Jerry Marotta has just delivered his files to Mark & Steve on work done on ‘What Happens Now’ (great job!)

Jerry Marotta

Jerry Marotta

6 April 2016 – United Progressive Fraternity is indeed proud to welcome on board world-class drummer and producer Jerry Marotta, who is currently working on the drum layout for the track “What Happens Now” on the forthcoming UPF release ‘Planetary Overload’.

Marotta was a member of the bands Arthur, Hurley & Gottlieb (1973–75) Orleans (1976–77 & 1982), Peter Gabriel’s band (1977–86), Hall & Oates (1979–81), the Indigo Girls (1991–99), Stackridge (2011), Sevendys (2010–present) and The Tony Levin Band (1995 to present).

Marotta also played drums on Stevie Nicks and Michael Campbell’s song “Whole Lotta Trouble” from Nicks’ 1989 album The Other Side of the Mirror. He has also performed on albums by Ani DiFranco, Sarah McLachlan, Marshall Crenshaw, The Dream Academy, Suzanne Vega, Carlene Carter, John Mayer, Iggy Pop, Tears for Fears, Elvis Costello, Cher, Paul McCartney, Carly Simon, Peter Gabriel, Lawrence Gowan, Ron Sexsmith, Banda do Casaco and many others.

In addition to his work as a studio and stage drummer, he is a singer, composer and record producer. In 1996 he produced Ellis Paul’s A Carnival of Voices. He is currently touring with The Security Project. Marotta currently lives in Woodstock, New York with his wife.

We welcome Jerry to the growing ensemble of acclaimed musicians to join the Fraternity for the release of ‘the best communicated album ever made’, Planetary Overload (coming March 2018).

Truey and Steve Unruh are very pleased with the entries for the Planetary Overload Lyrics Contest. They have selected the 2 winning lyrics, 1 runner-up, and 5 honorable mentions. Details are here.

Ed Unitsky has done it again!

A fresh new logo for UPF was delivered to the ‘UPFrat’ Facebook page when we last looked!

Here is is… feel free to use in your promotions and band/album reviews.

Here is the background story for two important video releases filed under ‘Unitopia and side projects‘

1. Traveler (Mark Trueack with the Samurai of Prog) – from the album ‘Secrets of Disguise, with Marco Bernard, Kimmo Pörsti, Steve Unruh, and Mark on vocals. This is the remake of an early Premiata Forneria Marconi (PFM) song.

2. Day 6 Ninth Tale – Unitopia (from Decameron II) (Mark Trueack, Sean Timms, Tim Irrgang, David Hopgood, and special guest Steve Unruh (violins, flute) from the Samurai of Prog.

What is interesting about these two videos is Mark’s collaboration with Steve Unruh. They are writing, arranging, and recording for ‘Decameron 3’ as well as for UPF’s ‘Planetary Overload – Songs of Hope’ while Mark is in the USA this month.

UPF (A) is delighted to announce two new members to our Australian base. They are Dan Burgess (sax), who played and toured with Unitopia in 2011-12. Dan [bio] plays flute, clarinet, all sax instruments, and didgeridoo. Also, on piano, keyboards, and vocals we are proud to welcome Barry Timmins. Barry [bio] has a strong musical background and will add the songwriting and arrangements on the new album.

On the last album we were extremely fortunate to have the brilliant Steve Hackett.. well I received confirmation that he will indeed lend his guitar talents once more; he is a real gentleman. While I was in London I caught up with Steve’s former keyboardist Nick Magnus [bio], he too will play keys on one of the tracks.

The Fraternity is growing! UPF is recruiting some fantastic new musicians for future tours, recordings and shows. We will be making announcements very soon… Truey X

Spent an extended long week-end in Sydney choosing arrangements from another great composer Dale Nougher we chatted about the concepts for Planetary Overload and some of the music he had written. I am very excited about the music that was presented to me. Dale is a new age composer with lots of world influences, I jammed a lyrical idea to one of the tracks and knitted perfectly, More soon…Truey X