Table of contents for Issue 90 in Prog

Hello and welcome to the new issue of Prog magazine. As you’re reading this, the biggest night of the prog calendar is only three weeks away. Unless of course, you wait several weeks to pick up your copy of the magazine, in which case it may have already passed. Either way, the 2018 Progressive Music Awards promises to be our finest yet. How exciting it is to honour the great Steve Howe with the top accolade this year. As I write this, I’ve just received confirmation of the musician who’ll be presenting the award to Steve. The word ‘excited’ doesn’t even come close. I’d also like to welcome Al Murray as our host for the first time. “I knew I was amongst my people,” said Al of last year’s event…

PHIL COLLINS COLLECTION UNVEILED Phil Collins releases a four-disc box set of collaborations on September 28 via Warner Music. The 59-track collection, titled Plays Well With Others, includes studio recordings with Brand X, Brian Eno, Robert Fripp and John Cale, and spans Collins’ musical career from 1969 until 2011. The final disc focuses on live material collected between 1981 and 2002, and includes an early performance of In The Air Tonight from The Secret Policeman’s Other Ball at the Drury Lane Theatre in 1981. NATIONAL ALBUM DAY ANNOUNCED The magic of the long-player is celebrated on the first National Album Day on October 13. Prog fans are being encouraged to play their favourite album at 3.33pm in tribute. The inaugural event coincides with the 70th anniversary of the album and…

KNOPS This column normally presents you with devices that produce some kind of noise, but in a rare break with tradition here’s one that reduces it. Knops is billed as an “analogue adjustable hearing solution”, which in normal language means a pair of earplugs with a volume control. If the gig you’re attending is painfully shrill, just rotate the rings on the earplugs to block out more of the sound. If the band segues into an acoustic number, simply rotate it the other way. “Adaptable to every situation,” says the blurb, although no mention is made of nuclear war. www.knops.co STAR SHEPHERD When I was a boy, my grandparents owned a Casio 403 keyboard. Whenever I visited, they would haul this magnificent piece of early 80s engineering out of the…

“When I was at university and renting a flat, I had to learn to cook or I’d be surviving on beans on toast for the duration. I teamed up with a flatmate and we learnt to cook together. It became a very enjoyable evening ritual and we became more adventurous as time went on. Years later I found cooking a very good therapy for all the music I was doing – the more complex the preparation of a meal, the longer I could be out of the studio! ‘A la plancha’ is Spanish, meaning ‘grilled on a metal plate’ and is traditionally cooked on a round, flat metal surface. Since I don’t have that, I use a large paella dish.” Ingredients (serves 6) 2kg uncooked prawns, 3 tbsp olive oil,…

Dee Palmer (formerly known as David Palmer) is set to release her long-awaited album of original songs called Through Darkened Glass. Palmer was an arranger and later keyboard player with Jethro Tull from 1968 until 1980. Blackfield (left) release their ‘best of’ compilation on September 28. Open Mind is out through KScope and spans all five of the duo’s studio albums, including last year’s V. The 15-track release has been curated by Steven Wilson and Aviv Geffen themselves.…

For the first time in over 20 years, Nick Mason’s solo albums Nick Mason’s Fictitious Sports, Profiles and White Of The Eye will be available in both CD and vinyl three-disc boxsets, and we have one vinyl box set to give away. Released on August 31 through Warner Music, these limited edition box sets will be available shortly before Nick tours Europe with his new band Nick Mason’s Saucerful Of Secrets. The band debuted with four intimate London shows in May. Mason says, “These recordings hold a very special place for me in my musical life. Fictitious Sports developed initially from working with Mike Mantler, Carla Bley and Robert Wyatt on a couple of their projects, and benefited enormously from a whole crew of great musicians that I was introduced…

“I just keep saying yes to stuff and hope it works out. And usually it does,” says Judy Dyble about her remarkable career rejuvenation which began in 2004, after a 34-year hiatus, with her Enchanted Garden album. In 1967 she was a founder member of Fairport Convention and was briefly in a proto version of King Crimson with Michael and Peter Giles, Robert Fripp and Ian McDonald. From 1969 until 1970 she was in Trader Horne, an acclaimed – if short-lived – duo with Jackie McAuley. Her new album Earth Is Sleeping includes contributions from long-time musical collaborator Alistair Murphy, Matt Malley from Counting Crows and Matt Stevens from The Fierce And The Dead. How do you go about writing your material? What usually happens is that someone will say,…

