Scott's Spotlight #46 - Arena

 Originally posted to Facebook on September 25, 2025

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Welcome to Scott’s Spotlight (#scottsspotlight) issue #46.  For more information about this series, please click here:

https://www.facebook.com/share/Gc2VkwHQWGLdeaDd/?mibextid=oFDknk

Where better to shine a spotlight than on a band called Arena!  Formed in 1995 in the UK, they are something of a supergroup (or at least it has become more of one over time, as we’ll see). It was initially founded by keyboardist Clive Nolan (also of Pendragon and Shadowland), and drummer Mick Pointer (the original Marillion drummer), along with guitarist Keith More, vocalist John Carson, and bassist Cliff Orsi.  Mick Pointer actually left the music business for a decade after his departure from Marillion.  He actually took a job as a kitchen designer, a skill he’d apprenticed while in high school.  However, in the early 90s, a fanzine called “Rondeau” began publishing a series of false ads joking about Mick Pointer looking for new musical opportunities.  However,the joke was on the magazine as musicians began to seek out Pointer. Eventually Cive Nolan was introduced to Pointer through a mutual friend, and the rest is history.  Nolan and Pointer will prove to be the band’s only constant members. Clive Nolan is the band’s primary lyricist, and writes the music most often along with Nick Pointer and, later, John Mitchell . They are often considered to be one of the most significant bands of the sub-genre known as neo-prog.

The original line up produced the band’s brilliant debut album,“Songs from the Lion’s Cage”.  The album opens with the 8 minute “Out of the Wilderness” which establishes their prog credentials right out of the gate.  Fish may not have been a fan of Pointer’s drumming in his Marillion days, which led to his departure from that band, but he does a fantastic job as Arena’s drummer. Keith More, Cliff Orsi, and John Carson are all solid in their roles.  Carson’s voice does bear a bit of resemblance to Fish’s voice, so the music does tend to remind the listener of Marillion, at least at this stage of their career.  Also notable on this first album is the recurring theme of the four parts of “Crying for Help” which are interspersed throughout the album.  Steve Rothery of Marillion takes a guest guitar solo on part IV.  There are two tracks that exceed 10 minutes on the album: “Valley of the Kings” (10:10) and the closing epic, which I am listening to as I type this, “Solomon” (14:37).  “Solomon” is a brilliant epic, with all the bells and whistles to make prog-fans happy.

Between the first and second albums, Arena would make their first line-up change. Cliff Orsi would be replaced by bassist John Jowitt (who was then known as the bassist in IQ from 1990, as well as the band Ark, but would also eventually play with Frost* and Jadis). Also, John Carson would be replaced by Paul Wrightston The second Arena album, “Pride”, released in 1996, seems to be a continuation of the themes on the first album, despite the two line-up changes.  In fact, there are three more segments of the “Crying for Help” series here.  The Fish-era Marillion vibes are still here, particularly in the way sings the title phrase in “Fool’s Gold” (9:37), which along with “Empire of a Thousand Days” (9:34) and album closer “Sirens” (13:42), is one of the albums three longest tracks.

The band would once again change line-ups in 1997 with John Mitchell taking the guitar spot from Keith More. While More played quite well on the first two Arena albums, John Mitchell has remained the band’s guitarist ever since. Prior to joining Arena, Mitchell was a member of The Urbane, which he re-visits from time to time, and subsequently has become a member of Frost* (whom I have done a Spotlight on), Kino, and It Bites, among others, not to mention his solo project Lonely Robot, and countless guest performances on other artists albums, including this year’s brilliant Karmakanic album “Transmutation”.

With Mitchell in place, Arena would release album #3, titled “The Visitor” in 1998.  According to blogger John Stout on his blog called “Moments in Transition”, “The Visitor is a concept album which relates the following:

“The Visitor as an album is a concept piece telling the story of a man who has a near death experience having fallen into an icy river, and the various characters he encounters before his eventual rescue and spiritual enlightenment.”

https://momentstransition.wordpress.com/2016/09/16/arena-the-visitor-1998/

So while there are 14 tracks on the album, they all tell a part of the story.  Some of the highlights are album opener “A Crack in the Ice” (7:25), “The Hanging Tree” (7:09), “Running from Damascus” (3:44), and the closing title track (6:13).  This is one of Arena’s highest rated albums on Prog Archives (4.10 out of 5 stars on average), and is considered to be a classic of neo-prog.  Additionally, this is one of two Arena albums with cover art by Hugh Syme (known for his work with Rush) in conjunction with photographer Anthony Frederick.

