A picture of the venues grounds from the car park. I had to take a picture of them, as i thought all them hills in the background looked so beautiful :-)
Picture outdated. As the date of the festival drew nearer, Scar Symmetry pulled out and Heed replaced them
Jon Oliva's Pain (USA)
Kamelot(USA)
Heed (Sweden) - Communic (Norway) - Leaves Eye (Germany) - Cloudscape (Sweden) - Dreamscape (Germany) - Haggard (Germany)
Diary account of the festival
Getting there and the Accommodation
I'll try not to write too much about the journey ect, after all, this page is supposed to be about the festival more than anything else. I live in Bournemouth, so I had to make my way to Cheltenham by car. Although according to the AA guide, the journey I chose to take was longer than taking the as the crow fly's route, there were less roads to travel on, and of course.....NO SPEED CAMERA'S lol. I headed to Eastleigh from Bournemouth, then decided to work my way up from there. By doing it that way, I got to travel on both the M3 and M4. The direct route would of just been A Roads and B roads only, and much more junction changes.
I decided that I was willing to miss the first band playing, which would of started at 12.30. The journey was going to last 2-3 hours in grand total, so I didn’t fancy leaving at 8.30am in the morning, I decided I wanted the extra hour lie in, considering the prior 5 days, I had to be at work at 8am every morning. So I left at 9.15am instead. I missed a few junction changes on the journey which of course meant I was delayed a little bit on my journey because of that, but I arrived at where I was staying at about 12.15pm.
Where I stayed was called The Hope Orchard. Only at the end of my stay did I discover that another person from the festival hired a room there as well. Normally I am quite the skinflint when it comes to forking out money for accommodation to be honest. It cost me £40 for the night, which I didn’t actually want to have to pay that much, but to be honest, due to the places hospitality and obvious pride in running their business, I actually think the £40 was worth every penny, and I recommend the place to anybody wanting accommodation in Cheltenham. The unit of the premises containing all the rooms were actually semi-detached to the main building, so it looked more like a mini motel, than a B+B.
I decided to leave the B+B at about 1.15pm so I would get there about 2pm in time to see Cloudscape play, but the journey from the B+B to the venue didn’t quite go according to plan :-( , but I’ll explain more about that in the Cloudscape part of this web page.
Heed
But I must say, if Scar Symmetry did not drop out, and they were the first band to play, I reckon I would of made sure I got to the festival venue on time
.
EDIT UPDATE: Looking back, i wish i had seen Heed play live, as since i attended the festival 4 months ago, I have been listening to Heed's songs on their Myspace profile, and to be honest, I have grown to like some of the songs that i have heard of theirs very much during the last 4 months, that now i kick myself for not seeing them when i had the chance :-(
Heed were the first band on the festival schedule to play. Because I already knew this prior to arriving in Cheltenham, I left my house back in Bournemouth at a later time to purposely miss them. Now before I get any hate mail from Heed fans, I didn’t purposely miss them because I thought they were naff. I had heard some Heed songs on Myspace, and to be honest they weren’t too bad. But before I even knew of Progressive Powerfest UK 07, the only bands on the bill I had ever heard of, were Jon Oliva's Pain, Kamelot and Haggard. So as a result, I did not consider it all that important in getting up early, to leave earlier, to make sure I saw them.
Cloudscape
Sometimes you get to a round a bout with many junction options and turnings, sometimes an A road will have up to 3 junctions at any given roundabout. At a roundabout, you do not have time to thoroughly read all that. So yes, I ended up getting totally lost. And let me tell you, nothing stress's and angers you more than being lost in a strange town with tons of traffic lights being red when you get to them, and all you want to do is just get the heck out of there!!!!!. I ended up stopping outside of a hotel and a Sainsburry's on separate occasions to ask someone for directions. I hope in my rage I did not drive thru a speed camera oblivious to it even being there, at higher than 30 mph, where I will get a letter through the post telling me I have :-(.
