RoSfest 2007: Starcastle Announced; Anyone's Daughter Out, Retroheads In
Date: Saturday, October 28 @ 19:34:51 UTC
Topic: Festival News


The Rites of Spring Festival is excited to announce US symphonic prog great Starcastle as our Friday night headliner. [We also regret that we have] to announce that an unforeseen scheduling conflict arose with Anyone's Daughter, which resulted in their canceling of their RoSfest performance. [Thus, we are] pleased to announce Norwegian art rock band Retroheads in their US debut as the second band on Sunday.



Symphonic prog great Starcastle [will be] our Friday night headliner. It has been three years in the making and finally we are able to bring you the classic 70's progressive rock band back to the stage in 2007.

Starcastle put its own stamp on the progressive rock scene back in the 70s and was one of the most respected bands of the American prog scene. Formed in Illinois in the late 60s, the band that would come to be known as Starcastle toured under various names throughout the Midwest before settling with a name that so perfectly fits the majestic sound they came to be known for. Starcastle played over 200 dates a year in the 70s and continued to perform live into the mid 1980s. The band toured with the likes of Gentle Giant, Rush, Blue Oyster Cult, Kansas, Jethro Tull and Boston just to name a few. The band released four studio albums between 1976 and 1978. Starcastle (1976), Fountains Of Light (1977), Citadel (1977) and Real To Reel (1978). The band made a few attempts to regroup after a hiatus in the mid 80s, and work has been ongoing on their album Song Of Times, which will be released in the near future.

Starcastle's style is heavily bass-driven, carried by soaring Yes-like vocals, with superb instrumentation all around. This dedicated group of musicians will feature the lineup that includes vocalist Al Lewis, formerly of Alaska, Starcastle guitarist Bruce Botts, guitarist Matt Stewart, keyboardist Herb Schildt, and drummer Steve Tassler.

In 2007 we see Starcastle at the RoSfest stage for a look into the past and a leap into the future. The band will play an ambitious set playing hits from their previous albums and tracks from their upcoming new album Song Of Times.

[As for Anyone's Daughter,] the following is an e-mail we received from the band.

Dear Fans of RoSfest and all Anyone's Daughter fans in the USA. We are very unhappy to have to let you know, that it's not possible for us to play at RoSfest in April 2007, even though it had been announced already for some months. We wanna make sure that you all know that it's our fault, and not the fault of the organizers of RoSfest. As a little excuse, we are gonna send 5 signed CDs of our band Anyone's Daughter to the organizers, which they can dispose of by lot.

We hope to see you all at RoSfest 2008!

Greetings from Germany
Matthias Ulmer / Anyone's Daughter

We have found a more than capable replacement with a superb Norwegian band known as Retroheads.

Retroheads combines contemporary prog with classic prog instruments, borrowing sounds from the past and forging a new sound for the present. Featuring great vocal interplay between lead vocalist Mike Mann and backing vocalists Ann-Kristin Bendixen and Deborah Girnius, stellar guitar work from Tommy Berre, thundering bass from Tore B? Bendixen, soaring Hammond B3 and keyboards played by Gry Anett Stordahl, and tremendous drumming from Trond Gjellum.

An example of what the reviewers are saying:

"I am finding myself enjoying another of their new releases with this cd by the Retroheads. Oddly enough, this band sounds nothing like anything I have heard from any Norwegian band, this music is geared for progheads, particularly those that have collections that feature the likes of (Spock's Beard, Anglagard, Yes, Porcupine Tree, Camel, Gentle Giant, Focus, Flower Kings or Gong) in their collections. A true progband in every sense of the word, yet altogether a new twist on the format, and certainly a culmination of most everything I listed between those parenthesis." - MJBrady, Proggnosis

The band released their first album Retrospective in 2004, which gained many positive reviews. Introspective, the band's second, much anticipated release was released in September 2006. Introspective has been getting rave reviews from leading progressive music review sites, and has garnered much fan attention. RoSfest is really pleased to have Retroheads fill this slot!

Be sure to go to the RoSfest website to download to free MP3's [from each of these artists]

Gold Tickets on Sale October 28th!

In case you've missed our previous announcements, RoSfest gold tickets [went] on sale Saturday, October 28th at noon eastern time. More information is available at the ticket info tab at RoSfest.com!

[Source: RoSFest]







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