Prog Rock
567 articles
Pink Floyd: Ladies Clothes, Free Form Music, Anarchy and the Pink Floyd
Profile and Interview by Peter Jones, Record Mirror, 8 April 1967
WHEN YOU talk about controversy in pop music these day, you obviously have to talk about the Pink Floyd. ...
Procol Harum: I Knew Procol Would Be A Success
Interview by Alan Smith, New Musical Express, 1 July 1967
says KEITH REID the man who created the group – to ALAN SMITH ...
The Nice: 1968 The Year Of The Nice
Profile and Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 13 July 1968
NICE ARE now one of Britain's top groups, ranking with Cream and Jimi Hendrix's Experience. And as Cream aren't working and are on the edge ...
The Moody Blues: In Search Of The Lost Chord (Deram Stereo SML 711)
Review by Derek Boltwood, Record Mirror, 3 August 1968
THERE IS somewhere a lost chord. Some people call that chord "God", some people call it "the truth", some people call it "Om". And for ...
Live Review by Hugh Nolan, Disc and Music Echo, 3 August 1968
Such a NICE day in the park ...
Profile and Interview by Peter Jones, Record Mirror, 17 August 1968
LEONARD BERNSTEIN IS NOT PLEASED WITH 'AMERICA' ...
The Nice: Richard Green goes afloat with Nice
Report and Interview by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 21 September 1968
And nearly goes down with them! ...
The Nice: Ars Longa Vita Brevis (Immediate)
Review by uncredited writer, Melody Maker, 9 November 1968
THIS SECOND Immediate album by the Nice, is not only a vast improvement on their first, but a major breakthrough in pop group experimentation. In ...
The Nice: Ars Longa Vita Brevis (Immediate)
Review by Derek Boltwood, Record Mirror, 16 November 1968
"THAT'S NICE". "That's Nice". That is the new LP from the Nice, Ars Longa Vita Brevis, and whichever way you say it, it's very good. ...
The Nice: Whitla Hall, Belfast
Live Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 23 November 1968
BELFAST'S annual music festival, organised by Michael Emmerson of Queens University, was opened by the Nice in a highly successful "pop" concert at the Whitla ...
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 4 January 1969
THIS IS the time of year when pop journalists start surveying the scene for groups or singles likely to make an impression in the coming ...
The Nice: Will Nice Get Lost Among The Commuters?
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 22 March 1969
WILL BRITAIN'S heaviest group, the Nice, conquer America? After the Cream and Jimi Hendrix, the Nice must be our most spectacular band and well in ...
Interview by Miles, International Times, 25 April 1969
This interview is transcribed from a tape recorded conversation done at my house in Westminster. It has been edited for grammer and coherence only. Lee ...
The Nice: Ars Longa Vita Brevis (Immediate)
Review by John Mendelssohn, UCLA Daily Bruin, 30 April 1969
ANYONE WHO can explain how The Nice have managed to remain obscure for so long gets my nomination for The Paul Williams Rock Intellectualization Award ...
King Crimson King Crimson King Crimson King Crimson
Interview by Mark Williams, International Times, 13 June 1969
[NOTE: The first two paragraphs of this piece – along with one or two others – appear to bear no relation whatsoever to Mark's piece... ...
The Nice: Ars Longa Vita Brevis (Immediate)
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 14 June 1969
WHAT MAY HAVE turned potential Nice freaks off last year was the group's decision to precede their ritual cataclysm 'Rondo' with a set that consisted ...
Jethro Tull: Why It's Wrong To Judge Jethro Tull By Looks
Report and Interview by David Hughes, Disc and Music Echo, 14 June 1969
HEREWITH A MESSAGE to all dubious parents who are still of the opinion that every hairy and strangely attired pop group — like the one ...
Interview by Lon Goddard, Record Mirror, 5 July 1969
"WE DO NOT want anyone in this country to think we are skipping off to America and forsaking our British fans," explained organist and showman ...
Live Review by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 5 July 1969
RICHARD GREEN says ROCKING NICE HIT ...
Review by Mark Williams, International Times, 18 July 1969
WRITING REVIEWS of records made by people I'm happy to regard as good friends, always makes me feel a little guilty. What if my opinions ...
The Nice: Ars Longa Vita Brevis (Immediate)
Review by Loyd Grossman, Fusion, 26 July 1969
ARS LONGA Vita Brevis is an incredibly good album, probably one of the best to have been released in the last few years; certainly one of ...
The Nice: Nice Work If You Can Get It
Profile by Mark Williams, Rolling Stone, 26 July 1969
THE NICE are the most successful British group to have achieved fame without a single in the top ten. The future is surer for them, ...
Review by Mark Williams, Rolling Stone, 26 July 1969
THE BRITISH END of the Atlantic Recording Company's operations rarely signs up this country's groups and when it does, they have to be exceedingly good ...
The Nice: Nice (Immediate mono and stereo IMSP 026; 38s. 6d.)
Review by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 23 August 1969
NICE WORK AND YOU CAN GET IT ...
Review by Mark Williams, International Times, 29 August 1969
THE NICE just keep escalating from strength to strength, their reputation solidifying as their incorporation of classical phraseology (sometimes admittedly borrowed wholesale) becomes even more ...
Jethro Tull: Ian Anderson Wrote Music For Next Tull Album On U.S. Tour
Interview by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 6 September 1969
MOST GROUP members, when they visit America, spend all their spare time looning about clubs and generally having a rare old time. Not so Ian ...
Tea & Symphony: Rock In The Sticks: Tea & Symphony
Interview by Mark Williams, International Times, 12 September 1969
THE MOST INTERESTING group in this article, from an historical point of view, is Tea & Symphony. They have had almost as many changes in ...
The Nice: Nice: Good Music & Showmanship Is Their Formula For Success
Interview by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 27 September 1969
MUSICAL COMPETENCE and showmanship rarely go hand-in-hand. At least, if they do, one often takes precedence over the other and the overall effect is one ...
Review by Loyd Grossman, Fusion, 3 October 1969
MAYBE HIDDEN away in the offices of Atlantic Records right now is an evil genius publicity man who is trying to devise a monstrous hype ...
Deep Purple with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Mark Williams, International Times, 10 October 1969
THE ALBERT Hall Concert on Wednesday September 24th, featuring Deep Purple in concert with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, was possibly the most important musical event ...
King Crimson: In The Court Of The Crimson King (Island ILPS 9111)
Review by Mark Williams, International Times, 10 October 1969
THE ULTIMATE Album. There is little one can fault with it; the arrangements make masterful use of multi-tracking, compressing and reducing, the standard of playing ...
Live Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 18 October 1969
A NICE WEEKEND BY RICHARD WILLIAMS! ...
King Crimson, The Nice: The Nice, King Crimson: Fairfield Hall, Croydon
Live Review by uncredited writer, Record Mirror, 25 October 1969
THE NICE are an incredible band. At every one of their concerts there's always something new; something which only the Nice can do. ...
The Nice: A Nice A Week: 1 — Keith Emerson Wants Classical Music To Survive
Interview by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 1 November 1969
ONE OF the highspots of Keith Emerson's career occurred only a fortnight ago, when the Nice played with the London Symphony Orchestra at Croydon's Fairfield ...
The Moody Blues: To Our Children's Children's Children (Threshold THS 1)
Review by David Griffiths, Record Mirror, 1 November 1969
A PORTENTOUSLY voyagistic 2001-style opening, with whooshing sound effects, leads into a "Heavenly choir", then solid beat music and a bit of narrative with strong ...
The Nice: Ungano's, New York NY
Live Review by Ian Dove, Billboard, 29 November 1969
Nice in Mixed Bag at Ungano's ...
Gypsy, King Crimson: King Crimson, Gypsy: Whisky a Go Go, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by John Mendelssohn, Los Angeles Times, 5 December 1969
King Crimson Opens Its Rock 'n' Roll Stand ...
Yes: Swiss Rolling And Rocking With Yes
Report and Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 6 December 1969
CHRIS WELCH reporting, with a little Alp from his friends ...
The Moody Blues: To Our Children's, Children's, Children (Threshold THM 1)
Review by Rob Partridge, Record Mirror, 6 December 1969
Moody Blues: rock group or mini-orchestra ...
Deep Purple: In Live Concert At The Royal Albert Hall (Harvest)
Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 20 December 1969
THIS IS A live recording of the widely reported concert which took place recently when Deep Purple joined Malcolm Arnold and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra ...
King Crimson: In the Court of the Crimson King
Review by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 27 December 1969
THERE ARE CERTAIN problems to be encountered by any band that is consciously avant-garde. In attempting to sound "farout" the musicians inevitably impose on themselves ...
Live Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 17 January 1970
Handling the French ...
The Nice: RICHARD GREEN spends a hectic weekend with NICE In Paris
Report by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 31 January 1970
WHAT DO you have to do to have 'Granada' sung in your left ear by three Spaniards at 5.30 on a Sunday morning and a ...
Live Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 7 February 1970
A MASS of gently struggling sons of Coventry and outlying parts politely tripped over each other in the seatless main hall at Lanchester Festival on ...
The Nice, Yes: Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 14 February 1970
IT WAS an emotional as well as a musical triumph when the Nice took London's Festival Hall by storm on Saturday. A feeling built up ...
The Nice: Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 14 February 1970
NICE VERSATILITY IS LIMITLESS ...
Van Der Graaf Generator: The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other (Charisma)
Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 28 February 1970
THIS IS one of those rare and precious albums which occasionally arrive to knock you flat on your back and make you think really hard, ...
The Nice: Nice and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra: Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 14 March 1970
NICE UNITE CLASSIC AND POP FANS ...
Van Der Graaf Generator: Van Der Graaf... Generating Good Music
Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 14 March 1970
VAN DER Graaf Generator is a name that will probably be familiar to you, even if their music isn't. Through many trials and tribulations, they've ...
Yes: Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
Live Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 28 March 1970
LAST SATURDAY saw the solo debut by what must surely be one of the next major concert attractions in this country... Yes. Before a capacity ...
Yes: Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
Live Review by Mark Williams, International Times, 9 April 1970
IT HAS BEEN many months since I've seen YES and the consequent starvation of tight British progressive rock music par excellence left me eagerly awaiting ...
The Nice: Five Bridges (Charisma, stereo CAS 1014; 39s 11d)
Review by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 30 May 1970
End of Nice ...
Emerson Lake & Palmer: 'ELP is on the way
Interview by David Hughes, Disc and Music Echo, 6 June 1970
IN THIS age of musical complexity, of musicians caring and playing more for themselves and their personal satisfaction than for their hard-working, hard-paying audiences, 'ELP ...
Audience, Van Der Graaf Generator: Van Der Graaf Generator, Audience: Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 6 June 1970
CONCERT SUCCESS OF TWO GROUPS ...
Jethro Tull: A Subtle Acceptance
Interview by Jacoba Atlas, Circus, July 1970
A LITTLE OVER a year ago, Jethro Tull made their first appearance in America. The result was slightly less than overwhelming. No fanfares went up, ...
Black Sabbath, Yes: The Lyceum, London
Live Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 25 July 1970
WITH CHAMPAGNE in hand, Herr Klook re-emerged before a capacity crowd to present his new series of Friday night scenes at the Lyceum. ...
Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep, Yes: Yes, Black Sabbath, Uriah Heap: Lyceum, London
Live Review by Mark Plummer, Melody Maker, 25 July 1970
YES MADE their comeback at the Lyceum on Friday, but what should have been a great occasion turned out to be rather mediocre. ...
Yes: Time And A Word (Atlantic stereo, 2400.006; 42s. 6d.)
Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 22 August 1970
YES, IT'S SUPERB! ...
Supertramp: Tramp hits the road
Interview by Andrew Means, Melody Maker, 5 September 1970
LIKE A thousand other relatively unknown groups, Supertramp are trying hard to make a name for themselves. But unlike most groups in a similar position, ...
Chris Farlowe, Colosseum: Colosseum: Farlowe That!
Report and Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 26 September 1970
CHRIS FARLOWE and Colosseum – the mind boggles! One of the country's most powerful vocal talents has joined the most explosive force in groups to ...
Review by Vernon Gibbs, Columbia Daily Spectator, 29 September 1970
MOODY BLUES' Question of Balance (Threshold, THS3)I first heard of the Moody Blues early this year about five minutes before I was scheduled to interview them. A ...
Report and Interview by uncredited writer, Beat Instrumental, October 1970
ONE OF THE more interesting events of last year, away from the resurgence of rock ‘n’ roll in all shapes and sizes, was the first ...
East of Eden: A Good Time East of Eden
Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 17 October 1970
"IF I HAD a choice of playing a technically perfect set or giving people a good time," says Dave Arbus, "I'd definitely give them a ...
Interview by Royston Eldridge, Sounds, 17 October 1970
ROBERT FRIPP doesn't look like a rock star with those funny little spectacles through which he watches a world that's still to feel the full ...
Interview by Royston Eldridge, Sounds, 31 October 1970
YES MADE the notional newspapers last week on the strength of their signing with Hemdale. They've been worthy of acclaim, however, during the past year ...
Emerson Lake And Palmer, The Nice: Emerson Lake & Palmer: Here Comes Another Orgasmic Peak
Interview by Penny Valentine, Sounds, 31 October 1970
KEITH EMERSON is, to say the least, very upset at the release of old Nice tapes currently flooding the market. ...
Emerson Lake & Palmer: Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 31 October 1970
IT MUST have been around 10.30 p.m. on Monday night at the Royal Festival Hall, when Keith Emerson proved beyond all fear of contradiction that ...
Emerson Lake And Palmer: Emerson, Lake & Palmer: Town Hall, Birmingham
Live Review by Tony Stewart, Sounds, 31 October 1970
AFTER TWO hours of solid music, the 2,000 strong audience, at Birmingham Town Hall were dancing in the aisles, clapping and stamping and try as ...
Colosseum: The Secret Of Their Success – Good Music
Profile and Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 21 November 1970
COLOSSEUM are now rated as one of Britain's and Europe's most popular and creative bands. In two years of furious activity and hard work, the ...
Review by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 21 November 1970
ANYONE WHO still thinks that Emerson Lake and Palmer are a cheap imitation of the Nice should give this album a spin and be proven ...
McDonald and Giles: McDonald & Giles: Outside The Court Of The Crimson King
Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 21 November 1970
THERE ARE, YOU understand, these two musicians, both having played in one of our very best bands, who're sitting at home doing virtually nothing at ...
Interview by uncredited writer, Beat Instrumental, December 1970
THE LAST FEW months have seen the emergence of one or two bands whose publicity and stage act seem to be based on – not ...
King Crimson: Reincarnation of King Crimson
Report by Richard Williams, The Times, 2 December 1970
IN THE PAST, pop music has taken it for granted that its groups would stay together; when a musician has left a band, or the ...
Emerson Lake & Palmer: ELP in the Alps
Report and Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 19 December 1970
Chris Welch reports on a trip to Switzerland with rock's most controversial trio... ...
