Hats Off Gentlemen It’s Adequate are a UK-based progressive rock outfit featuring Malcolm Galloway (vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and producer), Mark Gatland (bass, Chapman stick, backing vocals, additional guitar, keyboards and co-producer), and sometimes accompanied by Kathryn Thomas (flute, backing vocals).
Their forthcoming album, the band’s seventh, is The Light Of Ancient Mistakes which is set for release on 9th September. A first single from the album is the excellent ‘Burn The World’ with it’s compelling climate-themed message. All proceeds from sales of the single (at least until the end of 2024) will be donated to the Prog The Forest fundraising initiative (which donate funds to the World Land Trust, to support their work buying threatened habitat to put into protective trusts in collaboration with local communities).
Malcolm Galloway tells Darren’s Music Blog: “Of all the balls of rock in the sky, ours is the only one we know for certain harbours life. We seem so reckless in how we act. We know that increasing CO2 in the atmosphere warms the planet, and warmer air leads to more extreme weather events. Every forest is part of our life-support system. Saving rainforests from being burned down for short term financial gain helps in the fight against climate change and against the mass extinction of other species.“
Hats Off Gentlemen It’s Adequate are co-organisers of Prog The Forest, the annual progressive music environmental charity fundraising festival that has raises money to protect over 40 acres of threatened habitat.
“We work with Chris Parkins of London Prog Gigs to organise an annual fundraising progressive music festival in London. The festival donates all profits to the World Land Trust, which acquires threatened rainforests and other valuable habitats to place them in protective trust in collaboration with local communities. We will be donating all the earnings from the Burn The World single release until at least the end of 2024 to this fundraising. So far, Prog The Forest has raised enough to save over 41 acres of threatened habitat.”
Tickets: https://www.ents24.com/festival/prog-the-forest-23/6793332
The Light Of Ancient Mistakes album is available to pre-order on Bandcamp, and will be on general release on 9 September 2023. The centrepiece of the album is ‘Walking To Aldebaran’, inspired by the science fiction novella of the same name by Adrian Tchaikovsky. The tracks ‘Avrana Kern Is Made Of Ants’, ‘The Requisitioner and the Wonder’ and ‘Gothi and Gethli’ are references to a character, two spaceships and a pair of crow-like creatures which insistently deny they are sentient in Adrian Tchaikovsky’s ‘Children of Time’ series.
Science fiction author Iain M Banks’ novel ‘Look To Windward’ is the inspiration of the title track. The track ‘The Man Who Japed’ is named after the Philip K Dick novel. The childhood experiences of David Cornwell, who wrote as John le Carré are the inspiration behind ‘Sixteen Hugless Years’. ‘The Glamour Boys’ was inspired by Labour MP Chris Byrant’s book of the same name about the experiences of a group of mostly homosexual or bisexual Conservative MPs who argued against appeasement, despite the threats from Chamberlain’s government to expose their secrets. Many went on to risk, and in some cases lose their lives in the Second World War.
The album also features ‘Sold The Peace’, which explores how after spending and risking so much to fight the Cold War, some of our leaders seem willing to risk our democracy for relatively small sums. ‘The Anxiety Machine’, is a three part instrumental is interspersed within the album. ‘Goodbye Cassini’, isa flute led tribute to the space probe, and ‘imtiredandeverythinghurts’ s about Malcolm’s experiences with invisible disability due to Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, and the difficulty knowing how to respond to the well-intentioned question ‘how are you’? The album ends with the climate change inspired ‘Burn The World’.
The Light Of Ancient Mistakes is released on 9th September 2023 and is available to pre-order on Bandcamp:
https://hatsoffgentlemen.bandcamp.com/album/the-light-of-ancient-mistakes
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