Outside Mystery, St-Père plays in another progressive band, Huis (pronounced ‘house’), and runs the Unicorn Digital label which sports more than 80 releases in its catalogue. That said, St-Père volunteers that the label is currently quieter. “Two or three years ago, I slowed down signing new bands and decided to focus more on Mystery.” In part that’s down to Mystery’s increasing success, but also, according to St-Père, it’s due to the industry-wide decline in CD sales. This has made developing new bands increasingly difficult. “New bands often have the impression that the label does nothing and they want to keep control of digital downloads themselves. It makes it very hard to deal with new bands, especially if they don’t have a proper website, just stay at home and don’t take…

None other than Mike Portnoy steered us towards Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania’s We Came From Space. The band are led by Neal Morse’s keyboardist Bill Hubauer and, as you might expect, their self-released LP While You Were Away offers slick, harmony-rich neo with a poppy gloss and some really imaginative melodies, somewhere between ELO and, well, Spock’s Beard. Hubauer and co-vocalist/guitarist Dave Buzard are engaging hosts, the project has a fun alien spin, and the tunes and production are pretty stellar. As their name wryly implies, US quartet YYNot began life as a Rush covers project. Their sound proudly bears many of that great group’s hallmarks, but their self-released debut stands on its own merits. YYNot is packed with strong songs, virtuosic playing and the compelling vocals of Rocky Kuner, who really…

It’s International Piano Trio week at Ronnie Scott’s, and the great and good are lined up to play. There’s the legendary composer and bandmate of Miles Davis, Chick Corea. There’s the brilliant Cuban prodigy Roberto Fonseca. And there’s Rick Wakeman, introduced as the only rock musician with the ‘cojones’ to say yes to the organisers. As Buddy Rich’s Milestones fades, Wakeman makes his way on stage – no cape, just a baggy brown suit – clearly delighted to be playing. It’s a unique venue, this, with low-slung red lamps lending an air of ill repute to the occasion, with pretty girls and boys ferrying plates of Kentish lamb and Scottish lobster to the tables. “There’ll be some songs you’ll know,” says Wakeman, “some songs you won’t know, and some songs…

Largely credited with conceiving krautrock in the early 1970s, Hamburg’s FaUSt are known for their impulsive, erudite and resourceful avant-garde rock stylings. Naturally, then, their show here is filled with socially conscious poeticisms and inventive instrumentation. That said, their cacophonies of mostly aimless arrangements and pontifications results in an evening that’s simultaneously fascinating, creative and inharmonious, yet also unbearable. Chicago troupe ONO start things off with four tracks – Invocation, Snatch, I Dream Of Sodomy and Heroin – that cumulatively feel like an experimental nightmare. Complemented by macabre black and white imagery, frontman Travis wears costumes including a red robe, a pink dress and an illuminated white wig while emitting repetitious spoken-word decrees amid shifting amalgamations of gospel, industrial, classical, noise, electronica and more. Their ostentatiously methodical madness rarely feels…

Following the deaths of Keith Emerson and Greg Lake in 2016, Carl Palmer sought to continue performing Emerson Lake & Palmer music, but as he revealed in a recent interview: “Hiring a Keith clone or even a vocalist really didn’t appeal, so I went for something niche – a prog rock instrumental metal group. Compared to South America and Italy, England doesn’t really get it yet, but I’m trying to take ELP’s music to the next generation. You’ll either like it or you won’t, but I love it.” The Prog God drummer’s counterparts in ELP Legacy are Paul Bielatowicz, an extraordinary guitarist who recreates – or more accurately ‘reimagines’ – Emerson’s keyboard parts, and Simon Fitzpatrick, a skilled exponent of the six-string bass and Chapman Stick. Palmer isn’t kidding about…

PROG IS PROG! I read your magazine with great interest. Being reminded of old stuff I haven’t listened to in a while and being introduced to bands I haven’t heard of is brilliant. However, one aspect does bug me and that is the question: “Is it prog?” When you ask the question, the answers from your experts range from yes to no and various shades in between. I think the problem lies with using the word ‘prog’. To old-timers like me, prog is the classic Yes, Pink Floyd, Genesis etc, and newer stuff like Big Big Train, Steven Wilson, Neal Morse – and, of course, all the great music in between. Most prog, to me at least, is long songs, heavily keyboard-orientated, weird lyrics, odd time signatures and melodic. None…

