Another dose of sad news, guitarist John Goodsall of Brand X fame, passed away today. This is from Percy Jones (Facebook): "To all Brand X Fans Together John and I were the legacy of Brand X. We traveled through lots of musical spaces over the years, steering our troubled band through the twists and turns of the music business and it's trolls. I want to thank all our fans for supporting us throughout our creative dreams. As the last torch bearer of the soul of Brand X I will do my best to honour John and the spirit of our band." My condolences to his family and friends.

Original founding member of The Moody Blues, drummer Graeme Edge passed away today at age 80. From John Lodge (via Twitter) "Sadly Graeme left us today," said Lodge on Twitter earlier. "To me he was the White Eagle of the North with his beautiful poetry, his friendship, his love of life and his unique style of drumming that was the engine room of the Moody Blues. I will miss you Graeme." My condolences to his family and friends.

Ian Anderson has released a new Jethro Tull video, "Shoshana's Sleeping". Taken from the album ‘The Zealot Gene’, released 28th January 2022.

News has reached me that Wigwam vocalist, pianist and composer Jim Pembroke passed away Saturday October 9th, at age 75. Although he had been living in the US for the past few decades he is of course best known for his work with Finnish group Wigwam and solo albums for Charisma. Born in England, he first moved to Finland in 1965. My condolences to his family and friends.

Jethro Tull's 1970 classic Benefit will be celebrated in a brand-new 4CD/2DVD set, featuring remixes by Steven Wilson, an abundance of previously unreleased material, packaged within a deluxe hardback book, containing 100 pages of commentary from numerous contributors alongside hordes of images of the band creating and performing their first million-selling album. After pandemic-enforced delays, Benefit (The 50th Anniversary Enhanced Edition) will finally be out on November 5.

Highlights include:

• Original album and associated recordings remixed by Steven Wilson

Esoteric Recordings is pleased to announce the release of a newly re-mastered and expanded 3 Disc clamshell box edition of the classic album, Scheherazade & Other Stories by RENAISSANCE.

Recorded at Abbey Road studios in May 1975, the album is rightly regarded as one of the band’s finest works, featuring the epic Song of Scheherazade (which dominated the album’s second side on the original LP release) and other classic tracks Trip to the Fair, Ocean Gypsy and The Vultures Fly High. Upon its release the album reached the US Top 50 and was one of the best-selling Renaissance albums.

Unearthed audio and video recordings from legendary progressive rock band Nektar captured live in Switzerland, 1973. Includes an hour-long concert videotaped for Swiss TV's Kaléidospop, unseen since its original broadcast. The two CDs include the audio portion of the TV show as well as a complete show soundboard audio recording from the Pavilion des Sports in Lausanne, Switzerland in May 1973.