The Flower Kings Biography Tour Kaputt Live DVD
The FlowerKings are a Classic Symphonic Rock band in the tradition of bands like Yes, Genesis, Pink Floyd, but they also merge the classic sound with modern elements from bands such as Porcupine Tree, Dream Theater etc.
After 17 years together, 11 studio albums and several live cd´s, DVD´s and world tours, The FlowerKings have become a household name within the progressive community.
Roine Stolt is also a member of the successful and prolific band Transatlantic which features names such as Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater,) Pete Trewavas (Marillion) and Neal Morse (ex-Spocks Beard.)
In the summer of 2007, 40 years down the road from the original "Summer of Love", a band from Sweden,The Flower Kings, started planning to tour the universe to spread the word in a custom-built Volkswagen bus. It wasn't just any regular VW bus; it was designed by Russian AquaTouring engineer Ed Unitsky and the general idea was to be able to travel thru time, space, rain, storm, mountains and oceans to spread the message of LOVE ! Now being 2007 we soon realized that we may need a bit of comfort because Prog musicians do get grumpy and in the good old prog tradition, the egos grow bigger than the size of Germany, so we all needed our own Prog-turf on the road, a place for each of us to hang our glittering capes. So we rented a rolling castle from Kaiser Red Car and instructed the Orch-crew to load our Mellotrons, Taurus and kettledrums.
Once the guest drummer from the Crimson Kingdom had arrived and we were assured he was about the nicest chap there is in the music biz, the lot of us started cultivating the musical beast with a frenzy.
Two more American icons arrived, the Mighty "Mercher" that is Mr. Durbuck and a famous sound designer named Mr "DevilEars" (Paul DeVilliers) that had worked with giants like Mr Mister, Yes, Stevie Wonder, Bette Midler etc. so it looked like time to feel small, gulp !
So there we were, in a lofty rehearsal room spending most of the days cultivating the sounds of no evil, tuning Minimoogs and cursing our stupidity in writing way too complicated songs to play live. But hey - who said prog was meant to be easy, or life for that matter. We had a dream-team on board , so "Shut up and play yer bassguitar".
This product is a sample from that tour. On this night The Flower Kings played to a Dutch audience who seemed to be on a diet of tulip leaves and finely ground wooden shoes. One gentleman claimed to have smoked a blend of Vincent Van Gogh's sundried ear and the fungus from a 1897 windmill to get in the right mood.If you ask us, you need nothing but a pair of functioning ears a good spirit and some quality time to enjoy this.
This concert features Pat Mastelotto (King Crimson, Mr. Mister) behind the drumkit. 143 min of prog extravaganza.
Discography:
1994 Roine Stolt ” The Flower Kings”
1995 Back in the world of adventures
1996 Retropolis
1997 Stardust we are
1998 Scanning the greenhouse (compilation)
1999 Flower Power
1999 Live at planet earth
2000 Space Revolver
2001 Rainmaker
2002 Unfold the future
2003 Meet the Flower Kings DVD
2004 Adam and Eve
2006 Paradox Hotel
2006 Instant Delivery DVD
2007 The road back home (compilation)
2007 The sum of no evil