Just a quick note to say that the first of Rob’s video guides to Home has just been added to the Members Page. For all fans of the album, this is fascinating stuff, and well worth downloading. You will, however, need to download or upgrade to the latest version of Quicktime available Here. here.

Happy New Year to everyone!

The awards continue! We are delighted to announce that Home has won the prize of “Best Overseas album” at the Italian Prog awards. The album also came second in the “Best album” category. You can visit the awards home page at Italian Prog Awards. The jury is made up of representatives of several of the most important prog websites in Italy, so is quite an honour.

While we are writing, we have added several new Photo galleries over the last few weeks, including two brand new galleries from the Bilston gig on 26th November.

Finally, on behalf of the entire band, your webmaster and all those associated with the band, a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year. 2006 has been an amazing year for Magenta, and 2007 looks like being even better! See you all next year.

Award for Christina…again!

We’re delighted to announce that Christina won Best Female Vocalist at the Classic Rock Society awards in Rotherham on Saturday 9th December. This is the second time she has won the award, having also picked it up in 2004. The band were well placed in a number of other categories.

Updates to fan page and main website!

We have also just uploaded a new video to the Magenta fan page . This one is Demons from the gig supporting Roger Hodgson in Belgium in September. The band appear to be having a whale of a time, and the sound is very good for an amateur recording. The first part of Rob’s Home Diary should be posted soon, so keep checking back.

On the main site we’ve just posted a couple of galleries from the recent Cardiff gig, and there are further galleries from the gigs in Zoetemeer, Southend and Portugal earlier in the year to follow shortly.

Just a quick update with news that you can now get the single Cd version of Home, plus the ChimpanA album at the Uk Itunes store. Both albums sell for £7.90 or 79 p per track. While many of you will already have Home, this is the perfect opportunity to dip into another great project featuring Rob and Christina without having to commit to the whole album immediately.

Our attention is now turning to our last gigs of the year at the Point in Cardiff Bay on November 24th, and at the Robin in Bilston on November 26th

We'd love to see as many of you as possible at these, and tickets are on sale now!

Both gigs will be special in their own way. The Point gig is our slightly-early Christmas Party, and support comes from the excellent Touchstone. Tickets are available here. The Bilston gig is a special F2 night, with our splendid labelmates Ezra and Credo playing with us, so shouldn't be missed. Tickets are available here.

We can also announce a gig at the CRS next year, on Saturday April 28th, at Herringthorpe Leisure Centre, Rotherham. Check the gigs page here for ticket information when it's announced.

Magenta play Nearfest 2007!

Magenta are thrilled to announce that they will be playing the Nearfest festival, USA, in June 2007.

Arguably the most prestigious progressive rock event in the world, the festival is famed for the quality and breadth of its line ups, not to mention the speed with which the festival sells out each year. It is held at the 1000-seater Zoellner Arts Centre in the lovely town of Bethlehem, in the heart of Pennsylvania. The band have secured a late afternoon slot on Saturday, June 23rd.

Tickets go on sale in March 2007, with the patron seat programme beginning in January. For further details go to www.nearfest.com. See you there!

Magenta Fan Page now online!

We are also delighted to announce that our new fan page is now up and running. This will be the place for exclusive downloads, pictures and video clips, as well as our regular newsletter. To access this area you will need to register, but full access is completely free.

Hi All

Another quick update. We have just posted 4 new galleries from recent gigs in Portugal, at The Borderline in London and at Theux in Belgium. By way of contrast there are also a few pictures of Chris' classical gig in Mountain Ash back in July. These have been an amazingly exciting and varied series of gigs, so our thanks to everyone who helped set them up. Portugal was an experience never to be forgotten, the Borderline was heaving, and at Theux, supporting Roger Hodgson, we played to 4000 people!

Finally, just a quick note to say that the band are on the covermount CD in the latest issue of Powerplay magazine (www.powerplaymagazine.co.uk), due out at the end of September. The track is an edited version of The Visionary from Home.

