How did you become a fan?

[Emilia]

My story is quite simple, not very romantic or original the first album I bought (on a tape) was Pride (but that was well after 96). There was some point in my life where I thought Kansas, Pendragon and bands like that are the only progressive stuff in the world, and when I discovered Shadow Gallery (on the radio, yes!:) I started digging in for more "modern" bands, cos I used to think prog rock ended with Marillion, so I was surprised to discover (poor girl) that there are "new" bands coming up with what's called prog rock with a new -  heavier- feel to it (!), and once I got to know SG I thought that maybe they ae not the only ones in the world that are new. I simply went to a music shop and picked someting at random, really!!!! I did not know the band at all, never heard of them, or seen them before, and what I bought ...was Arena  That's it!
Emilia

[degreef]

Hi to all,


Same story as Moonloop and we know Pendragon since 1989 (and have seen them in Reading in 1983 without interest at all !)

We discover Arena in 1996, because we found Clive Nolan one of the finest artist we know. All what he can do is happiness and joy at each time.

We've seen them on stage 36 times (me, 37 because of an acoustic gig in France in a shop, and my wife wasn't there, but she had a long discussion with Nick Barrett at the same time) and Clive more than 50 times, including some Shadowland gigs...

Anyway, it's always with great pleasure we saw them live ans listen their music for more than 10 years now...

Keep proggin'

Alain

[PH]

Well, OK, I think it's time for my story.

I never got into music 'till I was 16 years old.
My dad just got an album of Genesis (Duke) from my uncle.
My dad said to me: "Ah I remember this album! It's really good! Let's listen to it OK?"
I said: "Sure..."

The first song 'Behind The Lines' wasn't really doing anything to me.
But as soon as the second song 'Duchess' came in, I was sold.
I never heard anything like that before. Those keyboards in the calm intro changed my life.

I soon got hold of all Genesis albums (on MP3.... ) and loved every album (not the Gabriel albums!!!).
I just couldn't hear Peter Gabriel's voice, I thought it was awful.
Then, one night, I put on a MP3-disc in my discman and was listening through all the albums (of Phil era) and fell to sleep at some point.

When I woke up (in the middle of the night), my discman was still playing and it was somewhere on the album 'Selling England By The Pound'. I think it was an instrumental bit on 'Dancing With The Moonlit Knight'. I was once again shocked! I never heard something like this before. This was no music! This was pure magic!

From that moment on I knew Progressive Rock was THE music genre for me.

A collegue of my dad's was also into Progrock and he said to my dad: "Your son likes Genesis? He should try Arena!"
So I downloaded my first Arena song: Witch Hunt.

"WHAT'S THIS?!?!?!?! THIS IS NO PROGROCK!! THIS IS METAL!!!"
Deleted it off my computer immediately.

A month later I really didn't know what to do in my spare time, so I thought: "Let's download some more of that stupid music, you can't judge it from just one song."
So I downloaded the Contagious and Contagium EPs.

The instrumental songs did it. I was sold once again.
I soon downloaded Contagion and listened to the whole thing and liked it so much, so I downloaded more and more and more!

(Now we enter four months ago (or something))

I was listening to all the music (every album) of Arena nearly every day.
I even brought my MP3 CD with Arena music with me on vacation to France.
There I decided to buy 'Pepper's Ghost', which I'm very proud of.

Now I want to buy every single Arena album, too bad they don't sell it at the stores here in Amersfoort (= a bad place in The Netherlands).

I'm waiting for the Contagion The Max album (where can I buy that by the way? I heard you have to be a member of The Cage?? (which I am (on the site, or is that something else??)))

Genesis is still my favourite, but Arena comes a close second and Arena still makes albums while Genesis don't.

Impressive story huh?

[Appelmoes??]

Nice story

To get hold of the arena albums, just ask the recordstore guy to order them. In 2 weeks (probalby) you will have the albums. Or try Plato or Bol.com..

[Peter]

PH, don't brag too much about downloading stuff, otherwise you'll have the RIAA knocking at your door some time soon....

