Wednesday 26 February 2014

ALAN WHITE: Creative Adventures - Prog Sphere – A Different View ...

Yes' Alan White


Alan White is a musician who needs no introduction. A man who contributed drum work to some of the progressive rock’s most precious records and set new standards in terms of his craft for future generations, going on to pursue a 40 year career resulting in dozens of records and collaborations. Now in his 60s, White is still looking forward to new challenges with a revitalized Yes. He and the band are set to host the second annual edition of theCruise to the Edge event that is to take place from April 7th to April 12th this year.

Prog Sphere spoke to Alan about upcoming cruise, a new Yes album, his future collaborations and overall contribution to the progressive rock genre.

The upcoming Cruise to the Edge festival is the second annual edition. What are the differences from an organizational point of view compared to the last year’s edition?

The bands on the boat are more progressive styled, more entertaining. We did that cruise last year with really good bands. You tend to get people on the boat who are really progressive minded, and they enjoy really good progressive styled music. It is an experience you go through, just enjoying the music and the great thing about it is the bands and the fans are all on the boat for five days, and the you get to mingle with the fans, and talk to people on the one to one basis and just have lot of fun basically. We did it last year and it was very successful, and we hope it is again this year.

Were you satisfied with how the first festival turned out?

Yes, I was really, really satisfied with first one. There were so many great people on the boat and we had a lot of good times. All of the bands were very friendly with each other and we hung out with each other, and eat together – stuff like that. So, everybody just made for a camaraderie between the bands. It was just a great time all around for the bands and for the fans. And I think everybody really, really enjoyed the cruise, and I’m looking forward to doing it again. The boat has been designed with this kind of cruise in mind. We have many stages on it and pretty much we listen to music from lunch time to the time you go to sleep, and it’s great experience. It’s very rewarding.



How do you envisage the cruise experience from the fan’s side? To me, it looks like a vacation where you get a chance to see all these great bands and enjoy the music.

Yeah, exactly; last time we went to the Cayman Islands and Jamaica. This time it’s British Honduras and Mexico, and then back to Miami. We have a good time on the boat, there’s many places to go on the boat and it’s just perfect.

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