FRIDAY 25 MARCH (EVENING)

THE ROYAL CARTEL
www.myspace.com/theroyalcartel

The Royal Cartel is a 4-piece rock group from London England. Having grown up listening to the cassettes of great bands like, Guns And Roses, Stone Temple Pilots, Rage Against The Machine, Deftones, Aerosmith, Soundgarden, Silver Chair and Pearl Jam, The Royal Cartel is today’s generations answer to a childhood growing up on classic rock.

Having worked in various bands from Europe and America, this newly established band have already gained a generous fan base and credibility within the UK rock scene. Having recently recorded their debut release, “Only Roses”, produced by Michael Hunter (Parr St. Studios/ Racket Records) who has worked with bands such as Marillion and Mansun, you can expect big things from the very loud and proficient Royal Cartel.

2010 has been a landmark year for this up and coming band. With a new bass player and drummer, the line up is set and this year will see the band take to the road across a string of live shows in the UK and the United States as they embark on their musical journey. The band should have a special interest to Marillion fans as Ian’s Mosley’s son Michael is the guitar player!

SATURDAY 26 MARCH (EVENING)

PETE & ROBIN

My good friend Robin and I finally got to play together for the first time since our teens at the last convention in Holland where we went down particularly well so it seems. Because of the popularity of our humble little foray into the unknown of the acoustic guitar, we have been asked back to perform again. This is something we are very much looking forward to doing. We will be playing four or five or even six banging acoustic ditties with a smokey folky jazzy flavour and probably some impromptu nonsense. Who knows where it will take us, I may even pick up a bass guitar. We'll all probably find out on the night.

Pete

I really enjoyed the last convention In Holland 2009 with Pete, so to be asked back is a real treat.. At the moment, I have no idea what we'll do, I'm sure there will be some making up stuff on the spot moments & off course something more structured. Acoustics will feature somewhere I'm sure, but I like the fact there are no rules & more about trying something slightly outside our normal comfort zone. Really looking foreword to seeing where it takes us, maybe it's a good excuse to buy that old Moog synth I was offered a while back !

Robin

SUNDOMINGO
www.sundomingo.com / www.facebook.com/sundomingo / www.myspace.com/sundomingo

In 2009 Sun Domingo was invited to play Marillion Weekend in Montreal supporting Marillion for 2 nights. Those 2 nights were recorded and released as a full-length LIVE album available exclusively through Racket Records HERE.

Following the Marillion Convention, the band signed to Rock Ridge / Warner Music Group and released the Piece EP featuring John Wesley (Porcupine Tree) on the song "MadMaze" which can be found on iTunes. (Click here for a video of the band playing MadMaze Live)
Sun Domingo is slated to release their first full-length album worldwide through the label in February 2011, but in the meantime will be touring in support of their recent releases. For a FREE taste of Sun Domingo's music, you can visit their website and download 4 songs to get you started. www.sundomingo.com

 

SATURDAY 26 MARCH (AFTERNOON)

JO McCafferty
www.jomccafferty.com / www.myspace.com/jomccafferty

Jo McCafferty is a singer/songwriter/composer from Aberdeen, Scotland.

Jo has been writing songs since she was 14, by the time she was 18 she had already recorded 'Nothing Whispered to Katy' her debut album at Pallas' Mill studio's. After this followed a series of acoustic albums, Radiaxial in 2001, 8 Year Gap in 2003, Papercuts and Lime in 2004, and a live album Live at the Moorings in 2005. As Jo's recording experience grew so did her songwriting skill, and that culminated in her decision to do a full band album - this year's 'Overtaking on a Bend'.

Over the past 10 years Jo's been playing lots of gigs including gigs in Glasgow sharing a bill with Joe Walsh amongst others, gigs with Marillion, a European Tour supporting The H Band which included a sell-out night at Amsterdam's Paradiso. Throughout this time she's also played with Midge Ure, Glenn Tilbrook, Dresden Dolls, The Bluetones, the Grim Northern Social, John Young, David Kitts and had dates with Donnie Munro (Runrig), Pallas and Fish.

Her latest album entitled 'Overtaking on a Bend' is a soundtrack for a 1940's/50's film noir that was never quite made. It is a mixture of jazzy sounds followed by sweeping string arrangements, piano, a hint of preogressive rock and a smigeon of pop sensibilities all thrown in. the album was 5 years in the making and is her strongest - and biggest departure to date.

SUNDAY 27 MARCH

TIN SPIRITS

Tin Spirits first got together in Swindon UK in the summer of 2008, when Daniel Steinhardt from TheGigRig invited former XTC guitarist (and musical hero) Dave Gregory to a local studio to video record an ‘amp shoot-out’ with Dan’s band The Hi-Fidels, comprising bassist Mark Kilminster and drummer Doug Mussard.

All enjoyed the experience so much they decided to take things a stage further and rehearse some of the more challenging music they’d grown up listening to but never had the chance to perform.

Tin Spirits soon assembled a strong repertoire of guitar-orientated prog covers, together with a few XTC songs, and began playing gigs in 2009 to very positive audiences.
Today, busily writing and recording original material and with each successive show an improvement on the previous one, their star is very much in the ascendant.

Dave Gregory (guitar) was a member of UK band XTC for 19 years, performing on the hits ‘Making Plans For Nigel’, ‘Senses Working Overtime’ and 12 studio albums, including the band’s alter-egos The Dukes Of Stratosphear.

He is probably more familiar to Marillionaires through his work on Steve Hogarth’s 1996 album ‘Ice Cream Genius’, and as a member of Steve’s legendary h-Band. With few interests outside music, Dave continues to work as the spirit moves him, recently playing sessions for Bournemouth prog-heads Big Big Train, and writing and recording at home for Tin Spirits - the band, he says, which has saved his musical life.

Although Daniel Steinhardt (guitar, vocals) is most commonly associated with TheGigRig.com, his career in Australia has seen him play with some of the biggest artists in the country and tour the world extensively. Dan was Max Sharam's guitarist for many years (Max's song ‘Coma' was recently voted in the top 10 best Triple J singles of all time). His work with his company TheGigRig is based around designing systems to allow guitarists to reach their ‘tone potential', so you can be sure the band is well equipped.

As talented as he is pretty, Mark Kilminster (bass, vocals) has performed around the globe, and recorded with some of the biggest names in the business. He beat out 20,000 applicants to become lead vocalist for Stamford Amp, the house-band on the BBC 1 Saturday morning television show ‘The Saturday Show’ in 2001. The band scored a Top 40 single and an appearance at the Proms In The Park in London’s Hyde Park. Mark is a huge Marillion fan and has his picture on .com somewhere…

Doug Mussard (drums, vocals) played ‘Ringo’ in the original Ludwig Beatles, and did occasional gigs with Mike d’Abo’s Mighty Quintet in the late 1990s. Considered by many to be Swindon’s best kept musical secret (and now Dave Gregory’s favourite drummer!), Doug plays regular gigs and sessions, and continues to perform with Dan and Mark in the Hi-Fidels.