A few years ago, I bought a 30-year-old convertible Jag and it had the original radio cassette player built in. I remember thinking, ‘How quaint’. It remained untouched right up until a few weeks ago when I decided to give the car a run out to the The Old Granary Studios where I’ve been doing some recording. Coincidentally, a few days earlier I was sorting out some old boxes and came across hundreds of cassette tapes. Again I thought, ‘How quaint’. For fun I took a couple of them with me in the Jag to see if the old cassette player worked and Led Zeppelin II was duly inserted. To be honest, I never expected to see it again but not only did the cassette player work but the sound…

(SITUATION TWO, 1990) There’s a story that, shortly after the release of this album, Thee Hypnotics had a meeting with a major American manager, who was very keen to represent them. He had just one immoveable stipulation: that a certain member of the band had to give up his passion for heroin. That person refused point blank, and so ended the High Wycombe band’s best chance of making a significant global impact. True or not, what this tale does highlight is the way that Thee Hypnotics never conformed. After starting in 1985, they were quickly locked with Gaye Bykers On Acid and Crazyhead as part of a new, grebo-inspired, psychedelic explosion in the UK. They were also seen as garage rock, punks and even a precursor for what happened in…

Riverside (right) have announced more details about their seventh studio album. The post-apocalyptic-themed Wasteland is out via InsideOut on September 29 and formats will include coloured vinyl. Gösta Berling’s Saga have signed to InsideOut for the release of their fifth studio album Et Ex, which is out on October 12. It’s the Swedish instrumentalists’ first release with new guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Rasmus Booberg. Shining are heading in a new musical direction with Animal, out on October 19 on Spinefarm. It’s the Blackjazz outfit’s first album without saxophone. Main man Jørgen Munkeby describes it as “more Muse than Meshuggah”. Tacoma Narrows Bridge Disaster have announced they’re working on the follow-up to 2015’s Wires/Dream\Wires, due for release in early 2019. The band recently showcased their new sound with the teaser track Truth…

IF YOU HADN’T heard, the Devin Townsend Project went on hiatus earlier this year – but don’t worry, the Yatin Srivastava Project are waiting in the wings. In a similar vein, Yatin Srivastava not only shares a parallel title to the effervescent Canadian ringleader, but he is a guitar-yielding, prolific prog-toting whiz too. The New Delhi band’s debut full-length effort, Chaos // Despair, juggles inspiration from the likes of tech metal, left-leaning alt-rock and classic prog to form a multi-textured aural cauldron. The six-track record also enjoys status-boosting cameos from The Pineapple Thief mainman Bruce Soord and drummer Craig Blundell, as well as a slew of contributions from Indian musicians, giving the album a thoroughly cultured feel. “The main part of the process I would say happened in the summer…

The last time the UK had a summer as hot as this one, Camel were one of the biggest bands in the country. Riding high after the huge success of the preceding year’s conceptual extravaganza The Snow Goose, the band formed by guitarist Andy Latimer in 1971 had passed steadily through the progressive rock ranks and were now, seemingly, on the cusp of even greater success. Their next move would eventually turn out to be their smartest of all: 42 years later, the band’s fourth album is widely regarded as their finest work, not to mention their most enduringly popular. Released in March 1976, just in time for that year’s now legendarily drought-ravaged summer, Moonmadness was the ultimate showcase for the classic Camel line-up of Latimer, keyboard player Peter Bardens,…

“Perseverance is my middle name!” laughs Heather Findlay down the phone from her home studio in York. The UK is in the middle of a heatwave and the singer-songwriter is camped out in her hottest room with the vintage floral curtains firmly closed. She’s been signing limited edition copies of her first live DVD as the Heather Findlay Trio for The Merch Desk, entitled Aces And Eights – A Night In The Saloon Bar, and is now taking a break to chat to Prog about the intimate show. “A friend showed me pictures of this amazing place with a red lamp at the back of the stage and a gramophone, and I thought, ‘Wow! It looks like the coolest little hang-out in LA.’ I never dreamed it would come out…

