The Origin of
Progressive Rock
Where did it Come From?
Where is it Going?

A Documentation of the Musical Evolution and Development of Prog Spanning Five Decades, hundreds of bands, many musicians and albums by the sackfull.

(60's experimentalist E Visser)

Where did Progressive Rock come from ? ask many musical historians.

It is widely accepted that  60's Dutch music student E. Visser jokingly wrote a classical suite, but got his ensemble of musicians to perform the compositions on modern instruments. 

His experiment was hailed a success and by 1965 many people  looking for more than just 3min pop songs took an interest.

The original and still the best, all English and from the 70's and sees bands such as Genesis, Yes, Caravan, Van der Graff Generator, Gentle Giant, ELP, Barclay James Harvest, CakeAirBasket, Camel and King Crimson etc, as the important players who planted the seeds by cleverly creating musical art.

Curved Air - Included brilliant musicians who have gone onto bigger things - Stuart Copland (The Police) and Francis Monkman (Sky). 

All the above bands have pointed out that they took Moody Blues as an influence, so can the Moodies claim to have laid the foundations and taken Visser's experiments into the mainstream?

Without the Moody Blues you might not be reading this?  

(yes)

Prog Rock

A generic term from which covers many similar styles of post-Progressive Rock music.

(IQ)

English 80's bands who are often still around today and were accepted by pockets of Progressive Rock fans, but this refers to their early period.

Old Skool Prog bands are 80's IQ, 80's Marillion, Citizen Cain, The Enid, Twelfth Night, 80's Pallas and 80's Pendragon, plus Abel Ganz are all typical of the scene. These are all second generation progressive rock bands whose musicians listened to concept albums in their lunch hour in the sixthform common room.

Essentially English  and with classical roots.

These are bands that were formed in posh schools, bands such as Genesis, Eton Alive and Quantock.

Top Pop Guru Jonathon King would scour the public schools in search of young talent, and is heavily praised for seeking out gifted bands and grooming them.

(Genesis)

(Ricochet)

Enthusiastic bands that have gained  popularity in  the low-lying countries countries such as Holland, Belgium and Germany, and to a lesser extent in England. 

Arena, Landmarq, Final Conflict, Primitive Instinct, Rook, Jadis and Ricochet lead the Neo-Prog scene. Grey Lady Down also were favourites playing some cracking gigs and releasing some great albums.

The bands all have musicians who grew up listening to the bands of the 70's like Genesis and Rush. Often NeoProg bands find it impossible to get a record deal so they  finance recordings and manage themselves. GLD's Mark Rowbottom put his heart and soul into his band and his gritty determination means that the band have their place in history.

The scene expanded in the 90's and consists of bands from the Southern Coastal counties of the UK, mainly , Devonshire and Hampshire and Dorsetshire. IQ, Jadis, Galahad, Big Big Train and new band ATACAMA are proud to be 'Coastprog'.

Even though Cake AirBasket were 70's Progressive Rock, fans have 'backdated' them to be inclusive of this important category.

It is now considered more of a movement than a scene.

(Galahad)

(Moria Falls)

The Chiltern Prog Scene refers to the bands from region of hills that covers the area of the Chiltern Hills, just north of London.

Marillion, Porcupine Tree, Walking on Ice, Grey Lady Down, Jump and Moria Falls are all within this category.

Because of the wealth in the Chiltern region these bands can afford the technology.

This is the newest of all the music types under the 'Prog' umbrella. The bands use modern techniques and  classical instruments to get the classic sound. 

Mostly Autumn typify this growing trend.

( Mostly Autumn)

( Synagogue )

Flourished in the late 70's in North London, but only lasted a few years as Rabbis from Hendon condemned the style of music and declared that it was "not Kosher".

Groups like Synagogue and New Jerusalem disbanded after criticism from their religious peers.
However, 'Orthodox Jewish-Progression' is allowed and the scene is lead by Trespass from Israel

The Pinkprog scene had limited popularity in the mid 1980's as Prog tried to appeal to a gay audience in order to boost attendances.

 IQ, Behind the Lines, The Enid, In Arrears and Jadis all attempted to gain fans but the movement was short-lived as gays turned to other music types.

( Jadis)

( Pendragon)

Bands which fall into the plush leafy counties to the west of London.

Shadowland, Strangers On A Train, La Host, Arena and Pendragon, Twelfth Night all typify this scene.

Note that keyboardist Clive Nolan is at the heart of this genre.

This has seen an incredible growth in popularity since the mid 90's.

