Some Festival news

PROGDAY:

THE MUFFINS is one of those amazing bands that you used to hear about from the 1970s...after it had disbanded. Formed in 1973, the band released its first official album, "Manna/Mirage," in 1978. This would later be hailed as one of the best all-time American prog releases from the 70s and an essential release for any progressive music collection. But while the band developed a cult following on the US east coast, notoriety on a larger scale was elusive. Despite continuing to create excellent music and working with artists like Fred Frith (the band backed Frith on his 1980 album "Gravity"), THE MUFFINS played it's last show of the period in 1981 and broke up soon afterwards.

However, the legend of THE MUFFINS continued to grow long after its demise and in 1998 the progressive music scene was given a reprieve when the original members decided that they still had something to say and reformed. Unlike many other "reunions," THE MUFFINS really DID still have something to say and the band started writing and playing music again like they had never taken a 17 year vacation. This culminated in the release of a new critically acclaimed studio album, "Bandwidth," in 2001. Since then the band has continued to record and perform, appearing at ProgDay in 2001 and 2002, and at NEARfest in 2005. We are very happy to host the return of THE MUFFINS to the Storybook Farm stage.

THE MUFFINS is joined by Half Past Four and Mahogany Frog at ProgDay 2010. ProgDay is the longest running progressive rock festival in the world. The 16th edition will take place on Saturday, September 4, and Sunday, September 5, at Storybook Farm in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. For more information, and to hear music from this year's bands, please visit us at http://www.progday.net



NEARFEST:

Signed for NEARfest 2011 are simakDIALOG (Indonesia) and Gosta Berlings Saga (Sweden). Bios to follow shortly, or alternatively:

http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=3083 (Gosta Berlings Saga)
http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=4831 (simakDIALOG)

http://www.nearfest.com



CALPROG:

German progressive rock band RPWL was signed this week as the 4th performer at the 7th annual CalProg Progressive Rock Festival. The event will be held on October 2 at the Center Theater in Whittier California. The complete lineup is:

Ambrosia
RPWL
District 97
miRthkon

Tickets go on sale Saturday July 10 @ 7am. All seats reserved.

Visit http://www.calprog.com for more details and to listen to audio samples of the bands.



SUMMER’S END:

The Summers End Festival to be held at Lydney Town Hall, Gloucestershire on October 8,9,10 is delighted to announce that day tickets will go on sale on 1st July from www.summersend.co.uk. We are also pleased to announce the draft day line-ups now that all the bands have been confirmed.

Ticket prices. Day tickets Friday - £17. Saturday and Sunday - £27.50 per day
A small booking fee will be applied to each order to cover the transaction fees for online purchases. Still available: 3 day tickets £60. 2 day (Saturday and Sunday) tickets £45

Draft line up - subject to change

Friday 8th October
The Defence of the Realm with 3Js and a P - featuring Jem Godfrey, Pete Trewavas and John Mitchell (UK)
Tinyfish (UK)
Unto Us (UK)

Saturday 9th October
Karmakanic (Sweden)
Agents of Mercy (Sweden)
Unitopia (Australia)
Ark (UK)
Haken (UK)

Sunday 10th October
The Watch (Italy)
Sylvan (Germany)
Phideaux (USA)
Dead Heroes Club (Ireland)
Multifuse (UK, France, Italy)

http://www.summersend.co.uk