Prog Gigs, Tours and Festivals - Paul Menel Band (ex IQ), Autumn UK dates

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Paul Menel Band (ex IQ), Autumn UK dates

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Topic: Paul Menel Band (ex IQ), Autumn UK dates

Posted By: Scoob37
Subject: Paul Menel Band (ex IQ), Autumn UK dates
Date Posted: October 18 2011 at 15:15

Paul Menel (formerly of IQ) and his band will be playing a couple of UK gigs next month.

The Marr's Bar, Worcester on Saturday 12th November - http://www.marrsbar.co.uk/" rel="nofollow - - www.themusicianpub.co.uk/listings_nov11.html

http://www.paulmenel.com/" rel="nofollow - http://www.paulmenel.com/

Replies:

Posted By: Easy Livin
Date Posted: October 19 2011 at 02:46

What style of music does the band play, prog?

Posted By: Scoob37
Date Posted: October 19 2011 at 15:04

That's actually not such an easy question to answer! When they played the Cambridge Rock Festival in August they played a mixture of new material and songs from the two albums Paul did with IQ ("Nomzamo" and "Are you Sitting Comfortably"). The new material probably has a more commercial rock element to it - although it's pretty varied. I know a lot of IQ fans would say that Paul's two albums with IQ are more commercial than any of the others, which is probably fair comment. But I think there are some stunning tracks on those two albums, such as Common Ground (and they played a few of them at Cambridge, so I was happy!). There are some beautiful tracks in amongst the new material too, some of which have a prog feel.

I was also at the gig they played at the Peel back in January, and although I enjoyed the gig at the Peel, Cambridge was better. The band had clearly benefitted from playing together for most of the year, Paul was in great voice, and Steve Harris (formerly of Ark) was on form on the guitar too. The tent was pretty full, and the band put a lot of energy into their performance, and they sounded good.

So...Prog with elements of commercial rock? If you liked Paul's albums with IQ, I would say you'll like the new material too.

Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: October 19 2011 at 15:21

Certainly a great lyrcist. I much prefer Are You Sitting Comfortably?to Nomzamo and would rate it as one of my favourite IQ albums. Worcester and Leicester are a bit too far for me though.