Black Sabbath, Curved Air: Guild Hall, Southampton
Live Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 16 January 1971
BLACK SABBATH are about as subtle as an enraged mule kicking down a stable door, yet it is this controlled use of sheer physical brute ...
The Moody Blues: Now I Know How McCartney Felt…
Interview by Keith Altham, Record Mirror, 16 January 1971
FLAUTIST RAY Thomas is now ensconced in the Moody Blues new "Threshold" HQ in Surrey after the group's pre-Christmas run across the States, shattering attendance ...
Iron Butterfly, Yes: Yes and Iron Butterfly: Allies of Rock
Report and Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 23 January 1971
Chris Welch with Yes and Iron Butterfly in Holland ...
Yes move into the gap left by Nice
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 23 January 1971
SOME CHEERFUL dullard in his misguided wisdom recently asked Yes, (quote) ..."When are you chaps going to happen?" To which he was promptly and most ...
Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 13 February 1971
Yes, yes, yes ...
Emerson Lake And Palmer: ELP Is On The Way…
Report and Interview by Keith Altham, Record Mirror, 27 March 1971
DESPITE PROTESTATIONS to the contrary, there is no such thing as an instant group – super or otherwise – and ELP are a testimony to ...
Yes: From groups' group to people's band
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 27 March 1971
"THEY OUGHT to play Frank Zappa's 'Peaches En Regalia' on Two-Way Family Favourites instead of constantly churning out 'Land Of Hope And Glory', because it ...
Emerson Lake And Palmer: Emerson, Lake & Palmer: Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Review by Loyd Grossman, Rolling Stone, 15 April 1971
WE WERE FOREWARNED by the British music press that Emerson, Lake & Palmer would be a "super-group," and indeed it was hard to see how ...
Barclay James Harvest, Caravan: Caravan, Barclay James Harvest: The Lyceum, London
Live Review by Mark Plummer, Melody Maker, 24 April 1971
Live and well? ...
Yes Mustn't Sit On Their Backsides
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 24 April 1971
REAL PROS, the ones who last, take a little longer than "overnight" before they find mass appeal. In the case of Yes it was three ...
Van Der Graaf Generator: Melody Maker Band Breakdown: Van der Graaf Generator
Report and Interview by Roy Hollingworth, Melody Maker, 1 May 1971
If it's Thursday, it must be Ormskirk. ...
Van der Graaf Generator: Not so much a band, more a meeting place
Special Feature by Roy Hollingworth, Melody Maker, 1 May 1971
THERE'S A Sopwith Camel perched on Peter Hammill's piano, or maybe it's an SE5. I can't see too clearly, because Peter's way down in the ...
Emerson Lake & Palmer: ELP: Fillmore East, New York NYC
Live Review by Mike Jahn, The New York Times, 2 May 1971
BRITISH BAND MAKES DEBUT AT FILLMORE ...
Emerson Lake And Palmer, Humble Pie: ELP In America
Report and Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 8 May 1971
BLOOD streaming from his head, a middle-aged man, white, well-dressed, staggered into the headlights of the battered Yellow Cab. The Puerto Rican driver, grinned and ...
King Crimson Take To The Road!
Interview by Caroline Boucher, Disc and Music Echo, 8 May 1971
IT'S HARDLY surprising that King Crimson are scared stiff at the prospect of their first British gig, for it will be the first time they've ...
Van Der Graaf Generator: The Generator Are Staying Very Content On The Continent
Interview by Keith Altham, Record Mirror, 29 May 1971
PERHAPS THE most obvious band of our times are Van der Graaf Generator who without any publicity hype – hit single or ballyhoo – have ...
Yes: The Yes Album (Atlantic 240 001)
Review by Nick Jones, Cream, June 1971
MIRACULOUSLY avoiding the hairy, heavy rock clichés in which so many lesser bands bash along senselessly for hours, Yes have, with their third try, put ...
Emerson Lake & Palmer: Emerson, Lake And Palmer: Tarkus (Island I LPS 9155; £2.15)
Review by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 12 June 1971
'ELP OUR EARDRUMS ...
Live Review by John Mendelssohn, Los Angeles Times, 21 July 1971
ELP Group Presents a Mixed Bag at the Bowl ...
The Moody Blues: Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (Threshold THS5; £2.19)
Review by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 24 July 1971
FROM STAR TREK TO THE POWER OF LOVE ...
Emerson Lake And Palmer: Emerson, Lake & Palmer Ascending
Profile and Interview by Michael Gray, Crawdaddy!, August 1971
Their first album rides high in the bestseller lists. Their first tour, from the Fillmore East to Carnegie Hall, has been a real and resounding ...
Interview by Roy Hollingworth, Melody Maker, 7 August 1971
STEVE UPTON of Wishbone Ash. What sort of audience did he think the band had? ...
Rick Wakeman: Just Another Yes Man
Report and Interview by Penny Valentine, Sounds, 28 August 1971
WHEN HE was six years old, Rick Wakeman's father dispatched him to a very fine lady piano teacher in Harrow. Two lessons later the infant ...
Live Review by James Johnson, New Musical Express, 11 September 1971
IT WAS a shame to find London's Queen Elizabeth Hall not completely full for East of Eden's concert on Monday. The band really do deserve ...
Jack Bruce, Roy Harper, King Crimson: Hyde Park, London
Live Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 11 September 1971
AFTER THE confusion that reigned at Weeley, it has become quite apparent that you don't need every band that lives, breathes and plugs in to ...
Curved Air: Second Album (Warner Bros. K46092 £2.15)
Review by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 9 October 1971
Curved Air: No need for gimmicks ...
Curved Air: Imperial College, London
Live Review by Dick Meadows, Sounds, 30 October 1971
FRANCIS MONKMAN is a musician whose belief it is that electronic music is of growing importance, and he is anxious to play his part in ...
Emerson Lake & Palmer: Pictures At An Exhibition (Island, HELP. 1; £1.50).
Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 4 December 1971
"HANS, IS das cheering on zee stereo gramafunken for zee Furhrer at zee 1937 Nuremburg Rally?" ...
King Crimson: Reshuffle At The Court Of The King
Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc and Music Echo, 8 January 1972
"WE'VE ALL gone through our various changes and Peter and I came out at different places." ...
Yes: The Squire Of Notting Hill Gate
Interview by David Hughes, Disc and Music Echo, 15 January 1972
...talks to David Hughes ...
Curved Air: A Little Rift In Curved Air?
Interview by Keith Altham, Record Mirror, 12 February 1972
IT WAS SCOTT Fitzgerald who held to the theory that the test of a first rate intelligence was to hold two opposed ideas in the ...
Emerson Lake And Palmer, Yes: Ready, Eddie? An Interview with Eddie Offord
Interview by Mark Plummer, Melody Maker, 12 February 1972
EDDIE OFFORD SITS in his penthouse flat, way above the traffic that thunders down the Vauxhall Bridge Road past Victoria. ...
Jethro Tull: Thick As A Brick (Chrysalis)
Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 11 March 1972
AS THE album is already brilliantly reviewed on the elaborately produced sleeve, there is hardly any point in adding our own comments. ...
Black Sabbath, Yes: The Forum, Inglewood CA
Live Review by John Mendelssohn, Los Angeles Times, 17 March 1972
Black Sabbath and Yes in Concert at Forum ...
Live Review by John Mendelssohn, Los Angeles Times, 21 March 1972
KING CRIMSON, which performed locally for the first time in two years Sunday afternoon at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, is the very embodiment of ...
Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 24 March 1972
EMERSON, LAKE and Palmer, at their Wednesday night Long Beach Auditorium concert, made the tactical error of presenting Tarkus as their first long selection. ...
Profile and Interview by Caroline Boucher, Disc and Music Echo, 25 March 1972
ASK GENESIS how their careers are progressing and they'll tell you they're superstars in Aylesbury and Belgium, but little known elsewhere. In fact their fame ...
Emerson Lake & Palmer: The Top of Pop: A Rock Fan Writes
Column by Lillian Roxon, New York Sunday News, 23 April 1972
THAT FINE dividing line between fan and groupie is often razor thin and rather shaky. I used to admire groupies because they at least broke ...
John Denver, The Moody Blues: The Moody Blues, John Denver: Empire Pool, Wembley, London
Live Review by Penny Valentine, Sounds, 29 April 1972
MOODIES: HEROES AT THE POOL ...
Report and Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 6 May 1972
WISHBONE ASH are one of the nation's better bands. In the search for constant improvement, they have come up with a third album that many ...
Emerson Lake and Palmer: Why Keith Wants To Become Immortal
Interview by Caroline Boucher, Disc, 13 May 1972
KEITH EMERSON would like to be remembered as a twentieth century composer – he thinks about it quite a lot and finds it curious that ...
King Crimson: Fripp Finds the Answer
Interview by Caroline Boucher, Disc, 27 May 1972
...in White magic, coloured candles and a witch called Walli Emlark ...
Pink Floyd: Obscured By Clouds (Harvest)
Review by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 27 May 1972
FLOYD JOY FOR ALL ...
Yes: Yes are Well and Grooving
Profile and Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 27 May 1972
IN THE basement of Una Billings School of Dancing, Shepherd's Bush, London, Yes are bouncing ideas off each other for a new album. Jon Anderson, ...
Yes: Confessions Of a Musical Idiot
Interview by Tony Norman, New Musical Express, 3 June 1972
JON ANDERSON OF YES TALKS TO TONY NORMAN ...
Caravan: Missing Out On Hysteria
Report by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 24 June 1972
YOU CAN almost see the sky through the hazy plastic roof. Richard Sinclair hands around huge pastries stuffed with stringy macro weeds. Guzzling Cokes and ...
The Moody Blues: Moodie Blues: Graeme Edge Living Like A Lesser Mortal
Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 1 July 1972
RESTING IN a reverse overhead lotus, a tortoiseshell at his feet and fingers pointing towards the All-Saints Hare Krishna Temple in the Marylebone Road, Graeme ...
Interview by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 15 July 1972
Will they burn out, or blast through the time barrier? ...
Review by John Swenson, Crawdaddy!, August 1972
THE NEW Tull package is clever, very, and complicated enough to sustain interest over an extended series of listenings. Most albums can be assimilated in ...
Review by Richard Cromelin, Rolling Stone, 17 August 1972
OF THE SCADS of similarities between Wishbone Ash and Yes, the most trivial and accidental (and so most interesting) is the fact that both groups ...
Yes: Close To The Edge (Atlantic)
Review by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 2 September 1972
Meaningless magnificence from Yes? ...
Genesis, Lindisfarne: Lindisfarne, Genesis: Dublin Stadium, Dublin
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 7 October 1972
TO BE CASUAL is to be Lindisfarne, but even the most relaxed of bands have a hard time putting over a set of new numbers ...
Procol Harum with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra: Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by James Johnson, New Musical Express, 7 October 1972
IF THERE'S ONE band with the class and elegance to successfully combine on equal terms with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra then it has to be ...
Emerson Lake And Palmer: Super-Group Of The Seventies!
Profile and Interview by Keith Altham, Petticoat, 4 November 1972
EMERSON LAKE and Palmer may not be three names which are immediately known to you but to millions of progressive rock music fans across the ...
King Crimson: Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 1973
IT'S A ROCK concert evening and the stalls are filling to the accompaniment of music played over the public address system. A review-functionary takes his ...
Live Review by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 13 January 1973
ALTHOUGH OUR entry into the European Economic Community is being saluted with umpteen art forms and rock concerts in the capital, perhaps the greatest – ...
Bill Bruford, King Crimson: Under the Influence — This Week: Bill Bruford of King Crimson
Interview by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 27 January 1973
JOHN McLAUGHLIN: 'Pete The Poet'. From Extrapolation. Fantastic — well, that whole album is. Very fast, tight bop playing and some great drums from Tony ...
Report and Interview by Keith Altham, New Musical Express, 10 February 1973
FOR THOSE who have ears as well as eyes, the current British tour by Genesis, which opened at London's Rainbow theatre on Sunday, should prove ...
Focus, Jan Akkerman: Jan Akkerman: A Poor Relation Comes Good
Interview by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 24 February 1973
IN A SMALL OFFICE at the Manchester Hardrock, reeking of stale beer and dirty ashtrays, Jan Akkerman is struggling to light a cigarette. Outside, where ...
Live Review by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 24 February 1973
THE MARQUEE MAY be an ace gig as far as groups are concerned but, for audiences, it can be most uncomfortable – particularly when the ...
Live Review by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, 3 March 1973
ENTERING NEWCASTLE'S City Hall these days is like shaking hands with an old friend. Peter Gabriel wishing that his metaphysical fantasies could suddenly become reality ...
King Crimson: Larks' Tongues In Aspic (Island).
Review by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 10 March 1973
A NICE RECORD of pleasant, middle-of-the-road music which should prove a great favourite with everybody's mum and dad this Easter. Bill Bruford's whistling has improved ...
Pink Floyd: Dark Side Of The Moon (Harvest).
Review by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 17 March 1973
SINCE THEIR performance of this work at the Brighton Dome last year, when, due to technical hitches, the piece fell apart half way through, the ...
Claire Hamill, King Crimson: King Crimson/Claire Hammill: Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 24 March 1973
ON SUNDAY night, at that big weird place in Finsbury Park, Messrs. Derek Moss, Bart Brassert, Don Wilton and Rodney Frock most certainly did not ...
Emerson Lake & Palmer: Lake the Strongman
Interview by James Johnson, New Musical Express, 31 March 1973
EVERY SO OFTEN, Greg Lake refers to the music of Emerson, Lake and Palmer as art. He chooses the word quite deliberately. Everything he speaks ...
Electric Light Orchestra: Town Hall, Birmingham (England)
Live Review by Mark Leviton, Phonograph Record, April 1973
THE TONE OF the evening was set when I spotted Jeff Lynne's electric guitar in the dressing room, leaning up against a sheaf of music ...
Badger, Flash: Flash: Flash; Badger: One Live Badger
Review by Chris Salewicz, Let It Rock, April 1973
"DIFFERENCES in musical policy" is the standard euphemism whenever a member quits a band, or, as is more often the case, gets the boot. Yes ...
Focus: Philharmonic Hall, New York NY
Live Review by Lillian Roxon, New York Sunday News, 1 April 1973
The Focus is on a Group Called Focus ...
Wishbone Ash: Top of the Polls with Twin Guitars
Interview by Simon Frith, Let It Rock, May 1973
ROCK WRITERS have a thing about genealogy. I don’t know who’s fault it is but I’m always reading about second generation bands and third generation ...
King Crimson, Spooky Tooth, the Strawbs: Academy of Music, New York NY
Live Review by Dan Nooger, The Village Voice, 3 May 1973
BRITON REVISITED ...
Focus: Focus And The American Hell
Interview by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 12 May 1973
MIDNIGHT was our cue to quit the Swiss restaurant and return, like five Cinderellas, to our hotels. It wasn't a case of trembling at the ...