“I didn’t want War Of The Worlds to be a retelling of the story, so we’ve done something a little bit deeper.” There’s a certain irony that even those who claim to be progressive-minded and musically prejudice-free will no doubt have preconceptions about a solo album from Symphony X guitarist Michael Romeo. There will be an expectation of shredding guitars, bombastic, operatic vocals and perhaps, as with many solo albums and side projects, an album quickly thrown together in a brief sojourn from the day job. Although such attitudes may prevail with those who find progressive metal a touch predictable, critics will be making merry fools of themselves if such negativity is transferred into the public domains of internet forums and Facebook pages. That’s because War Of The Worlds Pt…

True To Me (The Syndicats, single, 1964) 60s guitar-driven pop band The Syndicats were Steve Howe’s first ever band. The jaunty, upbeat True To Me, penned by Howe, was a Joe Meek-produced B-side to their first single, Maybellene. Revolution (Tomorrow, Tomorrow, 1968) There’s a distinctly psychedelic vibe here from Tomorrow. Penned by Howe and singer Keith West, this preceded The Beatles’ song of the same name by a year, and it’s thought to have inspired Lennon’s tune. Excerpt From A Teenage Opera (Keith West, A Teenage Opera, 1967) Almost everyone has heard this 60s pop classic, but few knew that Howe played guitar on it, alongside former Tomorrow singer Keith West. Yours Is No Disgrace (Yes, The Yes Album, 1971) The first time Yes fans heard Steve Howe on guitar…

“Never heard any of his music but he produced Ultravox so that’s prog enough for me.” Andy Wyatt “He is a legend in Germany, and I have many albums that he produced.” John Pieroni “He produced Lonesome Crow by the Scorpions, which is not really prog, but it’s pretty psychedelic. Didn’t he do the first Devo record also? [No, that was Brian Eno, with some help from David Bowie – Ed.] There was definitely a wide variety of music that he was responsible for. None of it was prog, though.” Scott Hermansen “I’d put him in progressive electronic/space.” Yserbius G “Not prog. He’s the King of Kosmische production, but progressive in the true sense.” Jim McKeown “Conny Plank’s influence on prog/krautrock/art rock cannot be denied. He was there as a…

An electrifying live performer, Anna Calvi has always sought to fully translate that personality onto an album, to convey that she’s better than good. Five years since her last (four since her David Byrne collaboration), Hunter (Domino) is where she lands it, her vocal and guitar gifts fused with charisma. Acclaimed by everyone from Eno to Nick Cave, we knew she could wail like Callas and shred like Ziggy, but now there’s a candid urgency to her songs. She wants ‘to go beyond gender’, to feel ‘strong and vulnerable’. So she’s both hunter and hunted in these strident, twitchy tracks, wherein our ears get captivated by the dame. There are some modern production tropes, but she still throws in a blazing Hendrix-Bolan solo when the mood hits. Few catch fire…

Friday Be Prog! My Friend takes place in Barcelona’s charming Poble Espanyol square, and it’s still baking hot at 5.15pm when Andorrans Persefone open up the main stage. But though the sun may be in their eyes, it doesn’t stop them from pouring all of their energy into their highly technical yet blisteringly heavy progressive metal. While the words ‘prog metal’ may still irk the fervent classic prog fan, Persefone’s impressively large crowd where young metalheads merrily mingle with the Genesis T-shirt brigade shows that the gap is closing, at least here. On a surface level, Baroness are one of the bands on the bill that appear furthest out on the fringes of prog. However, the Georgia band’s ability to seamlessly blend heavy, erratic grooves with some of the most…

Roger Waters really doesn’t like Donald Trump, who appears on the gigantic screens as a pig in drag. Our host himself also dons a pig’s-head mask, holding up signs saying “Pigs rule the world!” and “Fuck the pigs!” While a London crowd is just fine with that, 74-year-old Waters’ politics can still provoke. His pro-Palestine stance upsets some. The screens list things we should “resist”: most are standard (pollution, neo-fascism), but “the persecution of Julian Assange” goes down like a lead pig. “People want a Pink Floyd concert and he delivers, cherry-picking from the 70s albums in a visually stunning, emotionally savage spectacle.” It’s laudable that a veteran rock star still summons energy to rail against ‘the system’ while younger pretenders are terrified of saying anything controversial. Equally, it’s extraordinary…