[Appelmoes??]

PH, don't brag too much about downloading stuff, otherwise you'll have the RIAA knocking at your door some time soon....

Or at Peter's door for this is his forum

[PH]

PH, don't brag too much about downloading stuff, otherwise you'll have the RIAA knocking at your door some time soon....

Let them come.
I buy every album I like and I throw away every album I don't like.

Besides that, downloading is not illegal in The Netherlands.
Uploading is another story.

Oh, and if I had never downloaded the albums I never was introduced to Arena.

[Peter]

[erik]

[...]
I'm waiting for the Contagion The Max album (where can I buy that by the way? I heard you have to be a member of The Cage?? (which I am (on the site, or is that something else??)))
[...]

Once it is out (and I can't make any statements on when that will be I'm afraid ) you can purchase it at the Cage Store at our website. To access the site you have to sign in. There was indeed a different kind of (paid) membership (and a printed magazine) before, but this has changed into a free membership and articles on the site instead of a printed magazine. Those who were already a member last year in the 'old setup' will receive Contagion The Max for free.

[Appelmoes??]

Once it is out (and I can't make any statements on when that will be I'm afraid ) you can purchase it at the Cage Store at our website. To access the site you have to sign in. There was indeed a different kind of (paid) membership (and a printed magazine) before, but this has changed into a free membership and articles on the site instead of a printed magazine. Those who were already a member last year in the 'old setup' will receive Contagion The Max for free.

And have a creditcard?

[PH]

Once it is out (and I can't make any statements on when that will be I'm afraid ) you can purchase it at the Cage Store at our website. To access the site you have to sign in. There was indeed a different kind of (paid) membership (and a printed magazine) before, but this has changed into a free membership and articles on the site instead of a printed magazine. Those who were already a member last year in the 'old setup' will receive Contagion The Max for free.

Ah cool!!!

And have a creditcard?

Yup.

(Well, actually, my father has one )

[thrickashesoloband]

im a huge fan of john wetton.... one day I was listening to net radio and i caught a glimps of a song (more at the ending like)....

and im like "whoah"!!!   I gotta find out who these guys are... so I went searching on the web.......and I came accrossed a band called "kino" and john mitchell sounded sooo familiar to me... and i'm like "I KOW that name and i'm sooo fiiliar with the sound of that guitar... and when wetton came up on kinno's web site, everything fell in place... so i checked out the links and arena came up and so here I am with no regrets

lates
rick

[thrickashesoloband]

Or at Peter's door for this is his forum

dude i love your story I was thinking the same thing when I first heard wtch hunt
I was like hunh???  naw naw naw..... so im fliping thru all the chapters and im like okay?? this is good!!  and I was okay after witch hunt.. the singer caught me off gaurd though but still good

its cool i dowant some arena cd's

piece
rick :O)

[sammi]

Well first of all as u can prob tell by my name i am female and 16 , and i don't understand y 1 of the people in here was shocked that someones girlfriend likes arena. I myself LOVE them, i can't remember exactly when it happened but it all started because of my dad (which i am most surprised he hasn't written in this topic yet) (jhoninblack incase u know of him) i listened to them on and off for a while but i went with him and my uncal to see them at sheffield and was totally blowen away by them and fell inlove with rob's vocal skills (they are all totally amazing tho) and from then on it's all been about arena my m8s hear bout them all the time. my boyfriend and best mate now tell me to shut up. i too can't understand why the band isn't as big as they should be, they should be on the tv such like karrang,radio all of the time.  so thanx dad you did a good thing. hi peter by the way

[PH]

Well first of all as u can prob tell by my name i am female and 16 , and i don't understand y 1 of the people in here was shocked that someones girlfriend likes arena. I myself LOVE them, i can't remember exactly when it happened but it all started because of my dad (which i am most surprised he hasn't written in this topic yet) (jhoninblack incase u know of him) i listened to them on and off for a while but i went with him and my uncal to see them at sheffield and was totally blowen away by them and fell inlove with rob's vocal skills (they are all totally amazing tho) and from then on it's all been about arena my m8s hear bout them all the time. my boyfriend and best mate now tell me to shut up. i too can't understand why the band isn't as big as they should be, they should be on the tv such like karrang,radio all of the time.  so thanx dad you did a good thing. hi peter by the way

The 16 year old daughter of Johninblack! Hehehehe cool!
I'm 18 by the way, so I'm not even the youngest anymore. (I believe I already wasn't)

How great, fathers are the best ones to introduce someone to progrock.
Or does someone got his/her musical taste from his/her mother?
That'd be good too of course.

