In the first of a short series of blogs I intend to highlight bands and artists that mean a lot to me for one reason or another. It is important to note from the outset that spontaneity is key in the writing of these articles and as a result in no order of preference between one band or artist and another. The first band in focus here is The Tangent. Sadly my love for this band got off to a start I would have not preferred, because I discovered their music by means a friend giving me a CDR of the bands first album The Music That Died Alone that he had ripped from an online platform of which he had become obsessed. My memory fails me, though I think they may have called it Bit Torrent or similar. Of course I did correct this oversight later and replaced said discs with the kosher thing! As fate would have it I then became a fan from the bands inception, though it wasn’t until I had bought the official albums that I learned who the musicians were on each of them. It was the beginning of a very exciting time. In the fulness of time I got to know band leader Andy Tillison and confessed to him my wrong doing of which he totally forgive me. As the years went by I became a completist with regards to The Tangent’s music buying each album as they were released. A Prog trait I am told and an obsession that is hard to rid yourself of when you are a person of a certain age.
I have always enjoyed the fact that many of The Tangent’s songs have few or no boundaries and skip the trap of falling into the Prog idiom of being immersed in a Roger Dean landscape and singing about Siddhartha influenced karma and spiritualism etc. Instead the music celebrates the best of older music derived from the seventies Canterbury scene to a more everyday life observational point of view. Sure, at times some politics creep in, tempered though with a rational edge to them. In later albums songs would celebrate the events that got them to a given point and experiences encountered on the way. No punches pulled, no-one or anything spared, the bands songs are punchy, daring and exciting. Of course throughout the years the band have always had the musical prowess to back up Andy’s song writing ability even if the personnel line up changed from album to album. One thing is for sure, if you are playing on a Tangent album you are no slouch as each and every musician appearing throughout the whole of the musical canon are on each occasion the very best you can hear.
In 2012 I was planning the second Progmeister festivals on Teesside and I was considering who to approach as a headline act. There was no hesitation, I contacted Andy Tillison to arrange a meeting with him and discuss the matter. At the time Andy lived in Otley Yorkshire. I arranged to meet him in near by Harrogate to which he replied “Harrogate are you joking, it’s full of rich people from the south it shouldn’t even be in Yorkshire”. Of course said with tongue in cheek and a chuckle under his breath he thought it best that myself and partner Helen Jane joined him and his partner Sally Collyer for tea. So, we set off for gods own county and spent a wonderful evening with them during which I persuaded to headline my festival. A few months later the band arrived at The Studio in Hartlepool some of whom had travelled from as far away as Brighton A very young Luke Machin with his mum in tow, an equally youthful Dan Mash who despite bringing his bass with him had totally forgotten his amp, the power house of a drummer that is Tony (Funky Toes) Latham and of course the maestro himself Andy Tillison himself. After overcoming technical difficulties which included Andy dismantling one of his keyboards prior to their performance and later on stage as his laptop had to be rebooted whilst he was playing they played an absolute blinder. I realised at this point that The Tangent were and still are as I write, a tour de force.
I met Andy on numerous occasions following that venture and when he moved to a new abode within his beloved Yorkshire we went for tea and cake with him a Sal again and played music all day enjoying some of our musical forbidden pleasures. In later years and a few albums later I donned Andy with the title the Billy Bragg of Prog due to his demonstration song ethos. Always unafraid to carry a message and bold enough to tell the truth in them. Is Andy the best singer in the world? Well, he is in The Tangent. In much the same way as Donald Fagen is with Steely Dan or Andy Latimer is with Camel. There is an essence within thr thread of The Tangent’s music that any listener just can’t put their finger on. With this listener they are a modern day institution even if they are an unpredictable one.