In 1999, there would, once again, be line-up changes, but this new line-up would remain in place for 11 years. Ian Salmon would take over from John Jowitt on the bass (but don’t forget about him…), and Rob Sowdon would replace Paul Wrightson as the vocalist.   This line-up's first album would be the band’s 4th, titled “Immortal?” and released in 2000. This album was generally well-received but is rated slightly lower than its predecessor on Prog Archives at a 3.95 out of 5 stars average score. Some stand-out tracks include the opener “Chosen”, “The Butterfly Man”, and Arena’s longest song to that point, “Moviedrome” which clocks in at 19:43. Reviewers felt that Sowdon’s voice was as strong and carried-on the Arena tradition of excellent singers nicely.

Album number 5 for Arena wouldn’t land until 2003, but it is another of their most revered, “Contagion”. It is tied with another for their highest rated album on Prog Archives, but just barely above “The Visitor” with a 4.16 out of 5 stars average. Interestingly, this is the first Arena album with no songs over 6 minutes in length.  In fact only one song is over 5 minutes: “Spectre at the Feast” (5:34). However, the album has an overarching concept, which, according to Google AI is as follows:

“The overarching concept of Arena's album Contagion is a dystopian narrative about humanity's struggle against a deadly, civilization-threatening virus. The story was penned by keyboardist Clive Nolan and is centered on an individual's personal journey for redemption within this collapsing world.”

Almost seems a bit prophetic considering that this album was from 2003!  There are three  instrumental tracks on this album: “This Way Madness Lies”, “On the Box”, and “Riding the Tide”.  I am in agreement that this is indeed an excellent example of Arena’s work.

The sixth album from Arena was released in 2005, and called “Pepper’s Ghost”.  It was the closing track “Opera Fanatica” (13:06- the album’s longest) that first caught my ear and got me interested in the music of Arena.  We have a full-on concept album here which is described on the Wikipedia page about the album:

“The album tells the story of five heroes in 19th century London, who fight crime and, ultimately, defeat a demon. They are an exorcist, a ninja, a scientist who travels through time, a count and a cowboy with Indian ways. The story is told in the booklet that accompanies it, through a small comic.”

Strangely, even though the whole idea of this album seems like it would land it among prog’s most revered albums, it seemed to be a slight disappointment to many reviewers with an average score of 3.69 out of 5 stars on PA. Few seemed to think it was a “bad” album as such, just not as good as the three previous ones.  I, however, think very highly of it.  Some of my favorites from the album are the aforementioned “Opera Fanatica”, the opener “Bedlam Fayre”, the nearly 10 minute “The Shattered Room”, and “Purgatory Road”.  Mitchell’s solo on “The Shattered Room” (approaching the 8 minute mark) is particularly amazing, as are the dynamic accents in the vocal section that follows it.

Following “Pepper’s Ghost”, Arena took a hiatus while band members took time to work on other projects, not the least of which was Clive Nolan’s rock opera “She”.  He staged a performance of the opera under the auspices of his theater company called Caamora in Poland in 2007, recordings of it were released the following year.  Also during this period Mitchell formed Frost* with Jem Godfrey (I’ll link my spotlight on them in the Links for Listening).  Mitchell also joined a re-formed It Bites as guitarist and lead vocalist in place of Francis Dunnery. Mick Pointer formed the Mick Pointer Band and they began performing “Script for a Jester’s Tear” (Legal action prevented Poiner from using the name Marillion in any way).