Armed with an uncanny ability to unite the soul and melody of traditional rock’n’roll with the intricacy of prog, Temples On Mars kick-start tonight’s experimental triumvirate in a flurry of harmonic heroism. Frontman James Donaldson and co storm the stage with an energised vigour that lures in their ever-expanding crowd, quickly rallying through the grooving singles When Gods Collide and So In Love With Your Own Drug, both taken from the quartet’s self-titled debut album. This pair – along with deeper cuts like Suicide By Tiger and Black Mirror – excel at condensing progressive, polyrhythmic adventurism into radio-friendly anthems, promising a bright and potentially arena-filling future for this flashy four-piece. English juggernauts Sumer follow suit. The quintet, bolstered by their possession of three guitarists, provide a riff-driven explosion of a…

“What a perfect night to put a festival before a giant telescope! Don’t you think?” It’s impossible to argue with Wayne Coyne. His band, Oklahoma astronauts The Flaming Lips, are busy wowing us with a spectacle of truly psychedelic proportions, backlit by a waxing moon and the awesome curves of the Lovell Telescope. Now in its third year, Jodrell Bank’s Bluedot Festival is thriving, drawing in the hordes with its intergalactic promise of music, science and the arts. Earlier in the evening on the main stage, Public Service Broadcasting deliver the goods, dedicating Theme From PSB to Bernard Lovell and his famous landmark. Their set is equally weighted between songs from latest album Every Valley and the more site-friendly The Race For Space. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the biggest crowd-pleasers come from…

Tonight is a potent reminder of why it’s always worth showing up early to catch the support. Dave Bainbridge, from Lifesigns and Strawbs, and his Celestial Fire bandmate Sally Minnear, provide a beautiful start to the evening, performing songs from Bainbridge’s back catalogue. It pulls in Celtic influences, folk and prog rock. Minnear’s voice is gorgeous, lifting My Lagan Love up to the heavens, while Bainbridge impresses with a wonderful solo piano arrangement of Machrie Moor, channels Guitar Shop-era Jeff Beck on Luke – The Calf, and then rocks out on a balalaika on Today. Some artists take a song or two to hit their stride onstage, but not the Dave Kerzner Band. They come barrelling out of the gate at full tilt, opening with The Lie from 2014’s New…

Sunday is definitely not the new Saturday. Pity the poor promoter trying to tempt punters out on the last night of the week. Tonight, the audience for the John Hackett Band remains stubbornly in single figures, which is a damn shame. John might not have the same name recognition as his more famous elder brother Steve, but when his band get cooking, they really generate some heat. The music selection this evening draws extensively from 2017’s We Are Not Alone album, which moves between BBC Radio 2-friendly AOR and balladry to some genuinely thrilling prog workouts, pulling in jazz-funk and fusion influences. Hackett shares the singing with bassist Jeremy Richardson, although neither offers dazzling feats of vocal acrobatics, particularly Hackett, who has a very softly delivered, almost spoken delivery. They…

@NICKBEGGS @NickBeggs Thanx everyone for a great seven months. OLIVER WAKEMAN @OliverWakeman Session time! Having a lot of fun with my old friend the Moog Little Phatty. This keyboard has been all around the world with me. I used to have two but one was stolen on route to a show in 2010… MATT STEVENS @mattstevensloop More rain please THAT JOE PAYNE @thatjoepayne Sound-checked, and ready to rock! @FranckCarducci #LondonMusic #TufnellPark #BostonMusicRoom – at Boston Arms MATT COHEN @MattCohenBass The sun is over the yardarm therefore it’s officially Gin and Titonic time. Cheers me hearties xx #GinAndTitonic #LongDay #AndRelax #Cheers…

“The last 10 years have easily been our most productive and most artistically accomplished period,” says Daniel Cavanagh of Internal Landscapes, which celebrates Anathema’s past decade with Kscope. “Basically, it’s when we were dead good and hopefully we’ll carry on being dead good!” The 13-track, out on October 26, collates material from the band’s four Kscope studio albums, along with the two interim releases, Hindsight and Falling Deeper. “There are certain songs that pick themselves, like Untouchable parts one and two, and Distant Satellites. Thereafter it’s a combination of what might balance it out. It’s been fun,” he says. Anathema will follow the release with an ambient tour that explores more expansive electronic and synth-based reinterpretations of their songs. They’re also working on the follow-up to last year’s The Optimist…

