Magenta (Welsh band)
Encyclopedia
Magenta are a Welsh
progressive rock
band formed in 1999 by ex-Cyan
member Rob Reed. Reed takes his influences from bands like Genesis
, Mike Oldfield
, Yes
, Eurythmics
and Björk
.
In 2000, Reed started writing for what would become Magenta's debut release, Revolutions. Reed wanted to do something new, bigger and more conceptual. "Current prog bands are always scared and shy about admitting the influences of the great bands of the 70’s, and I wanted to come clean and admit and celebrate those influences, and hopefully create something as worthwhile as those classic bands" said Reed. "To do this, all I had to do was to give priority to melody rather than technical showmanship, something I have always tried to do with all my work." Revolutions was named "Best New Album" in 2001 by Musical Discoveries, an online resource for female vocalists in the music industry.
Magenta's second album, Seven was released in March 2004 and sold out of its first pressing within four weeks. The band's first single, "Broken" was released in June 2004 - from the EP Broken. While shorter than any of the epic tracks on Seven, Broken retains the classic prog rock sound of Magenta, with a slightly more modern edge. In November 2004, Magenta released the double live album Another Time, Another Place, recorded on tour in Europe from 2002-2004. The live concert DVD The Gathering was also released in late 2005 and a series of live shows followed.
(Iona, Mostly Autumn
) on Uilleann Pipes
and whistles. Once again, the album has been written and produced by Rob Reed, with lyrics by Steve Reed. Musically, Home represents a further development for the band, combining the Magenta sound established on Revolutions, Seven and the two singles Broken and I’m Alive. The new album was released in two separate versions, the single disc Home and the double disc version featuring the New York Suite. The second disc contains four longer pieces of music which could not fit onto the single disc version.
Magenta: The Singles was released in summer 2007. The album features re-recorded versions of various singles and album tracks. Rob Reed explains, "The first reason for doing the album was to get definitive versions of the songs recorded. We’d been playing some of the songs live for 3 years and we now had Dan on bass, and he’d brought his own character to the songs as they’d developed. Also, the original versions had been recorded quite quickly and we wanted to get high quality versions of the songs down, as we’d done with "Speechless". It was great to take a bit more time with them and record them properly. Also a lot of Prog fans don’t like buying singles, they’d much rather have the album format, and at 79 minutes we certainly have an albums worth of material. We can delete the singles now."
In addition, another DVD was recorded on the 23rd of November at The Point in Cardiff.
On 30 November 2007 it was announced that drummer Allan Mason-Jones had left the band. He has since been replaced by Keiran Bailey. On 11 December 2007 it was announced that guitarist Martin Rosser had also left the band to work with Dan Fry and Allan Mason-Jones on their new C-Sides project.
Their fourth album, titled "Metamorphosis", was released to registered fans on March 23, 2008, with an accompanying DVD featuring footage of the recording process and a full 5.1 version of the album. (The official release date for these items is April 21.) Prior to its release, Reed said it is "unlike what Magenta fans have heard up until now."
On 4 March 2010, it was announced on the Magenta homepage that bassist Dan Fry has also left the band and they were planning on holding auditions to fill the position. Fry's leaving also caused two shows in Holland set for May to be canceled.
In 2004, Magenta received the Classic Rock Society
Award for "Best Female Vocalist" and "Best Live Band". The Classic Rock Society (CRS) honors groups or artists who are popular with the public, but whose music remains unpublicised by national media and radio station programmers. Other past contributors and recipients have included Pallas
, IQ
, Spock's Beard
, Flower Kings, Mostly Autumn
, Karnataka
, Pendragon
and many others from the progressive rock genre.
Related
Welsh English
Welsh English, Anglo-Welsh, or Wenglish refers to the dialects of English spoken in Wales by Welsh people. The dialects are significantly influenced by Welsh grammar and often include words derived from Welsh...
progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
band formed in 1999 by ex-Cyan
Cyan (band)
Cyan is a British progressive rock band original formed by Rob Reed in 1984, but which split up after a few performances and one demo tape. In 1991 Rob Reed received a letter from a French fan who had received the original demo from Nick Barrett and was amazed that there was still an interest in...
member Rob Reed. Reed takes his influences from bands like Genesis
Genesis (band)
Genesis are an English rock band that formed in 1967. The band currently comprises the longest-tenured members Tony Banks , Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins . Past members Peter Gabriel , Steve Hackett and Anthony Phillips , also played major roles in the band in its early years...
, Mike Oldfield
Mike Oldfield
Michael Gordon Oldfield is an English multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, working a style that blends progressive rock, folk, ethnic or world music, classical music, electronic music, New Age, and more recently, dance. His music is often elaborate and complex in nature...
