TWELFTH NIGHT

Okay, people on RYM... just STOP. Gordon Ramsay level STOP. Can you even decide what neo-prog is? Did it ever occur to you that part of a neo-prog album's negative reception would be that you mistag something that prog fans are expecting to be different? Coincidentally, while this early "neo-prog" album has nothing to do with it other than being a Twelfth Night release, this album isn't even sure what it wants to be. There are new wave songs like Three Dancers which are fine and catchy, showing how earely the band really was and giving us a couple decent tunes in that vein. But they don't sound a thing like what neo-prog is supposed to sound like. As well, the ten-minute epic Creepshow barely has any prog in it, and the funky guitars of Fur Helene Part II are the farthest thing from the tag, and the experimentation might as well just warrant the experimental rock tag if anything, and none of the experimentation is anything beyond palatable. In fact, I liked the demo version off of SKAN more, because it sounded a lot like TRANCE, as in EDM, and trance hadn't been invented until 11 years later by Astralasia. Here, it just sounds like a long, basic rock track. On top of which, there's barely any melody involved that stands out, and sometimes the singer doesn't really know what he's doing. This album is a basic-level rock album that goes for strengths but doesn't try hard enough with any of them.

One of the quintessential prog revivalists of the early British neo-prog scene, TWELFTH NIGHT formed as far back as 1978 predating pretty much every other band that would rekindle the Genesis inspired symphonic prog that was only beginning to falter and fade away to the banishment of the underground during the 1980s. The band released a series of demos and singles throughout the late 70s and early 80s and although it's a murky distinction between what an official album is and what constitutes a mere demo, it seems the consensus is that the band's first album isn't it's more famous "Fact And Fiction" but rather this 1982 cassette-only release SMILING AT GRIEF. Amazing how prog acts had to claw their way back up out of the gutter with the same DIY ethos that propelled punk, metal and other outsider musical experiments to the forefront of the music industry.

While not nearly as famous as its UK counterparts Marillion, IQ and Arena, TWELFTH NIGHT was fundamental in summoning the world of progressive rock out of its forced exile and while bands like Yes, Genesis and Jethro Tull were crafting catchy pop music to cash in on the 80s trend of simpler music, TWELFTH NIGHT actually started out that way with a unique blend of early neo-prog, art rock and new wave however this band was overtly less commercial with the catchy pop influences kept in check by emphasizing more complex elements that made this album more prog than not however no doubt about it, TWELFTH NIGHT established neo-prog as one of the most pop influenced subgenres in the greater prog paradigm. Originally a self-released cassette album with nine tracks, the album has been reissued many times with the latest Steven Wilson remastering job having emerged as recently as 2022 to great effect with 13 bonus tracks. The album also featured two tracks: "Creepshow" and "This City" which were reworked and included on the "Fact Or Fiction" album.

This so-called demo turned official album is woefully overlooked in favor of what many actually consider to be the debut album, "Fact And Fiction" and that's really too bad because it's chock filled with excellent compositions accompanied by passionate performances and tight instrumental interplay. It was the first album to find Geoff Mann return as vocalist after a short stint as an all-instrumental band that found a surprisingly receptive audience once the "Live At The Target" album was released in 1981. Although the original release featured a really good production job considering it was a mere demo, the Steven Wilson remasters boost it up to top notch album status with respect to the album's original mood and feel without overdoing it. What's cool about these early TWELFTH NIGHT releases is it makes more sense how neo-prog developed through the 80s and how it incorporated aspects of post-punk, new wave and other more popular musical genres into a more sophisticated tapestry that crafted more demanding compositions.

