On this Saturday evening we went, with high anticipation, to the venue of Metropool in Enschede to see the British band Lifesigns play again. This is such a typical band that is completely ignored by the three-chord militia because there are far too many subtleties and twists that are more difficult to fathom in their music. That is the word I would use to describe the music of Lifesigns, subtle. They make prog rock with a sense of detail and delicious melodies without coming across as too showy. Fortunately, they have brought a drummer of flesh and blood with them on this mini-tour, namely Dutchman Frank van Essen, known from Iona, among others. He also plays the violin very beautifully and that is also evident during the concert. The big man behind Lifesigns is of course keyboardist/singer John Young and with his cooled British humour he is perfectly capable of guiding the visitors through the evening. He is not the most outspoken singer and does not have to rely on all kinds of vocal acrobatics, but his voice is always appropriate to the music and his lyrics are often quite socially critical and that is certainly not surprising in this day and age. Well, I just said that he is the big man behind Lifesigns but another star of the evening is master guitarist Dave Bainbridge, what a great player he is. Occasionally playing keys, he is also very adept at that, but often soloing on his beautiful guitar and wow, that's really fantastic. Of course, a band is not complete without a bass player and with Jon Poole they have a real pacesetter on board who, together with van Essen, lays a wonderful foundation for the escapades of Young and Baindridge. His bass guitar almost touches the floor, but that also has to do with the small height of this born entertainer. He often takes care of the backing vocals and has the perfect voice to do so.

After the break, it immediately took off with the beautiful title track of their latest album Altitude and that is fifteen minutes of enjoying everything that makes our music so beautiful. Somehow everything was more right and that clearly caught on with the audience and some visitors went wild, nice to see how much gratitude they showed. Once again Bainbridge showed why he is seen as one of the best guitarists in our genre, man, what a solos that man plays. In between, Young remarked that he had recently had a conversation with someone from the BBC who asked him why he had never heard of them while they were making such beautiful music. Could that perhaps be due to the BBC itself? Completely true, of course. The tracks of Altitude all did very well but the other tracks were also fine. Yet they couldn't leave before the beautiful Last One Home was played, a beautiful melancholic song with Dave's now famous guitar solo. For me, this is one of the most beautiful solos I know, goosebumps. And I wasn't the only one who felt this way, that was clear.