Nearfest Lives On! [Humor]

**Proglodite** · 11-07-2015

How did we all miss out on this?

**arabicadabra** · 11-08-2015

Hmmmm these guys are too young for our NEARfest average.....

**Supersonic Scientist** · 11-08-2015

OH, I thought those 3 guys were the original members of some exremely obscure belgium Prog band that I've never heard of, who were reforming for a special NEARFest performance and whom will be releasing a new CD, all-of-which, would lead to a several-page thread where half of the peeps here would state that they were ALWAYS into this band and snark at the other half who admit that they've never heard of them...

**JKL2000** · 11-08-2015

Apocalypse my foot!

**paythesnuka** · 11-09-2015

Originally Posted by Supersonic Scientist

OH, I thought those 3 guys were the original members of some exremely obscure belgium Prog band that I've never heard of, who were reforming for a special NEARFest performance and whom will be releasing a new CD, all-of-which, would lead to a several-page thread where half of the peeps here would state that they were ALWAYS into this band and snark at the other half who admit that they've never heard of them...

And then it would be discovered that Phil Collins sat in on drums with the Belgian band at a music festival in the '80s, which would be followed by the obligatory "Phil Collins ruined [insert Belgian band's name here]"

Not for nothing, but the guy in the passenger seat in the golf cart in the preview pane for the video looks like an aged Ray Loboda, and the guy in the back seat could be Jim Robinson with a lot less hair! Could the driver be Kevin Feeley at age 70+?

**heracleummantegazziani** · 11-10-2015

To set the record straight, the Belgian band was actually Russian, I was part of the conspiracy back then. The band's name was Dushanbe, the album was Music For Helicopter Rides. A few of us had tee shirts made up with tour dates, and band logo on them, we all wore them to either '08 or '09, there's photos in the archives, or there used to be. It was a lot of fun and suprising how many people knew and appreciated this band.

**AncientChord** · 11-10-2015

Nearfest will always be around for me in many of the recordings that I have from the festival. I've made several CD compilations of performances. But I did notice that many of the recordings, especially in the final few years, have not been released. I've yet to find any boots and/or official recordings of performances from U.K., Renaissance, Van der Graaf Generator, Änglagård, Three Friends, The Enid, Riverside (2010), Pineapple Thief, PFM, Gong, Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, Fish, Peter Hammill, Synergy, echolyn, Magma, Hawkwind, Magenta, La Maschera di Cera, NeBeLNeST, Indukti, Happy the Man, and Anekdoten just to name a few. What the heck happened? I'm sure all of these artists were recorded. Does anyone ever think those performances will ever see the light of day? Can Nearfest alumni weigh in please?

**Nearfest2** · 11-11-2015

Every year from 2000 was recorded, minus a few bands that did not give permission. The performances cost money to mix, master and produce - not to mention all the logistics around licenses, royalties, payouts, etc.

BTW, Fish released his performance on DVD a few years back.

Of the bands you mentioned...
Banco, HTM, Anglagard, and echolyn were not happy enough with their performances to move forward with releases.
PFM was under contract with Sony at the time and could not allow recording.
Three Friends has licensing issues with Alucard.
Magma and UK were not recorded.
VdGG has released a very similar set from that European tour.

**Supersonic Scientist** · 11-11-2015

The FM performance was officially released, as was a snippet of Guapo's NF performance.

**BrianG** · 11-11-2015

Originally Posted by Nearfest2

The performances cost money to mix, master and produce - not to mention all the logistics around licenses, royalties, payouts, etc.

This is a job for (cue the music) KICKSTARTER

**Digital_Man** · 11-11-2015

[To set the record straight, the Belgian band was actually Russian, ]

That is correct. I'm glad to see someone knows the real history of the band.

**Nearfest2** · 11-11-2015

Originally Posted by BrianG

This is a job for (cue the music) KICKSTARTER

It's not just about money, as I described above.

**AncientChord** · 11-11-2015

Thanks Chad for clarifying all of the issues involving getting Nearfest performances out to the public. It would be great to hear those performances that are locked in time, so I hope you and yours will still work on it. And I was surprised to hear that some of the performances were never recorded. Nearfest was, IMO the greatest prog fest. ever, and I'm sad that it's not around anymore. But nothing last forever. Thanks again for the info.