SMILING AT GRIEF is an interesting mix of early neo-prog and 80s new wave with some tracks such as the opening "East Of Eden" and "Three Dancers" showcasing a bouncy more accessible approach that sound more like Ultravox than Marillion, however the album also features a few proggy excursions such as on "Creep Show," "This City" and the closing "Fur Helene Part II" which somehow mixes the new wave grooviness with proggy diversions from the bouncy bass bounce. The rest of the album also skirts the fine line between new wave and prog only in more subtle ways. It's all performed quite brilliantly and as an accessible catchy pop hook album, it's quite effective in crafting instant ear worms while the more complex elements are tastefully teased out of various passages where they fit in perfectly. Overall visiting this album is like going to the fusion factory to see how neo-prog was being engineered and perfected at its early stages, a sound that would propel Marillion, IQ and Pallas into the limelight and ultimately rekindle the entire prog revival scene that would really take off in the 90s. Many may cringe at the new wave aspects but i love new wave so it works for me!

How can nobody have written about this? It's simply one of the best live Prog albums out there! If you take the album FACT AND FICTION as the basis of their success, and the incredible performance of ex-leadsinger Geoff Mann when they performed live back in the 1980s to have come out and replicate the atmosphere and style of the band some 30 years later is amazing and thoroughly rewarding. The Fact and Fiction album tracks still haunt and engage, with CREEPSHOW still immense. But this is a show lasting almost 2 hours (there's 2 discs in the CD package) so there's much more music than just F&F, and it impresses, as does the quality of musicianship. FIRST NEW DAY is a pleasant surprise. Prog should love a theatrical leadsinger in the style of Peter Gabriel, Fish and even Geoff Mann, and Andy Sears as lead singer certainly continues that genre with a strong performance. Unsurprisingly you'll find yourself singing along quite a lot! So it's great music, a great occasion and recorded with clear sonic quality. What's not to like?

In the early Eighties the socalled Neo Progressive Rock Movement started to blossom, spearheaded by Marillion, and in their slipstream IQ, Pallas, Pendragon and Twelfth Night. These bands are considered as the most popular Neo Prog bands from that era, but Twelfth Night was the maverick, their sound was hard to pigeonhole, and by far the most original. On this wonderfully recorded (by Steve Wilson) new version of Twelfth Night their first album with Geoff Mann entitled Smiling At Grief ... Revisited (originally from January 1982) you can get an excellent impression from that unique blend of rock, prog, New Wave and synthi-pop, wih the focus on Geoff Mann his very distinctive vocals. The way Geoff Mann colours each song is an extra dimension to the music, from the very first moment I heard his voice (when Fact & Fiction was released in October 1982) I was blown away. About this release the following product details from the band.

"Twelfth Night's 1982 Smiling At Grief album was the first music released with new vocalist, Geoff Mann. With the 40th anniversary arriving in 2022, it was decided to celebrate Smiling At Grief by releasing a 'brand-new' version, by asking friends and peers to remix the album using the original master tracks. The response was amazing as contributions were received from Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree), Peter Jones (Camel), Simon Godfrey (Tinyfish), Tim Bowness & Brian Hulse, Rob Reed (Magenta), Karl Groom (Threshold), Andy Tillison (The Tangent), Lee Abraham & Stu Nicholson, Dean Baker (Galahad), Gareth Cole (Fractal Mirror), Paul Hodson and Mark Spencer. Some are straight remixes, some enhanced with new instrumentation, and some have been radically reworked, to produce an album that will be treasured by all prog rock fans."

My absolute highlight is the dynamic epic composition Creepshow (two remix-versions) in which Geoff shines with varied vocal contributions, from tender and romantic to theatrical and venomous, this is trademark Geoff Mann, supported by strong work on guitar and synthesizer.

Other interesting tracks are East Of Eden Extended (typical Eighties synthesizer sound and fiery guitar), the wonderful This City (emotional vocals), The Honeymoon Is Over (remix by Karl Groom, keyboards and guitar, here Geoff his vocals remind me of Madness), Intro Puppets (Mark Spencer with Mellotron choirs and a Giorgio Moroder-like synthesizer sound), the instrumental Für Helene Part II (unique 'embryonal' Twelfth Night sound with wah-wah drenched guitar, embellished with the unsurpassed Mellotron choirs), Three Dancers (exciting rock guitar by Gareth Cole, along powerful vocals by Geoff Mann, to me it sounds between Bowie and Spandau Ballet) and the Mark Spencer remix Makes No Sense (slow rhythm, dreamy duo vocals, 1981 Geoff Mann session, and moving guitar solo with Mellotron choir sound, goose bumps).