I ended up arriving at the racing grounds at about 2.45pm totally missing Cloudscape :-(. I ended up interrupting the journey to eat a cheese and pickle roll (getting grated cheese all over my car grrghh). When I got there I needed water to drink, so I had to buy a bottle of still water at £1.60 :-o . So the outcome was.............I wanted to see Cloudscape.......but missed them
:-(.
Now.......I actually did aim to get to the festival venue on time to try and see Cloudscape for 2pm. I allowed 40 minits to get there. According to the AA route finder, this journey should of taken me only 15 mins. This would of even given me enough time to eat before I got there. The trouble with having printed up copies of AA Route Finders with you when you drive is, practically they are only useful if you have a person in the passenger seat acting navigator for you, but I drove on my own. You cant go suddenly stopping in the middle of a road (or instantly pull over to the side alot of times) to thoroughly read the page.
Dreamscape
The first song Dreamscape played was actually "Clockwork" lol. Hearing it live sounded so much different. For a start the bass guitar sounded much more meatier!!!. Nothing beats hearing a band perform live in the flesh. Hearing live performances from CD's sounds naff, but being their live and hearing them is amazing. Unfortunately there was one guy there about 23 or 24 if I was going to hazard a guess at his age who was totally pissed as a mattress. He was aimlessly flinging all over the place. I don’t know if he did it deliberately or not, but he was doing all that a lot of the times right in the near corner of my vision.
It made me consider lariating him over to teach him a lesson lol. But luckily in the end he went away and stopped acting like a tosser wanting to make an exhibition of himself. There was another person in the crowd during Dreamscapes performance that was catching my eye though, a nice sexy looking woman in a red blouse that exposed her sexy slim midriff, long dark hair, doing sexy dancing bum movements to Dreamscape playing. Hmmm she certainly got my pulse racing a fair bit if im going to be honest lol.
Dreamscape were quite enjoyable to watch to be honest, considering I do like some Dream Theater songs, and they appear of the same ilk. But apart from the first song they played, all their other songs were total news to me. In my opinion, hearing songs played live that you have heard and appreciated prior are always the best ones
.
EDIT UPDATE: From reading handfulls of threads and posts on the official Progpowerfest forum, I have learned since then that this festival was in actual fact Dreamscapes first ever UK appearence. And also apparently, Dreamscape were impressed with the reception they got from their performance.
Luckily, I managed to arrive at the venue in time to see Dreamscape play. Dreamscape to be honest are possibly the least well-known band and least documented band on this bill. As of writing this, they do not even have a page on Myspace where you can stream their songs. And the only song of theirs I got to hear prior to this festival was "clockwork". From watching them perform I started putting conclusions together, and the conclusion was, that I believe Dreamscape are certain heavily influenced by Dream Theater. Both bands have "Dream" in their names, and Dreamscapes frontman when he sings does sound very very similar to James Labrie.
Communic
I wished the 2 bands hadn’t swapped over to be honest, cause then that meant Communic and Leaves Eye would of ended up playing back to back with each other, meaning I could of gone into town and dossed about there a bit for nearly 2 hrs. But instead, as Haggard were to be after them instead (who I wanted to see), it meant all I got was an hours free time
:-(.
Communic had to swap over with Haggard on the time schedule because Haggard missed their original ferry from Germany to get over to here, so at least I wasn’t the only one who showed up late then lol. So it should of been Haggard playing here, and not Communic. Communic have done some alright sounding power metal songs, but again, they didn’t impress me enough for me to make a point of watching them, so I didn’t. I spent the time sitting in my car eating a few snacks and sending text messages home ect.
Haggard
The only bad thing with Haggards performance was.........it wasn’t allowed to go on longer than 30 mins :-(. The roadies and sound check team took longer setting everything up. I actually thought that only allowing 20-30 mins to set everything up in between acts was an unrealistic proposal. The standing around waiting for the sound checks to be completed while the band members were waiting on stage was quite funny. Because members of the crowd started shouting things out to the classical precessions performer. They shouted out "Gong Gong" where he looked over, and then just for the crowd, hit the gong a few times lol.