My dad doesn't like Arena that much.
I once said to him:

"Dad, why don't you want to listen to Arena? I have to listen to your music aswell!"
He said to me: "Son, I think Arena is to heavy for me, but I DO like them! They're actually really good!"
Me: "Ah cool!" *puts Arena on in livingroom*
Dad: "Ahh OK, OK, stop it! I don't want to listen to it right now!"

And he never wanted to listen to it. So I wonder if he really likes them as he said so, or not.
He hasn't convinced me of it.
I try to convert him by playing 'The Visitor' which should be around his taste, more or less.
But maybe he's more the 'Songs/Pride' kinda man.

[FirstPrice]

April this year, I got some mp3's of prog rock/metal from a friend of me which he had downloaded.. *ehm*
I started listening to Arena, Breakfast in Biarritz. I liked Moviedrome the first time I heard it, and just had to listen more and more.. Now, Arena is one of my favourite-bands, one of the bands I'm listening to regularly.

Can I find anybody of you on the audioscrobbler network? www.last.fm . There I've made a new group for Arena-fans. www.last.fm/group/Arena

[HelenDo]

A bit of a strange route. I was vaguely aware of Arena through comments on the Marillion forum. This year I bought the Kino album "Picture" and saw them in London. I was amazed at what a fantastic guitar player JM is. So I bought both of his Urbane albums. I thought an opportunity to see him live again in London at an Arena concert was too good a chance to miss. As the gig got nearer I thought I should buy a couple of albums to know what was in store for me. On advice of Marilllion fans I bought Pepper's Ghost and The Visitor. I loved them both and played nothing else for weeks. I have since bought Immortal and The Contagion, and expect I will buy all of them eventually. The London gig was fantastic. Infact 3 of the best gigs I have been to this year have been at the Mean Fiddler - Kino, Arena and Fish.

Helenxxx

[sammi]

Lol sorry to sorta steal your thunder. i have a lot to thank my dad for when it comes to music but saying that my mum has also had alot to do with my musical tastes my cd collection isn't as wot most 16yr olds would listen to nowadays. so am very greatful to both of them for their input. But i am also glad to say i like my own selection of music that they don't hehe. Arena are number 1 in my cd players tho.

[keyboardistmatt]

my cd collection isn't as wot most 16yr olds would listen to nowadays.  Arena are number 1 in my cd players tho.

It sure beats the ass off the consistant load of 'Tosh' that is the charts at the moment...
(there are one or two exceptions in the charts, but that sort of thing is few and far between!)

[johninblack]

It sure beats the ass off the consistant load of 'Tosh' that is the charts at the moment...
(there are one or two exceptions in the charts, but that sort of thing is few and far between!)

You're getting old...and the older you get the fewer and ferther apart they are!

[keyboardistmatt]

You're getting old...and the older you get the fewer and ferther apart they are!

I noticed!

[sammi]

wots that say about me.cuz lets face it dad im still young!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[johninblack]

wots that say about me.cuz lets face it dad im still young!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You can go off people yer know!

[sammi]

hehehehehehehehehehehehehe lol i wasn't being too rude you know it's just that if your are old and you know that stuff then  wot does it make me cuz i now feel old even tho im not. sprry people if i am rambling

[johninblack]

hehehehehehehehehehehehehe lol i wasn't being too rude you know it's just that if your are old and you know that stuff then  wot does it make me cuz i now feel old even tho im not. sprry people if i am rambling

U drunk?