“I don’t believe in the words ‘progressive rock’… Sorry, because your magazine is called that!” says Thijs van Leer, flautist, keyboard player, yodeller, frontman and founding member of legendary Dutch rockers Focus. It’s a surprising declaration from a man and a band so closely associated with the prog scene over some five decades, but he’s ready to back it up. “I think the only progressive rocker we ever had, who unfortunately died, was Frank Zappa,” says van Leer, “because he combined modern classical music, which he composed himself, with rock. That, to me, was progressive rock. All the bands who call themselves that today, to me, are more regressive rock, because they pick old themes from old times and combine them. Maybe that’s a new aspect, but most of it…
