How to encapsulate RMI's first visit to the USA?

Back in 2002 a double CD of highlights with the title `Solid States' gave a good indication. Here in 2022 why not make available the whole lot ?

The trip resulted from an invitation to play the `Progwest' festival in Claremont, California, an opportunity we grabbed with both hands. We contacted our friends in Philadelphia who immediately made room in their `Gatherings' concert series schedule for a concert the following weekend.

Add to that a couple of radio sessions and we had a good opportunity to reach a number of people via the concert hall and the airwaves as well as spend some time seeing the sights.

It all began in The Claremont Inn after a long and eventful journey and eventual arrival from the UK. The piece `Ants In Me Room' was taken from the hotel room gear check and titled after Gary's unfortunate discovery of an army of marching ants for company on his headboard. `Rainy Day Rescue' came about as we felt compelled to include in the set a reference to the non-stop deluge that had greeted us since our arrival in sunny California.

The concert itself took place at the close of Saturday night and marked our debut on American soil, a moment beautifully conveyed by Bob Rosenthal who introduces us onstage. We took this opportunity to demonstrate the full band version of RMI, having Drums and Bass at our disposal and tailored a set we thought worthy of a Prog festival. It's here in full for the first time.

The next day we headed to the campus of Loyola Marymount University Los Angeles, to meet Pat Murphy host of Alien Air Music and appear on his show. This was not without problems as the studio where we needed to be was locked with no sign of the man with the key, but somehow we managed to get ourselves on air ("A matter of professional pride" says Duncan who'd devised a Plan B in record time). The show is presented here as broadcast including a couple of interview sections, the first with Steve, audibly giddy with the whole experience of playing in the US for the first time. Also giddy on this occasion was Gary who took it upon himself to treat the neck of his guitar as a wood planer to the contours of the studio door frame.

After a day or two in the California sun, we took the short hop over to Philadelphia where we would meet our host Chuck Van Zyl for the second leg of the visit. We became well acquainted with the wonderful city of Philadelphia, and even took a day jaunt to New York before settling down to more music making, this time a concert in the surroundings of St Mary's Church on the campus in University City. It was a magical experience and this time having the whole evening to ourselves enabled us to relax and exclusively enjoy the surroundings.

We only had room for about a quarter of the concert on the original `Solid States' release, so presented here for the first time is the entire show. The recording is this time sourced from the pristine digital desk recording made by sound engineer Art Cohen, which for some reason wasn't available to us at the time of the original release.

And as if that wasn't enough for one night, off we trooped up the stairs to the old studios of WXPN to perform a two hour- plus improvisation long into the night on Chuck's show `Stars End', taking an occasional break to open a door and stare at the Philadelphia skyline in the pouring rain while the music looped on.

What an experience !

SD 22/11/2022