25th Feb - Journey of the Yak
The title track of the next album is now finished insofar as it is written ! This completes all the composition of the album, all that remains is to find the time to record it. Hopefully this will be completed over the next 2 months.
20th December - Christmas Rush
Well it's started, the late present buying frenzy has finally kicked off with no less than 3 CD's being purchased.
13th December - About time I updated the News Page !
...and here is the News:
A few moths ago I was contacted by Dave Speight, a drummer from Colchester who was interested in working with me from hearing the music on Myspace. Dave is a working musician and drum tutor who is currently playing with a few top notch gigging bands & it was a real privilege that he should choose to contact me. Dave plays in Peter Banks' band who are called 'Harmony in Diversity', Peter was the original guitarist with Yes no less !. Dave also plays with a band called 'Whimwise' which is the band of Nick May who played guitar with 'The Enid' for several albums. Dave also is now playing with the Hungarian Progressive Rock Band 'Yesterdays'.
Whimwise have been touring Europe recently, supporting the legendary band Focus & I was lucky enough to go & see them a week or so ago & had a chance to meet Nick & all the band members. Focus were pretty awesome too btw ! - although perhaps a little disappointing that Jan Akkerman is no longer with them on guitar. The new guitarist Neils Van der Steenhoven is a classy player - sounds like a cross between Larry Carlton & Andy Latimer in my opinion, but he is too young to be that good & both him & the bass player don't look particularly like prog players - if you know what I mean. No? well never mind ! He managed to blow his guitar amp during the encore which was quite amusing!
Anyway back to Yak - Dave has enabled me to record drums here at home as he plays electronic drums - they sound so much better than you think they will as this industry has really progressed since the first electronic drums hit the scene. The real beauty of them is that you don't need any microphones ! - just plug into the mixer & record away.
So I have revised my plan of just doing a 2nd studio album using keyboards only - like the first CD - and instead Dave will do the drums & his longstanding partner in crime 'Gary Bennett' from Maldon on Bass. Gary is a professional player too & is part of the REGA Project who work in nearby Latchingdon & record music that is released professionally - on Vinyl !! REGA are analogue specialists & seek to avoid anything digital al all costs !
The plan is to get the Album out by March next year & it will be called "Journey of the Yak" & feature the following 6 tracks:
Gates of Moria
Jadis of Charn
Entangled in Dreams
Dearly Departed
March of the Huorns
Journey of the Yak
It should be about 45 minutes long - all being well
If you are interested in getting lessons on the drums & live in Suffolk or Essex, I would be happy to put you in touch with Dave - clearly it depends precisely where you live as to whether Dave can get to you or visa versa.
25th June - Sales Double
In what can only be described as a buying 'frenzy', sales of the last CD, 'The Rutland Chronicles' have doubled overnight ! The executive are due to meet on Thursday to consider the impact & future sales strategy.
20th May - Yak '07 Fest
The annual Yak rehearsal went ahead at the Metheringham Music Factory (MMF) which is a rehearsal facility in Lincolnshire, just south of Lincoln itself. About 3 days before we received the news that inspite of booking the rehearsal about 6 months ago, our Bassist Max had suddenly realised that he was double booked with some gig in Sheffield, or a haircut, or meal with his GF - I can't remember now - so that was Great wasn't it. Bloody fantastic. Once a year - it's not too much to ask is it? is it?
Unperturbed we went ahead as a three piece & we had a great weekend. The MMF is a great place & really in the middle of nowhere, down a farm track that goes on for such a long way that you really think that it surely can't be down "there", but it is.
Jean, who runs the place is a great host & the MMF has a couple of great sound-proofed rooms. The area is very peaceful & is certainly recommended if you are looking for a place to rehearse in that part of the world.