Neo-Prog History!

Twelfth Night, the band created by Andy Revell in the company of Brian Devoil, started out in 1978, releasing "Smiling at Grief" in 1982, a handful of pieces and demos considered to be their debut work. However, it was not until the release of "Fact and Fiction" that they found the stability of an album conceived as such. Also released in 1982, "Fact and Fiction" can be catalogued as one of the pioneers of neo-progressive, even before the irruption of future references such as Marillion or IQ.

The album tackles with ease such sensitive subjects as the obscurities of political power and its manipulative arts, the nuclear threat or insanity, with a scathing proposal, at times dramatic, and whose instrumental development impresses for the solidity with which the band executes it.

From the intricate and critical "We are Sane", where the histrionic and versatile voice of Geoff Mann (with a nod to the style of Peter Hammill) supported by the intriguing keyboards of Clive Mitten and the crystalline and sustained guitars of Revell, both orbiting over an atmosphere dominated by melancholy, the songs follow one another thickly, the dehumanised "Human Being" with Mitten's delicate piano notes and Revell's guitar solo, the disconsolate "This City" and its lamenting gait, but above all the sinister and super progressive "Creepshow", where again Mann's schizoid singing stands out, accompanied by an instrumentation to match in one of the best tracks of the album. And the general darkness of "Fact and Fiction" finds a small dose of luminous hope in the arpeggiated melody of "Love Song" to close the album with an epic denouement dominated by Revell's huge guitar solo and Mitten's concluding keyboard.

Beyond "Fact and Fiction", an excellent album, the fleeting presence of Mann, who left the band amicably a year later, and the irregularity of the next two albums, affected the general perception of Twelfth Night's brief studio discography.

4 stars.

An album of acquired taste that becomes an addiction, at least to the more "darker" listener. Powerful compositions with excellent orchestration, which are elevated by extraordinary and passionate vocals, delivering deep social and philosophical lyrics. Twelfth Night created a seminal album, a true landmark of the neo-prog genre, that manages to bring out suppressed feelings of reaction (or rebellion to be more precise) towards the social hypocrisy and ugliness of the modern world. The atmosphere of the music is mainly depressing and melancholic, however, there are certain breaks of light and optimism, calling for a more positive attitude towards life, spreading the message of love.

It is sometimes hard to recognise that Twelfth Night only released four studio albums during their existence, two with Geoff Mann as singer and two with Andy Sears. In a world containing any justice they would have been huge, and their albums would all rightly be recognised as classics, yet we all know the world is not fair and so they disappeared. But, it must be said that due to the fans and the incredible work put in by drummer Brian Devoil they have had a much longer life than anyone expected. Albums have been reissued and extended, new rarities have been made available, and a whole series of live shows released on CD. They even reformed and in various line-ups put on some fantastic shows, and now they have turned their attention to their debut studio album, 'Smiling At Grief'.

To put this into some context, the band had started life as an instrumental outfit at Reading University, settling on a line-up of Andy Revell, Brian Devoil and Clive Mitten. Their mate Geoff Mann was around as backdrop painter, while Rick Battersby operated the dry ice, but their first singer was Electra Mcleod who sang on one tape. After she left there were various auditions held, and by the time they recorded this their debut album in 1982 the line-up was settled with Geoff and Rick both now in the band to create the 'classic' line-up.

