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Friday

Dorie Jackson opened the festival, and what a great way to start a weekend. Her Stupid Says Run remains a favourite of 2025 and regularly listened to more than a year after release. It was such a privilege to see her father, David, the first time I have watched and heard live a VDGG legend. Personal highlights were The Hypnotist’s Watch and a track from Kaprekar’s Constant excellent album, The Murder Wall. Worryingly, she indicated that this was a band she “used to be in” – are they no longer extant?

The Emily Francis Trio were everything I hoped. They pushed out some banging jazz vibes, with a very interesting psych element emerging from the new material, so I am looking forward to the next album. There was a very warm reception from the crowd, and I spoke to Emily briefly after.

It was lovely to speak to Tree Stewart prior to the gig. The Emerald Dawn were simply exceptional. The way Tree’s fingers danced over her Fingersonic, with the sound created, was a special centrepiece of the set for me. She acts as a conductor, creating a unique sound. Dave Greenaway – how does he play the bass guitar that high up on his chest? He and Tom Jackson form a tight rhythm section, and Tom’s was the skins performance of the night. Timeless and Under Changing Skies were highlights for me, the latter incredibly heavy and angry in describing the ongoing horrors of war. There was a new track from the forthcoming The Land, The Sea, The Air Volume II played – it sounded magnificent. There were some initial problems with the sound on Ally’s sax, but this was soon sorted. The video backgrounds were stunning. I will definitely go out of my way to see them live again. The final word is from Tree – “thank you Fusion for keeping prog alive!”

Mostly Autumn were the Friday night headliners. As regular readers and listeners of mine know, I love them, but I must report that sonically, they were the poorest of the night. As ever, they were rousing and anthemic, and Heroes Never Die sent us home in a positive mood, although it is definitely the case that they are a band who divide opinion amongst hardcore proggers. Almost the Marmite of prog, in fact. I loved the rendition of Passengers, but my slight whinge is that there was a heavy emphasis on last year’s Seawater, which I think is a good album, but middle ranking in the overall canon. In other words, nothing special to get a late-night festival audience overly excited. In such a tight 90-minute slot, you want the classics. On a more positive note, I was very impressed with Chris Johnson’s voice. Andy Smith rocked on the bass, but, sadly as a longtime admirer, Angela Gordon was strangely subdued in the mix.

So, that was the first night done and dusted, and John, Paul, and I walked the 25-minute hill to Stourport Manor Hotel, which, as Robert Fripp might put it in his diary, was “hotel adequate, breakfast better”.

Saturday

So, following that nice breakfast, featuring a rather special banger I might add, we walked down the hill into the town and across to the venue. No taxis for us brave band of music loving souls, oh no! We arrived to a power cut! No electricity, monsieur! As a result, the day was 40 mins late starting, and, rather than making it up, the running order got later, but this was entirely owing to the wise decision made by the organisers not to curtail any set. It meant a late finish, and I worry about potential license problems from the local bureaucrats, but we all saluted Steve & Lou, because any shortening of a superb group of musicians was, frankly, unthinkable.

Tribe3 opened, who are from near my neck of the woods in South Wales. They are a very ambitious band, to be fair, kicking off with an epic, the title track from last year’s Life Amongst Strangers. Jon Kinsey is a very emotive frontman, dramatic in the manner of a Gabriel, Fish or Nicholson. I thoroughly enjoyed them. They had sound and connection issues, but it was a strong showing from a band who I think are on an upward trajectory. A solid start to the day, for sure.

Alpha Lighting System followed, and they were the second massive surprise of the festival. They hail from Mexico, and have been championed by Steve Gould. The four of them absolutely blew the festival away with a stunning set. There was some crunchingly heavy stuff in the H+ set from the 2020 album. Elsewhere, from the latest, 2025’s Dualitas, we were treated to some great jazz rock fusion. They featured the second father offspring appearance of the weekend - Alam 'Blarewolf' Hernández is the lead vocalist and a classy keyboardist, whilst his father, Juan Gabriel Hernández is the drummer, and he produced a massive noise. The band stayed over for the remainder of the festival, and I was lucky to get hold of a copy of the Dualitas CD, because within about an hour of the set, the entire merch table had sold out, very pleasing to see that level of support from the congregation. I will be playing a track from the album in my radio show a week Saturday.