Focus: How to Make It Without Playing Top 40
Interview by Harold Bronson, Rolling Stone, 24 May 1973
LOS ANGELES – "'Hocus Pocus' was done as a parody of rock," said Thijs van Leer, founder of Focus, commenting on his group's hit record. ...
Pink Floyd: The Dark Side Of The Moon
Review by Loyd Grossman, Rolling Stone, 24 May 1973
ONE OF BRITAIN'S most successful and long lived avant-garde rock bands, Pink Floyd emerged relatively unsullied from the mire of mid-'60s British psychedelic music as ...
Report by Ed Jones, Cracker, June 1973
AT 18, RICHARD BRANSON STARTED a nationwide magazine called Student, from a basement in Connaught Square, London. Realising that literacy was a faltering skill among ...
Yes: A Story of Chinese Scriptures and Vegetable Eaters
Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 2 June 1973
STEVE HOWE... ENGLAND IS STILL BEST ...
Emerson Lake & Palmer: Carl Palmer 'ELPing Himself
Interview by Caroline Boucher, Disc, 23 June 1973
SO YOU thought Keith Emerson was a flashy organist? You should see Carl Palmer these days. He's got a two-tone Perspex rostrum which revolves when ...
King Crimson: Lark's Tongue In Aspic (Atlantic SD 7263)
Review by Gary Lucas, Zoo World, 5 July 1973
ONE THING you gotta say about Robert Fripp, the auteur behind King Crimson, is that he's ambitious. After perfecting his mellotron-dominated "death of the universe" ...
Genesis: What Genesis Did On Their 'Holidays'
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 28 July 1973
NOT MANY groups conduct their rehearsals squashed together in a Morris Mini. But if you are in the habit of strolling around the backwaters of ...
Mike Oldfield, The Stooges: Mike Oldfield: Tubular Bells; Iggy And The Stooges: Raw Power
Review by Simon Frith, Let It Rock, August 1973
SOME RECORDS GET so much critical attention that I can’t listen to them blind, can’t ignore other opinions. So, according to John Peel Tubular Bells ...
Greenslade and the Trumpet Maniac
Interview by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 4 August 1973
THE WAYS bands are born vary immensely. Like, the idea may be only two hours old when Phantom Balloon hits the stage, but other outfits ...
Jethro Tull: Can 72,000 Fans Be Wrong?
Report by Loraine Alterman, Melody Maker, 4 August 1973
I DON'T KNOW how it is in England, but in this country the minute you get too big, too powerful, people start gunning for you. ...
King Crimson: Latest Shade of Crimson
Interview by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 4 August 1973
SOME REPORTS from America suggested that King Crimson's recent tour had bombed completely. Others maintained that everything had gone according to plot and that audience ...
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 4 August 1973
"YES ARE LIKE an amoeba. Now an amoeba works on the principle of..do you know, I've no idea how it f***** works!" Jon Anderson grinned, ...
Genesis: The Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by Andrew Tyler, New Musical Express, 10 August 1973
IT'S A LITTLE dishonest using the same strokes to hammer Genesis as are periodically used against Yes. But there you go. Such is the nature ...
King Crimson: Robert Fripp…Super Stud?
Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 18 August 1973
"I AM," MUSES Robert Fripp, "already a living legend."The light breeze ruffles his curly locks. He settles back in the plastic garden chair, sips his ...
Robert Fripp, King Crimson: Robert Fripp: Head, Heart and Hips
Interview by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 25 August 1973
ROBERT FRIPP doesn't give many interviews – which is silly because he's a shrewd, witty, and engrossing man who, when he's not sitting on a ...
Robert Fripp, King Crimson: Robert Fripp: The Sexual Athlete
Interview by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 1 September 1973
ROBERT FRIPP paused in a virtuoso display of cross-picking on Francisco Tarrega's 'Recuerdos de la Alhambra', the interlude music he'd chosen between the two parts ...
Review by Jon Tiven, Zoo World, 27 September 1973
"WHAT IS A GREENSLADE?" asked records editor Arthur Levy when I first volunteered to review this new album, and this is a question with true ...
Focus: At The Rainbow (Polydor)
Review by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 29 September 1973
LIVE ALBUMS basically attempt to recreate a concert atmosphere with favoured musical pieces by the band in question and sycophantic noises from the audience. ...
Genesis: Selling England By the Pound (Charisma)
Review by Barbara Charone, New Musical Express, 29 September 1973
GENESIS FANS unite, stand proud and be counted; get ready to say 'I told you so' to all those people who have been doubting your ...
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 29 September 1973
FLUSHED from their success in the MM Pop Poll, the all-star musicians of Yes held a remarkable summit conference this week. Gathered round the board ...
Profile by John Swenson, The Village Voice, 25 October 1973
DURING THIS past summer a work of uncompromising brilliance by a relatively unknown composer on a fledgling independent label has shaken the British rock industry. ...
Mike Oldfield: Tubular Bells (Virgin Records 2001)
Review by Gary Lucas, Zoo World, 25 October 1973
Mike Oldfield's Saga Of The Tubular Bells ...
Mike Oldfield: Tubular Bells (Virgin)
Review by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 8 November 1973
AN UNKNOWN English teenager playing over 20 instruments has produced the most important one-shot project of 1973. It is a debut performance of a kind ...
Focus: Queen Juliana and the Boys Nextdoor
Interview by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 10 November 1973
TONY STEWART goes Dutch and finds FOCUS in the painful throes of an identity crisis. Get your paranoia here, folks. ...
Yes: Tales From Topographic Oceans (Atlantic)
Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 1 December 1973
CHANTING VOICES lead us into 'The Revealing Science Of God', and the marathon Yes epic that has occupied so much of their time throughout the ...
Live Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 1 December 1973
A DISTURBING night for a Yes fan at London's Rainbow, when the group unveiled their new work Tales From Topographic Oceans. For despite, the applause ...
Emerson Lake And Palmer: Emerson, Lake and Palmer: Why They Won't Bach Around The Clock
Interview by Ian Dove, The New York Times, 16 December 1973
WITH EMERSON, Lake and Palmer, apparently nothing succeeds like excess. The successful British rock trio, which is known for its appearances with symphony orchestras, is due at ...
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 19 January 1974
PETER GABRIEL, man of a thouand faces, is now also a man of several voices. One at least swoops upwards into the stratosphere, gibbers madly, ...
Rick Wakeman: Sentimental Journey
Report and Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 19 January 1974
After two years' work, RICK WAKEMAN'S Journey to the Centre of the Earth will be premiered in London tomorrow (Friday). Rick talks to CHRIS WELCH ...
Genesis: Drury Lane Theatre, London
Live Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 26 January 1974
GENESIS'S WEEK at London's Drury Lane Theatre, proved that rock and theatre can mix and have a validity outside of mere exhibitionism. The band arc ...
Rick Wakeman: Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 26 January 1974
SHEER ENTERTAINMENT, that was Rick Wakeman's highly successful solo concert at London's Festival Hall on Friday last week. Rick, the keyboard whizz of Yes, brought ...
Essay by Dave Laing, Let It Rock, February 1974
IF IT HADN'T been for Sgt Pepper, Paramhansa Yogananda would never have become part of the rock tradition. ...
Yes: Tales From Topographic Oceans (Atlantic K80001)
Review by Karl Dallas, Let It Rock, February 1974
IF YOU TEND to wonder if the critics (with the noble exception of Bob Shelton) were right and this double album is the bummer they ...
Profile and Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 16 February 1974
AS YES PLAY one of the most prestigious concerts in their career, at Madison Square Garden, New York, this week both their British and American ...
Profile and Interview by John Swenson, Crawdaddy!, March 1974
Genesis combines surreal songwriting with an interesting instrumental and visual approach. Lead singer Peter Gabriel notes: "We all took courses in pretentiousness." ...
Greenslade: Olé… Greenslade Rock The Spanish Inquisition
Report and Interview by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, March 1974
ADMIRAL BLANCO'S assassination could have caused a big clamp-down in Spain. But luckily for the developing life-style based on British rock, the Espana government don't ...
Report by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 2 March 1974
Rick Wakeman said it: the MM's Yes concert at Madison Square Garden was the best yet. ...
Live Review by Chrissie Hynde, New Musical Express, 9 March 1974
Music to build empires ...
Genesis Is The Start Of Something?
Report by Barbara Charone, New Musical Express, 16 March 1974
ARRIVING AT THE seedy looking Capitol Theatre, New Jersey's lower middle-class palace of rock, you could tell something good was going on inside. With even ...
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 30 March 1974
FOCUS HAVE been through some changes in recent months, and happily for fans of this Dutch band with an international reputation for fine music – ...
Rick Wakeman: Journey To The Centre Of The Earth
Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 13 April 1974
IN CLASSICAL music terms, this composition might be described as "lightweight" or of "little consequence." But as far as popular music is concerned, Rick's composition ...
Rick Wakeman, Yes: Rick Wakeman: British Groups Have Gone Over The Top
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 13 April 1974
The American tour was the last of the long ones ...
Genesis: Evolution & Revelation
Profile and Interview by Anne Moore, Valley Advocate, 17 April 1974
GENESIS IS the perfect combination/blend of rock, theatrical production and intelligent literary comment. Genesis is also a five man group from London, England. Their popularity ...
Emerson Lake & Palmer: ELP...What? ELP!... What? ELP...
Report and Interview by Judith Sims, Rolling Stone, 25 April 1974
LOS ANGELES — Say what you will about the music, Emerson, Lake and Palmer's recently completed four-month American tour was the heaviest rock & roll ...
Emerson Lake And Palmer: Welcome Back, My Friends, To The Show That...
Report and Interview by James Johnson, New Musical Express, 27 April 1974
… requires 40 tons of equipment, 18 humper/loaders, seven personal roadies, six sound crew, five trucker/drivers, four spot manipulators, three heavy musicians two outside coordinators and (we guess) a man to make the ...
Yes, 5,000 Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong!
Report and Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 27 April 1974
"I HEAR we're playing the next gig in My-Rand," said Rick Wakeman, leaning heavily on the bar in the George Cinque Hotel. ...
King Crimson, Robert Fripp: King Crimson’s Robert Fripp
Interview by Steven Rosen, Guitar Player, May 1974
ROBERT FRIPP, lead guitarist with English rock King Crimson, conspicuous personality by appearing inconspicuous. Rather than stand when performing, he perches himself on a stool, ...
Interview by Stephen Demorest, Circus, June 1974
After years of drumming in a variety of hard rocking bands, Carl Palmer decided there had to be more to playing than simply marking time. ...
Live Review by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 1 June 1974
Super Euro group developing super ego ? ...
Interview by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 8 June 1974
"IT GETS ON my tit when people start talking when I'm listening to music, so when I'm at 'ome I always turn the sound right ...
Stomu Yamashta: Stomu Yamash'ta: He Say "Not Really"
Interview by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 15 June 1974
A VERY CURIOUS thing happened to me about 15 months ago. There I was, coming on home about two o'clock one Saturday morning feeling a ...
Rick Wakeman, Yes: Rick Wakeman: Quitting Was An Obvious Move
Report and Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 29 June 1974
A SQUEAL of tyres, a cloud of dust and Rick Wakeman and wife Ros, drew to a halt outside the "Valiant Trooper," an excellent boozer, ...
Report and Interview by Anne Moore, Music Scene, July 1974
NOT THAT there seems much chance of their being forgotten, what with the success of Tales From Topographic Oceans and everyone's current enthusiasm for Rick ...
Emerson Lake and Palmer: England's Robbing Us!
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 27 July 1974
WHEN THE alarm bells ring at "Whyte Eagles," it's not a warning of imminent fire or pestilence, just a reminder to Carl Palmer to turn ...
Emerson Lake And Palmer: Greg Lake: Rock Will Go Back To Its Roots
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 3 August 1974
GREG LAKE'S London home is a rare and impressive sight. A light glows outside a town house in a quiet street that takes you back ...
Yes: I'm Not Jumping Into Wakeman's Boots…It Will Be Different
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 17 August 1974
"THE TEXTURES are so rich...and they work so fast..." Patrick Moraz slipped a sidelong glance across the top of an amphitheatre of keyboards, a mixture ...
Mike Oldfield: High On The Ridge
Report and Interview by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 24 August 1974
Toy gliders, house-hunting and a jam with a harpsichordist in a restaurant. It's all happening on the Welsh Marches where Karl Dallas meets Mike Oldfield. ...
Emerson Lake And Palmer, King Crimson: Greg Lake
Interview by Steven Rosen, Guitar Player, September 1974
GREG LAKE IS the surrounded L in ELP, the British trio which has brought to the forefront the power of classical music in a rock ...
Mike Oldfield: I Can't Stand People Who Play Things Blandly...
Interview by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 28 September 1974
MIKE OLDFIELD and David Bedford looked worried as they started morosely into their glasses of orange juice. It was a measure of their anxiety that, ...
Mabel Greer's Toyshop, The Syn, Yes: Yes: Quick Draw Chris
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 28 September 1974
CHRIS SQUIRE is like one of those old time marshals who casually patrol the toughest towns in the West. He's ten feet tall, slow movin', ...
Review by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 5 October 1974
THE PREVIOUS two albums by this final King Crimson lineup have never been as hysterically self-conscious in their obvious adventurousness as the first four studio ...
Robert Fripp, King Crimson: Robert Fripp: Why I Killed the King
Interview by Rob Partridge, Melody Maker, 5 October 1974
KING CRIMSON finally abdicated last week. But the end came with a whimper, an official statement merely commented that the band had "ceased to exist". ...
Utopia: Todd Rundgren's Utopia
Review by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 12 October 1974
OF THE presumably few people who ignored the charges of self-indulgence and pretentiousness generally levelled at Rundgren's last effort (the double-album Todd) and, despite everything, ...
Genesis: The New Face Of Gabriel
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 26 October 1974
Don't lose hope, Genesis fans! Their tour may be cancelled, but there's a new album on the way. And the new-look Peter Gabriel has given ...
Rory Gallagher, If, Rush: Rory Gallagher, Rush, If: Beacon Theater, New York NY
Live Review by Dave Marsh, Newsday, 6 November 1974
Rock in a gilded cage ...
Report by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 9 November 1974
"WELL, we are here and you are here so let's get started," announced a slightly apprehensive but essentially laid back Roger Waters from the stage ...
Pink Floyd: Usher Hall, Edinburgh
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 9 November 1974
"WELL, WE ARE here and you are here so let's get started," announced a slightly apprehensive but essentially laid back Roger Waters from the stage ...
Greenslade: Greenslade Warming Up
Profile and Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 16 November 1974
THERE'S DEVIL'S work afoot in the world of rock (and indeed roll). Wot wiv the price of petrol and motorway chips it's a wonder there ...
Jethro Tull: Usher Hall, Edinburgh
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 16 November 1974
RISE SIR Ian of Flute, for thou hast indeed redeemed thyself. The critics have had their way, the Passion Play has been forgotten and Jethro ...