, Yes
Yes (band)
Yes are an English rock band who achieved worldwide success with their progressive, art, and symphonic style of rock music. Regarded as one of the pioneers of the progressive genre, Yes are known for their lengthy songs, mystical lyrics, elaborate album art, and live stage sets...
, Eurythmics
Eurythmics
Eurythmics were a British pop rock duo, formed in 1980, currently disbanded, but known to reunite from time to time. Consisting of members Annie Lennox and David A...
and Björk
Björk
Björk Guðmundsdóttir , known as Björk , is an Icelandic singer-songwriter. Her eclectic musical style has achieved popular acknowledgement and popularity within many musical genres, such as rock, jazz, electronic dance music, classical and folk...
.
Current Lineup
- Christina BoothChristina BoothChristina Maria Booth is a Welsh progressive rock vocalist and singer-songwriter.Since its inception in 2001, she has been the lead vocalist for the Welsh progressive rock band Magenta, in which she collaborates with Rob Reed....
: lead vocals. - Rob Reed: keyboards, backing vocals.
- Chris Fry: lead electric guitars, backing vocals.
- Keiran Bailey: drums.
History
Although heavily influenced by progressive rock, Reed is a professional songwriter and has done many other projects for both film and television. The most successful of these projects was called Trippa, featuring Christina Booth on vocals and Rob Reed on guitars and keyboards. Reed asked Christina to be lead vocalist for a progressive rock project he had in mind, and the initial ideas for Magenta were born. Booth went on to guest on a number of Cyan albums.In 2000, Reed started writing for what would become Magenta's debut release, Revolutions. Reed wanted to do something new, bigger and more conceptual. "Current prog bands are always scared and shy about admitting the influences of the great bands of the 70’s, and I wanted to come clean and admit and celebrate those influences, and hopefully create something as worthwhile as those classic bands" said Reed. "To do this, all I had to do was to give priority to melody rather than technical showmanship, something I have always tried to do with all my work." Revolutions was named "Best New Album" in 2001 by Musical Discoveries, an online resource for female vocalists in the music industry.
Magenta's second album, Seven was released in March 2004 and sold out of its first pressing within four weeks. The band's first single, "Broken" was released in June 2004 - from the EP Broken. While shorter than any of the epic tracks on Seven, Broken retains the classic prog rock sound of Magenta, with a slightly more modern edge. In November 2004, Magenta released the double live album Another Time, Another Place, recorded on tour in Europe from 2002-2004. The live concert DVD The Gathering was also released in late 2005 and a series of live shows followed.
Current status
The band remains active, with more touring and the completion of the new studio album, Home, which was officially released on June 1, 2006. The album is a concept piece and tells the story of a woman who emigrates from Liverpool, England in the early 1970s to "find herself" in the USA. The CD is 68 minutes long and includes contributions from a variety of guests including Magenta regulars Martin Shellard on guitar alongside Troy DonockleyTroy Donockley
Troy Donockley is an English composer and multi-instrumentalist most known for his playing of uillean pipes.- Early life and career :...
(Iona, Mostly Autumn
Mostly Autumn
Mostly Autumn is a British band, producing music heavily influenced by classic 1970s rock. The group formed in 1996, and have built their reputation through constant touring, never signing to a major label. The group's early influences were Genesis, Renaissance and Pink Floyd, and folk music...
) on Uilleann Pipes
Uilleann pipes
The uilleann pipes or //; ) are the characteristic national bagpipe of Ireland, their current name, earlier known in English as "union pipes", is a part translation of the Irish-language term píobaí uilleann , from their method of inflation.The bag of the uilleann pipes is inflated by means of a...
and whistles. Once again, the album has been written and produced by Rob Reed, with lyrics by Steve Reed. Musically, Home represents a further development for the band, combining the Magenta sound established on Revolutions, Seven and the two singles Broken and I’m Alive. The new album was released in two separate versions, the single disc Home and the double disc version featuring the New York Suite. The second disc contains four longer pieces of music which could not fit onto the single disc version.
Magenta: The Singles was released in summer 2007. The album features re-recorded versions of various singles and album tracks. Rob Reed explains, "The first reason for doing the album was to get definitive versions of the songs recorded. We’d been playing some of the songs live for 3 years and we now had Dan on bass, and he’d brought his own character to the songs as they’d developed. Also, the original versions had been recorded quite quickly and we wanted to get high quality versions of the songs down, as we’d done with "Speechless". It was great to take a bit more time with them and record them properly. Also a lot of Prog fans don’t like buying singles, they’d much rather have the album format, and at 79 minutes we certainly have an albums worth of material. We can delete the singles now."
