In 2007 we embarked on an abridged tour of Europe, on a shoe-string budget, in support of our newly-released "Live at Progman Cometh" album.... because we wanted to.
therealglass.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-progman-cometh

Recordings of our gigs were non-professional (done with my little digicam, which had a propensity for drop-outs) so here are the hastily done raw recordings. However, for the REALLY DEDICATED Glass fan－& you know who you are!－these are required listening!

Ooh-là-là mais non!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lzdq3TdSZuo
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RnaAMEJNKY
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmZMryhInxo

"I need to revisit that impressive double live-CD of theirs; No Stranger to the Skies, was it? Lengthy works of part symphonic rock, part Canterbury and, I suppose, part just Glass. There were a few passages with some reminiscence to other US unknowns like Holding Pattern or Eastern Island, but Glass struck me as more original in approach. I wrote a review on it in a mag here in Norway back on the album's release, and the editor was contacted by one of the band members saying something to the effect that this was basically their "[...] only 'media coverage' ever." They even came here for a gig sometime in 2007, I think it was - supporting Panzerpappa at a club which has long since disappeared now. Good playing of firm music! Nice to hear that they're still at it. I remember that night very well. When I saw Glass in 2007, most folks in the audience were in awe at a one-armed keyboardist's ability to seemingly still handle several instrumental duties at once. I remember thinking that this is how it ideally works when artistic commitment is topped only by long lasting brotherhood among players. No wonder they'd been doing it since their teens."
-S Scissor, Progressive Ears


Part of an interview with Ryan Sparks of Classic Rock Revisited:
"Ryan: 2007 was a watershed year in the band’s career because that year not only were you able to take the band on the road, but you did a European Tour.

Jeff: [laughing] Well I’ll tell you that tour, pretty much like everything Glass does, it was done on a shoe string budget. The only reason that tour happened was because we had reached an age where we all kind of simultaneously realized that we couldn’t put it off anymore. We had always wanted to play in Europe. I bought the roundtrip tickets to Heathrow before I’d even booked the tour. I called the guys up and said I’d bought the tickets and that I would book the tour and we’d go over there and play. There was an attitude of no failure because we just wanted to go do it.

The first gig was supposed to be in Kingston, a little suburb 20 km SW of London. We got to the gig and we meet the owner and it was like the first time he was hearing about it. The place was a bar called The Peel that also doubled as a strip club next door. It was kind of a half and half thing [laughing]. I tried to call the promoter who I’d booked the gig with but he was in the hospital. It was just a comedy of errors. The owner kindly let us play, but of course we didn't get paid. There were maybe twelve people there.
www.facebook.com/thepeelkingston/
whatpub.com/pubs/KIN/7046/sir-robert-peel-kingston
www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/11115335.day-the-music-died-kingstons-famous-gig-venue-the-peel-to-close/

Ryan: Not including the strippers?

Jeff: I think maybe four of them were strippers. Nobody was there for the music. It was so shambolic I didn't even bother recording it. When I watch Spinal Tap that’s why I double over laughing because all the crap that happened to them was happening to us.

The next gig was supposed to be up in Glasgow in Scotland. We drive up there and that’s a long ass drive. So we drive up there in our rented van and when we get to gig, the gig was legit, but the guy who booked it hadn’t done any advertising so that made dealing with him a bit difficult. We played the show and afterward when we went to collect our money he had taken off and completely screwed us. We went back to his place where we had left our stuff and he had locked us out. This is the second gig of like six or eight shows so it’s not looking good at this point.

Ryan: You’re not exactly living the dream are you?

Jeff: No we’re not. That guy was darn lucky Jerry and Greg didn’t beat him to a pulp. We found out he took a bunch of our tour t-shirts and CDs because as the promoter he lost money on the venue since he didn't do any promotion. So not only did we not get paid, but he stole from us as well. Needless to say we didn't get to play the second Glasgow gig we'd booked with him.

After that mess we had a band meeting and Jerry and Greg both said that the next gig in Oslo was one where we couldn’t afford to take another financial hit. Fortunately the guy that I was dealing with Per-Helge Berg was a really great guy and he had booked us into this club. I called him ahead of time and told him that I hated to lay it on him but that we needed to get paid double and we needed some hotel rooms and stuff. He came through like you would not believe. We got to the gig and everything was cool. He paid us ahead of time and had booked a couple of rooms for us in one of the best hotels in Oslo. That was the point where it became real and we thought that this was how it was supposed to go. It was smooth sailing from that point on. The great thing is I still converse with him on Facebook and he’s willing to have us back anytime. My dream still is to do another club tour over there."
classicrockrevisited.com/show_interview.php?id=1262


"I’ll try to get Greg to help me remember. And maybe even Jerry – he loves to reminisce. Our brains always work better together. We each remember different things (left brain, right brain?) 

We should tell the story now before we get older. it was a pretty disastrous trip but then if you read similar stories from other bands, like The Police having to do their first US tour driving around in a station wagon, it’s really a familiar disastrous tale. Promoters are notorious for taking advantage of artists early in their career. Soft Machine never got paid for that first tour of the US opening for Jimi in ’68. Their manager just ripped them off, this came straight from Hugh. No wonder they all flipped when Jerry paid them all up front and put them up in a great hotel for Progman. Even paid for their food and everything. Probably thought he was some rich kid in America with the prog fetish. A latter-day Wes Brunson."
canterburyscene.wordpress.com/2016/04/18/the-fascinating-story-of-wes-brunson/
-J.S.