InsideOut Music celebrate their 25th anniversary of being a label in 2018, in what will be one of their biggest and busiest yet. To coincide with this, two of their longest serving artists, Spock’s Beard (pictured above) and Roine Stolt’s The Flower Kings, will head out on a European co-headline tour in winter 2018.

Spock’s Beard comment: "Spock's Beard is excited to announce an upcoming Winter tour! It will be a co-bill with Roine Stolt's The Flower King’s revisited band, so each show promises to be a great evening of music. We've been getting a lot of questions about who will be playing drums on this tour, so at this time let me introduce our new touring drummer, Mr. Mike Thorne, from Saga! We are really excited to have him on board and are looking forward to seeing you on tour."

Roine Stolt adds: "Asked to put together a band to go on the road, celebrate our label InsideOut's 25 year anniversary - I was thinking of the 'treasure' that is the music I wrote for The Flower Kings during that same period. I felt compelled to bring out this music for yet another round - and in the process bring in some old friends and some new. The music is universal - some songs timeless - and by November I hope to have an exciting set-list - to not only celebrate my 1st album and the origin of all things "The Flower King" - but to cover the rest of TFK's history - and eventually a new tune & a few new faces. Tune up the engine - Time to prog!”

Dates:

November
30 - Cosmopolite - Oslo, Norway

December
1 - Kulturhuset Studion - Stockholm, Sweden
2 - KB - Malmo, Sweden
4 - Zeche - Bochum, Germany
5 - Z7 - Pratteln, Switzerland
6 - La Machine - Paris, France
7 - De Boerderij - Zoetermeer, Netherlands
8 - Hedon - Zwolle, Netherlands
9 - Islington Assembly Hall - London, UK
10 - Academy Club - Manchester, UK

Formed back in 1993 in Kleve, Germany, the label made their name with acts such as Enchant, Spock’s Beard, Symphony X and The Flower Kings, many of whom they still work with now - a rarity in this day and age. Since that time, the label has played a key and continued role in the survival and resurgence of progressive rock in recent years, and has always prided itself on shining a light on leftfield music. Now the band count some of the biggest and most exciting bands amongst their roster, including Dream Theater, Steve Hackett, Devin Townsend, Sons of Apollo, Kansas, Haken, Riverside, Leprous and more. On the label’s 20th anniversary back in 2013, one of the labels founders, and current label-head Thomas Waber was given the Guiding Light award at the Progressive Music Awards, praising his aforementioned role in the continued celebration of progressive rock.

Many of InsideOut’s longest running relationships will see new albums released in the labels 25th year, including Spock’s Beard’s 13th album Noise Floor, a new collaborative project called The Sea Within that features Roine Stolt, Daniel Gildenlow and Jonas Reingold (all veterans of the label), a landmark live album from Devin Townsend filmed at a special performance at a Roman Theatre in Bulgaria, a new studio album from Riverside and much more.

This year will also see InsideOut release a whole host of lavish catalogue releases throughout 2018, including the second part of The Flower Kings' A Kingdom of Colours CD boxsets, a series of Devin Townsend high-end vinyl boxes, a CD collection covering the whole of Enchant’s illustrious career, and much more yet to be announced.

The Progressive Music Awards 2018 recently announced their nominations, with InsideOut Music seeing 10 nominations in total, including Spock’s Beard for best international artist, as well as nods for Perfect Beings, Toundra, PFM, Sons of Apollo, Kino, Leprous and Caligula’s Horse.

Watch out for more news throughout 2018.

(Top photo - Kat Mueller)