We focused on learning Jadis of Charn & I will shortly publish some clips & vids on our myspace page here
26th April - New Track
Well, I have at last finished another of the tracks destined for the next studio CD "Journey of the Yak". The track is called 'Jadis of Charn' & is streaming our Myspace account here
The full track is nearly 11 minutes, but I had to produce a smaller file for the myspace page as they have a max file size limit of 10 meg - so the version there is a mere 8 & a half minutes long ! There are plenty of different sections & time signature changes, so she may take a few play throughs to "get". Enjoy !
6th March - Yak Designer Clothing Range Launches
Well, there at least 2 luxury Tee shirts now available - see here for more details. (update 2 sold so far!)
17th February - 2007 Yak Moot Update
Well the annual moot is now booked up for 19/20 May & we will be descending on the village of Metheringham in the fair county of Lincolnshire - specifically the Metheringham Music Factory ! Shares in the locally based earplug factory soared on the news but property prices have already started to slump A village meeting is being held on Thursday to discuss options.
During the meanwhilst, the company we have outsourced CD manufacture to is struggling to cope with order of the Rutland Chronicles as numbers toppled into single figures earlier this week. However, with additional temporary staff recruited and trained we expect them to cope adequately at least until the rush does down. Even this week someone filled in the form to order a copy, but failed to say who they were, or which CD they wanted - yes, I know it was you & I am using the latest computer based dowsing model techniques to track you down - expect a knock on the door later tonight !
22nd Jan - "The Rutland Chronicles" is released
The long awaited second CD of "jams" is now available, some 8 months after the session was recorded - well these things take time don't they. This was the 2nd historic gathering of the Yaks after the 20 year pause in proceedings and about 6 hours of jamming was recorded - condensed into 68 minutes for this CD. I have posted the "CD cover" onto the Music page here
and adjusted the "order form" at the foot of that page accordingly - as usual the cover price is £8 (+ p&p if you live outside the UK) and ALL proceeds goes to Tower Hill Stables Animal Sanctuary.
10th Jan - Melo's Prog Bazaar
Yak are the featured band for the month of January over at Melo's Prog Bazaar - please feel free to drop by & join in the thread which is located here
I am posting some links to special pages in this site which are only available from the links at the Bazaar - so please pop over & post a comment or 3 ! (Update - well 1 would have ben nice..)
12th December - Some News at Last
Sorry, not been able to update this site for a while - bit of a rush job of larches on at the woodcutters. The Yak festive moot (8th Dec in Kingsthorpe, Northampton) went well and has inspired some action thus. The long awaited 2nd live CD entitled "The Rutland Chronicles" moves a step closer to being published and to that end a "sample" of the various jams has been delicately prepared & uploaded for your listening pleasure.
It's about three & a half minutes & will give you a feel for what the album sounds like. Here the MP3 here
During the meanwhilst work is continuing, albeit slowly, on a number of tracks which will form the 2nd studio album (Journey of the Yak). I will upload some samples of the tracks as soon as I can. A number are almost finished including, Lugworm, The Wood between the Worlds, Jadis & March of the Huorns.
25th September - New Track
I have been working on a number of new tracks in my spare time & I finally got round to finishing off - at least in draft form - one of them which is called 'Entangled in Dreams'. It is my longest track to date at 9'14" and has a number of different sections to it. I have posted it here and hope that you like it. It is 8.4meg, so I hope you have broadband !!
1st September - First Review of "Does your Yak Bite?" published
The Progressive Ears website has just published reviews of both the "Dark Side of the Duck" CD and the 2005 Jam session entitled "Does your Yak Bite?". Sales of the latter album have been slow, but following this review we could be into double figures by Christmas ...eheh
But seriously folks, the reviewer at Progressive Ears, has got some really positive things to say about both albums, he clearly doesn't like all the keyboard sounds I have used in the 1st Album, but, has praised the material - which is the main point. He also wants to hear us play the material of DSoTD as a band - which is a plan we are working on, but as we are all busy with stuff, it's going to take time.
