After busing it down to Canterbury for our Wetherspoons breakfast and supply of cans of beer for the day, we were ready for the second installment of the 2022 New Day Festival.
On paper, the second day looked incredibly appetising, as it was packed with great Prog music.
As good fortune would have it, we got back in time to catch Haze (a late replacement for the Camel tribute band, Skylines).
Haze reminded me a bit of Hawkwind and went down well. I think that they'd been on at the Brasenose Arms at Cropredy the previous week, but we'd failed to catch them, so it was nice to see them at New Day.
We also caught the John Hackett Band:
Who thrilled the crowd by doing King Crimson's I Talk To the Wind.
It was nice to musically catch up with John Hackett, the last time I'd seen him on stage was back in 1983 during older brother Steve's Highly Strung tour at Manchester Apollo.
After the John Hackett Band, my friend turned round and said:
"That was just really good, polished Prog music, what you'd expect with a name like Hackett".
Couldn't have put it better myself, it was spot on.
At the main stage, we caught Solstice who we'd enjoyed seeing at the same festival in 2019.
Solstice had changed quite a bit since the last time we'd seen them, as they now had a female vocalist accompanied by two female backing singers. I liked the aptly titled new song: A New Day.
Can remember seeing Arthur Brown with Hawkwind at a Christmas Show at Manchester Academy about 20 years ago, were there really was a lot going on on stage, and it was a similar experience with Solstice here.
The Karnataka soundcheck was interesting, with the band not allowing the mixing desk to rush them into starting exactly on time, as they insisted on getting their sound just right.
Really enjoyed Karnataka:
Two-to-three songs into the Karnataka set, my friend turned to me and said:
"This band is seriously good, the woman has got an incredible voice".
Once again, my friend wasn't wrong. Think that current Karnataka vocalist, Sertari, has a wonderfully powerful voice which really suits the band.
After Karnataka, it was a cock's stride back to the second stage to catch Kaprekar's Constant:
It was barely a week after encountering them at the Brasenose Arms at Cropredy, but we couldn't wait to see them again:
For a second week in succession, the truly epic Hallsands sent a tingle down my spine, and I loved the set from start to finish.
And what about Colosseum on the main stage later on?
Thought they were pure magic, caught them from right behind the mixing desk, and Los Angeles at the end seemed to blow people's minds away. It was incredible, a real honour to have been there.
After Colosseum, we caught a bit of Edgar Broughton on the second stage:
Then retired for the night, listening to Focus from a distance who sounded great.
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