When Arena reconvened to make 2011’s “The Seventh Degree of Separation”, singer Rob Sowdon was not happy with the direction that the music was taking so he left the band, and was replaced by Paul Manzi whose voice is a bit more gruff than previous singers.  Mick Pointer said  "clearly Paul Manz has a much better voice range than any of the others [previous singers in the band] put together”.   I will let each listener decide for themselves. Additionally, Ian Salmon was replaced by his predecessor, John Jowitt (told you to remember his name). The resulting album got a mixed reception from reviewers, with some absolutely loving it, and others saying it is their worst album. The result is that it is their lowest ranked album on PA, with an average score of 3.47 out of 5 stars.  I have not heard all of it, but I do like what I know.  I particularly like the opener, “The Great Escape” and the album’s penultimate and longest track “Catching the Bullet”.

Album number 8 for Arena came in 2015, but once again there was a line up change.  Bassist John Jowitt exited again and was replaced by Kylan Amos ,  who also created the album cover.  The album was titled “The Unquiet Sky”. The tracks that I know from this album are very high-energy.  The concept of the album is based on a short story published in 1911 by author M. R. James called “Casting the Runes”.  According to Wikipedia, in its summary of the original story, the story is as follows:

“Mr. Edward Dunning is a researcher for the British Museum. At the beginning of the story he has recently reviewed The Truth of Alchemy by Mr. Karswell, an alchemist and occultist. Afterwards, he begins seeing the name John Harrington displayed wherever he goes. He learns that Harrington also reviewed Karswell's work and died in a freak accident not long after.

Harrington's brother helps Dunning discover that Karswell cursed both men by slipping them a piece of paper with some runes on it. They deduce that the curse, once cast, will cause the bearer to die in three months. They track down Karswell a day before the curse is set to kill Dunning and manage to return the runes to him. Karswell dies the next day, killed by a stone that falls from scaffolding around the Collegiate Church of Saint-Vulfran in Abbeville.”

I have enjoyed many songs from this album including the opener “The Demon Strikes”, “The Bishop of Lufford” and the closer and longest track on the album "Traveller Beware”.  This album fared very slightly better than its predecessor averaging a score of 3.71 out of 5 stars on PA.  Personally I’d rank it higher than that.

The next Arena album would maintain the same line-up.  “Double Vision” was released in 2018.  The album’s cover was created by João Martins (Grendel), and will mess with your mind a bit if you look at it too long.  There does not seem to be an overarching concept on this album.  What it does have though is great music!  Album opener “Zhivago Wolf”, “The Mirror Lies” and “Red Eyes" are among the best ones on the album.  But the centerpiece of the album is Arena’s longest epic to date, the closer “The Legend of Elijah Shade” (22:39), which is absolutely a must-hear prog album!  In fact it is the first song over 10 minutes in length since 2005’s “Pepper’s Ghost” track “Opera Frantica”.   This one inches up slightly again with an average score of 3.75 out of 5 stars on PA.

Of course, we have one more personnel change before this story ends. In July of 2020,  Damian Wilson replaced Paul Manzi on vocals.  According to Clive Nolan in Prog Magazine:

"It is with sadness that we will be parting ways with singer Paul Manzi.

He has been with us for ten years, three studio albums and a lot of touring, but these commitments, particularly the touring, were becoming a strain on his time and availability, so it was mutually agreed that it was the right time for Paul to move on.

We wish him luck with his musical endeavours, and he will always welcome to join us on stage in the future. An announcement regarding the new line up will follow soon."

And it did indeed come soon.  Damian Wilson has quite a resume’ and is well known in the modern prog world.  Among many other appearances, Wilson has been the lead singer of Landmarq, Threshold, Headspace, and several projects led by Arjen Lucassen such as Ayeron, Star One and Lucassen’s solo albums (One day I’ll tackle the prolific career of Mr. Lucassen with a Spotlight on him and his numerous projects).  

The first album released with Wilson at the mic, and currently the most recent Arena album is 2022’s “The Theory of Molecular Inheritance”.  The concept, as explained by prog-blogger Steve Lazenby on his “Lazland” blog (https://lazland.org/further-2022-reviews/arena-the-theory-of-molecular-inheritance#:~:text=The%20Theory%20of%20Molecular%20Inheritance%2C%20the%20tenth%20studio%20album%20by,girl%20narrative%2C%20you%20will%20agree.) 

