Caligula's Horse Are Taking The Aussie Prog Scene To Europe For Some 'Big, Sweaty Cuddles'

The three major population centres on the eastern seaboard of Australia are about to experience something very special, but very fleeting.

Brisbane's world-class masters of progressive rock and metal, Caligula's Horse, are treating Sydney, Melbourne and their hometown to live renditions of their last album, epic concept piece In Contact, in full. And as if that wasn't enough, they will then turn around and pull out a special set of fan-requested favourites from their illustrious back catalogue. It is certain to be a truly memorable night with this prestigious Aussie band, and highly unlikely to ever happen this way again.

Enigmatic frontman Jim Grey joined us from his home in Brissie to chat about the thinking behind doing this now.

"Because of the concept album, the four chapters and the nature of the music, it was something that we considered when the album was finished," he reveals. "Like, 'Man, it would be really cool to throw this one out from start to finish,' because it's such a musical journey. We structured it to have major ebbs and flows and so on. We've wanted to do something like this for a while.

"So then we realised that people want to see a mixed bag of C-Horse stuff, and since they're getting In Contact in full we'll give them a bunch of stuff we don't normally play, so we threw a whole bunch of things on the fan poll."

The band will open with In Contact in all its glory, take a quick break and then move on to the fan favourites. The album alone is well over an hour's worth of music, so you can expect to get your money's worth.

"Yeah that's pretty much it," he confirms. "We want to keep that gap as short as we can, because In Contact in itself is a mammoth. Then to come back and play a set of requests is going to make for a marathon set. We want people to stick around, so we probably won't take too much of an intermission. I'll probably just run backstage and throw some water on my face and we'll be back out again."

On top of all that, the all-Australian, all-progressive line-up they are taking out with them is something to behold. Opus Of A Machine, a Brisbane-based outfit with strong connections to C-Horse will be main support, with Melbourne guitar prodigy James Norbert Ivanyi and his superb band opening the night.

"Oh man, it's gonna be so cool!" Grey enthuses. "Having Opus on the bill, Zac's band [Zac Greensill, former Caligula's Horse guitarist], those guys have been great mates of ours since the beginning of Caligula's Horse. And then there's James Norbert Ivanyi, who is a phenomenal guitarist and just the friendliest dude as well. So it's going to be amazing."

Then, come October, things get even bigger and more exciting for the band. They head off for an immense, month-long, 26-date, 16-country tour of Europe and the UK in what is being dubbed the 'Aussie Invasion' tour — again with two fabulous Australian progressive heavy acts, Circles and I Built The Sky, in tow. It really is the very first time anything like this has been attempted, both for the band and for a line-up such as this.

"It's exciting on its own, just in and of itself," he states. "It's the first time we've ever been able to go to Europe and justify our own headline tour. These are our shows and this is our thing. So that ticks off yet another bucket list box for me.

"But on top of that, the fact that I Built The Sky and Circles are joining us on the bus is going to be awesome. It's just going to be big, sweaty cuddles! How many Australian dudes can you fit in one Nightliner bunk!"