Genesis: The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (Charisma)
Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 23 November 1974
I WISH that rock musicians would learn the importance of self-editing. A few golden, miraculous notes, and some choice pithy words are worth all the ...
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 30 November 1974
ROD ARGENT is a nice chap. Not one of your violent illiterates of rock prone to throwing pints of Guinness over the heads of passers-by, ...
Mike Oldfield: Hergest Ridge (Virgin)
Review by Robert Duncan, Creem, December 1974
WHERE'S THE movie? Mike Oldfield's latest opus, Hergest Ridge, needs a movie, a picture-book, something as badly as his highly touted first effort, Tubular Bells, ...
Mike Oldfield: Balm for the Walking Wounded
Profile and Interview by Karl Dallas, Let It Rock, December 1974
Mike Oldfield, the man and his music, by Karl Dallas. ...
Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 7 December 1974
Chris Squire (bass guitar), Jon Anderson (vocals), Patrick Moraz (keyboards), Steve Howe (guitar), Alan White (drums), Produced by Yes and Eddie Offord. Recorded on Eddie ...
Electric Light Orchestra: Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Harvey Kubernik, Melody Maker, 14 December 1974
LOS ANGELES: Playing their largest venue in Southern California, the Electric Light Orchestra thrilled a packed Shrine auditorium with its own brand of rock and ...
Todd Rundgren, Utopia: Todd Rundgren: Utopia
Review by Jon Tiven, Zoo World, 19 December 1974
A LOT OF Todd Rundgren fans may not like this album, sad to say, for the Todd of Something/Anything is as visible as dust in ...
Genesis: The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (Charisma COS 101)
Review by Karl Dallas, Let It Rock, January 1975
JUST WHAT the world needs now, as Frank Zappa might well have been heard to exclaim, another concept album! ...
Review by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 18 January 1975
HERE'S A NICE fresh pizza, straight from our favourite Italian baking firm, manufactured live and steaming at gigs in Toronto and New York, last August. ...
Review by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 18 January 1975
HERE'S A NICE fresh pizza, straight from our favourite Italian baking firm, manufactured live and steaming at gigs in Toronto and New York, last August. ...
Queen: Helpful Boy Scout Transforms into Werewolf
Interview by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 18 January 1975
Well, perhaps that's putting it a little strongly... let's just say he transforms into a demon who pushes old ladies under oil tankers. But WHO ...
Utopia: Todd Rundgren: Out of the Mainstream, Into the Mystic
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 26 January 1975
City in my head/Utopia/Heaven in my body/Utopia/It's time for me/For me to go — Todd Rundgren's 'Utopia' ...
Neil Merryweather, Rush: Rush: Rush; Neil Merryweather: Space Rangers
Review by Jim Esposito, Creem, February 1975
FIRST THERE WAS English Rock 'n' Roll! Then there was Southern Blues! Now, from Mercury Records, those swell folks who brought you Bachman-Turner Overdrive, we ...
Yes Battles The Skeptics With Relayer
Profile and Interview by Stephen Demorest, Circus, February 1975
Stabilized by their Swiss replacement for the seemingly indispensible Rick Wakeman, a nervy Yes have cracked into yet another album of epic proportions. Will Relayer ...
Gentle Giant: Santa Monica Civic, Los Angeles
Live Review by Anne Moore, Los Angeles Free Press, 28 February 1975
AFTER SIX ALBUMS and three national tours, Gentle Giant has finally made it to headline concert status. Sure, they played the Whisky to sell-out crowds ...
Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 8 March 1975
Recordings between 1969-1971 including material from Yes and Time And A Word. ...
Genesis: Gabriel's Cosmic Juice
Report and Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 15 March 1975
"I believe in getting art out of the galleries and onto the streets. Status Quo are so cultural, so Wagner..." ...
P.F.M.: Cook (Manticore MA6-502S1)
Review by Ken Barnes, Rolling Stone, 27 March 1975
P.F.M. IS ITALY'S number one entry in the progressive rock sweepstakes. Except for a pretty ballad sung in their native tongue ("Dove... Quando..."), however, and ...
Jethro Tull: Tull on top: Ian Anderson Speaks His Mind
Interview by Judith Sims, Rolling Stone, 27 March 1975
LOS ANGELES — Ian Anderson, leader of Jethro Tull, did not seem pleased, even though his group had just broken all attendance records at the ...
Rick Wakeman: The Myths And Legends Of King Arthur And The Knights Of The Round Table
Review by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 5 April 1975
The Cadbury capers, part 1: the management requests you leave your brain at the door ...
Rick Wakeman: Next Stop – The Gods
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 5 April 1975
RICK WAKEMAN on ice! It takes a cool nerve to launch a rock extravaganza in an area normally the preserve of pantomimes and hockey, but ...
Supertramp: Crime of the Century (A&M SP 3647)
Review by John Mendelssohn, Rolling Stone, 10 April 1975
VIRTUALLY EVERY track on this album seems to last twice as long as the actual music warrants, a vastly disproportionate amount of needle time seems ...
Live Review by Pete Makowski, Sounds, 26 April 1975
THE STAGE was set. On the left hand side, Steve Hackett was seated with guitar and a melange of effects around him. Behind him, Michael ...
David Bedford: A Non-Rock Rocker Takes A Star Trip
Interview by Jon Tiven, Circus Raves, May 1975
HERE IN 1975 it's become rather fashionable for those who make individualistic, eccentric music to be not only lauded by the critics, but adored by ...
Focus, Jan Akkerman: Jan Akkerman: Dutch Treat
Interview by Steven Rosen, Guitar Player, May 1975
JAN AKKERMAN, lead guitarist of Focus, represents the new breed of European guitarists so long invisible under the veil of the English players. Where the ...
Rick Wakeman: The Myths And Legends Of King Arthur And The Knights Of The Round Table
Review by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, May 1975
I ONCE VAGUELY planned a toney essay, to be modeled on Susan Sontag's ground-breaker, on the grotesque changes rung on the concept of Camp once ...
Report and Interview by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 17 May 1975
Geoff Barton is one of the few ...
Brian Eno, Robert Fripp, King Crimson: Robert Fripp: Retiring Fripp
Interview by Jon Tiven, International Musician & Recording World, June 1975
Fripp's King Crimson brought a new meaning to the word "tight". For a short time the band represented a pinnacle of British rock achievement. Since ...
Report and Interview by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 7 June 1975
There is no mention of brown rice on this page. Persian rugs and health food in general? Well, OK...yeah, but not in any harmful quantity. ...
Van Der Graaf Generator: In and Out of The Box
Interview by Andrew Tyler, New Musical Express, 28 June 1975
INTROSPECTION. THAT'S WHY your face is on the floor and you're listening... doo dee dum doo. The French are good at it. French rock crowds ...
Pink Floyd: Notes for an Iron Baptism
Essay by Vernon Gibbs, The Village Voice, 30 June 1975
THERE ARE only three British groups who matter anymore: the Stones, the Who and Pink Floyd. ...
Colosseum: Jon Hiseman: Why I've Re-formed Colosseum
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 19 July 1975
DRUMS HAVE BEEN rumbling down in darkest South London, underneath the railway arches. Drums and guitars competing with the rumble of trains overhead, and grim ...
Camel, Michael Chapman: Fairfield Hall, Croydon
Live Review by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 9 August 1975
KUH-RAAAACKKK!!!! ...
Rick Wakeman: Liszten To Rick!
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 16 August 1975
Lisztomania is quite a movie, says Rick Wakeman. He plays Thor in the film, as well as producing the music, and he tells Chris Welch ...
Genesis, Peter Gabriel: Genesis to Revelation
Obituary by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 23 August 1975
AS PETER GABRIEL QUITS GENESIS, CHRIS WELCH RECALLS A GREAT BRITISH BAND ...
Genesis, Peter Gabriel: Peter Gabriel Quits Genesis
Report and Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 23 August 1975
THE MELODY MAKER last week front-paged the growing doubts about Gabriel's future in the band. Reports, denied by the management of Genesis, indicated that Gabriel ...
Pink Floyd: Walters, Gilmour, Wright and Mason RIBA
Essay by Idris Walters, Let It Rock, September 1975
99. THERE ARE only three interesting things about Stevenage New Town. One is that there is a Museum there. (!) A Museum? Another is that ...
Genesis: The Lamb Lies Down But Genesis Carries On
Interview by Barbara Charone, Sounds, 13 September 1975
THE GATHERING was far from morose. No black clothes or sombre faces. No mourning music or dirge-like drones. No sullen postures, despondent looks or vehement ...
Jon Anderson, Yes: Yes: When We're Perfect, We'll Stop
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 20 September 1975
"IT'S BEEN a marvellous year for us, and hopefully it will get even better in 1976, but although we aim for perfection, I hope we ...
Review by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 27 September 1975
The Great 8-Furlong Three-Year-Old Handicap: Giant a cert at Newmarket ...
Profile and Interview by Barbara Charone, ZigZag, October 1975
"I THINK SOME PEOPLE have a rip-off concept of us," Peter Gabriel remarked with a touch of cynicism as if he'd just had a revelation. ...
Todd Rundgren: Veg-o-Matic Into the Void
Profile and Interview by Robert Duncan, Creem, October 1975
I WOULD MUCH prefer Todd Rundgren had a squirrelly girlfriend – you know, one of those emaciated things that is always curled up cross-legged with ...
Rush: Breaking Into America… Canada's Answer To The New York Dolls?
Report and Interview by Michael Gross, Circus Raves, November 1975
DETROIT'S MICHIGAN PALACE was full to the brim. Though the rock 'n' roll style of the early '70s has faded into a rebirth of hippiedom ...
Supertramp: Crisis? What Crisis? (A&M)
Review by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 22 November 1975
SUPERTRAMP AREN'T the type of recording band who demand immediate attention; they're very much an acquired taste. ...
Supertramp: Winter Gardens, Bournemouth
Live Review by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 29 November 1975
Are you ready for the breathtaking visual dynamism of Supertramp? ...
Genesis, Peter Gabriel: Peter Gabriel: Behind Peter Gabriel's Mask
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 6 December 1975
PETER GABRIEL'S departure from Genesis was one of the biggest shocks of 1975 for those who admired, nay loved, the combination of perverse talent they ...
Jethro Tull: An Interview with Ian Anderson
Interview by Steven Rosen, Circus, 9 December 1975
IAN ANDERSON is not fond of the press; in fact, he dislikes that body intensely. Interviews have misquoted him, misrepresented him and manhandled him. In ...
Report and Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 13 December 1975
WANT TO HEAR a shaggy dog story? O.K. Once upon a time there was a completely unknown band who were so exciting that ABC Records ...
Supertramp: The year of the 'Tramp
Interview by Pete Makowski, Sounds, 27 December 1975
Pete Makowski traces the success of Supertramp ...
Brand X, Genesis: Collins cleans up with Brand X
Interview by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 10 January 1976
LET'S GET two things very clear at the outset: one, Brand X is a serious, full-time band, not a spare-time excuse for jamming or having ...
Review by Miles, New Musical Express, 14 February 1976
IN 1970 Julie Driscoll married Keith Tippett, the modern composer, and entered the mysterious other world of contemporary music. ...
Genesis: The Ghost That Haunts Genesis
Report and Interview by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, 14 February 1976
YES, PETER IS PAST, but the legacy remains. And Tony Banks, keyboards' player with Genesis, is finding it difficult to swallow that. Peter Gabriel has ...
Vangelis: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by David Hancock, Record Mirror, 21 February 1976
WELL IF you've got to take it seriously you can't take it much better than Vangelis Odyssey Papathanassiou, the gent who has taken the gimmickry ...
Alan White: Ramshackled (Atlantic) ***
Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 28 February 1976
THIRD IN the series and I'll lay odds there's not going to be another Yes solo that sounds less like the parent band. ...
Live Review by Miles, New Musical Express, 28 February 1976
I LIKE GOING to concerts at L.S.E. because the audiences there are such fanatics. Such was the case with National Health, the audience being exceedingly ...
Live Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 6 March 1976
THE PACKED house in the weirdly constructed union hall seemed undistressed by Jan Akkerman's absence and were even so gracious as to applaud the new ...
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 6 March 1976
"I'M SURE YOU were all as surprised as I was to find that Rick wasn't here, when we arrived tonight..." Brian Lane, manager, smiled uneasily ...
Gentle Giant: Acquiring the Giant Taste
Retrospective by Jim Green, Trouser Press, April 1976
Following in the footsteps of GENTLE GIANT ...
Wishbone Ash: Long Beach Arena
Live Review by Steven Rosen, Sounds, April 1976
THE LONG BEACH ARENA, usually a noisy and vibrant auditorium for rock music, was just that Friday night when Paris, Wishbone Ash and Bachman Turner ...
Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 3 April 1976
IF YOU were haunted by the cry of the Snowgoose last year, and cheered by the success of Camel in the MM's Readers' Poll (they ...
Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 3 April 1976
IT WAS A MONDAY like that. My train back to the big city was late so I was late for my interview with Patrick Moraz ...
Stanley Clarke, Alan White: Stanley Clarke and Alan White: Solo Flights
Interview by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 3 April 1976
Once, when individual members of a band began to make solo albums, it was a sign that the seams were beginning to split a portent ...
Bill Bruford, Genesis: Bill Bruford: 'It's all Ringo's fault!'
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 10 April 1976
THERE HAS been a lot of stunning lately. I was stunned when Peter Gabriel quit Genesis. And stunned once more when Bill Bruford joined Genesis. ...
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 10 April 1976
WHEN CAMEL became the MM's Brightest Hope in last year's Poll, it caused organist Peter Bardens a wry smile because he had become "an overnight ...
National Health: Carrying The Flag Close To The Edge
Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 17 April 1976
"THERE'S NO way of encapsulating higher ideas except by some kind of artistic experience," stated Mont Campbell, ex-Egg, current National Health, with fervent sobriety. ...
Pavlov's Dog: At The Sound Of The Bell (CBS 81163) ***½
Review by Jonh Ingham, Sounds, 17 April 1976
ON THE front cover is a recreation of a quite famous scene of the Lon Chaney Hunchback of Notre Dame swinging on the bells; the ...
Rick Wakeman and the English Rock Ensemble: No Earthly Connection (A&M)****
Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 17 April 1976
HERE WE are again and I'm not at all sure that reviewing an album twice is a good idea even if first time round was ...
Genesis: Beacon Theatre, New York
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 24 April 1976
WITH THE RELEASE of A Trick Of The Tail Genesis demonstrated that, on record at least, they could carry on at the same degree of ...
Interview by Dan Nooger, Circus, 27 April 1976
"Music Will Not Exist In 2112" ...
Bill Bruford, Genesis: Bill Bruford
Interview by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 1 May 1976
ARE YOU quite sure that you're definitely not joining Genesis full-time? ...