Magenta

Hi All

Just a quick note to say that there will be an F2 music advert in the new issue of Classic Rock, due out this week (W/C 20th August). This ad contains detail of how to download an exclusive remix of "I'm Alive". I've heard the new mix, and it's very interesting indeed - definitely worth the time and trouble downloading it.

Stephen

Just a quick note to remind everyone that Rob and Christina will be live on Paul Baker's show on www.arfm.co.uk on sunday 13th August, from 3pm to 6pm UK time. They will be talking about all things Magenta. For those of you unable to listen, the show is repeated at 9am and 6pm on Thursday. To listen online, just go to the ARFM website.

Delicious Agony

There will be a Magenta special on Delicious Agony Radio www.deliciousagony.com on Friday July 28th at 5pm, UK time. The feature will include an interview with Rob, and sounds well worth a listen. As we’ll all be on the way to Portugal for the Vizela gig by then, anyone able to record the show will have our eternal gratitude!

Speaking of Delicious Agony, the band were also featured on the Classical Connections show on Thursday 20th. For those of you that missed it, you can download the entire 1-hour show as an MP3 file from us HERE. It’s a 37 mb download. It’s well worth a listen – as well as featuring Arrival, Anger, Joe, Essence of Love and a part of the White Witch, the show also includes a couple of the orchestral tracks from the ChimpanA album and a few classical pieces, one of which was chosen by Rob.You can hear a version with the full intro, and slightly better quality (but same size download) at Creative Progression For more details of the classical pieces played, go to the PROGRAMME WEBSITE

Rob and Christina on ARFM

Rob and Christina will be on Paul Bakers’ Soundscapes show on ARFM on 13th August, talking about all things Magenta. The show goes out live from 3pm to 6pm.

We are delighted to announce that two much anticipated Magenta-related projects are now available to purchase from www.progrock.co.uk - and they are certainly worth the wait!

Night and Day with Annie Haslam

The collaboration with Annie Haslam “Night and Day” has arrived. This four track EP contains three versions of the song written by Rob and Christina especially for Annie, plus a lovely instrumental written and performed by Rob called “Essence of Love”. The Annie Haslam painting of the same name, which adorns the cover of the single, inspired this piece. We will be posting sound clips shortly, but in the meantime you can read more about the project from Annie and Christina on the Night and Day page. The song also features the entire Magenta live band plus a stunning contribution from Troy Donockley on Uilleann Pipes and Whistles.

The EP can be purchased immediately from www.progrock.co.uk.

Chimpan A

Chimpan A is a new project co-written, performed, produced and engineered by Rob Reed which also features the vocal talents of Steve Balsamo (The Storys, Jesus Christ Superstar) and Rob Thompson (The Storys) on guitar.

The CD also features vocals from our own Christina, Sam Brown (David Gilmour, Jools Holland, solo) and well-known Welsh classical soprano Sian Cothie. London-based poet Tony Dallas also contributes some remarkable spoken word passages. The band has made innovative use of samples from Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells and the choral work of British composer John Tavener and while the project is very different to Magenta – it should appeal to anyone who enjoys Massive Attack, Zero 7, Peter Gabriel, Bjork or Jakatta particularly – there is certainly a progressive spirit to it that we are sure Magenta fans will enjoy.

You can hear samples of the CD at The Progrock.co.uk samples page and complete songs at the bands’ Myspace site www.myspace.com/chimpana.

We hope that the project will have considerable commercial appeal and it will be released through traditional distribution channels in October. However it is already available for sale at www.progrock.co.uk

This is short notice, we realise, but for those of you able to make it, Chris Fry will be playing a concert of solo and duo guitar with Andy Mulligan at St Margaret's Church, Moutain Ash on Sunday July 2nd at 6pm. The duo will play a set of classical solos and duets, and latin and jazz standards. £3 entry. All proceeds to the Church roof fund!

