Jadis in Madrid (3rd February 2004)

[siluancar]

Yes, AM friends, at last I have been able to manage a few minutes to give you my impression about this event.

This has been the first time Jadis has been playing in Madrid, Spain, and their second in my country since 1996 when they played in Barcelona.

I was very excited of enjoying them live and the waiting was worthwhile.

The gig began with Steve Thorne, their support artist. He is a song writer and guitar player. I didn't know his music before and it was a great discovery. He played alone with his acoustic guitar and the rest of the music was recorded. He has a brilliant voice and his prog-rock compositions are in the line of IQ, Jadis, Asia,... Even he played an IQ's version, but forgive me because I don't remember now the song. In my opinion, he's a very interesting artist to follow from now on.

And after him, at last, Jadis. Gary Chandler, Martin Orford, John Jowitt and Steve Christey on stage to make real the dream of the Spanish fans assembled in Ritmo & Compas, the venue. If I have to choose how to describe their show with words I'll use energetic, amusing, kind and optimistic.
Gary was a splendid host and left till his last bead of sweat on his guitars and on stage. John provided the good sense of humor with his frequent jokes. Martin was a keen master behind his keyboards. Steve, powerful, serious and shy, almost hidden behind his drum kit, but also funny and joker when John encouraged him.
They all demonstrated to be great professionals and a healthy fiendship joins them firmly. They played more than two hours long and the setlist was very clever. They went over their full discography and played songs from all their albums. You have to forgive me again because I don't remember exactly the songs and their order, but I have a copy of the setlist somewhere. When I find it I will post it here, you can count with it.

I enjoyed the show like a child and took lots of photos. You can glance a selection of them in the following link:
Jadis' photos (they will be available for 30 days)

Jadis are excellent musicians, but above all kind and lovely people. If you have the chance of enjoying them live sometime, somewhere, don't lose them. It is really worthwhile and if you can, seize the opportunity of chatting with them for a while. You'll be surprised with their naturalness.

Regards.

Siluancar.

[mossy]

My regret of the year, siluancar...not seeing Jadis live. Thanks for all the SUPER shots. Is it true that Gary shorted his guitar with his copious sweat?!

Generally, want to thank you and s4 for all the hard work you put into getting proggy bands to Madrid. A labour of love, I know.

You're both the best.