This Winter Machine

This Winter Machine are an English progressive rock band from West Yorkshire, England, formed and named by vocalist, musician and songwriter Al Winter in 2016. To date, the band has released four albums: The Man Who Never Was (2017), A Tower of Clocks (2019), Kites (2021) and The Clockwork Man (2023). The band were founded in early 2016, initially settling on the line-up of Al Winter (vocals), Mark Numan (keyboards), Peter Priestley (bass), Marcus Murray (drums) and Gary Jevon (guitar). The concept for a new progressive rock band was conceived by Winter; he had written the song that would go on to be the title track of the debut album, The Man Who Never Was, some 10 years prior to forming the band. The band quickly became known to the progressive rock community after supporting popular English rock band Magnum on their UK tour in July 2016. Prog Magazine issue 72's cover CD featured the song "After Tomorrow Comes" that would later appear on the first album. This Winter Machine's debut album was recorded during 2016 at Moorcroft Studios and Czar Street Studios in Cleckheaton and Leeds respectively. The production was handled by Winter. This Winter Machine signed with the record label Progressive Gears ahead of the release of album. The Man Who Never Was was officially released 16 January 2017 and was met with largely positive reviews internationally, with reviewers hailing "the next great British Prog band". The album also received a full-page feature on the inside cover of the Classic Rock Society magazine for that month (This Winter Machine were subsequently nominated for the "Best Newcomer 2016" award at CRS' awards ceremony in March 2017). The band held an album launch party on 4 February 2017 where The Man Who Never Was was played live and in full. The set also featured a new song called "Herald", the band having started work on a follow-up album. Shortly after the album launch, the band parted ways with both Gary Jevon and Progressive Gears. Graham Garbett and Scott Owens were recruited to handle guitar duties. The decision to bring in more than one guitarist resulted in a broadened soundscape at the live shows, adding complex textures of guitar work in both the acoustic and electric arena. The Man Who Never Was was later re-released via F2 Records. In the latter months of 2017, This Winter Machine performed several times, including a support slot for German prog band Crystal Palace on 1 October 2017. Three new songs written for A Tower Of Clocks featured during this run of shows (these songs were "Herald", "Symmetry and Light" and "Justified"). Drummer Marcus Murray left the band after their gig at the Summers End Festival in October 2017, with Andy Milner replacing him. Milner's first performance with the band would see them supporting Magnum once again at Warehouse23 in Wakefield on 16 November 2017. The band recorded a full live performance at Eiger Studios, Leeds on 20 January 2018 with the intention of releasing footage as bonus material alongside the upcoming album or as a live DVD. Two new songs made their live debuts at this performance; "Flying" and "Carnivale". This Winter Machine played alongside Mostly Autumn at the Classic Rock Society awards ceremony on 3 March 2018 and received the award for "Best Newcomer 2017". Work on the second album had already begun by the time The Man Who Never Was was officially released. Described as covering themes such as time, loss and identity within a loose conceptual framework, the band were originally hoping for a release date in 2018. Pre-orders began in September of that year offering Gold, Silver and Bronze Packages. The Gold and Silver tiers were to include a bonus CD including 3 live tracks from The Man Who Never Was, taken from the recording of the 2018 Eiger Studios show in Leeds. Through no fault of the band, issues with the studio delayed the release and led to the eventual release date being on 20 May 2019 but the fans agreed the wait was well worth it. It was evident the band had really pushed forward in terms of musicianship, lyrical themes and production. With stunning cover by artist Tom Roberts and interior art complementing the album, reviews were extremely favourable. A Tower of Clocks was also the first album from this Winter Machine to get a vinyl pressing. Following the success of the CD package, there was plenty of interest from the fans in a vinyl version. This was released in June as a double disc package again including the 3 live bonus tracks on side 4. Although still released under the F2 label, production of the vinyl pressing came from Plane Groovy who would eventually become the band's main label later that year. This Winter Machine embarked on their 'Tour of Clocks' across the UK on 29 July 2018, kicking off with a two-act set at the Cutler’s Arms in Rotherham, playing both albums in full.  A bold move perhaps to play the yet unreleased second album to live audiences, however it was a move that paid off with an overwhelmingly positive response to the new material. The tour continued into the latter half of the year and through 2019. April 2019 saw the departure of original bass player Peter Priestly and the introduction of Stuart McAuley who would play his first show with the band on 6 September, the first of a three-day consecutive run with German proggers KariBoW. 2019 culminated in a celebratory show at Wolverhampton's Slade Rooms at which the band also signed to their new record label, moving from F2 Music to Plane Groovy, the label previously responsible for making A Tower of Clocks available on vinyl. The band finally made it down to the capital to headline a 4-band event at Nambucca, London N7 on 29 February 2020. Alas, this was to be their final show of 2020 as their next scheduled appearance at Stourport SubFusion Festival was sadly pulled with just days to go due to the Coronavirus pandemic. 29 July 2018 – The Cutler’s Arms, Rotherham. (An evening with TWM, two-act set) 12 August 2018 - The Robin 2, Bilston. (Plus Hey Jester) 26 August 2018 - Talking Heads, Southampton. (Plus Servants of Science) 29 September 2018 - The Citadel, St. Helens. (Plus IO Earth) 17 November 2018 - HRH Prog Pwllheli, North Wales. (3-day festival, multiple bands) 23 Feb 2019 - O’ Reillys, Hull. (Plus Sir Curse) 24 March 2019 - Stourport Fusion Festival. (3-day festival, multiple bands) 8 April 2019 - The Robin 2, Bilston. (Plus Crystal Palace) 6 September 2019 - Craufurd Arms, Milton Keynes. (Plus KariBoW) 7 September 2019 - The Musician, Leicester. (Plus KariBoW) 8 September 2019 - O’ Reillys, Hull. (Plus KariBoW) 29 September 2019 - The Robin, Bilston. (Plus Circu5, Jump & The Reasoning) 19 Oct 2019 – Corporation, Sheffield. (Plus Under a Banner) 7 December 2019 - The Slade Rooms, Wolverhampton. (Plus Under a Banner) 29 February 2020 – Nambucca, London. (Plus I am the Manic Whale, The Gift & The Dame) As early as 2018, the seeds of the idea for album number three were sown. Even before A Tower of Clocks had gone into production, the title ‘Kites’ had been decided upon (If you look closely at the cover artwork for A Tower of Clocks you can see a kite being flown behind the tower!). Writing began during rehearsal sessions in 2018, the artwork concept was decided upon in 2019 and by the beginning of 2020 several tracks were nearing completion. In July 2020 guitarist Scott Owens decided to leave the band and by early 2021, due to frustrations in getting all the other existing members together in the studio at one time in order to complete writing and start recording Kites, Winter decided an additional change of personnel was needed, recruiting Simon D’Vali (guitars) and Alan Wilson (drums), having previously worked with them on his solo project ‘Wynter’ and Dom Bennison (guitars) and Dave Close (bass) to continue forward as This Winter Machine. Numan, Garbett, Milner and McAuley left to form their own project ‘Ghost of the Machine’ joining forces again with previous TWM guitarist