Martin Turner's Wishbone Ash - Play you some classic songs!

April 7th 2013

Rotherham, HRH Prog Festival, UK

***

Martin Turner's Wishbone Ash is a nice interlude!

Martin Turner's Wishbone Ash *** hit the Prog stage and from the second they start you can see they are well rehearsed and have a lot of live experience behind them. I wouldn't really say this band were born show men, for them I think it's all about the music and the song writing. I think the songwriting is why Wishbone Ash are still talked about so many years on. For this reporter, I have not been exposed to the band to this performance. And I think it's a performance that you really need to know the material to enjoy it. It's not something you really would get into for the first time at a festival.

The band from Torquay in Devon open with 'The King will Come' off one of their most popular albums 'Argus'. This song has a good groove to get the set into motion and is a good starting song. This song shows what Prog Rock is all about and it has so many twists. The song I most liked in the set is 'Why don't We' which has Pop elements that makes really accessible to the mainstream.

I think part of Wishbone Ash's success is that their songs are very easy to listen to for Progressive Rock and they have twists but not ones that make their songs drawn out. The guitar work is really interesting to and not over complicated like some bands in this genre. They move through songs from the Wishbone Ash back catalogue with putting the Martin Turner tint on it to like 'Sometime World' also off 'Argus' and 'No easy Road' off 'Wishbone Four' the bands fourth album. Their setlist is nicely put together.

Like the addition of the great Wishbone Ash song 'Standing in the Rain' is one of the tracks that really brings the set to an end, but it's 1971's 'Jail bait' that actually does. This particular track has a real 60's feel to it. This set was a nice chilled out segment in the evening but it was nothing that really grabbed my attention it was just well written songs played well. The setting was nice thou and Martin Turner was really on form. So if you are a fan of Wishbone Ash or Martin Turner you would have loved this, but for someone like me that is new to their music it just kind of passed me by and was really forgettable and wasn't one of my highlight at the HRH Prog festival 2013.