Report and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 1 May 1976
Well, we've had the wheel, sliced bread, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and now Big Phil Sutcliffe's copped the newie...Yep, it's Gentle Giant's eighth ...
Jethro Tull: Too Old To Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young To Die! (Chrysalis)
Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 1 May 1976
ROMANTICISING THE WORKING LAD as a cult hero is a popular theme with rock musicians. They have oft flirted with, or observed at close hand, ...
Premiata Forneria Marconi: PFM: Civic Hall, Guildford
Live Review by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 1 May 1976
PFM fan injures hand in blaze ...
Rick Wakeman: Art with a Capital F***
Report and Interview by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 1 May 1976
RICK WAKEMAN on the aesthetic of bodily functions, as applied to rock concerts. "We'll have none of that thank you, we're English." ...
Interview by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, 8 May 1976
RETURNING HOME TO England has always been a bit of a comedown for Gentle Giant. ...
Van Der Graaf Generator: Now the immortals are here
Interview by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 8 May 1976
Geoff Barton wanders around Headley Grange and comes across a man saving the life of a fly ...
Genesis: Supper Is Definitely Ready
Report and Interview by Barbara Charone, Sounds, 15 May 1976
Thursday April 8 ...
Interview by Steven Rosen, Sounds, 15 May 1976
SUPERTRAMP HORNMAN and funnyman John Helliwell gazed longingly out the A&M Records publicity office window at the burgundy Dino Ferrari. ...
Profile and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 5 June 1976
AFTER TEN years of trial and error – with eight of them spent in England drifting in and out of Spooky Tooth – Gary Wright ...
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 5 June 1976
A SPACESHIP, perhaps better described as an earth ship, forms the basis of a bizarre and fantastic story that is the central theme of Jon ...
Genesis: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 19 June 1976
SO MUCH was happening on stage during the first sensational concert by Genesis at Odeon Hammersmith on Wednesday last week, that one needed stereoscopic earsight ...
Genesis: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Barbara Charone, Sounds, 19 June 1976
Genesisteria sweeps city – hundreds injured in trick of the tail overdose – five night musical orgy destroys London – thousands converted to Genesis religious ...
Genesis: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Miles, New Musical Express, 19 June 1976
IF YOU take the trouble to embroider "Genesis" in fancy letters on the back of your pressed denim jacket, or if you are prepared to ...
Tangerine Dream: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Miles, New Musical Express, 26 June 1976
T-DREAM HAVE BEEN described as everything from 'the most advanced development of progressive rock' to 'electronic muzak'. The band generates controversy probably because people are ...
Steve Winwood, Stomu Yamashta: Yamashta, Winwood, Shrieve: Go (Island)
Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 26 June 1976
THE THEORY of it could be a blueprint for the grossmost excess of pretentious rock – a fusion of cultures through music yet, Japanese, German, ...
Gary Wright, Peter Frampton, Yes: Yes: The Biggest Gig In The Entire History Of The World
Report by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 26 June 1976
Bicentennialand and rock's favourite vegetarians take Phil Sutcliffe by storm. ...
Jon Anderson: Olias Of Sunhillow (Atlantic)
Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 3 July 1976
An unashamedly romantic solo album that combines grace, taste and power ...
Genesis, Phil Collins: The Trick of the Tale: Phil Collins Talks
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 3 July 1976
PHIL COLLINS IS A spry, restless man with seemingly limitless amounts of energy and intense drive. It is this drive that has made him one ...
Alan Parsons: Tales Of Mystery And Imagination
Interview by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 10 July 1976
A bearded, disembodied head appeared in the darkness. My blood ran cold. It was PARSONS I saw... ...
Genesis: Apollo Theatre, Glasgow
Live Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 17 July 1976
HEAT, DUST, smoke, lasers and Genesis combined to turn the Glasgow Apollo into a replica of Dante's Inferno when the band descended on the city ...
Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 19 July 1976
Yes, Frampton in Rock Concert ...
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 24 July 1976
GENESIS ARE an enigma, an unknown quantity to the rock business and public at large, mainly because they are among the last of that old ...
Alan Parsons: The Alan Parsons Project: Tales Of Mystery And Imagination: Edgar Allan Poe
Review by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, 24 July 1976
FOR THREE weeks I've played this album almost constantly and probably the greatest compliment I can pay it is that it has lost little of ...
Live Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 7 August 1976
IT IS heartening in these disturbing times (as the poet Cedric observed in his massive volume, Away, Dull Cares), to find there are still men ...
Emerson Lake And Palmer: ELP: The Show That Never Ends?
Report by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 14 August 1976
WHATEVER happened to ELP? One of Britain's most successful and popular bands has been surrounded by a wall of silence as impenetrable as the Kremlin ...
Barclay James Harvest: Barclay Bank On The Future
Interview by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, 2 October 1976
BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST: 'If you want to be a musician and play the type of music you want – you've gotta cruise.' ...
Manfred Mann's Earth Band: The Roaring Silence
Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 2 October 1976
THERE COMES a point in a band's career when the jig is up, and unless all the pieces fit the puzzle, success will scatter to ...
Steve Hillage: Watch Out There's A Concept About
Interview by Mick Brown, Sounds, 9 October 1976
IT WAS instant karma out to get me. The sound of one hand clapping – so fast you can't even hear it. We had been ...
Barclay James Harvest: City Hall, Sheffield
Live Review by Andy Gill, New Musical Express, 16 October 1976
BARCLAYS BANK ON CORN HARVEST ...
National Health: Newcastle University
Live Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 30 October 1976
WATCHING rock and roll these last few weeks I just feel better and better. The long standing groan about the dearth of new bands and ...
Mike Oldfield: Boxed (Virgin) *****
Review by Mick Brown, Sounds, 6 November 1976
ONE LAVISHLY illustrated and highly informative booklet, four albums, two hours 40 minutes plus of music – Boxed is the almost complete Mike Oldfield. ...
Aphrodite's Child, Vangelis: Vangelis: The Moans And The Stares, An Ouzo And Thee
Profile and Interview by Miles, New Musical Express, 6 November 1976
I THOUGHT I was in for a real treat. ...
Gordon Giltrap: Visionary (Electric)
Review by Colin Irwin, Melody Maker, 13 November 1976
CYNICS STOP here. Rarely has an album invited scepticism so shamelessly as this, where an acoustic guitarist takes on strings, synthesizer, complex arrangements and the ...
National Health Warning: Touring Can Make You Broke
Report and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 13 November 1976
AFTER National Health's soundcheck singer Amanda Parsons accosted keyboardist Dave Stewart thusly: "Have you got any money? It cost us £16 in petrol to get ...
Barclay James Harvest: Octoberon
Review by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, 20 November 1976
I GET the impression from this new BJH album that the band were in a particularly mellow mood when they finally got around to recording ...
Van Der Graaf Generator: The Agony and the Ecstasy
Report by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 20 November 1976
ON THE ROAD WITH VAN DER GRAAF ...
Interview by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, 27 November 1976
THIS MUST MEAN something. Driving home last week-end, I flicked on the radio, to the Alan Freeman Show, and was greeted by a piece of ...
Genesis: Wind & Wuthering (Charisma) *****
Review by Barbara Charone, Sounds, 18 December 1976
FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Too much to digest on one listening. Overall album sound even better than A Trick Of The Tail. Less immediate but more substantial ...
Genesis: Wind And Wuthering (Charisma)
Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 18 December 1976
Phil Collins (voices, drums, percussion), Steve Hackett (electric guitars, nylon classical 12-string, Kalimba, auto-harp), Mike Rutherford (basses, electric and acoustic guitars, bass pedals), Tony Banks ...
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 25 December 1976
THE PUBLIC has a strange image of rock and roll musicians. Most imagine them to be public school educated, with a passionate dedication to the ...
Gentle Giant: Live — Playing The Fool (Chrysalis)****
Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 29 January 1977
YES, FOR the first time on record you too can hear Gentle Giant play a bum note! In fact not one but several, together with ...
Gong, Allan Holdsworth: Gong: Gazeuse! (Virgin); Allan Holdsworth: Velvet Darkness (CTI import)
Review by Miles, New Musical Express, 5 February 1977
THE PRESENT Gong lineup includes only three of the members of the line up on the last album Shamal. They are Didier Malherbe, Mireille Bauer ...
Live Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 11 February 1977
THIRTEEN YEARS after the Beatles played their first American concert at Carnegie Hall, the Electric Light Orchestra pads a headlining set at Madison Square Garden ...
Jethro Tull: City Hall, Newcastle
Live Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 12 February 1977
YOU KNOW how supergroups are supposed to open the show with the '1812 Overture' complete with real facsimile nineteenth-century Muscovite cannon and a battallion of ...
Utopia: Rundgren: Democratic Offal — Utopia: New Victoria, London
Live Review by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 12 February 1977
NICK KENT finds the brainiac kid wallowing in a four-way blitzkrieg bog. Deafened and demoralised, the only conclusion is: he was better on his Todd... ...
Utopia: Todd Rundgren's Utopia: New Victoria, London
Live Review by Pete Makowski, Sounds, 12 February 1977
HoooooRa! ...
Interview by Deborah Frost, Circus, 14 February 1977
A SUBTERRANEAN VOICE growls across the phone wires, hesitates, and growls again – this time more softly. Canadian telephone service might be different, but it's ...
Review by Bruce Malamut, Crawdaddy!, March 1977
GENESIS REACHES WUTHERING HEIGHTS ...
Demis Roussos: Demis the menace
Interview by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 24 March 1977
His trembly voice has sold 25 million records ...
Report and Interview by Barbara Charone, Sounds, 26 March 1977
ON THE ROAD. Again. The Rainbow seems like years ago. Yesterday they had a rare day off in New Orleans, arriving at the Marie Antoinette ...
Pink Floyd: Empire Pool, London
Report and Interview by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 26 March 1977
GLC fuck-ups at Empire Pool ...
Pink Floyd: Empire Pool, Wembley
Live Review by Ed Jones, The Spectator, 26 March 1977
PINK FLOYD — DECLINE AND FALL ...
Electric Light Orchestra: Look At Me Now: The Electric Light Orchestra
Report and Interview by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, 2 April 1977
ELO: MORE than a classical gas. "It’s not classical rock. It never has been, but when it started, it needed a name. It had to ...
Peter Gabriel: The Lamb Stands Up
Interview by Barbara Charone, Sounds, 16 April 1977
'Because Genesis are now part of the English establishment I felt I'd been seen in context with them. But the better the album does the ...
Emerson Lake & Palmer: Emerson, Lake and Palmer's Grandest Design
Interview by Dan Nooger, Circus, 28 April 1977
Works, Vol.1 Is the First Instalment of a Spectacular Orchestrated Rock Showcase ...
Supertramp: Even In The Quietest Moments (A&M)
Review by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 30 April 1977
SUPERBLAND ...
Live Review by Mick Brown, Sounds, 7 May 1977
"THIS IS our first gig for a while," joked Phil Collins, "so we celebrated by rehearsing this morning." ...
Utopia: Todd Rundgren: From The Cradle Of Civilization
Report and Interview by Kris Nicholson, Creem, June 1977
FEBRUARY 24 — Had I remembered that it was doomsday, I'm sure I would have died of fright. As it was, traveling through blinding rain ...
Report by Paul Morley, Paul Rambali, New Musical Express, 11 June 1977
This band has fans. Lots of them. They sold out the Free Trade Hall and surprised even the promoter. PAUL MORLEY asks why, PAUL RAMBALI ...
Supertramp: The taking of America by strategy
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Rolling Stone, 30 June 1977
DENVER — IN 1975 — quite unexpectedly — Supertramp's Crime of the Century saturated the American airwaves. And, touring on the album's heels, the group ...
Emerson Lake And Palmer: The $2m Show That Never Ends: Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Report and Interview by Barbara Charone, Sounds, 2 July 1977
KEITH EMERSON sits in a Detroit French restaurant wearing traditional black leather trousers and a very large grin. He’s telling a reporter from Rolling Stone ...
Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 9 July 1977
GO ON, GUESS how the first Yes album for three years begins. I tell you, you haven't got a hope. ...
Pink Floyd: Madison Square Garden, NYC
Live Review by Miles, New Musical Express, 23 July 1977
THE FLOYD sure picked a fine week to appear in New York. Not only was it the eve of July 4th, but also it was ...
Emerson Lake & Palmer, Journey: Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Journey: Cow Palace, Daly City CA
Live Review by Philip Elwood, The San Francisco Examiner, 5 August 1977
Smoke, props and balanced sound ...
Interview by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 20 August 1977
Whaaat? we hear you gasp. Supertramp? Guess you thought the punks had it all sewn up, huh? Well, you ain't heard nothin' yet. The war ...
Gentle Giant: The Missing Piece
Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 27 August 1977
GENTLE GIANT crave recognition in their homeland with a longing which at times borders on the pathetic. For all their success in the States and ...
Rush: A Farewell To Kings (Mercury SRM-1-1184 ) *****
Review by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 10 September 1977
Rush: lords of the Kings ...
Pink Floyd’s Heart Of Darkness: A Crash Course in Pig Latin
Overview by Ira Robbins, Creem, October 1977
IT DIDN'T SEEM like a bad idea at the time I accepted this assignment. Just because Pink Floyd hate the press and won't be interviewed ...
Steve Hillage: Motivation Radio
Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 1 October 1977
When a guy sings to you "we've all been born together in this special place and time to raise the world," where does your humble ...
Yes: Chris Squire: Yes, it's Great to be Home
Interview by David Hancock, Evening News, London, 15 October 1977
BEING BASS player with the best rock band in the world has its rewards. ...
Gordon Giltrap: A (Slightly) Perilous Journey with Gordon Giltrap
Report and Interview by Hugh Fielder, Sounds, 29 October 1977
DIFFERENT FOLKS have different strokes for getting themselves in the right mood to watch a rock concert. Some get pissed, some get high, some dress ...
Rick Wakeman: Rick Wakeman's Criminal Record
Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 29 October 1977
FOR RICK Wakeman, Criminal Record is obviously the outcome of some in-depth self-criticism. ...
Wishbone Ash: City Hall, Newcastle
Live Review by Chas de Whalley, Sounds, 29 October 1977
WHATEVER YOUR tastes in music, there's one thing you can never argue about. Audience reaction. A hall full of standing rock fans, clapping their hands ...
Brand X: the Roxy, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 5 December 1977
Brand X: Tapping a New Audience ...
The Enid: Why Are These Men Facing The Wrong Way?
Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 10 December 1977
IT'S WELL over a year now since I last annexed a piece of this publication to warn you that the Enid, oddball neo-classical romancers, were ...
Be Bop Deluxe: Be-Bop Deluxe's Bill Nelson (1978)
Interview by Ian Ravendale, Rock's Backpages audio, 6 February 1978
From his school band the Cosmonauts through to latest Be Bop Deluxe album Drastic Plastic, Nelson tells the whole story: teen bands; conversion to Pentecostal Christianity; forming the band, signing to EMI and recording debut Axe Victim; changing the band's line-up, and record producers... not forgetting his perpetual self-doubt.