When the sound check foreman signalled the clarinet player to do a mic test, she played the melody from Herr Mening (where as the said song never got played :-( ). Eventually they were given the all clear to start playing. Haggard didn’t get a particularly large crowd attendance which was a shame. Quite often the bands male frontman did talk to the crowd in between songs. But what I found unusual was, although the band hail from Germany, the front mans accent sounded Brazilian. And him and the other guitar player both had the stereotypical south american dark brown eyes and black curly frizzly hair.
Even the female opera singer revealed she had a social humorous side to her defeating the stereotype of all classical performers are stuck up over serious people. There was a blonde haired gothy girl in the crowd near me clinching onto her bf non stop singing along with Haggard opera singer. Luckily she didn’t ruin the listening experience for me where as under more extreme circumstances, id imagine that could appear as very annoying to other crowd fans around her, cause after all, you paid money and showed up to hear members of the band sing, not members of the audience. I'm actually going to finish off by saying I enjoyed Haggards performance the most, and their finishing song "Awakening The Centuries" sounded awesome live.
EDIT UPDATE: Apparently, this festival was Haggards first ever UK appearence. I'm glad they made their UK debut with a big impact then.
Haggard were definitely a band who I wanted to see!!!!. They are very unique, and there really is no other metal band out there who I know of in their ilk. The closest I can think of is Nightwish, but unlike Nightwish, Haggard don’t try and make a point of appearing gothic at all. Haggard often get labelled with the "Gothic Metal" tag due to the fact they incorporate much classical music into their songs, and that they have a female vocalists who sings like an opera singer. Imo Haggard just simply combine progressive metal with classical/opera influences, and that’s it.
Leaves Eye
I spent the time Leaves Eye were performing, outside eating Cheeseburger and chips for my tea. And of course to rest my legs before Kamelot were up, which was next. To be honest, if there was a band on the original bill who I would of wanted to of dropped out for Heed to replace them, it would of been Leaves Eye.
EDIT UPDATE: Although this is not going to be news to many people, it is however news to me. The bands frontwoman Liv Kristine Espenæs was in actual fact the female guest singer for the cradle of filth song Nymphetimine
Leaves Eye were a band that I actually did not want to see on this Festival. I had listened to quite a handful of their songs before attending the festival, and im afraid.....not my cup of tea at all!!!!. This is not me trying to bash Goth Metal here, no. If a Goth Metal band like Entwine, Poison Black, My Dying Bride, To/Die/For, Sins of Thy Beloved or Paradise Lost were on the bill, I would of loved to of seen them. But Leaves Eye were too much like recent Theatre of Tragedy (who this bands front woman was once part of) or even Evanescence.
Kamelot
I did show up to watch Kamelot but I didn’t take any pics. I wanted to make sure I had enough battery power left for Jon Oliva. I have heard some Kamelot songs prior to the festival, and they have certainly wrote a lot of catchy nice songs. But at the same time, I’d be lying if I said they were one of my favourite bands. Luckily Kamelot did play all of the songs of theirs I like the most, including my favourite so far "Karma". Their opening song was "When the lights go down", that song sure rocks as well. As this was a live experience as well, all the guitars sounded heavier.
I even found myself head banging to a lot of their riffs in songs, which is not something you tend to react with when listening to progressive metal songs. They had a special guess female back up singer for this night. The front man did introduce her to the crowd by name, but I cant remember what it was. And the male fans did greet her with wolf whistles as well, as even ill admit, she was rather attractive. The band did eventually finish after being granted 1 hours performance time, which thus far, was the longest. They did come back on stage and perform an encore, with the song "March of Mephisto
".
Although Kamelot were the secondary headliners and not the primary headliners, Kamelot certainly got the biggest crowd attendance. I'd imagine to all the teeny/early 20's Scuzz Channel watching class of metal fans, Kamelot are the most prominent band in their eyes, where as Jon Oliva and Savatage, are more prominent to the yesteryear generation of metal fans, or the serious devout progressive metal fan. Kamelots set certainly had a lot of work spent on creating and erecting it.