Dream Theatre, Threshold, Megallan, Theatre of Tragedy, Queensryche, Spocks Beard, Pain of Salvation, Opeth, Wolverine all mix metal with a progressive element.

( Theatre of Tragedy)

( White Angel)

Otherwise known as Christian-prog, Reli-Prog or Whiteprog - The scene has lasted as young Christians enjoy their music at trendy Sunday Schools and religious events.

Bands such Iona, The Peter Gee Band, White Angel, Geoff Man Band, Kings X, Magenta and Spocks Beard are at the heart of the scene.

That the London road connecting Charing Cross with the city known as 'The Strand' first appears on maps as early as 1245. Incredibly, the German word for "beach" is "das Strand", could this be because the London road is at the feet of the river Thames?

Jethro Tull probably started it all off with classics such as 'Thick as a Brick', and 'Songs from the Wood'. 

Grace are also important modern players now.
The use of a flute and songs about 'Wheat' and 'Horses' are essential. Grace also cross into the so-called 'Stoke-Folk' scene.

Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson's antics are easily matched by the talented Good Prince Harry from Grace.

( Jethro Tull)

(Porcupine Tree)

Developed in the  60's by the likes of Pink Floyd, Hawkwind, The Magic Mushroom Band, Tangerine Dream, Abbfinoosty, The Pink Fairies, Toad the Wet Sprocket and Gong. 

During the 90's bands including Porcupine Tree and Ozric Tentacles continued to bring pleasure to drug users.

Mushroom-Prog
These are smaller than there fore-fathers in terms of popularity and age. Pineapple Thief, Poisoned-Electrick-Head, Space Mirrors, and Bevis Frond are all mushroom-proggers

Another recent stem. Popular with teenagers to Skate and Surf to.

Recent Marillion albums together with The Urbane, Mentaur, It Bites and Galahad give the younger generation a chance to move to  the groove and get down to the choir mellotron.

Summer Indoors are deemed more Surf Prog but cross into the Skate scene.

( cool rockers It Bites)

(Arena)

Asia might have been the first 'Super Group' to cherry-pick musicians from other bands and form their own. The trio UK also involved  John Wetton. Mike 'n' the Mechanics followed on in the 80's and Strangers On A Train were made up of Pendragon-Pallas-Threshold-Tracy Hitchens  peeps.

Arena copied this in the 90's and since then other bands have successfully blended musicians together to create new groups.

More recently The Martin Darvil Band, Transatlantic and The Arm Band have added to this lucrative trend of gathering already known musicians and making a new band. Henry Fool include a member from Pendragon, LaHost, and No Man

There are  more Marillion albums in Wales than coal pits, yet more men are miners than musicians!

The late 80's saw an unwelcome cluster of satanic progrock bands, such as Black Jester, emerging from the dark and cold Scandinavian countries such as Norway and Sweden. 

The scene still exists underground, but only accounts for less than1% of groups under the Progressive Rock umbrella.

(Dethlehem)

( three biatches take the lead in Mostly Autumn)

Kate Bush was a roll model for talented females wanting to develop creativity and artistic music.

A 'Bint Prog' band must have a female frontman, or at least two girl musicians within the group. Female Sonja Kristina fronted Curved Air.

Tracey Hitchens, Kelly Hudson, etc all add colour and life to the wonderful world of prog.

Henry Cow - were formed in 1968 fronted by  Dagmar Krause making them eligible to this category.

Theives Kitchen also boast a bitch in their band.

Historically, disabled musicians in Salzburg were frustrated at the lack of songs which would appeal to them. 

(Das Smertzen)

( Ark with John Jowlet)

They were angry at so many references to "running" in prog-rock so they  they joined forces and created their own sound singing songs about hospital life and tablets.

The scene ended in 1995 after a fire  broke out at Frankfurt's 'BundesKrankenFest' wiping out many of the performers. 

The scene never recovered and soon fizzled out.

(Timothy Pure)

In America you can get 220 flavors of ice-cream (at 'Uncle Sams Icecream Parlour'). In American you can get 130 types of donuts at 'Fat Sam's Funkin-Dunkin-Donuts' (including pumpkin + pecan pie with jello-cream). You can even get 37 varieties of onion rings at Kentucky Sam Jr's Onionring Bar' (try the double-fried-cheese and spicy beloni)  

America has given us hotdogs, Baywatch, burgers, weak beer, and wrestling, but it hasn't given us much in the way of music....they import rather than export.

There are a few golden nuggets to be found, check out bands like Crucis, Echolyn, Alligator Wine, Spock's Beard, Timothy Pure, Chinese Fire Drill, Moe Greene, Paul Nery, Happy the Man, Oxygen Eight, Djam Karat and Sensis.