After this, I took the walk back to the hotel (which was longer than the 25 minutes it should take because Mr Clot took a wrong turn and ended up circling himself), and went on chat for my Saturday Progzilla show, which featured two hours of music from the artists appearing at the festival.

I then had din dins at the hotel and walked back to the venue to catch Galahad & The Tangent. Owing to the late running order, though, I did catch the back end of This Winter Machine’s set, with Al Winter being ably assisted by half of Stuckfish. What I heard was okay, but too little to make a reasonable judgement, I am afraid. Maybe another time. I was told that Sonus Umbra, who preceded them, on the other hand, were exceptional, and I am sorry I didn’t catch them, although the radio show must come first!

I have been listening to Galahad for over thirty years now. They are one of the bands hailing from the second wave of prog who have simply got better, maturing finely with age. What you notice live is the dominant presence of the superb Lee Abraham, one of my favourite modern musicians, on lead guitar, both on stage and walking the crowd. Stu Nicholson has so much energy, bouncing up and down, bashing his tambourine as if his life depended upon it. The title track to Empires Never Last was a rip-roaring affair, but there were two tracks which proved, beyond any doubt, my point about that maturation. The achingly sad Another Life Not Lived from The Last Great Adventurer, a tale of a life cut brutally and sadly short, was superb. But, as good as that was, it paled into comparison with the staggering title track from The Last Goodbye, the video telling the story of a long and satisfying life but ending in the most tragic circumstances of that cruel disease, dementia. It was an honour to see it performed. Incidentally, John Jowitt added to his repertoire of bands by guesting on bass for the final track, Mark Spencer being unavailable.

The Tangent were due on at 21:45. I believe it was gone 23:00 by the time they started. They started off with Celebration. Not the shortened Led Zep folk rocker, but Kool and the Gang. I thought it was huge fun. Some didn’t, and a couple of the comments I heard were a tad churlish, I thought. Before talking about the performance, let us consider the lineup. New band member Rob Groucott on keys, Luke Machin on guitar, Theo Travis on wind instruments, John Jowitt on bass, Steve Roberts completing a stunning rhythm section on drums, and, of course, the incredible Andy Tillison on keys, vocals, conducting, all round genius stuff. I don’t have a “bucket list” – I find such preoccupations somewhat tiresome, but if I did have one, an item was ticked off Saturday night/Sunday morning. The standard of musicianship was off the scale. I have seen Machin working his magic with Karnataka, of course, but The Tangent is a markedly different discipline (not better, different), and the chops on display took the breath away, and it was nice of Andy to rightly promote the warm and lush Soulshine, his solo album. As would be expected, the tracks were long. The two which stood out for me were Perdu dans Paris from 2009’s seminal Down and Out in Paris, which had a fascinating introductory explanation from Tillison. The encore blew me away, In Earnest, a tale of war veterans which moved the writer to tears whilst introducing it, incredibly moving and filling the room with both sound and emotion. There was a nice touch when Andy namechecked a young lad in the crowd who has covered apparently all their catalogue, and he was having a whale of a time watching his heroes. Fantastic.

I climbed into bed at 01:45, but surprisingly, full of energy after a 25-minute walk up the Stourport hill, simply because of the energy radiated by the band on their only UK tour date of 2026. My first The Tangent live experience. I sincerely hope it won’t be the last.

Sunday

Of the three days, I think the final one was the most consistent in terms of quality and purpose.

Zopp is a young fusion band, dripping with that sense of Canterbury, and they gave us a very innovative and energetic set. I must listen to them more.

Sonic Tapestry hail from Cheshire, and I enjoyed their brand of melodic prog, especially Steve Forster’s vocals. They were very well received, for sure.

