Can you remember the first ever prog rock band you

I thought id ask this question in a thread because its a very interesting one (well i think so anyway lol)

I can remember the first ever prog rock band i got into, and the first ever prog metal band i got into.   And there is something in common between the 2 (which ill get onto at the end).

The very first prog rock band i got into was Arena.   Their song Chosen appeared on a Metal Hammer promo CD in 2000.   I loved the way that it reminded me of the song Cry Little Sister from The Lost Boys soundtrack.  But it wasnt to be until 2004 that i bought my first Arena album,  the album that song came from, which of course was Immortal?.   I started checking out more songs of theirs from that album, it was from a website (possibly Arena's then official one).   Heard the song The Butterfly Man, all nice and darky like Chosen.   After hearing that song i thought "right that does it, i gotta buy this album" and i did.   When i listened to the whole album i was disappointed that not every song sounded dark.   Songs like Fridays Dream and Climbing the Net sounded the opposite, they sounded most jolly.   But..............in time the jolly songs grew on me aswell, and i was able to appreciate them just as much.

Then in 2006 i got a job at a petrol station.   One of my work collegues was a 50 year old man that was into progressive rock.  He mainly liked Yes and Pink Floyd and we talked about our music tastes.  I then learnt that Arena is labeled as Neo Prog Rock.   So when i realised that Arena and the likes of Pink Floyd and Yes are under the same umbrella, i then started checking out Pink Floyd and Yes.   Sorry Yes fans, but Pink Floyd appealed to me more of the 2.   Thats when i realised i had discovered the world of progressive rock.

The first ever Progressive metal band i ever got into was Savatage.  My friend reccomended them to me in 2006.  I soon grew fond of them.   I loved the way they employed classical and opera into metal like Queen do with rock.   The song Chance very much reminded me of Queen's song Bohemian Rhapsody.  In 2007 i learnt of Progressive Powerfest festival in Cheltenham, Jon Oliva headlined it.  I attended it and as a result learnt of other progressive metal bands like Threshold (my number 2 prog metal band), Dreamscape and Haggard.  That was me now in the world of progressive metal aswell.

Ok, heres the connection between the 2 with my testimony.........When i got into Arena, i never purposely went looking for progressive rock bands, didnt even know the term existed.  Simply got into them just because i liked them.   Same goes with Savatage, never purposely went looking for progressive metal bands, they were introduced to me, and i just simply got into them cause i liked them.   But any other prog rock or prog metal band that came after them, it was a conscious choice.   This is why labeling bands as certain genres does matter to a degree.   Because yeah, you get into a band , you wanna hear more stuff like that.

We have to go way back to my days in Brazil ... it would be the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, both which were burning up the radio at that time. I can remember some individual singers from that time in Brazil, but no bands.

Even very much indeed, but yes, Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

Of course I can, I'm not THAT old yet.

Is that really you, JD? Anyway, sexy garment.