I have posted the reviews on the reviews page (I was going to post them on the Links page, but felt that the reviews page was probably more appropriate at the last minute)
If you want to read them in situ at Progressive Ears - click here and then select Reviews & CD reviews & then got to "Y" etc etc
25th Aug - Reviews
Getting some excellent comments on our "Myspace" page - in particular from Joseph Shingler from the band Ghosts of Pompei & also Scott the keyboardist from Coralspin. I have updated the Reviews page accordingly.
1st August - May Jam CD's arrive
Fresh from Ruskin Studios in Northampton my copy of the May Yak rehearsal arrived this morning. The 3 CD set represents the highlights of the Weekend of jamming. I will consolidate these into a CD which will be released entitled "the Rutland Chronicles" for sale at £7.95 with all proceeds to the Sanctuary as usual. I will also post a few sample MP3's to this site soon. Stay tuned for further details.
8th July - Yakmobile Journey Report - here - £115 raised for charity
25th June - Yakmobile Update
Text just in from Cockermouth in Cumbria - end of journey in sight ! - Clutch repair holding out.
24th June - Yakmobile Update
Clutch fell off at Alton - otherwise journey progressing to plan - Clutch repaired btw
20th June - Yakmobile Update
With the adventure fast looming, Robin has spent the past two weeks preparing mentally and putting in altitude training in Spain. Robin rises at 5 am each day and rubs gravel into his hair for breakfast, then it's a 6 mile hill run and two practice tyre changes before lunch.
In the afternoon it's a classroom session on the route, hand signal practice and finally a technical meeting with the original Norman design team via a medium.
So, with touchdown back in the UK planned for tomorrow & the final NASA heat resistant tiles to be fitted on Friday we are all looking forward to a fabulous weekends motoring.
There is still time to be the 6th sponsor (or 7th) see the link below for the on-line form.
Your support will be greatly appreciated.
25th May - The Yakmobile - see here Robin raises funds for Charity!
£115 pledged so far (@1/6)
21st May - Images from the 2006 Rehearsal now live!
Yak are now listed with this excellent site & hopefully a review will be forthcoming in the near future - Thanks Floyd !!
15th May - Yak at Myspace
See you there ! - Big thanks to all who have added Yak as a friend - both of you eheh
10th May - Yak Rehearsal goes without a hitch
Well as you will see from the pictures when I get them to post, the poor cottage took a bit of a beating! It really was in the middle of nowhere - not another property in sight, even from the upstairs window (when there was an upstairs..) This was the perfect setting to make a lot of noise - we duly obliged. We played the whole of the w/e not finishing before about 4 am on both days - anyone passing would have heard the Yak version of Led Zep's Rock 'n' Roll blasting out into the small hours & also a few Supertramp numbers. Fortunately no-one was passing...
The "Material" is being worked on by Robin & as soon as I have it in MP3 format I will post some highlights here !
At least some Yak numbers were rehearsed including the latest piece entitled "Entangled in Dreams"
Stay tuned for more irregular updates
4th April - 1st CD sales this year - well no sooner than I posted what I posted below, up pops a request to buy 2 copies of DSoTD ! - Thanks Mary Beth & Jamie !! + now another one - thanks Matt !
2nd April - Yakmoot update - a new venue has become available for the May session - a remote cottage just outside Melton Mowbray. This is excellent news as it means we can set up, and stay set up for the whole two days without all that carting too & from a rehearsal studio & base camp. Also, being so remote, we can make as much noise as we like ! On the music side I am working on a couple of new tracks, "Dearly Departed" is quite a sad & nostalgic piece (well I think so anyway) and a piece called "Entangled in Dreams" which has a strong 7/8 riff in the middle. I hope to release MP3 clips soon. Robin, in between working on the restoration of the fabled Yakmobile (here) is working on a track called "Misty Mountains". Again we should be able to publish a clip soon.
Bad news on the raising funds for the Sanctuary front as we I ain' t sold a single CD this year ! - still, it could be worse, it could be raining - Oh it is raining...