Gryphon are reinventing themselves on a new 11-track album. “It was a case of, better get on with it before somebody dies!” says co-founding vocalist and instrumentalist Brian Gulland, who’s joined by original members, guitarist Graeme Taylor and percussionist Dave Oberlé. ReInvention sees the quirksters revisit the books from which they took their name. “Graeme has written an 11-minute magnum opus. He’s set the White Knight’s song [Haddocks’ Eyes] from Alice Through The Looking Glass to music and it’s quite magnificent,” says Gulland. “And one of our more recent recruits, [multi-instrumentalist] Graham Preskett, has come up with some marvellous pieces that are so Gryphonical it’s as if he’s been with us ever since we founded the group!” Gryphon will be launching the album at London’s Union Chapel on September 14…

“WE’VE BEEN PLAYING together more than half our lives,” says bassist Jo Berger Myhre, talking about keyboardist Andreas Løwe and drummer Andreas Knudsrød, who together make up Norwegian trio Splashgirl. “We met each other in 2000 where we attended a music academy in south-west Oslo. We began playing together even before we formed the trio in 2003.” Hovering somewhere between jazz, electronica, and haunting post-rock landscapes, Splashgirl have distinguished themselves as one the most inventive groups to have emerged from the already abundant and fertile Norwegian music scene. Their latest, sixth album Sixth Sense continues their use of dramatic themes, first-take synth solos and the bracing processed sounds shadowing what is essentially acoustic music at its core. “We use a lot of tricks from jazz, like we improvise a lot,”…

Geoff Downes and Chris Braide will make their live debut as DBA at Trading Boundaries in Sussex on September 28. Roger Dean’s original painting for the Skyscraper Souls cover will also be on display at the Prog-sponsored show. Steve Hackett (left) releases two CD collections this autumn. InsideOut issue Broken Skies – Outspread Wings (1984-2006) on October 5 and his collaboration with Djabe, Life Is A Journey – The Budapest Live Tapes, is out the week before via Esoteric.…

After enjoying the contents of Prog 88, including the familiar features and interviews, with Rosanna pouting out from the IO Earth feature and good old Rog having a dig, the question suddenly struck me: is folk the new prog? Consider the evidence. With Paul Sexton’s progressive folk column (‘there’s nowt so prog as folk’) now a semi-regular feature, this issue also contained a full column Fairport Convention album review, a John Renbourn album review (where his guitar skills, albeit in a different field, were mentioned up there with Page, Beck and Clapton), a review of Maddy Prior’s album with Giles Lewin and Hannah James (check out Hannah’s JigDoll work – well prog) and Ashley Hutchings featuring (not for the first time) in a little snippet. It also prompted a few…

the prog top 30 albums July 2018 Compiled by 1 ROGER WATERS Is This The Life We Really Want? (COLUMBIA) 2 TAME IMPALA Currents (FICTION) 3 A PERFECT CIRCLE Eat The Elephant (BMG) 4 ORB No Sounds Are Out Of Bounds (COOKING VINYL) 5 GRATEFUL DEAD Anthem Of The Sun (RHINO) 6 EPICA Vs Attack On Titan Songs (NUCLEAR BLAST) 7 WIRE Pink Flag (PINK FLAG) 8 BETWEEN THE BURIED & ME Automata II (SUMERIAN) 9 FAIRPORT CONVENTION What We Did On Our Saturday (MATTY GROOVES) 10 YES The Steven Wilson Remixes (RHINO) 11 WOODEN SHJIPS V (THRILL JOCKEY) 12 WIRE Chairs Missing (PINK FLAG) 13 BIG BIG TRAIN Swanhunter (BIG BIG TRAIN) 14 WIRE 154 (PINK FLAG) 15 FLAMING LIPS Greatest Hits – Vol I (RHINO) 16 JUDY DYBLE…

When I was very young, in the late 60s, my older brother and I shared a bedroom and we had an AM/FM radio that sat on a unit between our beds. I tuned into AM stations that were loud, excitable and Top 40-based, like a party all the time. My brother would switch it to FM, when rock stations such as WABX were starting to pop up. I remember the contrast in the DJs – quiet, subdued, serious. The music was transitioning from jazz and classical to Black Sabbath, Cream, Iron Butterfly – long-form records that took 20 minutes to play. I remember thinking, ‘They’re putting on this long one to smoke a joint!’. We grew up in Detroit, Michigan and it was a hotbed of what was happening in…

