With both High Voltage and Glastonbury shelved this year due to the London Olympics, there appeared a real gap in the market for a quality summer music festival in the capital ahead of the Games. This opportunity was seized upon by Jon Patrick, promoter of the House of Progression series of concerts at the Peel pub in Kingston, together with Geoff Banks, music manager, promoter and writer, to put together a weekend event featuring the best of the prog bands that had appeared previously on the rather cramped stage at the Peel. Most of them had their roots in the neo-prog movement of the 80s and are still performing 30 years later, while the others were young upcoming names on the prog scene. The choice of venue was interesting enough, the Hippodrome being a swinging hot spot for the local night owls with rather interesting steampunk décor which put one in mind of Rush’s epic Clockwork Angels’ artwork. This was not the kind of haunt 600-plus prog rockers of a certain vintage, dressed in predominantly band logoed tee-shirts and jeans would usually frequent but there is a first time for everything.