6th Feb - 2006 Yakmoot - following months of careful arrangements the venue and date for the next Yak rehearsal has been finally agreed. Nottingham received the most votes and will again be the city selected to host this most auspicious gathering on 7/8th May - note that isn't a time signature - although it might as well be.
Stay tuned for further updates - also a review of Does you Yak Bite? is about to be published by "Badedas the Blue" alias "Master Snack Bearer" alias "T S Mann Esq". This will feature on Progarchives as well as this site.
18th Jan - Yak Streaming on www.last.fm - If you have checked this out, you may have noticed that the site lists a lot of tracks by Yak, which are not by Yak at all! - This is because there is an error on the site which is connecting bands to Yak which have "yak" as part of their name. This is being sorted.
13th December - New Review Published - An excellent 5 star review has been published on ProgArchives by Imogen Reid. I have published the entire review here and added it's summary to the main reviews page here. You can check out the original here
There is just enough time to order a copy of "Dark Side of the Duck" or the live "Does your Yak Bite?" as a present for Christmas - festive wrapping paper included at no extra cost !
Those of you familiar with the Tower Hill Stables website will possibly know that following getting booted in the head by Dolly the Shire, I have just returned from a successful operation to repair a hernia (I had no idea it was even broken?) and am recovering at home. I hope to use this 'rest' time to work on new material as soon as I am able.
10th October - A historic moment as Ralph personally oversees the negotiations for the 1st official sale of the latest Yak CD - 'Does your Yak bite? - a live jam' I understand that many areas in Nottingham have broken out with impromptu street parties. Details of this CD are on the MP3 page
8th October - Dave Hopton has sent me a terrific track by track review of the DSoTD album which I have published here
6th October - Music page updated - The Live CD from the jam in May is now officially available - 'Does your Yak bite?' 44 mins & 24 seconds running time. As with DSoTD I will issue a copy free to you subject to a minimum donation of £8 to tower hill stables animal sanctuary - mail me for details or order on line on the music page
6th September - Review published at Prognaut - Many thanks to Ron Fuchs who runs the Prognaut website for publishing another positive review about the album
"It is one of the more wonderful new instrumental releases and I hope that Yak makes more Yakmusic for us all" says Ron ! - see the review here or on the reviews page of this site.
1st September - Gig Rumor Circulating - there is a rumor going round that a gig will take place letter this year in Bungay Suffolk. I have visions of Spinal Tap's freeform jazz exploration gig - including the festival crowd. I need to talk further with the source of this exciting news & will report back anon
13th August - I have updated the reviews page to now include all the externally published reviews of the CD. You can still click through to the websites the reviews appear on, but I have copied all the text to the reviews page to make it easier
10th August - I received some very complimentary feedback on the CD from Peter Schouten who is well known within the on-line Kurzweil community. I have published his comments on the reviews page. (Kurzweil is the make of my Keyboard).
27th July - I have posted 2 more clips on the MP3 page and these are clips from 2 of the tracks which will feature on the 'Journey of the Yak' album which I hope to release early next year. I have prepared more clips from the May jam & these will be featuring soon - stay tuned to this channel!
22nd July - New MP3 clips - The Live EP should be available soon, but in the meantime I will start to post a few sample MP3 clips on the MP3 page HERE
10th July - Yak are listed in the ProgArchives website - you can post your own reviews of Yak material at this site !
28th May - The 1st rehearsal for 21 years - went really well, as expected of course... Ralph, Robin & I met at Hod Hall Friday night (19th May) & we discussed a plan of action. As expected much toast & tea were consumed and whilst an early night was planned it was not until 5 am that the lights finally went out. On Saturday we arrived at the rehearsal studio in Nottingham, met Max the new bassist & went for the now traditional opening jam in Am (when I say traditional I mean at least once every 21 years!!).
