First look: Trinity Live!

Sunday May 18 saw The Assembly in Leamington Spa packed full of prog goodness for Trinity Live.

The event is special all-day show raising money for Cancer Research, Brain Tumour Research and Breakthrough Breast Cancer and organised by Matt Cohen of The Reasoning and Touchstone’s Adam Hodgson.

Eight artists covered the progressive spectrum with acoustic sets from Alan Reed, Heather Findlay expressing the folk side of her repertoire, and The Fierce And The Dead’s Matt Stevens who showed off tunes from his immensely popular recent Lucid release, creating wondrous things with one guitar and a loop pedal.

Magenta also featured on the bill, and it was great to see Christina Booth up onstage and performing with gusto following her recent cancer treatment. Their superb set included a beautiful rendition of the Peter Gabriel/Kate Bush duet Don’t Give Up with Alan Reed ably filling Gabriel’s shoes.

Midlands rockers Lost In Vegas came out of retirement to inject a dose of metal, while The Reasoning’s long-awaited return to live performance begged the perennial question of why this band isn’t bigger.

With frontwoman Kim Seviour having guested with Alan Reed earlier in the day, her band Touchstone later played a set that truly knocked it out of the park – Oceans Of Time proved to be the stuff of epics as they wowed the crowd.

Brit supergroup Arena commanded a powerful headline slot. Powered by Paul Manzi’s mighty pipes, they delivered a blast of pomp and grandeur, with natty threads to match.

An auction of prog memorabilia featuring items donated by heavyweights like Yes, Rush, Peter Gabriel and Marillion featured in the evening, alongside signed items from Carl Palmer and Bill Bailey. Encouraged by Lost In Vegas’ Chris Lynch and The Reasoning’s Matt Cohen as auctioneers, fans dug deep to push the bids up with several lots going for hundreds of pounds. The total reached nearly £2000, and was a great day for a fantastic cause. Even Prog’s man-on-the-spot, David West, won a prize in the raffle!

Matt Cohen later told Prog: “This was a year in the making, lots of hard work and proof that when you set your mind to doing something special with the help of true friends, who make an unbeatable team, anything is possible.

“Trinity was everything we expected and so much more. The smiling faces, the wonderful venue, the amazing artists and the unbelievable audience were just sublime.

“Everything ran like clockwork, everyone rallied round to make it work and we raised so much money for amazing causes. Roll on Trinity II and thank you to everyone for making it a day to remember.”

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(A full review will appear in Prog 48, on sale July 2)

Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 40 years in music industry, online for 27. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.