We are delighted to announce that the great Prog Rock radio station Delicious Agony will host a Magenta special as part of their "Classical Connections" series on 20th July at 7pm Uk time (2 pm Eastern). The show, which will run for an hour, will feature music from the band, Rob's new project ChimpanA and some classical music chosen Rob and by Paul Erdman, the shows presenter. This is an exciting and unusual show, and not to be missed!

Listen online at www.deliciousagony.com

Unfortunately, due to unforseen circumstances we have had to postpone our appearance at The Spirit of 66 on September 9th. Our apologies to all those that were looking forward to seeing us, but we'll be back sooner rather than later. The good news is that we will instead be supporting Roger Hodgson (ex Supertramp) in Theux, Belgium, on the same night.

An announcement from F2 music.

"Just a quick word of apology to all those who have tried to contact us about their orders for Home in the last few days. Due to a problem with the main F2 email address, there is a possibility that we may not have received your email. If you are still waiting for a response from us, then please email magenta.web@btinternet.com for the time being, and we promise you a reponse within 24 hours.

All pre-orders for Home have now been shipped, so if anyone is waiting for the Cd, its arrival should be imminent. It's been a very busy time here - sales of Home have exceeded our wildest expectations - so we thank you all for your patience.

Best wishes

F2 Music"

First of all, thanks to everyone who made the trip to Rotherham for our launch gig on Saturday night. It was quite an evening and we all had a blast, despite various ailments! This is busy period of gigging over the next few weeks, as Saturday 20th finds us in Zoetermeer, Netherlands with Satellite and Mangala Vallis, and in Stavanger Norway on May 27th, where we will be supported by the excellent Magic Pie. We are really looking forward to both concerts, and you can find full details in the Gigs section. Pictures from Rotherham and Zoetermeer will be posted in the Gallery section next week

Secondly, we are immensely proud to say that our new album "Home" has now arrived. We are immensely proud of the way it has turned out, and we can't wait for you to hear it.

All backorders for both the single and double disc versions will be shipping in the next few days.

If you haven't ordered it yet, then get yourself to www.progrock.co.uk. and grab yourself a copy!

Best wishes.
Magenta

This press release has just been issued by F2 music.

F2 Music is delighted to announce details of the much anticipated third studio album by Magenta. ‘Home’ will be officially released on 1st June, although copies will be available at the album launch concert at the Herringthorpe Leisure Centre, Rotherham on May 13th . Also, all pre-orders for the CD placed at www.progrock.co.uk will be supplied as soon as the stock is available.

The album is a concept piece and tells the story of a woman who emigrates from Liverpool in the early 1970’s to “find herself” in the USA. The CD is 68 minutes long and includes contributions from a variety of guests including Magenta regulars Martin Shellard on guitar alongside Troy Donockley (Iona, Mostly Autumn) on Uilleann Pipes and whistles. Once again, the album has been written and produced by Rob Reed, with lyrics by Steve Reed. Musically, “Home” represents a further development for the band, combining the Magenta sound established on ‘Revolutions’, ‘Seven’ and the two singles ‘Broken’ and ‘I’m Alive’, with one or two surprises! The album also marks Christina’s finest vocal performance with the band to date.

‘Home’ will be released in two separate versions. The first will be a single CD edition, with slipcase, and 16-page booklet. The CD is available for pre-order NOW and costs £10 (including postage to anywhere in the world) from www.progrock.co.ukand the full track listing is shown below:

1. This Life
2. Hurt
3. Moving On
4. My Home Town (Far Away)
5. Brave New Land
6. The Journey
7. Towers of Hope
8. Demons
9. Morning Sunlight
10. Joe
11. A Dream
12. The Visionary
13. Journey's End
14. The Travellers Lament
15. Home

The second version will be a special limited 2 CD slipcase edition. This is a double CD release that includes the ‘Home’ CD, plus a second CD entitled The New York Suite containing over 40 minutes of music. Complete with an 8 page booklet, this second CD features a further 5 tracks which examine the experiences of the main character of ‘Home’ during her stay in Manhattan. This two CD special edition is available for pre-order NOW for £15 from www.progrock.co.uk.

