CHIMPAN A AND FRIENDS
VENUE ACAPELA STUDIO, PENTYRCH, WALES
DATE 02/08/2025
Twenty years after their debut album, Chimpan A finally perform their first gig. Rob Reed and renowned vocalist Steve Balsamo have assembled a high-quality band to launch Music Is Art, Volume 1, including two Magenta members, but this is no ordinary prog gig!
The evening opens with Reed’s daughter Rosie, aka Local Rainbow, who confidently sings Uchel a Sych, an affecting Welsh version of Radiohead’s High & Dry. Music clearly runs through this family’s veins. Angharad Brinn joins Reed for a bewitching performance of Willow’s Song, originally from The Wicker Man. A young audience member later says his favourite is “the beautiful lady with the dreamy song” – out of the mouths of babes, indeed.