God Bless America!

Canada has exported some very successful bands in this genre.

Saga, Rush and Genesis covers band Musical Box lead the scene.

Quality not quantity is the key here to this nation of seal bashers.

(Saga)

(Nexus)

There is a wealth of quality from South America often forgotten by other Europeans.

The Mexicans love the English bands, but they have their own musical crown jewel in the name of Cast, who have a dozen or so albums under their creative belt.

Fellow Mexicans Subterra are heavily influenced by Marillion.

Venezuela also boast the band Pig Farm on the Moon and in Argentina Nexus are well worth a listen.

Progressive Rock is significantly more popular in colder countries, but why is this? Research has shown that in hot climates (such as Somalia and Uganda) demand for progrock is lower, and experts think that children would rather be outside swimming than inside listening to Pendragon.

In the cold and dark area of Northern Europe, people have two possibilities to spend the 5 months during winter when the sun is never seen:  listening and making music, or chess. Viking Roine Stolt doesn't like chess.

The progenies of this romantic attachment are diverse. His most famous offspring are the Flower Kings that contributed in the 90s to the Prog revival in Continental Europe. But the potent Casanova is also involved in an affair with Kaipa - a relationship that already started in the 70s and was revived a short while ago. 

(Flower Kings from Sweden)

(Gazpacho from Norway)

Silhobbit really recommend 'Gazpacho' from Norway who stunned Marillion fans at their last convention. 
Don't forget Anglagard and Galleon who have done some excellent albums

  (The Gathering)

How is a good, smelly cheese produced? It needs to be exposed to good, diverse music! That is the reason why there are some great Prog musicians from  the flat ,low-lying, windmill using bands from France, Belgium, and The Netherlands. 

Ange and Magma already found that recipe in France in the early 70s. The ingredients of Ange's music are a good deal of typical French Chansons and some sonorous vocals. Completely different is Magma that created its own language "Kobaianic" and its very own style. It can be described like a mixture of hypnotic, repetitive structures with jazz-influence, Eastern European folk music and modern classic. 

A Dutch band that seems to have survived from the 70s is Kayak though the last album wasn't as good as the good old ones. Those had imaginative keyboard sounds a la Tony Banks or Rick Wakeman, part-singing, Yes-like guitar riffs. The dutch workaholic comparable to Clive Nolan or Roine Stolt is Arjen Lucassen with his bands/projects Ayreon and Star One. Other cheese-breeders are The Gathering, EgdonHeath, For Absent Friends, and Sun Caged that both released Prog-Metal albums in 2003.

Kayak (Holland)

(Grobschnitt)

(Kraftwerk)

(Alias Eye)

(Poor Genetic Material)

Sometimes too many musicians spoil the broth. Because progressive musicians are more talented it is difficult for them to shut up. Thus, if you want a bit more space sometimes one head is better than five.

Mike Oldfield was fed up of arguing with band members, so he sacked them all and then produced some fantastic progressive music in the 70's. Recommended is 'Hergest Ridge' and 'Ommadawn'.

Germany has produced some talented solo stars including the multitalented 'Christian Blechschmidt' who played all the instruments  on his excellent 'Far Across the Field' cd in the early 90's.

(Christian Blechschmidt)

(classic solo album by ex-Genesis boy)

Sometimes it is difficult for solo musicians who find it impossible to play all of the instruments, so their music is not quite solo. Anthony Phillips left Genesis cause he didn't like Tony Banks. But he has created some neo-solo-progressive masterpieces, include 'The Geese and the Ghost' and 'Sides', with the help of some friends.

The Alan Parson's Project saw one man gather up his friends and make decent prog albums.
Peter Gee, Peter Hamill, Steve Hogarth, Francis Dunnery, Martin Orford, John Wetton, Mark Kelly, Steve Hackett, Mick Pointer, and Roger Waters all made neo-solo albums but some critics suggest that they made better albums in the bands that made them famous.

In the mid 80's there was a brief spell of bands from Wiltshire and Devon which made up the short lived Dairy-Prog scene.

With rural backgrounds they competed with the line-dancing middle and working class folk and 'barning' was a term for a gig, where farmers would hold illegal concerts and music was played to a drunken cider-filled audience.

One famous incident occurred when 'The Milk Men' played in a barn in rural Thornton and a cow did its dung on the bass pedals and the bass note held for 20mins, their cover of Supper's Ready was ruined, this was the final nail in the coffin of the dairyprog scene. 