, and will be available for a limited period only. The “New York Suite” CD will be released in its own right later in the year. The track listing is:

1. Arrival
2. Home From Home
3. White Lies
4. Truth
5. This Life (Reprise)

We have just posted two TWO complete tracks, The Visionary, from ‘Home’ and White Lies from ‘New York Suite’, and there are shorter clips of most of the other tracks. By visiting www.progrock.co.uk you can also hear a third full track from ‘Home’ very soon!.

Further details about ‘Home’ will be added to the site over the next few weeks.

First of all, a huge welcome to the brand new Magenta website. As you can see, it has been completely redesigned from scratch, with loads of new content, so we really hope you enjoy it. There’s a lot more to come, as well, so keep coming back for regular updates as we build towards the release of Home, officially available on June 1st.The band also has a brand new official forum and Myspace site.

Next, we have a couple of exciting bits of news for you:
Magenta are pleased to announce that, in conjunction with The Classic Rock Society, the May 13th gig at Herringthorpe Leisure Centre, Rotherham will also be the release party for Home, copies of which will be available to buy for the first time at the event. The band will be signing the CD, and will be performing a large selection from the album in an extended set. They look forward to seeing as many of you as possible there!

The band are also thrilled to announce that they have recently been working with Annie Haslam. Having first met Annie at Rosfest in 2005, this collaboration has resulted in a Magenta-penned song written specially for Annie. The band are currently putting the finishing touches to the resulting EP “Night and day”, featuring her lead vocals backed by the full Magenta band. Annie has also contributed one of her paintings inspired by the song, to be used as the cover artwork for the CD. The Ep is planned for release on F2 records in the next couple of months. Watch out for more news here as soon as we have it.

Magenta

 Fistly thanks for being patient. Here is some news on "Home".

Below you’ll see the track listing as stands today. The cd is currently standing at 68mins, but I have a few tracks to finish mixing yet. There are some guest appearances on the cd, including Troy Donockley on Uilleann Pipes and whistles. These contributions all sound amazing - it always makes my day when I get to play back the featured tracks for the first time. I have one long track “Joe” (13mins) to mix at the moment. Its the longest track on the Cd and has some great guest guitaring on it. I also have a couple of shorter tracks left to mix, one of which – “Morning Sunlight” - is very different in style to anything else on the album. It’s also one of my favourites. Its very acoustic, but features one of Christina's best vocal performances.

Again thanks,.....not long to go now..................

Rob Reed

Tracklisting:
1.Live The Day
2.Trust Love
3.Heading Down
4.Far away
5.Brave New Land
6.Tower Of Hope
7.A Place Called Home
8.Demons
9.Morning Sunlight
10.Joe
11.A Dream
12.The Truth
13.Reaching Out
14.Home

Note from Stephen: For those of you that have "The Gathering"(or have seen the band live over the last Year or so), "Trust Love" is the track formerly known as "Overture".

Just a quick note to let you know what's been going on regarding the making of the new Magenta CD `Home'.

Firstly a big apology for the delay. It's been a frustrating time for us all, but hopefully you'll all appreciate that we could not let the album go out until it was the best it could possibly be, in every way.

The biggest problem has been getting the running order and sequencing of the CD correct. Originally it was to be a double album, but after a lot of thought and trial and error regarding the make up of the CD, we have decided that it will now be a single album. It will, however, be a very long single album!
The main reason for this is because it is a concept CD, and works best in a single listen. Double CD's can be hard to take in, particularly in one go, and a lot of detail can be lost with such an overwhelming amount of material. I wanted every second and every note to really earn its place on this album.
So, the last couple of months have been frustrating, but it was important to take stock of where we were, and not get carried away with the enthusiasm of getting it released. I am positive that this slight delay has made the difference between a good Magenta album, and what we consider to be a classic Magenta album.

I hope you'll agree!

Rob Reed