File format: mp3; file size: 48.9mb, interview length: 50' 53" sound quality: *****
Bill Bruford: Your Friendly Neighbourhood Rock Star
Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 11 February 1978
"I FEEL sometimes as though they're about to stick my head on a spike and display it outside the Tower Of London for people to ...
Rush: Black Holes: Close encounters with Rush
Report and Interview by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 25 February 1978
CONGRESS THEATRE, Washington DC. A scientific debate is in progress: ...
Rush: Is Everybody Feelin' all RIGHT? (Geddit...?)
Interview by Miles, New Musical Express, 4 March 1978
The gist of this being that H.M. tourist RUSH are all RIGHT-er than most, as MILES discovers ...
Fabulous Poodles, UK: UK, Fabulous Poodles: the Odeon, Edinburgh
Live Review by Ronnie Gurr, Record Mirror, 13 May 1978
"NOT AS bad as expected" seemed to be the general consensus of opinion on the yet to be acknowledged supergroup, UK. This sentiment summed up ...
Review by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 24 June 1978
Power, Pomp, Purity, Pretention, Popularity... The RUSH Problem ...
Wigwam: Dark Album; Jim Pembroke: Corporal Cauliflowers Mental Function
Review by Ian Penman, New Musical Express, 5 August 1978
OUTSIDE THE range of rock's organised trendy-treats industry, alien settlements and sentiments remain. Resolved. ...
Yes in New York: Swings And Roundabouts
Report and Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 16 September 1978
"EXCUSE me, but what are you writing?" I'm just making notes about the concert and I'm trying to listen to the piano player. ...
Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 16 September 1978
"RELEASE, Release!" is one of the most significant chants on this happy musical event. It is the hook-line on the fastest, funkiest, piece of rock ...
Review by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 16 September 1978
YES, YES, YES — BUT SO WHAT? ...
Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 16 September 1978
I UNDERSTAND it has remained OK to like Genesis (which I don't) but it's not OK to like Yes (which I do though no longer ...
Interview by David Hancock, Evening News, London, 23 September 1978
"THEN YOU'LL wanna smoke some of this," said the New York taxi driver as he offered me a joint of grass. I'd just told him ...
Live Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 30 September 1978
A CAMEL Caravan from Canterbury (two down, three across). You couldn't fit the solution into The Times crossword though. It took an hour-and-a-half to play ...
Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 30 September 1978
THIS GENTLE Giant album could present you with some difficulty and even expense. The problem is that you'll have to set your record player up ...
The Moody Blues, Patrick Moraz: Moody Blues: Yes To The Moodies
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 30 September 1978
"I THOUGHT I was God. Then I realised I was just the drummer in a rock 'n' roll band." Graeme Edge and Caligula had the ...
Interview by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 30 September 1978
He's also lead guitarist for RUSH and writes songs about the politics of oak trees, shapeless spirits and The Real Truth. Psychiatric care by Geoff Barton. ...
Report and Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 14 October 1978
On Monday night, Jethro Tull became the first rock group to appear live from America on British TV. CHRIS WELCH sat in the control booth ...
Review by Ian Penman, New Musical Express, 28 October 1978
POOP GO the wizened wastrels! The starry, clammy curtain rises once again, and here they are, still waiting. ...
Robert Fripp: The Untold Story
Report and Interview by Jim Farber, Creem, November 1978
WHEN ROBERT FRIPP finally retired King Crimson to the home for aging mellotrons back in late 1974, he let out a string of Jeane Dixon-style ...
Pink Floyd, Rick Wright: Big is Beautiful: Rick Wright
Profile and Interview by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 4 November 1978
HAVING JUST divested himself of his first solo album, Rick Wright has a second project roaring and ready to go. But he reckons it will ...
Review by Ian Penman, New Musical Express, 25 November 1978
JEAN-PAUL Sartre took mescaline once, to prove to himself that he wasn't necessarily the institution people thought he was, and as a result became convinced ...
National Health: Of Queues And Cures (Charly CRL 5010) ***½
Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 2 December 1978
CHURN, GRIND, hubble-bubble. Merde alors. I ask my brain to supply me with words to describe the instrumental music of National Health and that's all ...
Mike Oldfield: The Nu(de) Mike Oldfield
Interview by Hugh Fielder, Sounds, 2 December 1978
IF THE Moslem New Year in 1961 fell on June 15 and Haley's Comet will become visible again on February 9, 1986 then the new ...
Review by Ian Penman, New Musical Express, 9 December 1978
Systems of resonance ...
King Crimson, UK: UK: John Wetton
Interview by Jon Young, Trouser Press, January 1979
"IT'S NOT insecurity, but I always like to I work with other people in groups. I think that's the strongest thing. When you take a ...
Review by Joe Nick Patoski, Creem, February 1979
Ride, Mush You Rushkies ...
National Health: Of Queues And Cures (Charly)
Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 5 May 1979
THE HEALTHY Ones have been through a whole ring-cycle of changes in recent times, with Dave Stewart out and Alan Gowen back in again. We ...
Live Review by Rick O'Shea, Pop Star Weekly, 5 May 1979
A BRUSH WITH RUSH ...
Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 26 May 1979
ONE OF Alfred Hitchcock's most memorable finales comes at the end of Strangers On A Train, when a huge carousel goes into overdrive and runs ...
The Moody Blues: It's A Wonderful Life
Report and Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 26 May 1979
The rich are not like you and me, said Fitzgerald. That's right, Hemingway replied: they have more money. Just in time for cocktails, CHRIS WELCH ...
Rick Wakeman: Rhapsodies (A&M)***½
Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 2 June 1979
A MAN of honour is old Rick. Some three years ago when he was preparing No Earthly Connection he said he would like to do ...
Supertramp: The Philosopher and the Realist
Interview by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, 23 June 1979
In Supertramp's first interview for two years, songwriters Roger Hodgson and Rick Davies tell HARRY DOHERTY how their immense success in America has widened the ...
Report by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 11 August 1979
EVENTS LIKE KNEBWORTH, the promoter Freddy Bannister had wanly predicted in Saturday's Guardian, cannot continue for much longer. The reasons for the inevitable decline and ...
Mike Oldfield: Boy Genius "Not Broke" Shock
Interview by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 29 December 1979
Things haven't been going smoothly for Mike Oldfield. Tours have lost money, expensive gear has been scrapped and he's had a dispute with his label ...
King Crimson, Robert Fripp: A Chat with Mr. Fripp
Interview by Cynthia Rose, Viz, 1980
ROBERT FRIPP is a musician, theoretician, theologian and, as his colleague David Bowie (referred by Fripp as "Mr. B") points out, "probably the man with ...
Emerson Lake & Palmer: ELP's Carl Palmer (1980)
Interview by Ian Ravendale, Rock's Backpages audio, 1980
The ELP sticksman somewhat testily describes the break-up of the band; talks about how UK press criticism meant other members refused to tour the country, and about his new (and it turns out short-lived) band PM.
File format: mp3; file size: 14.1mb, interview length: 17' 33" sound quality: *****
Overview by Andy Gill, New Musical Express, 12 January 1980
POMP THE trouble with synthesisers is actually playing them, accepting their status as sound-generators and starting from scratch. Mechanical keyboards were included in early synth ...
Pink Floyd: Memorial Sports Arena, Los Angeles
Live Review by Mark Cooper, Record Mirror, 23 February 1980
WALL OF SECRETS ...
Pink Floyd: Memorial Sports Arena, Los Angeles
Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 23 February 1980
WELL IT figures, doesn't it? ...
Pink Floyd: Memorial Sports Arena, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Mark Leviton, BAM, 7 March 1980
MONEY CAN'T buy you love, but it can buy you the most expensive, elaborately mounted rock show you've ever seen. As spectacle, there's no question ...
Genesis: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by David Hancock, Evening News, London, 28 March 1980
Victims of the British disease ...
Rush: Permanent Waves (Mercury)
Review by John Swenson, Creem, April 1980
IN THE PAST Rush has been an easy target for trigger-happy critics looking for something so colossally bad it could absorb a double load of ...
Genesis: Duke (Charisma CBR 101)
Review by Hugh Fielder, Sounds, 5 April 1980
Power pomp supremos ...
Genesis: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Hugh Fielder, Sounds, 5 April 1980
More tricks from the wardrobe ...
Rush: The Moustache That Conquered The World
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 5 April 1980
SOMEWHERE in America in that black hole known as the Midwest, little bands are slogging their balls off to become big bands, and big bands ...
Discography by Jim Green, Trouser Press, May 1980
PINK FLOYD is pretty weird. And not just the band, but the way they've been viewed by the rock world. ...
Interview by Tim Oakes, International Musician & Recording World, June 1980
IN MANY WAYS, Mike Oldfield is the perfect artist to officially open the IM & RW Test Bed studio. His whole career was born out ...
Steve Hackett: Defector (Charisma)
Review by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, July 1980
THIS IS THE album we knew Hackett was capable of making: powerful heavy and relevant. It's the first of his four solo efforts to succeed ...
Pink Floyd: Earl's Court, London
Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 5 August 1980
PINK FLOYD'S The Wall, which has already achieved enormous success as a set of two long-playing records, is first and finally an elaborate vehicle for ...
Yes: The Band That Punks Say Is A "No"
Interview by John Mendelssohn, Los Angeles Times, 28 September 1980
Question: Do you imagine it impossible to sum up in a single word all that rock's third generation, that is, the punks and their new ...
Robert Fripp: Do you want me to sell you an album…or a treatise on neg-entropy?
Interview by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 21 March 1981
Robert Fripp lectures Lynden Barber ...
Rush: But Why Are They In Such A Hurry?
Interview by J. Kordosh, Creem, June 1981
THURSDAY: KORDOSH has been roused from his afternoon nap by Sherry Ring, publicist for Mercury Records. Ring is calling from New York to firm up connections ...
Electric Light Orchestra: Time (Jet FZ 37371)
Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 9 August 1981
E.L.O. FAILS TEST OF TIME ...
Profile and Interview by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 21 November 1981
Geoff Barton writes his first Rush feature for (count'em) three years and asks, is there life after Maple Leaf Mayhem? ...
Robert Fripp, King Crimson: King Crimson: Robert Fripp's Chocolate Cake Discipline
Interview by Richard Grabel, Creem, February 1982
In The Court Of The Crimson King, Phase II ...
Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, March 1982
Seminal art-rockers in the '70s, Genesis takes off in an exciting new direction, leaner and more aggressively funky, yet moody and lyrical, led by Phil ...
Rush: Lifeson Arrives Stage Center With Rush
Report and Interview by John Swenson, Circus, 31 March 1982
ALEX LIFESON, the lanky blond guitarist whose playing is the cornerstone of Rush's live sound, is relaxing in his midtown Manhattan hotel room after a ...
Marillion: The Dial Inn, Glasgow
Live Review by Phil Bell, Sounds, 22 May 1982
MARK MY WORDS. Critics will choke and chuckle en bleeding masse. But when action's sizzling at grass roots level, to apathetically ignore it would be ...
Report and Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, August 1982
Just A Coupla White Guys Sittin' Around, Makin' Money, etc. ...
Peter Gabriel, Genesis: Genesis and Peter Gabriel: Milton Keynes Bowl
Live Review by Hugh Fielder, Sounds, 9 October 1982
March Of The Giant Hogwash ...
Report and Interview by Pete Makowski, Sounds, 18 December 1982
PETE MAKOWSKI finally delivers the goods on RUSH ...
Marillion: Sob Standard: Marillion: Script For A Jester's Tear (EMI) *****
Review by Phil Bell, Sounds, 12 March 1983
PREDICTABLE? Little over a year has elapsed since Marillion were first propelled into the public eye by your fave rock weekly. What with X Russell, ...
Marillion: Bournemouth Winter Gardens
Live Review by Lucy O'Brien, New Musical Express, 9 April 1983
THIS HAPPY breed came to town with Black Sabbath and Thin Lizzy emblazoned on the back of their jackets. Patches, denim and undyed hair were ...
Interview by Phil Bell, Sounds, 26 November 1983
Phil Bell gives the nod to the reformed, revitalised Yes ...
Ian Anderson: Time Laird: Ian Anderson
Profile and Interview by Chris Welch, Kerrang!, December 1983
"WHAT A GREAT view!" My eyes ranged appreciatively over the wooded valley with its cottages nestling near the village pub. ...
Live Review by Max Bell, The Times, 28 February 1984
WHEN GENESIS first came to prominence, some 12 years ago, they were regarded as leaders in the rock-as-theatre movement. The combination of their former vocalist ...
Marillion: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 13 March 1984
A NIGHT out for the lower sixth, dungeons and dragons players and the "progressive" rock fans time forgot. ...
Marillion: Just When You Thought It Was Safe To Go Back Into The Water
Interview by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 28 April 1984
Along comes megajaws FISH, big fry with heavy rockers Marillion in search off "a clash off the titans"...in other words, a confrontation with NME. Shy, ...
Interview by Geoff Barton, Kerrang!, 3 May 1984
RUSH guitarist ALEX LIFESON has the good grace to talk to GEOFF BARTON ...
Roger Waters: The Pros And Cons Of Hitch Hiking (Harvest)
Review by Gavin Martin, New Musical Express, 5 May 1984
THERE IS a latent longing in many an English mega-rock star to become an intellectual seer, to splash garish helpings of philosophy and instructive comments ...
Robert Fripp, King Crimson: Robert Fripp: The 21st Century Man Sounds Off
Profile and Interview by Mark Dery, Record, November 1985
HE BEGAN, by his own admission, tone deaf and with "no sense of rhythm." He is a spit-shined, manicured man whose "best subjects at school ...
Interview by Neil Perry, Sounds, 23 November 1985
What do you do when you're late for the bus? RUSH, that's what. NEIL PERRY did it, like a tortoise. And DOUGLAS CAPE followed, like ...
Alan Parsons: The Alan Parsons Project: Studio Rats
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, April 1986
"You know Poe has been a big influence on me and Alan," says Parsons collaborator Eric Woolfson. "And when I saw this word, 'stereotomy,' I ...
The Moody Blues' Graeme Edge (1986)
Interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages audio, 9 May 1986
Drummer Graeme talks about touring in support of Chuck Berry in 1965; on the Birmingham band scene; why the band have stayed together for so long; Justin Hayward's never wanting to be above the band, and the intra-band dynamics; ex-members Denny Laine, Clint Warwick and Mike Pinder; outside projects with Adrian Gurvitz; playing live with the Moodys; loving the new CD technology, and the crude sound of the band's old albums.
File format: mp3; file size: 36mb, interview length: 37' 32" sound quality: ****
Emerson, Lake & Powell: Emerson Lake & Powell: Victims of the Future
Profile and Interview by Chris Welch, Kerrang!, August 1986
"WE'RE GONNA WORK hard and make the new ELP a success, whatever the critics say about us!" Those are the fighting words of the P ...
