They reckon the ideal length for a blog post is about 700 words. In finally sitting down to write the Storm Deva 2024 year in review, I realise that the thing I want to say most of all is ‘thank you’. So, I toyed with just repeating those words 350 times and heading straight back to the box sets and the egg nog but you actually deserve a lot more than that.
Truth be told, we’ve had the most marvellous first year and it is all down to you.
Our debut album came out on 1 December 2023. We had already played four gigs in our acoustic duo configuration at that point, and released the single and video for Alchemy. But suddenly things jumped to a whole other level.
Prog magazine featured us as a Limelight artist (thank you Jerry Ewing and Jo Kendall), Progzilla radio started playing our music (thank you Mike Whitfield and all the Progzilla DJs), The Progressive Aspect reviewed our album and interviewed us (thank you Roger Trenwith) and music lovers started connecting with us, following our social media and buying our music. It was exciting and dizzying all at the same time!
In February, the combined force of the Progzilla DJs invited us to play in the ‘Progzilla Presents Slot’ at the Summer’s End festival in Chepstow in early October. Huw Lloyd-Jones from the festival reached out with the news, and I had to read the message at least twice before believing what I was reading. Things were suddenly happening very quickly – it was the dream coming true – and we decided that Summer’s End would be the place to launch Storm Deva in our full five-piece band configuration – little did we know what would happen nearer the time…
But back in February, the news gave Carollyn and me a real boost as we headed into our first gig of the year, supporting the amazing Franck Carducci and the Fantastic Squad at the Bedford, Balham. Organised by Chris Parkins and London Prog Gigs. This was the first of three times in 2024 that London Prog Gigs put us in front of an audience, having already booked us twice in the latter months of 2023. Again, we could not have dreamt of that level of support and we are incredibly grateful.
It was on the curbside (where else) as we arrived at the Bedford that we met Roger Marsh, who has since become a core member of the Storm Deva team. Organising a review of the album by Barry Robinson from Classic Album Review, and being our very own fashion model for our first Storm Deva T-shirt (click this link at your peril).
Our next gig was unexpected but very, very welcome. It came from another ‘early adopter’ Bob Cheatham from Vic’s Gigs. Bob had already booked us for a gig in September (more about that soon) but in March illness had struck the opening band and the sublime Ebony Buckle was in need of a support act. So, we suddenly found ourself opening up for a sold-out Little Embers Session at the Talbot Hotel in Oundle.
The message came in while we were on a really enjoyable live-stream listen-back of our album organised by Peter O’Neill at progrock.com. It was great answering listeners questions and hearing their feedback.
April brought us back to London and the Camden Club for a support slot with John Mitchell (who you don’t need reminding did such a fantastic job mixing our album), a co-promotion from London Prog Gigs and Bad Dog Promotions. Here we had the great pleasure of meeting Anne-Claire Rallo from Bad Dog and Chris Hillman, who had offered us a slot to open up the second stage on the Prog day at the Wokingham Festival.
The night was also notable for Chris Parkins saying to us, “about time we thought of getting you a gig of your own”. And true to his word, he teamed us with The Wood Demons for a double headliner in November.
The other jaw-dropping thing that happened in April was an email from Nick Shilton inviting us to support Big Big Train at The Stables, Milton Keynes in September. We had been fans of BBT for years and had met up with Greg and Kathy Spawton socially a number of times. So the chance to play to their audience was both exciting and daunting. It was a tremendous show of faith and it galvanised our determination even more.
And then in May, the readers of Prog magazine voted our song ‘Free’ to be their favourite Prog Track of the Week. This was an amazing result for us. The video had once again been produced by film maker Neil Monaghan and we are so thankful for his hard work with us – another true member of Team Storm Deva. What a great feeling to have one’s hard work so publicly appreciated.
August Bank Holiday brought us a fantastic day at the Wokingham Festival, playing an early set to a very receptive audience and then drinking beer in a sunny field with Mike Whitfield and Roger Marsh! Huge thanks to Rosamund Tomlins for helping us with merch that day.
And so, the big month of September arrived, and before we knew it, we found ourselves playing to a sold-out Big Big Train audience in Milton Keynes. There were a number of things that struck me that day, firstly how kind and supportive the band and their crew were – they had all the time in the world for us at soundcheck. Secondly, I realised how immensely grateful we are that the audiences for these gigs come in early to listen to the support act. Your willingness to lend us your ears for 45 minutes, when really you’re there for the headliners, is not lost on us – and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
What was particularly mind blowing about that day, was that it was only about a fortnight after the anniversary of our very first gig. It had taken place on 10 September 2023; we had played to a small, friendly crowd as part of the Streatham House Concert series run by prog heroes Geoff and Beth Parks. Back then, I could never have imagined the year that lay ahead but the nicest part of the realisation is that Geoff and Beth were in the audience at the Stables and we could publicly thank them for the start that they had given us.