“Clive Nolan has written lyrics which deal with the fascinating subject of quantum physics, specifically a theory that a molecule in one point of space & time can be entangled with another molecule elsewhere. In English, this means that a special molecule belonging to a genius such as Beethoven can wind up in another body in another time and inspire genius in its new host. Incidentally, there are many philosophers who believe that the basis of quantum physics is the scientific realisation of millennia of thought and belief in an afterlife.”

So, just a bit of light entertainment, then?  Yeah, no!  What is it about the best prog–always making us think?!    Anyways… Damian Wilson is very well received as the new Arena singer on this album, giving the average score a boost over the Manzi-era albums, and tying “Contagion” from way back in 2003 as the highest ranked Arena album on PA with an average score of 4.16 out of 5 stars.  Some standout tracks on the album are the opener “Time Capsule”, “Twenty One Grams”,  “The Heiligenstadt Legacy” and closer “Life Goes On”.  Interestingly, with the exception of one outlier (the 2:20 “Confession”) all of the songs fall between just under 5 minutes to just under 7 minutes.

 Over the years, Arena have also released seven live albums spanning between 1997’s “Welcome to the Stage” to 2023’s “Lifian Tour MMXXII”, so Wrightston, Sowdon, Manzi and Wilson are all documented onstage with the band.  This leads me to a word about Arena’s singers over the years; they’ve all been strong!  While Sowdon and Wilson seem to be the fan favorites, John Carson and Paul Wrightson were wonderful on Arena’s early albums, and I think Paul Manzi was unfairly maligned, particularly by those posting reviews on PA.  I believe he did a great job at the mic, and I truly enjoy the albums he did with the band.  In fact, I’d say that Arena’s catalog has been consistently good and there is not a weak album out of the 10.  As of this writing, I’d rank “Pepper’s Ghost”, “Double Vision” and “The Visitor” as my favorites, but I don’t dislike any of them.  2025 is Arena’s 30th anniversary year as a band.  Lets hope that they have many more years to come.

Be sure to check out the Links for Listening below.

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Prog On!

Scott

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Links for Listening (and related posts):

From “Songs from the Lion’s Cage”:

“Out of the Wilderness”

https://youtu.be/sFP8oLkQps0

“Solomon”

https://youtu.be/PLM-HCc0BIM

From “Pride”

“Fool’s Gold”

https://youtu.be/d4ShR99427k

“Sirens”

https://youtu.be/-HfVmwSF-Mw

From “The Visitor”

“A Crack in the Ice”

https://youtu.be/aibCZzR4MY4

“The Visitor"

https://youtu.be/5lZxB2Tm2fE

From “Immortal?”

“Chosen”

https://youtu.be/pp5aWZQeNFU

“Moviedrome”

https://youtu.be/YUveVJ3QCTI

From “Contagion”

“Witch Hunt”

https://youtu.be/LlM--DXFS38

“Spectre at the Feast”

https://youtu.be/G4GGvf8ByLE

From “Pepper’s Ghost”

“The Shattered Room”

https://youtu.be/6eDYLwvI5T4

“Opera Fanatica”

https://youtu.be/uoH081LKl6E

From “The Seventh Degree of Separation"

“The Great Escape”

https://youtu.be/MOt_Dk-OZtA

“Catching the Bullet”

https://youtu.be/FO6I6gmrdSc

From “The Unquiet Sky”

“The Demon Strikes”

https://youtu.be/71NLsUDTUWE

“Traveller Beware”

https://youtu.be/o97HFD8x8tA

From “Double Vision”

“Zhivago Wolf”

https://youtu.be/tBwufNtrhdA

“The Legend of Elijah Shade”

https://youtu.be/AiHXaMT9x7s

From “The Theory of Molecular Inheritance”

“Time Capsule”

https://youtu.be/JuIy0GW4d1s

“The Heiligenstadt Legacy”

https://youtu.be/c0SM0YNCpik

Related articles I’ve written:

Frost* Spotlight

https://scottssongbysongandspotlights.blogspot.com/2025/05/scotts-spotlight-23-frost.html

Karmakanic “Transmutation” review:

https://scottssongbysongandspotlights.blogspot.com/2025/05/scotts-song-by-song-25-karmakanic.html