Yogi Lang

Several years ago Yogi Lang of RPWL noticed a very special and above all obscure bootleg album from Pink Floyd. It was brought to his attention by one of their former drummers. It contained a live concert recorded in Amsterdam back in the late sixties. On it was one of Pink Floyd´s rare performances of their musical concept The Man And The Journey. RPWL´s drummer at the time came with the idea of doing some concerts of this concept. Unfortunately the band was too busy with other things and therefore could not try to copy this exceptional musical piece of art. However the idea never got lost in the mind of Lang. Finally he could give it a place by covering this musical concept during their RPWL plays Pink Floyd's "The Man And The Journey" tour done in 2015 and early 2016. After the Summer break, the band continued to do this concept during their RPWL 'History-Tour'. The first set would contain Pink Floyd's 'The Man And The Journey' and the second set would contain RPWL songs from 2000-2016. A venue known to the band would be the setting for our team to review both sets namely De Pul in Uden-one of the finest concert venues in the Netherlands!

The first set was most of all the most difficult one to understand, because it contained a large part of compositions which most of the spectators never had heard before. In the first part, named The Man, we follow a man's daily routine. Getting up at dawn, doing his work at his daytime job, having a tea break, getting home and having a rest. Every song the band performs is dedicated to a single section of the day. The coolest part of this first part was probably to see how singer and keyboard player Yogi Lang was unpacking a toolbox and experimenting

Work: Yogi Lang with toolbox

with screws, pliers, screwdrivers and a battery drill. Cool was also to watch the musicians taking a break by reading a newspaper or having something to drink. In the second part, named The Journey, the happenings of the day seem to be reflected in a dream. Here RPWL dives deep into the psychedelic-experimental sound of the late-60s.

As for the music performed during the hour and a half long first set, it was nice to hear some musical fragments that later on appeared on Pink Floyds later released albums. For example The End Of The Beginning is a part of A Saucerful Of Secrets. Parts of The Narrow Way can be found on Ummagumma (1969). Some of the tracks also appeared on More (1969), such as Cymbaline which originally had the title Nightmare. Also The Beginning can be found on this soundtrack album but was renamed into Green Is The Colour. Material can also be found on Relics (1971) such as a piece with the title Afternoon, which became Binding My Time. At the same time I heard musical parts which reminded me of Echoes which appeared on Meddle (1971) later on but also sometimes I had the idea I heard something from Careful With That Axe, Eugene taken from the earlier mentioned Ummagumma double album. As for the visuals that could be seen during this first set I can only tell you that they made me speechless. So much was happening that it is difficult to describe. For example the projections on the gong, played on by bass player Werner Taus, were very cleverly done. I guess the people in the audience hadn't enough eyes to see everything that was going on.

The second set was also a real treat for the eyes and ears. During this part of the show Lang told his fans like a real host, the history of the band. He did this by introducing every track performed with a short anecdote. Of course the first song that could be heard on the band's debut God Has Failed (2000) was the opening tune of the History set. For me personally Hole In The Sky was also the first song I ever had heard from this act, therefore every time I hear it performed it gives me shivers down my spine! According to one of the persons who reviewed their album Stock (2003), the song Gentle Art Of Swimming taken from the band's first prog tune. If you agree with this remark, it doesn't really matter but I can tell you that it is certainly one of my personal all-time favourites together with The Fisherman taken from Beyond Man And Time (2012, see review). Unfortunately this amazing piece of music was left out of the set due to the fact that it

Kalle Wallner

was too long to do for the second set. Without doubt Gentle Art Of Swimming is a great musical vehicle to show the musician's craftsmanship and it's always great to enjoy fine solos done by guitarist Kalle Wallner but it also gave me great pleasure to hear Marcus Jehle and Yogi Lang doing solos on their keyboards. Rather surprising for me was the short drum solo done by Marc Turiaux but I loved it anyway! Strangely enough the songs from the second set were mostly taken from The RPWL Experience (2008) such as the excellent Silenced, with great guitar and synthesizer solos but also the rather mellow and mainstream sounding Breathe In, Breathe Out and the hilarious This Is Not A Prog Song. This song of course refers to the fact that not everything released by RPWL is labeled by a lot of people as real progressive rock songs. Like the first time I heard it performed on a stage they included again many short prog tunes from acts such as Peter Gabriel, Marillion, Yes, Asia, Genesis and Rush. This time around even a snippet of King Crimson's In The Court Of The Crimson King could be enjoyed. They even altered a few words into 'prog' such as the famous Foreigner hit I Want To Know What Love Is became I Want To Know What Prog Is.

It was obvious that the song they recorded with ex-Genesis singer Ray Wilson would be the final encore. Roses taken from World Through My Eyes (2005) is of course the perfect sing-a-long tune and a fine way to say farewell to their fans-fans that can look back at a brilliant performance by one of the best live acts from Germany. Once again they surprised me with an amazing show. Just like they did when they performed Beyond Man And Time and Wanted (2014, see review). For those who want to relive the first set one must buy RPWL plays Pink Floyd's The Man And The Journey out on CD and DVD.

Henri Strik (edited by Robert James Pashman)