As soon as I saw The Blackheart Orchestra on the festival line up, I knew I would have to attend. Now, that seems slightly strange given the presence of legends such as Galahad, The Tangent, Mostly Autumn, and Pure Reason Revolution, but ever since hearing an interview and music on my colleague Shaun Geraghty’s The Prog Mill on Progzilla Radio, I have fallen in love with this duo, Chrissy Mostyn and Rick Pilkington. They are literally a two-person orchestra, a stunning array of instruments and gadgets on display. It was all in doubt to begin with, as no sound was forthcoming from said array, which must have been so stressful for them – we were feeling their pain, because they had set all this up themselves with no assistance whatsoever. All was well, though, and we were treated to superb renditions of Astronaut and one of my favourite tracks of the 21st century, Raise Your Heart, amongst others, and it was, incidentally, a pleasant surprise to learn that they have hit the charts following exposure on BBC Radio 6 Music. Good on them. Rick did express some bemusement, but certainly gratitude, that the progressive rock music community has taken them to their hearts. Is it prog? Probably not, but this crowd doesn’t care – they simply appreciate quality, intelligent, clever music performed with feeling. This set was a serious highlight of the weekend for me, but sadly my planned livestream interview with them was cancelled, and they didn’t stay long at the venue to discuss their music. Another time, though. I will take Glynis to see them, because she would love them.

I have mentioned before the (welcome) surprises. Well, Sunday’s final three acts delivered the 100% hit.

Oddleaf are French, and they play a range of pastoral tinged progressive rock, centring around this beautiful planet we inhabit, and their message has rarely been needed more than in 2026. There was a very emotional beginning when lead vocalist, Adeline Gurtner, told us that Fusion would be her final gig with the band, this owing to the pain she suffers from Fibromyalgia. She was very upset, but pulled off a performance full of feeling, and the empathy sent out by the crowd was palpable. I have never seen anyone play an e-Flute before, and Mathieu Rossi was such an enigmatic player and presence on stage – think Ian Anderson forty years ago, and you are there. The whole performance was incredible, and I secured a copy of their 2024 album, Where Ideal and Denial Collide. I hope to hear a lot more from a talented group of young musicians moving forward. They stayed for the entirety of the remaining hours, boogying the hours away.

Lesoir are Dutch, and I played a track from them on my Saturday Festival radio show. The rendition of the uber-epic title track of their last album, Babel, was sublime, the sound of a band extremely comfortable with their craft. Four guitars combining to make a glorious noise.

Talking of which, we move to the headliners, and festival closers, Pure Reason Revolution. I have listened to them but had not played a track from them on my show before Saturday, and I now must become more familiar with their back catalogue of six studio albums. I saw them enter the venue a couple of hours before the off, and they were engaged in conversation with Jerry Ewing, and I remarked to my Progzilla colleagues how self-assured and poised they seemed. The stage set up was probably the most spartan of the weekend, but there the comparison ceased, because the noise created was thunderous, a band who lived and breathed every single note and riff. Annicke Shireen has a tremendous voice and a seemingly eternal reservoir of energy, banging her head across the stage to the riffs, making all sorts of interesting experimental sounds with her box of tricks, whilst Jon Courtney is the perfect foil for both her vocals, but also his fret colleague, Greg Jong, with a tremendous din being thumped out on the drums by Ravi Kesavaram. A mention of the audience – there was a very healthy attendance for this band from younger fans, some of whom had clearly enjoyed all the festival, but were mainly attracted by PRR. It gives me great hope for the future of our genre, really. A great way to close a festival, full of noise and energy.

Postscript

So, BiBi Fusion. We walked back to the hotel on Sunday night enthused. Tired, yes, but appreciative of a fine weekend’s progressive music. We sat and talked in the hotel bar for half an hour before retiring. Saying goodbye to everybody was sad on Monday, but I was looking forward to going home – this was the longest I had been away on my own since well before Covid.

Having now experienced my first Fusion, I cam easily see why it is so highly regarded by prog rock fans – indeed, many of the advance tickets and accommodation for Fusion 2027 were sold within minutes of the lineup for next year being announced.

Will I go again? Yes, I hope so. I doubt it will be for 2027, but I haven’t fully decided yet, because I might be tempted to go to another festival such as Nene Valley, or a folk festival somewhere. It is nice to have the choice.

Whatever I do, it is with the knowledge that progressive music is still well and truly alive. The purpose of this website is fundamentally to support and promote new and independent music. Yes, of course, we feature and love the classics, but it is the next generation who will ensure that the music we love will survive and prosper into a new world. Having seen some of the young, vibrant, energetic talent on display here, and the enthusiasm of their peers in grooving and supporting them, I have a distinct glass half full attitude. I think we are going to be fine, and when this is proven, Steve & Lou Gould will be amongst the most deserving of accolades.