In 1988, 3 toured the USA and Canada. On the Canadian border Berry disembarked a tour bus to stretch his legs… and the bus departed without him. Well before the advent of mobile phones, Berry was stranded, wondering whether his absence would only be discovered at the next venue. He was relieved 90 minutes later when the bus returned. “Keith was leaning out of the door with a video camera, laughing up a storm!” he says. More seriously, Berry recalls a fan writing to Emerson about “how disgusting and embarrassing it was that we had girl background singers. We had fun with 3, recording music and videos and playing live. It was looser than ELP, every night was different. The girls weren’t there for looks but because they were on…

The post-rock scene is just recovering from its annual blowout party at Bristol’s ArcTanGent Festival, and a few fantastic releases have come out of the woodwork in advance. Firstly, there’s the first album in three years from UK math stalwarts Delta Sleep. Ghost City (Big Scary Monsters) is mellow and summery while retaining the emo melancholy of their previous releases. There are guitar hooks, vocal hooks, gang vocals and more great melodies than you can shake a stick at. For a mid-tempo introduction with catchy riffs, try Single File, or for something even more mellow and atmospheric, check out opener Sultans Of Ping. Another band in the ATG line-up this year worth checking out are Death And The Penguin, who released their debut Anomie (self-released) at the end of July.…

Prog has been moved at this year’s Ramblin’ Man, shifting from the outdoor stage at the top of the site to the tent at the foot of the field. And while this decision might reflect the strength of the blues stage line-up rather than any paucity on the progressive music front, there are a couple of advantages to the switch: the atmosphere under the canvas is celebratory from the off, and the tent provides a degree of protection from the searing heat that savages the fair-skinned fans elsewhere. First to benefit from the shelter are Austrian five-piece Second Relation, who are playing their first UK show. The band’s unlikely mix of Level 42 with Coheed And Cambria suffers throughout from an extremely thin sound, but there’s enough crunch and funk…

Thousands of fans pack the Huntington Bank Pavilion, the biggest outdoor venue in Chicago, Illinois, for a night of mythical lyrics and metal riffs from Coheed And Cambria. That should come as no surprise, considering the band have been around for more than two decades now and have gained a huge fan following in that time. The show begins with the band’s new single, The Dark Sentencer. The song jams and the musicians put on a full-on display, singer/guitarist Claudio Sanchez belting out the lyrics with his unmistakable tenor. Intricate guitar licks and thumping but grooving drums pour from the speakers, the raucous audience headbanging to the max. The stage show is very Rush inspired, with a futuristic symbol decorating the backdrop. And the Rush comparisons don’t stop there: drummer…

Snarky Puppy defy classification. Led by bassist/composer Michael League and completed by nearly 20 other members, their self-described blend of jazz, world music, soul, pop and funk makes them a diverse act whose abilities are complemented by consistent humility. This show is a great testament to that, as they provide an elaborate and fun performance. Singer/songwriter/guitarist Raul Midón opens tonight’s show. He plays Sound Shadow and Pedal To The Metal from last year’s Bad Ass And Blind album, and visits 2005’s State Of Mind for Suddenly, Sunshine (I Can Fly) and the title track. Throughout the funk/Latin/jazz set, he evokes the mellow sophistication of Steely Dan, the vibrant friskiness of Stevie Wonder and the life-affirming smoothness of Jack Johnson. Such dexterity, coupled with several humorous and modest anecdotes, makes him…

This festival has built an enviable reputation for spanning the spectrum of progressive music, and 2018 underlines what A New Day is all about. It commences with The Far Meadow serenading the Shindig! Stage. The five-piece stand as probably the most modern-sounding band of the day, their methodology combining the swanky technicality of Rush with the metallic bombast of newer names such as Devin Townsend and Anneke van Giersbergen. The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown follow The Far Meadow and they enjoy a hero’s welcome as they seize control of the Main Stage and go on to deliver what’s undoubtedly the best performance of the day. An early, sizeable crowd lap up the multiple costume changes, as well as indomitable versions of classics like Fire and Devil’s Grip. The arrival…

Joe Payne is not making things easy for himself on his debut tour. He’s performing solo on electric piano and opening with two lengthy numbers, One And The Many and Who Created Me?, which made his name as the frontman of The Enid. The vocals are stunning, at the very upper end of his five-octave range. However, he admits, “This year I set myself the challenge of singing and playing the piano at the same time, for the first time,” and there are several mistakes in the first familiar number, and these continue throughout the set. He’s performing under the name That Joe Payne, one reading of which implies exasperation, but this is an entertainer brimming with confidence. With the small but appreciative audience behind him, he pushes past the…