Coming off stage that evening, we were flying high and ready for another gig at the end of the week for Bob Cheatham, opening for The Blackheart Orchestra, and then intensive rehearsals with the full the band for our debut performance at Summer’s end. But fate had other ideas.
As I wrote about at the time, Carollyn started to feel unwell as we were chatting in the bar to friends and fans after the gig. A day later, she was clearly not well at all. As a result, we had to pullout of our appearances at Oundle, and Summer’s End. It was a real punch in the guts following the highs of earlier in the year, but so many of you sent messages of support and understanding that we couldn’t help but feel as if you had so quickly taken us to your hearts. And a special thank you to Colin and Sue Smith, who we had met at The Soundle Festival, and who were going to sell merch for us at Summer’s End. Your time will come!
Around this time, more album reviews were coming in that helped buoy us back up. Thank you to Alison Reijman and Background Magazine, and John Wenlock-Smith from Prog Radar.
We were also offered a full-band gig for the end of October by Geoff Tucker, who again deserves a big shout-out from us because he has been wonderful in trying to find a slot for us at the 1865 in Southampton, but with Carollyn not well, the full-band rehearsals not started we reluctantly declined and decided to put all of our focus on our 17 November headline gig at the Camden Club.
And it’s here that I want to pay the biggest tribute possible to our fellow musicians who brought Storm Deva to full five-piece life. It was a dream come true and a joy to work with them. They are true professionals who not only played the music, but elevated it.
First off, we were so lucky to be joined by Rob Brian on drums, who had recorded the album with us and added so much excitement with his innovative take on our rhythms. Life and other commitments meant that neither our bass player nor cellist from the album could join us, but thanks to a recommendation from Mark Bloxsidge of Trilogy, we found Pete Clark on bass. And through our album cellist Hannah Reeves, we found Meg Ella for cello and backing vocals.
We rehearsed at NAM Studios in Trowbridge, Wiltshire (where the drums for the album had been recorded), and The Practice Roomz in Stevenage, Hertfordshire. It was at first daunting to be putting this all together and then amazing to hear it coming to full-throated life!
Gig day came and we added another three members to the Storm Deva crew, Dylan Parfitt, whose roadie-skills was invaluable on the day, and Sophie Needham who was brilliant at the merch table. My brother, Graham, was also firmly installed as band driver by this stage!
I’ll reserve our memories of the gig itself for another time as we’ve got the set recorded and with a little eq magic, mostly to clean up the spill in the microphones, we’ll have the live tracks to share with you soon. So we can relive the day itself then. Watch this space!
We will also get around to recording our second studio album this year. We had thought of doing it last year but the live success took us by surprise and we found the year raced away with us. At the same time, Carollyn was drawing so much inspiration from your generous reception that she has been writing, writing, writing. So we’ve now got a lot of truly exciting material to choose from – we could easily fill two albums worth – and we cannot wait to get it recorded and shared!
Last but by no means least, I want to pay tribute to the fantastic photographers who have so generously shared their images with us. There is no way our budget could allow us the luxury of hiring a photographer to capture these moments, even though they are vital for our further promotion. To have you share your considerable talents in this way is something that we will always be grateful for. To name a few, thank you Bryan Taylor, Simon Arnold, Howard Rankin, Andrew Merritt. And Lee Mellows, who took the picture at the top of this post – and I think it was the first post to make it onto social media as we were still playing!
And so 2025 is here. We have a number of gigs in the diary already, but only one that we can talk about so far! We are honoured to be opening the Soundle 2025 festival for Bob Cheatham with our full band on 6 June. Stay tuned for other announcements. If you aren’t signed up to our newsletter, do it here and get a discount code for our music and merch.
Well, I’m now clocking in at well over double the length of the ‘ideal’ blog post so thank you to all those who have made it this far – especially since all I really wanted to say was “thank you” to everyone who has supported us in some way, writing a review, buying a CD, attending a gig, whatever it is you have done to help us, we are so grateful. Stay in touch and we will see you soon.
Thank you!
PS. Don’t forget our debut album is now available on all streaming platforms and we’d love it if you could give us a like and follow wherever you stream your music.