'Smiling At Grief' has been made available in a few different versions prior to this, but this time the band invited in others to remix different songs and possibly even add some instrumentation and additional vocals to the original. The project was kicked off by Steven Wilson, who had this to say, "This is easily my favourite period of Twelfth Night, when the band were reaching for some kind of new wave / progressive hybrid ? and successfully so, they really captured something of that moment in time, both the past and the future. Even if these were meant to be quick and dirty demo recordings it's been great to be given the chance to elevate the sonics a little (hopefully!)". Each musician was given a song, or two, to work with so as well as Wilson we have Pete Jones, Andy Tillison, Rod Reed, Gareth Cole, Simon Godfrey and many others and the result is a cleaning up of the originals yet everyone has stayed true to the originals, paying homage as opposed to trying to turn them into something which is theirs.

In all this set contains the original nine tracks plus seven bonus cuts while there are another five available digitally. I always felt this was the album which contains greatness, just not at the same level as 'Fact and Fiction', but "Creepshow" will always be thought of by many as Geoff Mann's finest hour, and the versions by Simon Godfrey and Paul Hodson demonstrate why that is indeed the case. Surely any fan of modern prog already has this album, often multiple times (like me), but this is yet another which must be added to the list. 40 years on, it is still completely essential. I haven't said a single word about the music and what it sounds like, but if you are a TN fan you already have this in your collection, and if you are a proghead and don't know about TN then now is the time to rectify that omission.  

It has been a very long tine indeed since I have been able to write anything remotely critical about one of the best progressive rock bands to come out of the UK and I am certainly not going to start now. They may have released just four studio albums during their career, but there has never been any doubt about their importance to the progressive scene and one can only wonder what would have happened if Geoff hadn't decided to move away from the group and follow his heart into a life in the ministry. I remember talking to Brian in the early Nineties about the band ever having a reunion, and he discounted it as no-one was really involved in music anymore, plus Andy Sears was in Spain and Clive Mitten was in Australia. Still, he kept working on remasters and extended editions of the albums and also released a whole series of live albums from different points in the band's career.

No one ever expected Clive to come back to the UK, and even when he did there was no certainty the band would reform, but reform they did (without original keyboard player Rick Battersby), and since then there have been quite a few trips down memory lane with members of Galahad subbing in at different times. But all good things come to an end and Andy Revell wanted to go out at a big event, and so Barbican's Sill Street Theatre was booked and on Saturday 15th December 2012 the band played the final (?) gig. The line-up featured three guys who had been there at the very beginning, namely Brian Devoil (drums), Andy Revell (guitar, backing vocals) and Clive Mitten (bass, guitar, keyboards, backing vocals). They were joined by Dean Baker on keyboards and piano, who had been a constant presence since the band reformed, along with 'new' singer Mark Spencer who also provided some guitar. Both Dean and Mark are also full-time members of Galahad (plus other bands), while Roy Keyworth, who used to also be in both Twelfth Night and Galahad, joins the band for 'East of Eden'.

As always, the band kicked off proceedings with 'The Ceiling Speaks' where Revell and Mitten duel on guitars, with bass coming from synths, and immediately they are up and running and the audience are in fine voice. All anyone really knows of the setlist at a TN concert is the opening song and the last, which will always be 'Love Song', so I was intrigued to see what was going to be included here and I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that there was a significant move away from material recorded by Andy Sears. Mark's voice is quite similar to Geoff's in many ways, so he would be more comfortable with the early songs, and perhaps that is why a decision was made to include just a couple of songs from 'Art and Illusion' and nothing at all from 'The Virgin Album'. It is a shame not to hear the drama of 'Blondon Fair' or 'Take A Look' but putting those to one side I think the only song of note not in this set would be 'The Collector'. We have time for 'We Are Sane', 'Sequences' and 'Creepshow' alongside the likes of 'Human Being' and 'Fact and Fiction'.

