Prog & Alternative Rock don`t mix

Wasn't Bob Geldoff in the "Bottom Rats" when Roger Waters called him for "The wall"?

 rubbish. Punk was a reaction against acts like the Stones, Who, Rod Stewart etc becoming distant from their roots and playing overpriced stadium gigs. Punks were either indifferent to prog (the big symphonic acts) or actually liked some of it - Johnny Rotten was a fan of VDGG/Hammill and Krautrock, the Damned were Soft Machine fans and were produced by Nick Mason and so on>>

This is the most thoughtful and insightful blurb I have read in a while. It goes against the grain of mainstream thinking in many ways and since most mainstream thinking about prog or music, including that of the hollowed (sic intended) Ivory Towers, is crap, I must applaud, applaud applaud.

One of the reasons I like it is because for years, perhaps decades, I have been trying to figure out why Johnny Rotten would be anti-prog when prog, especially his nemesis Pink Floyd, was criticizing the same thing that punk was, the crass over commericalization of modern life. I've heard him say on several occassions that he was not against what Yes or Pink Ployd were doing. We must divorce our thinking about music from marketing concepts that filter every thought we have about everything. 

I think it is time I stopped and wondered why everybody links alternative to punk. While there are links, they are other origins for this 'movement' and some of it come from post-punk, new wave, pop rock (taking from the Beatles inspired tunes) etc......

It is relatively generic name to describe rock (englobing also some pop) from 85 until now.

Slipper3ry

I'd give up if I was you!!!

Chris knows his subject quite well and I fully agree on his arguments. Punk was not born to destroy prog!!! It was simply the pendulum movement of public taste. However it did ridicule it a bit, needing the spotlight - bold comments picked upon by the press who saw this as heavenly-dropped - but needing also the airplay to make a living

Prog killed itself by releasing awfull , bloated and terribly overly (and overtly) self-conscious pompous and bombastic music from 75 onwards.

OK - in 1976 Johnny Rotten played a selection of his favourite music on Capital Radio. The playlist included tracks from Peter Hammill's Nadir's Big Chance, Captain Beefheart and Tago Mago by Can - all highly rated in the archive. In his autobiography there is a photo of him with shoulder length hair in what he calls 'my Hawkwind phase'.

In the Q/Mojo progressive rock special Captain Sensible (formerly of The Damned) writes about his near obsession with Soft Machine. Nick Mason of Pink Floyd produced the Damned's second album. On the release of Machine Gun Ettiquette, Robert Fripp described Captain Sensible as 'the most exciting young guitarist in Britain'.

On their final UK tour Henry Cow went for a few drinks with future members of The Buzzcocks and The Fall in Manchester. Mark E Smith later stated his admiration for Henry Cow in a Melody Maker interview, and Georgie Born played on one of the Buzzcock's later singles.

Steve Hillage formed an unlikely but genuine friendship with Sham 69's Jimmy Pursey, and played with Sham 69 at the Reading Festival.

Daevid Allen teamed up with Here and Now to play a series of free concerts at mostly punk/new wave venues in 1977, captured on Live Floating Anarchy. He then went to New York where he teamed up with Bill Laswell and other young players on the 'No Wave' scene.

Nik Turner of Hawkwind formed the punky Inner City Unit, and the Hawklords tour featured support from punk poet/songwriter Patrick Fitzgerald. 

Brian Eno was the producer of the New York No Wave sampler featuring a selection of New York underground punk bands.

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