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Pioneering progressive rock gods Wishbone Ash tour Vancouver Island

Four dates in four nights for twin-guitar pioneers
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Wishbone Ash – Open Road Tour 2018 with Special Guest David Gogo and band will appear on Sunday, Sept. 23 at the Tidemark Theatre.

The British classic rock act that pioneered the use of twin lead guitars is coming to Vancouver Island.

Wishbone Ash’s Open Road Tour 2018 comes to Campbell River, Sidney, Courtenay and Nanaimo for a brief tour feturing four shows in four nights.

With psychedelia and the blues boom in full bloom, Wishbone Ash jumped on board the burgeoning Progressive Rock scene in 1969. Taking full advantage of the fertile musical environment, they produced a distinctive brand of melodic rock, readily apparent on such hits as Helpless, Runaway, Lorelei, Persephone, You Rescue Me, Outward Bound, Mother Of Pearl Rest In Peace and Bad Weather Blues.

Inspired equally by British folk traditions, American jazz and R&B, the group played to public and critical acclaim. More than 45 years later, Wishbone Ash, the quintessential road band, has gained worldwide recognition, based firmly on a regime of relentless touring. Power and melody have made the Ash a hard act to follow, while they are currently being discovered by new generations of loyal rock fans.

The band includes founding member Andy Powell, who handles lead vocals and trades licks with Yorkshire’s Mark Abrahams. Bassist Bob Skeat, a 20-year veteran of the band, keeps the bottom rocking with Joe Crabtree, one of the best of Britain’s new breed of drummers whose performance credits include Pendragon and David Cross of King Crimson.

With 24 studio releases, 11 live albums and five live DVDs to date, Wishbone Ash continues to prove they are not a band to rest on their laurels. Wishbone’s third album, Argus (1972), was named The Best British Album of the Year by Melody Maker and considered to be one of the all-time classic rock albums, together with Pilgrimage (1971) and New England (1976). More recently, The Power of Eternity (2007), Elegant Stealth (2011) and Blue Horizon (2014) garnered enthusiastic praise.

The band’s biggest seller, Live Dates (1973), is one of the highly rated live albums of the 1970s. The latest musical project is Wishbone Ash: The Vintage Years (Snapper Music), a 32-CD deluxe box set spanning the years 1969 to 1991, featuring a coffee table book, posters, floppy discs, rare photos and more.

The constant of Wishbone Ash has been Powell, voted one of the Ten Most Important Guitarists in Rock History (Traffic magazine, 1989) and the Top 20 Guitarists Of All Time (Rolling Stone).

Through the years, he has been featured in notable publications, including Guitar Player, Vintage Guitar and Guitarist, and has appeared at the Guitar Institute in Los Angeles. In 2015, he released his musical memoir, “Eyes Wide Open: True Tales of a Wishbone Ash Warrior” (co-written with Colin Harper, Jawbone Press) which offers an inside track of five decades of life on the road and in the studio.

An award-winning Blues guitarist, singer/songwriter, David Gogo adds heart, soul and grit to the international blues acene. He can swap road stories for as long as you can listen with 30 years of performing and hundreds of thousands of touring miles under his belt.

He has performed onstage with the legendary Johnny Winter and B.B. King, Albert Collins and Bo Diddley. He has opened for George Thorogood, ZZ Top, The Tragically Hip, Buddy Guy, Charles Bradley, Robert Cray and Jimmy Vaughan and many others. An incredible showman with cutthroat wit and virtuosic blues guitar playing, he electrifies the stage with sizzling, hard-rocking blues filled with heavy grooves, grit and emotion.

The tour hits Courtenay (Sept. 21), Sidney (Sept. 22), Campbell River (Sept. 23 nd Nanaimo (Sept. 24). Click here for ticket details.