Emerson Lake And Palmer: Emerson Lake: Rockin' Dudes Or Art-Rock Mofos?
Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, October 1986
IT'S A SPACIOUS rehearsal studio, though not the world's classiest. I am in London, behind the man running the soundboard, watching the three musicians facing ...
The Enid, Twelth Night: The Enid, Twelfth Night: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Chris Welch, Kerrang!, 13 November 1986
TRUST THE Enid to create one of the weirdest, most spectacular and at times chaotic concerts ever to startle the patrons of the Hammersmith Odeon. ...
Pink Floyd, Roger Waters: Roger Waters: Out of Troubled Waters
Profile and Interview by Mark Cooper, The Guardian, 20 November 1987
Roger Waters now finds himself in competition with his one-time colleagues in Pink Floyd – he doesn't like it but there are compensations. Mark Cooper ...
Interview by Paul Elliott, Sounds, 21 November 1987
RUSH certainly don't live up to their name because it's taken the group 13 years to make their best album to date. Guitarist ALEX LIFESON counts the ...
Review by Robert Sandall, Q, December 1987
ANDY POWELL AND Ted Turner's duelling guitars made this a band to be reckoned with 15 years ago – and gave Miles Copeland his first ...
Roger Waters: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by Richard North, New Musical Express, 5 December 1987
WELCOME TO the latest in Roger's line of grand political concepts, Radio KAOS. An ever proliferating network of seductive allusions, provocative hints, suggestive cross-references. ...
Supertramp: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Chris Welch, Kerrang!, 7 May 1988
THE SIGHT of serried rows of well-heeled fans rocking silently back and forth in their seats was one of the more eerie spectacles during two ...
Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson (1988)
Interview by Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages audio, August 1988
The Tull front-man, in Italy to play a TV show, on performing live; the economics of salmon farming on the Skye; his relationship with Chrysalis Records; still being on the road after all these years; not socialising with other musicians; his time in tax exile, and taking part in The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus.
File format: mp3; file size: 70.4mb, interview length: 1h 13' 21" sound quality: ***
Interview by Ted Drozdowski, Musician, February 1989
A Plectral Purist Answers the Dumb Questions ...
Rush: A Show of Hands (Mercury) *½
Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 20 April 1989
ALTHOUGH THEIR fans treat the three members of Rush as if they were the Holy Trinity, the band chose the theme of another threesome — ...
Interview by Keith Cameron, Sounds, 17 June 1989
HEWN FROM the living rock of their native Cumbria, It Bites are an archaeologist's nightmare. ...
The Moody Blues: Moody Blues: Step This Away…
Retrospective and Interview by Tom Hibbert, Q, April 1990
Two genial curators greet you in a small town record shop, ready to take you on a journey...from shiny suits and grimy clubs to "concept" ...
Rush: Screwing Up Pop — On Purpose
Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, April 1990
RUSH MAY BE the only band on earth to have made "fear of boredom" a primary musical motivation. Needless to say, they don't put it ...
Van Der Graaf Generator: Where Are They Now?
Profile by Martin Aston, Q, September 1990
VAN DER GRAAF Generator, one or Britain's vaunted bands from the progressive era known for their unusual sax/organ front line. "Can you try and dig ...
Overview by Johnny Black, Q, April 1991
Concept albums...What are they? Are they: ...
Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 13 June 1991
UNION, A REUNION of most of the people who used to sing and play instruments for Yes, is an eclectic miscarriage that almost isn't even ...
Retrospective and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 30 September 1991
GEDDY LEE visibly tenses up when he talks about the period when fans drove him and his family out of their east-end Toronto home. ...
Interview by Paul Elliott, Kerrang!, 18 April 1992
Oh, won't you please welcome Canadian legends RUSH — back in the UK for the sold-out Roll The Bones tour. After nearly 20 years together, ...
Interview by Andy Gill, Q, October 1992
THE ENTRANCE to the grounds is classic old Hollywood style, with a phone you have to call from to get someone to operate the remote-controlled ...
Mike Oldfield: Tubular Bells II
Review by Mat Snow, Q, October 1992
IN 1973, THE 49-minute progressive-rock classic Tubular Bells not only seeded the Virgin empire by selling 16 million copies but also set a benchmark of ...
Roger Waters: Who the hell does he think he is?
Interview by Tom Hibbert, Q, November 1992
"SO HOW'S SYD these days?" ...
Review by Mat Snow, Q, January 1993
IT HAD to happen. Rock's back catalogue has been repackaged so often from so many angles that sooner or later the selling point would become ...
Pink Floyd Still Rides Its Dark Side
Retrospective and Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 26 March 1993
MOST ROCK RECORDS, even hit records, have a relatively short shelf life. And when most rock stars meet the press, they want to chat up ...
Pink Floyd Meet The Orb: David Gilmour and Dr. Alex Patterson
Interview by David Bennun, Melody Maker, 27 March 1993
JUST ABOUT everything anybody has ever told you is wrong. Take, for a very mundane example, the music you listen to. Most likely, there are ...
Pink Floyd: 25 Million Gloomy Punters Can't Be Wrong
Retrospective and Interview by Stuart Maconie, Q, April 1993
Right now, someone, somewhere on this planet is playing Dark Side Of The Moon. Released 20 years ago this month, its mixture of blues and ...
Retrospective and Interview by Robert Sandall, MOJO, May 1994
Three decades and 140 million albums later, the sheer familiarity of the Pink Floyd phenomenon obscures the strangeness of it all. Unlike any of their ...
Pink Floyd: Earl's Court Exhibition Centre, London
Live Review by Cliff Jones, MOJO, December 1994
WE'RE THREE minutes in and the family in front of me (mother, father and two smaller facsimile editions thereof, dressed identically in Division Bell T-shirts) ...
Focus, Jan Akkerman: Phone Home: Jan Akkerman
Interview by Colin Harper, MOJO, July 1996
"AFTER FOCUS I MADE a record called Eli and toured Britain. The record was a success but the tour was a disaster. I did one ...
Pink Floyd, Rick Wright: The Dark Side of Rick Wright
Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, January 1997
The Pink Floyd keyboardist explores depression in Broken China ...
Interview by Steve Roeser, Rock's Backpages audio, 20 November 1997
The ethereal Voice of Prog on life pre-Yes, the changes of personnel in the band, and the various break-ups and reformations that have taken place over the years.
File format: mp3; file size: 31.2mb, interview length: 34' 07" sound quality: * (phoner)
Wishbone Ash: Empire Music Hall, Belfast
Live Review by Colin Harper, The Independent, 10 February 1998
THERE WAS A TIME, as schoolboys of certain vintage will doubtless recall, when knowing the line-up details of the more venerable British rock bands really ...
Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon
Retrospective and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, MOJO, March 1998
Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon, aged 25 on March 23, is one of the great monuments of rock history – as overwhelming aesthetically ...
Pink Floyd: Epiphanies: Ummagumma
Memoir by Mike Barnes, The Wire, November 1998
For Mike Barnes, life would have been a bummer, were it not for Ummagumma. ...
Review and Interview by Kit Aiken, Uncut, February 1999
TO ANYONE growing up through the punk era, Yes were the ultimate enemy. In those primitive cool days, laser shows, flowing locks, portentous mysticism, flamboyant ...
Todd Rundgren: Out on his Todd again
Retrospective and Interview by Robert Webb, The Independent, 19 February 1999
Todd Rundgren is a pioneer. His eclectic albums were the benchmark for a decade, his innovative studio techniques one step ahead of the music industry. ...
Interview by Johnny Black, Rock's Backpages audio, September 2000
Follow You, Follow Me: Johnny Black hears from Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks about Phil's joining, becoming front man, and his departure.
File format: mp3; in 4 parts, total file sizes: 81.3mb, total interview length: 1h 17' 44" sound quality: ****
Electric Light Orchestra (ELO)
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, 'Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music', 2001
Bev Bevan, b. 25 November 1945, Birmingham, England; Melvyn Gale, b. 15 January 1952, London; Kelly Groucutt, b. 8 September 1952, London; Mik Kaminski, b. ...
Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 2001
TO SOME, they were the band that would have been king. Just over a year ago, the now-defunct British music magazine Select boldly went where ...
Pink Floyd, Roger Waters: Which One's Pink? Roger Waters' In The Flesh
Review by Rick McGrath, Culture Court, January 2001
• Sony Music, 2000 • Written by Roger Waters and David Gilmour, in various permutations, with a little help from exPink Floyders Richard Wright and Nick ...
Emerson Lake And Palmer: Emerson Lake & Palmer
Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, MOJO, March 2001
QUESTION: HOW DO EMERSON, LAKE AND PALMER change A light bulb? A: They don't. Drummer Carl Palmer's personal karate instructor holds the bulb steady while ...
Elbow: Asleep in the Back (V2)
Review by Andy Gill, The Independent, 4 May 2001
WHAT'S IN a name? The Bury-based indie combo Elbow found out a year or two ago when, after Universal's swallowing of their label, Island, they ...
Radiohead: Walking on Thin Ice
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Wire, July 2001
Radiohead may be one of the biggest groups on the planet, but their dissenting voice and exploratory studio techniques conflict with the commercial pressure to ...
Mike Oldfield: The Making of Tubular Bells
Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Q, August 2001
One of the most influential pieces of music in rock history – much imitated, used in movies, TV commercials and documentaries, sampled by Janet Jackson, ...
Interview by Mark Paytress, MOJO, November 2001
He has a spectacularly nice country pad, owns his own airstrip, keeps horses and doesn't like doing interviews. Mark Paytress declines some aerobatic action with ...
Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, MOJO, November 2001
IT CAN ONLY HAVE BEEN WITH A certain sense of foreboding that Dave Gilmour officially joined Pink Floyd on the first day of January 1968. ...
Aphrodite's Child: The Fabulous Furry Greek Brothers
Retrospective by Kieron Tyler, Mojo Collections, Fall 2001
The apocalyptic rock of Aphrodite's Child spawned Demis Roussos and Vangelis. ...
Pink Floyd: Echoes: The Best Of Pink Floyd
Review by Ian MacDonald, Uncut, January 2002
Long-awaited greatest hits package from English progressive legends ...
Wishbone Ash: A Tribute to Heroes! Ashbone U Wish do Wishbone Ash
Live Review by John Mendelssohn, Rock's Backpages, 10 May 2002
I WILL NOT feign objectivity. When Wishbone Ash dissolved in 1977 because of the usual "creative differences" (Nigel and Steve wanted to be creative, while ...
Rush: Staples Center, Los Angeles
Live Review by Marc Weingarten, Los Angeles Times, 25 September 2002
SOME MIGHT ARGUE that change is the sine qua non of musical artistry, but Rush fans might contend that predictable output yields greater rewards. ...
Porcupine Tree, Radiohead: Old and New Wave
Report and Interview by Marc Weingarten, Los Angeles Times, 7 November 2002
Underground movement nurtures new progressive rock bands and supports existing ones. ...
Porcupine Tree by way of Spinal Tap
Interview by Kris Nicholson, Record, 8 November 2002
Fictional band made the jump to the real world ...
Deep Purple, george: Worst Idea in the History of Music: Concerto for Jon Lord and george
Comment by Clinton Walker, Limelight, 2003
AN EMAIL ARRIVED for me a little while back, just after the program for the 2003 Sydney Festival was released. Titled THE WORST IDEA IN ...
Marillion: An Interview With Pete Trewavas
Interview by Steven Ward, PopMatters, 10 June 2003
MARILLION MAY BE the best-kept secret in rock. Formed in London in 1981, Marillion started out like any other young band. The band members, including ...
Mike Oldfield: Tubular Bells 2003
Review and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, July 2003
Deathless proto-ambient dinosaur that punk could not kill returns for 21st-century remake. ...
Pink Floyd: No One Knew What They Looked Like: Pink Floyd and the Press
Retrospective by Chris Charlesworth, Q, 2004
THE BOX ARRIVED in Melody Maker’s offices in December 1970, just in time for Christmas, addressed to Michael Watts. It was a sturdily constructed hardwood ...
Pink Floyd: So Wrong, Yank Floyd Alight
Retrospective and Interview by Fred Dellar, MOJO, February 2004
"OHMIGAWD! IT just missed Roger!" Another piece of burning drape — ignited by a stray firework — fluttered into the audience. Some cheered, mistaking it ...
Jethro Tull: Bursting Out/Stormwatch/A (EMI)
Review by Colin Harper, Record Collector, March 2004
Yet more remasters from 1978-80 ...
Pink Floyd: Life After Roger: Pink Floyd
Retrospective and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, September 2004
UNTIL AUTUMN 1986, Pink Floyd was the invisible band. Their fame and fortune huge, their individual members anonymous. The arrangement always looked a perfect fit ...
Rush: The Sword and Sorcery Phase
Retrospective and Interview by Geoff Barton, Classic Rock, October 2004
Rush had their first taste of success in 1975, when they changed from being a basic hard rock power outfit and became something altogether more ...
Juicy Lucy: The Archer, Jesmond, 16 May 2005
Live Review by Rahul Shrivastava, bbc.co.uk, May 2005
HOW WOULD you describe the music of Juicy Lucy to the uninitiated? Progressive-jazzy-blues? Psychedelic-blues-rock? Or even "cheeky blues" perhaps, as some punters have ventured. ...
Van Der Graaf Generator: Present
Review by Nick Hasted, Uncut, May 2005
ALTHOUGH CUSTOMARILY associated with prog, Van der Graaf Generator were always a world away from the ridiculous likes of Yes and Jethro Tull. ...
Van Der Graaf Generator: Electric-Convulsive Therapy
Report and Interview by Mike Barnes, MOJO, May 2005
ONE OF THE most intense and extreme groups of the '70s progressive era, Van Der Graaf Generator were ever on the verge of collapse. ...
Van Der Graaf Generator: Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 10 May 2005
WHEN THE FOUR core members of this almost-forgotten prog-rock band start a gig for the first time in 29 years, a joyous roar bounces round ...
Van Der Graaf Generator: In Prog They Trust
Retrospective and Interview by Robin Eggar, The Sunday Times, 29 May 2005
Van Der Graaf Generator are back – albeit after an excessive pause. Never mind the length, feel the quality, says ROBIN EGGAR. ...
Pink Floyd Tear Down Their Wall
Retrospective by Gavin Martin, Daily Mirror, 14 June 2005
IT IS THE rock reunion no one believed we would ever see – including the band members. Pink Floyd, who endured one of the most ...
The Moody Blues: Never Reaching The End
Interview by j. poet, San Francisco Chronicle, 13 November 2005
THE MOODY Blues are a rock'n'roll band. That statement may come as a shock to fans who grew up with the lushly orchestrated psychedelic pop ...
Robert Fripp: "If you love music, become a plumber"
Profile and Interview by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 8 December 2005
CRADLING A NICE cup of tea in the kitchen of his home on the River Avon in Worcestershire, Robert Fripp looks more like a kindly ...
