Chris Gill began playing guitar at 13, but really got in to it after seeing "The Groundhogs" and more specifically "Tony McPhee" in 1970. It wasn't long before he had a school band together called "Gondolin" doing some groundhogs covers. Inevitably they split up after leaving school, and Chris played with various different bands in the then thriving Bedford U.K. music scene. Prowl and The Eyes of Eleanor being 2 of them. He got invited to a Bath Arts workshop in 1973 which was to introduce him to the world of improvisation. Chris, Lol Coxhill ("Kevin Ayers" & the whole world) and the mighty George Khan ("Robert Wyatt" "Soft Machine") and members of the Global Village Trucking Company played non stop for about 6 hours, even through a "Hawkwind" gig that was going on in the next room, without playing the same thing twice. In fact when the "Hawkwind" gig finished, they came on stage and jammed along too. Chris saw the potential of improvisation and the benefits it brings to song ideas and decided to develop it. Trying to re create the magic of Bath with many musicians, it never really worked. Add to that, by now the UK music scene was heading in to Punk, like so many others he decided to try his luck in the USA. He moved to Houston Texas and found a club there called Carnabys in the bohemian Montrose area, where he met a whole bunch of like minded musicians. They soon put a band together, and found themselves playing at various universities and clubs across the southern states. In the mean time, Chris decided to move to L.A. where he remained for about a year coaching actors to talk with an English accent and working with young bands that were trying to get off the ground. Add to this that he had found new inspiration talking to "Nick Mason" ("Pink Floyd") he started to put together what we now know as Band Of Rain. Because he wanted to try to make a new kind of music, he decided to take on the debut album "Deep Space" as a solo project, as he really was not sure which direction it would go in. Except for some help with vocals from good friend Andy Fisher, he played all the other instruments himself. His wife Katrina who is also a musician played the flute on "Casanova of the Cliff Dwellers". Band Of Rain is a amazing band and a musical project certainly capable of creating some astonishing, enjoyable and moving Progressive Music, where the leadership is Chris Gill, a musician who display a special talent, a hunter and researcher of differents progressive sounds, a versatile musician capable to satisfy all different legions of Progressiver Rock listeners. "Arts & Allurements" is very different from the first two albums and, deserves some special attention, mainly because it sounds more as a blend of Symphonic Progressive Rock, Art Rock, Hard Rock including some "Gothic" textures. The main attraction on the songs are, the strong and powerful vocals from "Sharon Leslie", performing a variety of vocal tones, run from melodic to hard, but without aggressiveness. The guitars solos, created by "Chris Hill" sounds so pure, sometimes symphonic and sometimes aggressive, complemented by incredible bass, drums and keyboards elements. The music on "Arts & Allurements" is rich, and everything is done to lead us through this very special musical universe full of atmospheric melodies. All tracks are developed under a superb orchestration, very powerful and emotional, in my opinion, one of the best albuns from 2007. Just listen "Their Mistake", "The Devils Debts", "Vampires", "Drusilla", "Arts & Allurements" and "Pan", where everything sounds incredible but "Monument" I really consider the best song on this album. The musicians on Band Of Rain are: Sharon Leslie - Vocals/Lyrics - Vocal Melodies, Chris Gill - Lead Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals and Writer, Richard Northwood - Keyboards, Andy Whitfield - Bass and Vocals, Tim Walkers  - Drums and Graham Elks - Guitar. Brilliant, perfect, amazing and an indispensable work, highly recommendable for all Progressive Rock fans around the world... (Comments by Carlos Vaz)
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