By my reckoning this is the twelfth official live album from Twelfth Night (counting 'Live and Let Live' plus the 'Live and Let Live Definitive' albums as two), which somehow seems fitting, and yes I do have them all. Each one is a gem in its own right, a snapshot of time, and while I must confess this doesn't quite live up to Geoff's last album with them, that is less to do with the performance and more the raw emotion and passion from everyone knowing it was Geoff Mann's last ever gig with the band. This set has also been released on Blu-ray and DVD, but due to poor planning on my part I have ended up in one part of the country with my Blu-ray player in another, so that review will have to wait a few weeks. But, if you search for 'Twelfth Night A Night To Remember' on YouTube you will be able to see some clips from that, which proves just what a band this is/was.

This can't be the end; we've already had a teaser with the 'Sequences' EP so let us see what happens next. Until then, listen to a modern version of one of the best prog bands ever to come out of Reading.

This little curiosity is really halfway between being a Twelfth Night compilation and a Twelfth Night reunion album. You see, whilst most of the tracks on here (the exact proportions changing from edition to edition as the track listing gets fiddled with by successive record companies) constitute a sort of best-of for the band's Geoff Mann and Andy Sears-fronted periods - including the odd rarity, like the B-side Blondon Fair (perhaps the best song the Andy Sears-fronted version of the band ever recorded, though Counterpoint from Art & Illusion gives it a run for its money) - that isn't the really exciting thing about this release.

You see, back in 1988 Geoff Mann and the other former members of Twelfth Night - which had by this point disbanded in the wake of the disappointing XII album - were enjoying one of their regular group phone calls and reminiscing about old times, and the subject of The Collector came up. This was an epic song from the Mann era of Twelfth Night, and combined perhaps their most advanced collection of musical ideas with what may well have been Geoff Mann's best lyrical concept ever - a miser on his deathbed, reminiscing about his life and pondering whether his relentless accumulation of material wealth and power was actually worth it in the end, a compelling story of profound philosophical interest even if you didn't necessarily share Geoff's Christian interpretation of the subject. (I think the lyrics work so well in part because even if Geoff's conclusions on the matter were rooted in his faith, his portrayal of the central character in the song rings true and doesn't depend on that - and the concept that "Heaven is not for sale" is perhaps something all can agree on, even if they have different interpretations of what that means.)

The Collector had enjoyed a few live airings in the late Mann era - indeed, Twelfth Night's archival live releases have captured a few of these, with two versions appearing on the Flashbacks release and another appearing on the 2CD "Definitive Edition" of Live and Let Live. Geoff and the gang felt that it was a bit of a shame that they'd never nailed it in the studio, however - and rather than idly regret "the one that got away", they decided to get together for a bit of studio time (which also yielded a new version of Love Song, compiled here) in order to finally nail that sucker.

And nail it they did: not only is The Collector a major pillar of this compilation, but this studio version of it is also by far the best rendition available - and set next to the other material here, it's readily apparent that it was well worth the effort to produce this studio version of it, since it may well be Twelfth Night's greatest artistic accomplishment.

It's a bit of a shame, then, that this compilation should currently be out of print. Doubtless rights issues are involved, since the band have otherwise done a sterling job of recent years of ensuring that their material is available. Sure, most of the material on here is available elsewhere in some form or another - but it still seems like a shame that this one studio version of The Collector, easily the definitive rendition of the song, should be commercially unavailable at present.

Those who were there back in the day have assured me that in the original cluster of neo-prog bands regularly headlining the Marquee Club in London, the top tier consisted of Marillion, Pallas, Solstice, and Twelfth Night. (It's amazing to think that leaders of the genre like Pendragon or IQ were on a second tier back then - sometimes headlining in their own right, but rarely if ever put on the same level as the big four).

Solstice, with their roots in the festival circuit and New Age/hippyish attitude, never got signed by a major label - and had no intention to - but the other three all got a big contract sooner or later. And it's really rather striking how different the destinies of those three were.

Marillion, of course, put out Script For a Jester's Tear and the rest was history - there's no question that they had the biggest success out of any of the Marquee neo-prog bands.