All Sunday was spent playing too & about 4 and a half hours of material was captured on tape at varying quality. Robin is at this precise moment preparing the long awaited live 'Highlights of Yak Volume 4' CD which will be available for purchase from this very website. (well issued free subject to donation to Tower Hill Stables Animal Sanctuary)
We played all the way through 'Leylines' without going wrong, which is more than we ever achieved all those years ago. 'Aragorn' too also featured. Work commenced on a number of new riffs and pieces including the epic "The Battle of Pogles Wood" which saw the light of day for the first time.
A couple of improvisations came out well, called "Himalaya" & "The road goes ever on" & these will feature on the new CD.
Stay tuned for further updates - Pictures downloaded so far are now live in the photo archives
20th May - Airplay for Yak - Progressive Soundscapes radio have requested a copy of the CD for airplay which is great news - I will let you know where & when as soon as I hear.
3rd May - Band News - Yak will be rehearsing as planned mid May, although instead of Suffolk we will be in Nottingham ! - stay tuned for further updates. As Sy Snell will be unavailable for comment we will be joined by Max, by coincidence, also from Nottingham on Bass. As well as working on new Yak riffs we also plan to record a Yak version of the Yes track 'Siberian Khatru' although with probably a more Nepalese feel
2nd May - Another review published by Jessica Attene from the Arlequins Italian Progressive Rock website. Unfortunately I am ashamed to say that my Italian isn't up to much ! but I think the gist is that they give the CD the thumbs up & say that it is definitely worth a listen !! If you can provide a pukka translation I will post it on the site. See the review here
30th March - Another excellent review is published by Sergio Motta of the Brazilian Progressive Rock and Metal website. Click here to see it (scroll down the page to find the CD)
28th March - Interview with Sergio Vilar from the Nucleus Progressive Music Website is published - click here to read it
7th March - Three quarters of Yak are planning to get together for the weekend in May at a strategically positioned cottage in the depths of the Suffolk countryside. We plan to work on new material and will record the events for posterity ! Very sadly Yak Bassist Sy Snell is unable to make it on this occasion. Applications for position of bass can be sent to me on the above e mail link together with your CV and completion of the following sentence in no more than 12 words. "I would like to play bass for Yak because...." Judges decision is final & there are no cash alternatives.
18th January - Another good review of Dark Side of the Duck is published by Tom Karr of Progressiveworld.net. Click here to read it.
2nd Jan - New link established - Carlos Alberto Vaz Ferreira has kindly linked his progressive rock website to this site - see Carlos' site here or on the links page
25th December - A second Brazilian radio station has requested a copy of the album for air play - I heard back from the Pittsburgh radio station who said he had been giving the album air time & would send the stats through.
Also a band moot was held on 10th December at Ruskin Studios, Hod Hall, Northampton. Unfortunately Sy Snell was unable to attend. New recordings were discussed but much of the evening resolved around toast - see picture archives
19th October - An excellent review of the Dark Side of the Duck album is published by James Unger on his website "Ungers Wonderful World of Progressive Rock". Click here to
read it & scroll down the page to find the album.
7th October - Yaksongs Yahoo Group now up to 5 members - question is though can Yahoo cope with this volume?
17th September - 2 Yak Music Sales Representatives appointed - see photo archives
1st September - Dark Side of the Duck reviewed by Marc Roy of ProGGnosis - click here to see it
25th August - Photo Archives updated with a few pics from the Grassmere moot
23rd August - Yaksongs Yahoo Group established - yes the yahoo group "yaksongs" is up & running with one member so far - conversation a little one sided at the mo... see the page here
12th Aug - Squadron Leader Iain Walsh purchases a copy !
6th Aug - Another sale ! £131 now raised
2nd Aug - Album Sale ! - 10 now - total raised for Towerhill Stables Animal Sanctuary is £111
28th July 2004
Returned from successful band "moot" in Grassmere, Cumbria - Agreed to get together later in the year to record some new material - watch this space for details
Positive review by Proglands.com - see site here
General News
There is no General News today (25th Feb 2008)
If you are a General, perhaps a retired General even & have some news you would like me to publish, please send me a mail
Many thanks