(The Milkmen)

(Loon Garden)

There are a handful of  talented bands mainly based in Tokyo. KBN lead the scene and have picked up fans all over the world. In the 80's Ying Tolkien enjoyed a shortlived success.

Enthusiastic Japaners will eagerly follow British bands. It Bites played to 20,000 screaming fans in the late 80's, and last year John Wetton offended his fans by playing whilst drunk.

Homegrown talent includes the exported John Myung whose bassplaying woos Dream Theatre fans.
Other popular bands in this category include IQ-J the IQ covers band, and the solo star 'Paddy Fields'.

Bands which fall into this category include bands from China and Hong Kong or other rice-eating nations. 

King Tiger Prawn  were locked in prison after the Chinese government banned the music in 1998. Since then they have disappeared without trace, probably killed by jail staff who sell prisoner's body-parts for medicine. 

(King Tiger Prawn)

(Geoff Woman)

Only a few bands can claim to be Ladyboy Proggers. 

Currently there are a few groups located in the seedy back-alley bars in Thailand and Indonesia playing mainly Genesis  covers.

Chopped Stix nearly charted with a bizarre rendition of Marillion's 'Incommunicado'.

Kevin Ayers  was a British rock singer from Canterbury, England,  was in the pioneering psychedelic progressive rock band Soft Machine in the late 1960s. Daevid Allen was also in the band and so Gong are key players. Steve Hillage was in Gong and  the association goes on!

So the type of music has been described as "drug-infested experimental psychedic-rock fusion". Richard Sinclair

So who are the key players?
Caravan, Hatfield and the North, Soft Machine, Henry Cow, National Health, In Cahoots, and Gong.

(Hatfield and the North)

(The Mutherfuckin Proggers)

Rap and Hiphop artists were looking for new musical inspirations to mix  hard beats and rap with.
In the crime-ridden inner cities GangsterProggers were rapping about "stealin mellotrons" during the late 90's.

The scene flourished underground and Marillion logos were graffitid over the subways as the angry youth protested against the authority.

Artists including Eminemerson-Lake 'n'  Palmer -  Dr Jesta, and Judge Jelliman all got shot and so the corpses went as underground as the scene.

These are the bands which are progressive but not tarnished by the 'dirty' name of the category progessive rock. But is you listen to the bands below it is easy to spot their influences. If you listen to French band Air there is no doubt that they grew up listening to Pink Floyd! Trendy rockers Kula Shaker also have chart hits and play festival - when they are not at Marillion concerts!

Mainstream-Prog gets radio play, also the bands are given decent slots at festivals...they just downplay their influences in order to appeal to the media.

(Radiohead)

Blackfield look certain to be added to this list when their superb album is released across the world.

"Never before has there been a better time to like Progressive Rock, except for in the 70's.

This educational article has taken much skilled research, painstaking work, and the help of many experts and it is a continuation of a previous piece written in 1993 when Silhobbit.com was just a small fanzine and before we were a global dotcom website with thousands of visitors per week.

Since the previous magazine article there there have been many new entries or categories including 'Skate-Prog' and 'Mongrel Prog' just didn't exist before, but have now been added after careful consideration and a focus group of learned academics. Our handpicked international panel included Heike, Richard, Lisa, David Gower, John, and Annette.  Their input and knowledge is valuable to this historical musical research.

The great thing about the word 'Progressive' is that it should never reach a final goal, it evolves and changes, unlike chess where the rules have remained unchanged for thousands of years.

When we funded this research we knew that it was never going to be complete due to the nature of the music. So, we can agree that Progressive Rock is the best type of music there is, but with so many subsections there is enough for all the family. Progressive Rock likes to think it is a broadchurch with offering wide-appeal to its congress.

Marillion's Pete Trewavas recently said "people will  always like good music". So, what Silhobbit.com does is give airtime to the best bands.

The Future?

We want good quality recordings and but we want it for free....doesn't work like that! 

To keep the quality high we must dip our hands into our prog- pockets. I would suggest that we each buy just one cd per month. This will enable a prog future for our children's children and grandchildren.
I also advise that we all recommend a good band or album to our friends and colleagues,  letting them know where they can buy it from! 

My 6yr old nephew was bewildered and disappointed when I gave him Big Big Train's great new cd, but in years to come I know it will give him much pleasure. I'm planting acorns for future oak trees - I suggest we all do the same.

It Bites, Marillion, The Urbane, and Porcupine Tree will always have a future because of their high standards, but if you want my tips for bands that will come through you need look no further than Blackfield, The Arm Band, and Magenta. These bands are fucking quality. 

Whatever prog you like, enjoy and keep buying it so the people can keep making it. "

Charlie O'Mara.