Pallas produced The Sentinel, but were the victim of the running order of the album being hacked up and crucial segments of the Atlantis Suite being carved out for single B-sides. (It would have been far better had the label simply left the album alone and kept the more commercial-sounding tracks recorded for it on the singles, so at least the different sides of the band - one highly theatrical and prog-oriented, one much more pop-rock-ish - would be reflected on formats better suited for those styles.) Pallas would, however, keep chugging on after that, and eventually plot a more independent course for themselves and earn a reappraisal in the eyes of the prog fanbase in more recent years.

For Twelfth Night, though, the tragedy is that the much-coveted major label contract seems to have been a death sentence for them. Twelfth Night had put out more material on an independent basis than any of their neo-prog peers, with multiple studio efforts and live albums under their belt (including Fact and Fiction and Live and Let Live, respectively their best studio and live releases), so when they signed to Virgin at the end of 1985 - after Marillion had stormed the charts with Misplaced Childhood and after Pallas's moment in the spotlight had come and gone - it must have felt to fans and band alike as though the hard work of the past half a decade had finally paid off.

What a shame, then, that the product of that contract should be Twelfth Night, AKA XII, AKA The Virgin Album. With a sound drastically simplified and with only the faintest ghosts of their former dark neo-prog stylings present, it's no wonder that the album was the subject of a critical backlash on the part of fans. The band gave up the ghost shortly afterwards, and whilst they have occasionally got back together - there was a 1988 studio reunion with Geoff Mann that yielded Collectors' Item, for instance, and much more recently they've had concerts with Andy Sears and have put out a studio rendition of Sequences - it's fair to say that post-XII, Twelfth Night was done as far as being an active, energetic songwriting unit went (with the various reunion efforts all being dedicated to old material).

Sad to say, it seems like the creative well just ran dry - the band had lost their inspiration for producing further material in the "classic" Twelfth Night style and seem to have spent XII and the period preceding it casting about to see if they can find new inspiration. It's particularly interesting to listen to XII in the context of the Corner of the World live album, for it puts the lie to the idea that Virgin somehow pressured the band into changing their style in order to get a hit. (Given that Misplaced Childhood was a huge hit by leaning into Marillion's neo-prog approach, wouldn't Virgin have *wanted* Twelfth Night to go proggy with it in light of that?)

You see, the Corner of the World live album was recorded well over half a year before the Virgin contract was signed, and it shows that the band were already at the time pivoting towards the style they air here. People like to make Duran Duran comparisons, and I guess Andy Revell does become rather fond here of a guitar tone reminiscent of, say, the lead guitar from Rio, but at the same time Duran Duran were far better at coming up with sleek pop hooks than the band are here.

Perhaps the best track on the album is the concluding Take a Look, which also happens to be one of the oldest tracks on the album; an early version, substantially closer to the classic Twelfth Night style, can be heard on the Night Vision archival live album which captures the Art & Illusion tour. Comparing the two versions, it seems like here the band have gone for a bright, airy production which is more or less the absolute opposite of the dark, claustrophobic approach they had taken for most of their career, taking the edge off the harder and more pensive section of the songs whilst trying to make the chorus the sort of feelgood singalong section people waved their cigarette lighters to back when everyone took cigarette lighters to concerts to wave along to the music to.

The tragedy of XII is that the band clearly are not technically incompetent - they seem to be trying their best to find a new sound to revive their creative juices. If any blame can be attached to the record company, it's the production job on the album which is so alien to the Twelfth Night aesthetic that I can only assume that producer John L. Walters (of the synth-pop group Landscape) either simply hadn't heard any of the band's prior music or just imposed his own aesthetic on proceedings, but a somewhat "off" production can't quite account for all the cracks that are showing in the foundations here. Worth it for fans who want an OK studio runthrough of Take a Look, Blue Powder Monkey, and some of the other material here, but otherwise you can see why this album would be a career-killer.