In addition, another DVD was recorded on the 23rd of November at The Point in Cardiff.
On 30 November 2007 it was announced that drummer Allan Mason-Jones had left the band. He has since been replaced by Keiran Bailey. On 11 December 2007 it was announced that guitarist Martin Rosser had also left the band to work with Dan Fry and Allan Mason-Jones on their new C-Sides project.
Their fourth album, titled "Metamorphosis", was released to registered fans on March 23, 2008, with an accompanying DVD featuring footage of the recording process and a full 5.1 version of the album. (The official release date for these items is April 21.) Prior to its release, Reed said it is "unlike what Magenta fans have heard up until now."
On 4 March 2010, it was announced on the Magenta homepage that bassist Dan Fry has also left the band and they were planning on holding auditions to fill the position. Fry's leaving also caused two shows in Holland set for May to be canceled.
Awards
Classic Rock Society
Classic Rock Society, also known as the CRS, began life in 1991, originally as a society founded in Rotherham, England at the Florence Nightingale public house, which quickly progressed to become a large and well recognised organisation helping to forward the cause of Progressive rock, and Classic...
Award for "Best Female Vocalist" and "Best Live Band". The Classic Rock Society (CRS) honors groups or artists who are popular with the public, but whose music remains unpublicised by national media and radio station programmers. Other past contributors and recipients have included Pallas
Pallas (band)
Pallas are a progressive rock band based in the UK. They were one of the bands at the vanguard of what was termed neo-progressive during progressive rock's second-wave revival in the early 1980s...
, IQ
IQ (band)
IQ are a British neo-progressive rock band founded by Mike Holmes and Martin Orford in 1981 following the dissolution of their original band The Lens...
, Spock's Beard
Spock's Beard
Spock's Beard is a progressive rock band formed in 1992 in Los Angeles by brothers Neal and Alan Morse. Neal played keyboards and was the lead vocalist, as well as being the primary songwriter before leaving the band in 2002 to pursue a solo career. Alan plays electric guitar...
, Flower Kings, Mostly Autumn
Mostly Autumn
Mostly Autumn is a British band, producing music heavily influenced by classic 1970s rock. The group formed in 1996, and have built their reputation through constant touring, never signing to a major label. The group's early influences were Genesis, Renaissance and Pink Floyd, and folk music...
, Karnataka
Karnataka (band)
The Welsh progressive rock band Karnataka were formed in 1997 by founding members Ian Jones , Rachel Jones and Jonathan Edwards...
, Pendragon
Pendragon (band)
Pendragon are an English neo-progressive rock band established in 1978 in Stroud, Gloucestershire as Zeus Pendragon by guitarist and vocalist Nick Barrett. The Zeus was dropped before the band started recording as the members decided it was too long to look good on a t-shirt...
and many others from the progressive rock genre.
- Best Live Gig - Classic Rock Society 2004, 2008
- Best Band - Classic Rock Society 2005, 2008
- Best Album - Seven - Metal Hammer, Poland
- Best Live Album - Hungarian Prog Rock Society 2005
- Best Foreign Album - Home - Italian Prog Awards 2006
- Best Female Vocalist - Christina Booth - CRS 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008
- Best Guitarist - Chris Fry -CRS 2008
Studio
- Revolutions (March 1, 2001)
- Seven (March 1, 2004)
- Home (June 1, 2006) *Re-released & remixed 2CD set* (March 20, 2010)
- New York Suite (June 1, 2006)
- The Singles (May 21, 2007)
- Metamorphosis (April 21, 2008)
- Rarities, Vol#1 - Exclusive download release (January, 2010)
- Seven (the instrumentals) - Exclusive download release (January, 2010)
Live
- Another Time, Another Place...Live (November 1, 2004)
- Live at the Point (October 27, 2008)
- The Gathering - Exclusive download release (January, 2010)
- Live at Real World (September 19, 2010) - Acoustic concert with a string quartet
EPs
- Broken EP (June 1, 2004)
- I'm Alive EP (November 1, 2004)
- Wonderous stories - CD single (November 15, 2009)
DVDs
- The Gathering (October 24, 2005)
- The Metamorphosis Collection (April 21, 2008)
- Live at the Point (October 27, 2008)
- Live at Real World (September 19, 2010) - Acoustic concert with a string quartet
External links
- Magenta-web.com: The official Magenta website
- Magenta MP3 samples
- Progrock.co.uk
- F2Music.co.uk
- Magenta @ Myspace.com
- http://www.magenta.bandcamp.com/: Digital download page
Related
- Musical Discoveries.com: Progressive female vocalists
- Prog Archives.com