Jon Oliva's Pain
Then I was like "OH MY GOODNESS, JON OLIVA JUST WALKED RIGHT UNDER MY NOSE THEN!!!". I couldn’t of done anything with it though, even if I had realised sooner. He looked uncomfortable as he was walking, and I found out later during the performance that the reason why this was, was because he injured his knee falling off the tour bus. So I was actually literally witnessing Jon Oliva's Pain ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. I sat around in the arena while his set and sound checks were being performed. My legs felt rather tired due to being on them constantly for Kamelots performance.
Kamelot finished considerably later than scheduled, so this of course meant Jon Oliva started later. Eventually he did appear on stage, and it was show time. Jon wanted to dedicated his performance to his dearly departed brother Chris, who of course was killed by a drunken driver nearly 15 years ago now, and of course was part of Savatage himself. Jon did make a light hearted remark at one time saying "I'm dedicating this to my brother Chris, cause he is here tonight, oh believe me he is here. It was probably him who pushed me off the bus earlier" lol. And on this note, Jon Oliva's guitar player that night did make some crucifix arm gestures and looked up to the sky, obviously in respect for Chris :-).
To be honest I was left feeling rather disappointed with the performance in general, only due to the fact that the only 2 songs Jon played that I knew of were "sirens" and "through the eyes of a king" (obviously a sequel song to "Hall of the mountain king"). All the rest I had never heard of before, and I am a big fan of Savatage owning most of their albums. Jon did perform quite a few songs from the "Streets" album. Again, I don’t own that album so I had no familiarity with any of its songs. Unfortunately my feet knee's and legs could not support me standing up anymore, and I had to do the regrettable thing of leaving the festival before Jon had finished (he was the main reason I went for remember).
Jon was supposed to be finished by 11pm according to the schedule, but at 11.40pm he was still playing. I hope I didn’t miss too much by leaving prematurely. Luckily though I got back to the B+B much quicker than when I tried doing the journey vice versa earlier lol. I didn’t use the AA guide this time; I just looked at the road atlas I had instead. I did the journey in 20 mins this time, and got into bed by 12.15am, I was shattered.
The final act, the headlining act, and of course the main reason I attended this festival. Jon Oliva is of course the living legendry former front man of the band "Savatage". Savatage became somewhat inactive after the album "Poets and Madmen" in the early 00's. Most of its band members went on to form other bands or solo projects, Jon did the latter. The first time I laid eyes on Jon Oliva that night was not when he was on the stage, but as he made his way towards the elevator inside the buildings hallway with security. I did not realise it was him until he got to the elevator.
My final thoughts on the festival itself
It was enjoyable, and I don’t regret doing it. But it was a long day, this was the first music festival I had ever been to, everything else prior to this, has just been singular gigs. I must admit as well £37.50 to see 8 bands is good value for money, especially when you consider that I have paid £25-£30 in the past just to see Alice Cooper or Def Leppard on their own. I had to be on my feet an awful lot, and like I said in the Jon Oliva's Pain review, my legs just didn’t have the endurance the keep me comfortably on them to see him till the end.
If I ever go again, there will have to be more bands on the bill that I actually want to see, this one only just sufficed. And to a degree my perceptions were proved right. I didn’t want to attend a festival that was going to be full of teeny moshers and emo's ect. As I realise Progressive Metal is more to the liking of the mature fan, and many people there were in their 30's, 40's and even 50's. I thought one guy there was actually Biff Byford of Saxon lol. There were still a few gothy people there and a few teens, and there was one woman their who was Asian and in Asian lady clothing, so I guess it proves not to just apply stereotypes to perceptions
.
EDIT UPDATE: I definently will not be attending next years festival. For the simple reason that the proposed roster for it will consist entirely of bands i have never even heard of. And the chances of me listening to their songs and growing to like a few of them before the date enticing me to reconsider I think is going to be pretty slim indeed lol. But however, maybe the roster will change a bit before then, or maybe the 2009 line up might be more interesting, so never say never.