wishbone Ash, and fell in love with them. I said I saw my favourite band of the era, Gentle Giant open for Wishbone Ash. At that Peter pointed out that Kerry Minnear’s daughter was singing backup with Pendragon, so when they finally started I watched her. The band was okay but nothing really special, more derivative. Mark and I got talking to two young American guys about motorcycles, which started when one of them commented on my Easter Island dewrag. He said he didn’t get the motorcycle vibe but his buddy did and had a big crotch rocket and had had an accident racing a BMW car on the highway and although we was winning when they pulled around opposite sides of a slower car he was knocked off and was lucky to be alive, breaking his arm at 90 egree angle and other injuries. Crazy couple of guys. At 6:30 we watched Rick Wakeman in the Stardust Theatre. What a talent and a funny man. He is obviously getting old and was shuffling around and his balance was affected by the movement of the ship. He played solo on a couple of keyboards, three tracks from the Six Wives disc, two Yes songs, (You and I and Wonderous Stories) and then two classical versions of Beatles songs, Help and Eleanor Rigby done in the style of two different clasical composers. He said that he has a lot on common with Henry VIII as Henry had six wives and he had four and although he cut off their heads he gave them houses. When he played a longer piece he said that he hoped we’d had a leek and more importantly that he had. When introducing the Beatles tunes he said he’d locked the doors and we couldn’t escape. Thoroughly enjoyed him and was sad about the ravages of time. He said he is having health issues and will only play the last of his 4 solo shows. He said his doctor told him to lose weight so he got his hair cut. Then we went for dinner. I saw Michal Lapaj, the keyboard player from Riverside, and wanted to get a photo as he was the only one I’d missed in 2014, but he was engaged with friends so I passed and went up to see Trifecta which was a jazzy band with Nick Beggs, Greg Blondell and Adam Holtzman, all from Steven Wilson’s band. They had an AI host who made comments and actually sang a song with them. I really enjoyed them and will check them out. Then I went to the Spinnaker room and watched the Aristocats: Guthrie Gowan on guitar, Marco Minneman, on drums (both from the previous SW band and Bryan Beller on bass. They played 4 songs from their new album, DUCK. They are exceptional players. Standing beside me watching intently were Randy McStine and Nick D’Virilio, which says something. Got me thinking about the difference between good players and excellent players. Then to the Pool Deck to see Caligula’s Horse from Australia and try to find Mark. The band was boring and more metal than prog so I went for a walk around the ship and back to the room where I found Mark who’d given up on them too and was enjoying the balcony and the ocean. We went to bed shortly after.
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