Arena (band)
| arena | |
|---|---|
.jpg) At the Baltic Progressive Festival 2007 in Kernavė |
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| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Progressive rock |
| founding | 1995 |
| Website | www.verglas.com/arenaworld |
| Founding members | |
| John Carson (1995) | |
Vocals, bass
|
Cliff Orsi (1995) |
Guitar , vocals |
Keith More (until 1996) |
| Mick Pointer | |
| Clive Nolan | |
| Current occupation | |
singing |
Damian Wilson (since 2020) |
bass |
Kylan Amos (since 2014) |
guitar |
John Mitchell (since 1997) |
Drums, percussion |
Mick Pointer |
Keyboard |
Clive Nolan |
| former members | |
Bass, vocals |
John Jowitt (1996-1998, 2011-2014) |
singing |
Paul Wrightson (1996-1998) |
singing |
Rob Sowden (1998-2010) |
bass |
Ian Salmon (2000-2011) |
singing |
Paul Manzi (2010-2020) |
Arena is an English progressive rock band that was founded in 1995 by Mick Pointer (ex- Marillion ) and Clive Nolan (with Pendragon and Shadowland, among others ).
history
The band released their first album Songs from the Lions Cage in their founding year 1995 and in their starting line-up . After that, singer John Carson left the band in September 1995 and then bassist Cliff Orsi in May 1996 and were replaced by Paul Wrightson (vocals) and John Jowitt (bass). This was followed by the studio album Pride , which was produced by Simon Hanhart, and a tour and the EP Edits . After the EP was released, guitarist Keith More turned to other things and was replaced by John Mitchell. This played for the first time on the 1997 EP The Cry . In the same year he also produced the first live album for Arena: Welcome to the Stage - Live . A year later, The Visitor was released , often cited as the most important album of the band and - based on short, connected songs that tell a story - is a concept album .
In 1999 the arena became quiet. The band did not release an album and some members devoted themselves to other projects: John Mitchell played in The Urbane and Clive Nolan took part in the Jabberwocky Project with Oliver Wakeman. In addition, singer Paul Wrightson was replaced by Rob Sowden and bassist John Jowitt by Ian Salmon. With this fresh line-up, the band released the album Immortal? for which work had already started in 1999. A tour followed and in 2001 the live album Breakfast in Biarritz .
After the tour, some members returned to focus on side projects: Clive Nolan toured with Pendragon , while Rob Sowden and John Mitchell worked on solo albums. In 2001 work began on the studio album Contagion , which was not released until early 2003 due to "various circumstances beyond the control of the band" . It should - completed by the EPs Contagious and Contagium released in the same and the following year - represent a coherent concept album like The Visitor . In 2014, Contagion Max, a limited-edition album for the tenth anniversary, was released, combining the two EPs and the regular album, with the titles of the EPs being inserted between the tracks on the album.
In 2005 the successor Pepper's Ghost was released, followed in 2006 by the live DVD Smoke and Mirrors . This was the last release with singer Rob Sowden and bassist Ian Salmon, who left the band in 2010 and 2011 respectively to be replaced by Paul Manzi and the returnees John Jowitt.
After a six-year break in the studio, the album The Seventh Degree of Separation was released in 2011 with Paul Manzi as the new singer , which is based on the Six Degrees of Separation theory (see also small world phenomenon ) by Frigyes Karinthy and this is supplemented by a seventh dimension. According to Clive Nolan, this should link the world of the living with that of the dead.
In 2013 two live recordings were released. One is the DVD Rapture - recorded in the Wyspiański Theater in Katowice . On the other hand, the double CD Live 2011/2012 .
In the waiting time until the next new studio album, the album Contagion and its two follow-up EPs Contagious and Contagium 2014 were re-released in a limited edition under the name Contagion Max with a changed song order.
At the end of March 2015, The Unquiet Sky, the first studio album with the new bassist Kylan Amos, was released, which was presented on the tour for the band's 20th anniversary.
In July 2020 the band announced that they would soon start recording their new studio album "The Theory Of Molecular Inheritance" with a new singer. In the future Damian Wilson will take over the vocal part.
style
Musically, the band is pretty close to the early Marillion , as drummer Mick Pointer worked on Marillion 's studio album Script for a Jester's Tear . There have been various line-up changes since the company was founded. On the last few albums the music shows characteristics of metal and can be compared to the band Threshold . The progressive impact was reduced a little, but the atmospheric elements have been preserved to this day.
Only the two founders play on all albums. The last albums are stylistically based on Shadowland, Nolan's former band.
Discography
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Chart positions Explanation of the data |
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| Albums | ||||||||||||
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Studio albums
- Songs from the Lions Cage (1995)
- Pride (1996)
- Edits (1996, EP)
- The Cry (1997, EP)
- The Visitor (1998)
- Immortal? (2000)
- Contagion (2003)
- Contagious (2003, EP)
- Contagium (2003, EP)
- Pepper's Ghost (2005)
- Ten Years On (2006, Best of)
- The Seventh Degree of Separation (2011)
- Contagion Max (2014)
- The Unquiet Sky (2015)
- Double Vision (2018)
- The Theory Of Molecular Inheritance (tba)
Live albums
- Welcome to the Stage (1997)
- Breakfast in Biarritz (2001, double CD)
- Live & Life (2004, double CD plus DVD)
- Live 2011/2012 (2013)
- Re-Visited Live (2019)
Video albums
- Caught in the Act (2003)
- Clive Nolan's Keyboard Crumpet [Limited Edition] (2005)
- Smoke & Mirrors (2006)
- Rapture (2013)
- XX (2016)
- Re-Visited Live (2019)
Fan club albums
- Welcome back! To The Stage (1997)
- The Visitor Revisited (1999)
- Unlocking The Cage (2000)
- Radiance (2003)
swell
- ^ "Various circumstances beyond the band's control" - Arenaworld website.
- ↑ "Official Announcement on facebook, July 14th, 2020" - https://www.facebook.com/ArenaBandofficial/posts/10158675767394577
- ↑ Arena in the Swiss charts
