Ayreon at Velvet Music in Delft and Stairway to Heaven in Utrecht

It has been long fans have been waiting for this very day: three long years after his last masterpiece "The Human Equation" Arjen Lucassen finally is about to release the latest Ayreon album "01011001". The promotion activities for the new double-CD taking us back to the very beginnings of the constantly evolving Ayreon-Universe include a number of appearances in music stores as well as the official album pre-release party held at "Stairway to Heaven" in Utrecht.

The smaller and more intimate event was the in-store appearance at Velvet Music in Delft: an acoustic set with Arjen on his trusted Ovation, lead-singer Marjan Welman (who also appears on the new album) and an additional female backings, won over for the jobs only an hour before playing. After a short set Arjen and Marjan took the time to talk to the gathered fans, discuss some aspects of the new album and sign CDs and DVDs.

Sunday in Delft was a very different event, 500 enthusiastic fans packed into the foyer and concert room of the Stairway to Heaven in Utrecht. Sometimes considerable travels (from Italy or Norway) were rewarded with a full dose of Ayreon: quite a number of the musicians and singers participating on the album showed up at the party to make their contributions. Amongst them: Hansi Kusch (Blind Guardian), Marjan Welman (Elister), Floor Jansen and Joost van den Broek (After Forever), Lori Linstruth, Magali Luyten (Virus IV), Wudstik.

The party started of with a number of excerpts from the album, followed by the presentation of the computer animated video to "Beneath the waves". Since not all of the singers could be there that day, video messages had been recorded the Electric Castle (Arjen's studio). After roughly one hour of introduction and behind the scenes information the acoustic set started; it lasted for almost an hour, presenting a cross-section through all Ayreon albums. The final act of the afternoon was an extended signing-session and discussion with the fans – lasting beyond the originally scheduled 17:00h.