David Gilmour: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 31 May 2006
"LIKE SLEEPING with your ex-wife" was how David Gilmour dismissively described Pink Floyd's reunion for Live 8. Given that Gilmour has since insisted that his ...
Muse: Black Holes and Revelations
Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, June 2006
COMPARED TO the mighty cosmic thunder of Muse, the undernourished hipsters of the current Britrock scene sound like puny little insects. Matt Bellamy, Chris Wolstenholme ...
Syd Barrett, Pink Floyd: Syd Barrett, 1946-2006
Obituary by Robert Webb, The Independent, 12 July 2006
Reclusive co-founder of Pink Floyd ...
Retrospective and Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, March 2007
"I DIDN'T HAVE white tunnels, but I did have the feeling that if I got too tired, which at a certain point might have been ...
Retrospective and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, MOJO, April 2007
Stung by the exit of Peter Gabriel, slandered by punk and riven with insecurities, Genesis survived '70s prog to become the biggest band of the ...
Report and Interview by Gene Santoro, New York Daily News, 12 October 2007
WHEN PORCUPINE TREE started in 1987, they were a Spinal Tap-style flight of multi-instrumentalist Steven Wilson's imagination. ...
Kevin Ayers, Robert Wyatt: Kevin Ayers and Robert Wyatt
Retrospective and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Guardian, 24 October 2007
"I COULD HARDLY recognise him at first," says Kevin Ayers. "But there, under that great beard, was Robert and he hadn't changed a bit." The ...
Roger Waters: O2 Arena, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 20 May 2008
Roger Waters continues to infuse his work with almost diabolical intensity, writes Adam Sweeting ...
Kansas: Q&A: Rich Williams of Kansas Talks History, Houston and Will Ferrell
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 29 May 2008
IN THE REALM of classic rock warhorse bands, few have managed to straddle genres like Kansas. Fist pumping FM rock anthems ('Carry On Wayward Son', ...
Muse: Royal Albert Hall, London ****
Live Review by Paul Elliott, Q, June 2008
Euphoric fundraiser. Big organ included. ...
Interview by Paul Lester, Record Collector, September 2008
As he turns 60 and prepares a new album and UK tour, Todd Rundgren surveys his brilliant 40-year career as a producer, solo artist and ...
Rick Wright: Shine On, Rick Wright
Obituary by Steven Ward, Blurt, 18 September 2008
FOUNDING PINK FLOYD keyboardist Rick Wright is playing the great gig in the sky right now. Maybe Syd Barrett is watching from the wings of ...
Yes: Chris Squire on 40 Years of Prog Life
Report and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 4 February 2009
PROG-ROCK KINGS Yes are known for their intricate and multi-movement songs, ethereal lyrics and harmonies, and fantasy-fuelled album-cover art (mostly by Roger Dean, who also ...
Live Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 5 March 2009
TODAY IS lead singer Guy Garvey's birthday, and he's in a gaming mood. "How old do you think I am?" he asks the crowd, early ...
Review by Jude Rogers, The Guardian, 28 August 2009
WHEN IS MUSIC too much? I'm not talking about the torrent of songs that surround us every day – I've argued how we should work ...
Muse: Dystopian Rhapsody: Muse's The Resistance
Review by Kate Mossman, The Word, October 2009
Queen-like symphonies, "thought police", a nameless evil... Muse are wrestling with Something Very Important — that never quite arrives. ...
Mike Oldfield: Lord Of The Rings
Retrospective and Interview by Mat Snow, MOJO, October 2009
He created one of the most monolithic albums of the '70s, but behind the ambitious swoop of Tubular Bells lies a story of darkness, bad ...
Pink Floyd: Prog rockers strike a blow for all musical artists
Comment by David Stubbs, The Independent, 12 March 2010
PINK FLOYD'S legal victory over EMI may be welcomed by some as a victory for artistic integrity. ...
Emerson Lake & Palmer: Emerson Lake and Palmer: Victoria Park, London
Live Review by Pete Paphides, The Times, 26 July 2010
"WE'VE ONLY been away for 12 years — you can make more noise than that!" said the drummer Carl Palmer towards the end of this ...
Emerson Lake & Palmer, Foreigner, UFO, ZZ Top: High LOL-tage: Mike Diver's classic rock adventure
Live Review by Mike Diver, Drowned in Sound, 3 August 2010
The other day our former overlord Mike Diver phoned up DiS HQ to belligerently demand we implement what he described as "the final phase" of ...
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, September 2010
NEARING THE END of an epic world tour which has transformed them into Britain 's biggest band, Muse brought their sense-swamping carnival of baroque 'n ...
Gong: The Gong Remains The Same
Retrospective and Interview by Jack Barron, Record Collector, October 2010
Jack Barron celebrates the 40-year celestial trip of "Europe's Grateful Dead". ...
Jello Biafra, Peter Hammill: Peter Hammill and Jello Biafra: Prog vs. Punk – Who Won?
Interview by Jim Irvin, The Word, March 2011
One was uncool but enduring, the other hip but short-lived. Two pioneers, Peter Hammill and Jello Biafra, fight their respective corners. ...
Jon Anderson, Yes: Yes: Fly From Here/Jon Anderson: Survival And Other Stories
Review by Jim Irvin, The Word, September 2011
Cruelly replaced by a tribute-band replica, Jon Anderson manages to conjure more magic than his former Yes colleagues. ...
Peter Gabriel: An Invasion Of Privacy
Interview by John Doran, The Quietus, 19 September 2011
Peter Gabriel tells John Doran about reworking his back catalogue, almost playing in space, being mistaken for a terrorist and how life might be four ...
Ian Anderson, Jethro Tull: An Interview with Ian Anderson
Interview by Johnny Black, Classic Rock, December 2011
CR: When you started, there were virtually no flute players in rock music. What inspired you to take it up? ...
Gong, Magma, The Yardbirds: Giorgio Gomelsky: An Interview
Retrospective and Interview by Archie Patterson, Eurock, Spring 2011
IF THERE EVER was a man who lived and breathed music it's the international vagabond Giorgio Gomelsky. Born in the former Soviet-Georgia, his parents fled ...
Gentle Giant: I Lost My Head – Chrysalis Years (1975-1980)
Sleeve notes by Daryl Easlea, (Chryalis Records), 2012
I'M STILL NOT sure what the word "contrapuntal" means. But that and "pretentious" were two words I learned as a teenage Gentle Giant fan in ...
Levitation: "Don't Question Everything": Levitation's Need For Not Revisited
Retrospective by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 15 May 2012
"They give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it's night once more." Wyndham Wallace celebrates a forgotten classic 20 years ...
Guide by Mick Middles, The Quietus, 29 June 2012
Mick Middles speaks to Rush bassist and singer Geddy Lee about his favourite albums of all times... and finds surprises amidst the classic of the ...
Van der Graaf Generator: LIVE @ Metropolis Studios, London
Film/DVD/TV Review by Archie Patterson, Rock's Backpages, 29 July 2012
OF ALL THE original UK progressive bands, VDGG was perhaps the least pop-conscious of the lot. No matter how out-there most prog bands got, they ...
Muse's Matt Bellamy: "It's only now I feel comfortable singing about love"
Profile and Interview by John Lewis, Metro, 21 September 2012
Muse frontman Matt Bellamy talks about the band's new album The 2nd Law, singing about love and relationships and how his beliefs about 9/11 have ...
Arthur Brown: The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown
Retrospective and Interview by Max Bell, Classic Rock, October 2012
THIS IS HOW it's supposed to happen. "Arthur will send his car for you driven by one of his young handmaidens. She will blindfold you ...
Caravan: Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 10 January 2013
PUNK'S SCORCHED-EARTH policy towards the past has brought many a musical career to a premature halt. It's no coincidence that veteran progressive rockers Caravan originally ...
Interview by Carl Wiser, Songfacts, 11 April 2013
IN 1972, JETHRO TULL released Thick As A Brick, an entire album comprised of one song. Critics hated it. "You can listen to it, but ...
Interview by Carl Wiser, Songfacts, 17 April 2013
The late progster talks about writing songs for ELP and King Crimson; writing methods; writing with Pete Sinfield; the pleasure of playing live, and one particularly hairy gig with ELP in Bologna, Italy.
File format: mp3; file size: 33.7mb, interview length: 36' 50" sound quality: *** (phoner)
Be Bop Deluxe: Hung up on these silver strings: Be-Bop Deluxe in 1975
Book Excerpt by Nick Coleman, 'Yes Is The Answer' (Rare Bird Books) , 30 May 2013
BE-BOP DELUXE came in through the out-door. And, this being England, they brought some weather in with them. ...
Interview by Dave Thompson, Goldmine, June 2013
HE IS, OF COURSE, Mr. Tubular Bells and, regular as clockwork, the 40th anniversary of the release of his greatest hit delivers what a lot ...
Be Bop Deluxe: Be Bop Deluxe At The BBC 1974-1978
Review by Terry Staunton, Record Collector, October 2013
IN ADDITION TO releasing five studio albums in as many years, Bill Nelson's modernist/ futurist art-rock ensemble found space in their diaries to regularly visit ...
Genesis, Mike + the Mechanics: Mike Rutherford: The Trick Of The Tale
Retrospective and Interview by Daryl Easlea, Record Collector, February 2014
Genesis and Mike + The Mechanics' founder Mike Rutherford has written an autobiography with a difference. Daryl Easlea met him to discuss The Living Years. ...
Electric Light Orchestra: Vinyl Icon: ELO's Out Of The Blue
Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Hi-Fi News & Record Review, February 2014
MUSIC THAT was reviled by the critics in its day frequently proves to have lasting merit which only reveals itself in the fullness of time. ...
Dream Theater: Apollo Manchester
Live Review by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 17 February 2014
CAPE-WEARING former Yes keyboard player Rick Wakeman recently told The Guardian where prog rock went wrong in the 1970s. "We had this thing where bands ...
Jon Anderson: Former Yes Man Jon Anderson Gets Close to the Edge... and the Audience
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 20 February 2014
CLASSIC-ROCK FANS might not see the connection between intricate, musically adventurous progressive rock and all-you-can-eat shrimp and shuffleboard tournaments. But increasingly, fans of this genre ...
Wishbone Ash: Prog-Rock Legends Wishbone Ash: Nostalgia "Not the Whole Story"
Report and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 23 April 2014
ONE OF THE greatest prog-rock albums ever, Wishbone Ash's 1972 epic Argus also remains the English band's best-known and definitive sonic statement. ...
Ian Anderson, Jethro Tull: The Fast-Moving Mind (and Mouth) of Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson
Report and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 2 July 2014
IT SEEMS THAT Gerald Bostock, the noted writer and lyricist, is at it again. ...
Retrospective and Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 10 October 2014
THE SIGHT OF Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford and Steve Hackett lined up in a studio, albeit only to reminisce for a ...
Robert Fripp, King Crimson: Robert Fripp: "I'm a very difficult person to work with"
Interview by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 31 October 2014
Guitarist Robert Fripp influenced David Bowie and Peter Gabriel, but it's only the latest revival of his band King Crimson that has brought out his ...
Interview by Mike Mettler, Digital Trends, 14 April 2015
WHEN A DRUMMER is acknowledged as occupying the same rarefied air as Rush's Neil Peart, it says a lot about just how damn good the ...
Review by Chris Roberts, Prog, 15 July 2016
Live debut from Tony Kaye's first post-Yes band, let loose ...
Pavlov's Dog: They specialised in music you couldn't dance to, but how prog were Pavlov's Dog?
Retrospective and Interview by Paul Lester, Prog, 17 July 2016
Some hailed them as America's first prog band, they played with members of King Crimson and influenced generations of prog bands... But just how prog ...
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 8 December 2016
Key figure in 1970s prog rock as bass guitarist for Emerson, Lake & Palmer ...
Pink Floyd: The Final Cut – A Requiem For The Post War Dream/ A Momentary Lapse Of Reason
Review by Daryl Easlea, Record Collector, March 2017
THOUGH THEY represent the opposing extremes of Pink Floyd's often tortured psyche, there, in fact, are many similarities between 1983's The Final Cut and 1987's A Momentary Lapse ...
Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains: Pink Floyd at the Victoria & Albert Museum
Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, July 2017
AT THE START of the V&A's Pink Floyd exhibition there is a photograph of the first ever van that transported the four-man group and their ...
Lighthouse, The Paupers: Skip Prokop: Lighthouse co-founder made rock history
Obituary by Nicholas Jennings, The Globe and Mail, 8 September 2017
SKIP PROKOP was one of Canada's first major rock stars, a world-class drummer and talented songwriter who co-founded the groundbreaking jazz-rock band Lighthouse, which earned ...
Tangerine Dream: Union Chapel, London
Live Review by David Stubbs, The Guardian, 25 April 2018
For their first UK show without founder member Edgar Froese, the synth pioneers enlivened their proggy ambience with techno, but still created the same cosmic ...
Dream Theater: John Petrucci: The Greatest Showman
Interview by Henry Yates, Guitarist, March 2019
Author's note: This is the original unsubbed version, as submitted to the magazine. ...
Tool's Fear Inoculum is finally here: why did it take so long?
Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 30 August 2019
EARLIER THIS MONTH, Tool joined the modern world. After manning the virtual-picket line since 2001, the Californian cult rock quartet finally relented and allowed their ...
Peter Gabriel, Genesis: The shambolic Genesis reunion that saved Peter Gabriel from financial ruin
Retrospective by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 6 August 2020
Womad crippled Peter Gabriel, so his former bandmates offered to keep the bailiffs away. If only they could remember how to play together… ...
Pink Floyd, Throbbing Gristle: Gotta Stem The Evil Tide: Pink Floyd and Throbbing Gristle
Retrospective and Interview by Daryl Easlea, unpublished, 2021
THROBBING GRISTLE became a cause celebre in October 1976, with their Prostitution Exhibition at the ICA. Tory MP Nicholas Fairbairn called the noise terrorists "Wreckers ...
Pink Floyd: Raving and drooling: How Pink Floyd made Animals
Retrospective by Daryl Easlea, Prog, January 2021
Pink Floyd's Animals was released in 1977, but its themes continue to strike a chord in the modern day. ...
Report and Interview by Jim Farber, The Guardian, 16 March 2022
The complicated and fractious history of the prog-rock titans is explored in revealing new documentary In the Court of the Crimson King. ...
Yes: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Richard English, Rock's Backpages, June 2022
THIS TOUR IS appropriately called "Close to the Edge". Alan White, drummer, who was due to perform, toppled over the edge on 26th May and ...
Robert Fripp, King Crimson: Toby Amies (dir.): In the Court of the Crimson King – King Crimson at 50
Film/DVD/TV Review by Irina Shtreis, Louder Than War, 20 December 2022
In the Court of the Crimson King: King Crimson at 50, a documentary by Toby Amies, unveils the "acute suffering" of one of the artiest ...
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