Hello all!

Welcome Neil,

Atavachron wrote: welcome Neil, back around 2000 I too was thrilled to see not only a thriving modern prog scene but the reissue of many of the vintage albums that filled in the gaps in the 70s   ..hope you enjoy it here

That's a very good point - at least half of my buys these days are re-masters of old albums that I had on Vinyl.  The best so far imho is the Genesis 1970-75 box set.  Simply stunning what they've done with that.

welcome Neil, back around 2000 I too was thrilled to see not only a thriving modern prog scene but the reissue of many of the vintage albums that filled in the gaps in the 70s  

..hope you enjoy it here

Hello all!

You’ll notice from my registration date that I’m hardly a noob to Progarchives – I have used the archive a lot for reference since I registered but have only just started actively posting so thought I had better introduce myself!

I grew up in UK in the ‘70s listening to bands like Yes, Genesis, Hawkwind, Curved Air and Uriah Heep – in fact the first album I really got into was Demons and Wizards (I still play it!)  

During the ‘80s I never really did the punk thing, preferring bands like Rush, Magnum, Eloy, Hawkwind, Twelfth Night and Marillion, though a number of bands like The Clash, Stranglers, Blondie, Psychic TV, Ultravox made an impression too.

Fast forward a couple of decades (I’ve been following “prog-influenced” mainstream bands like Radiohead and Muse, as well as keeping up to date with the old favourites in the meantime)  to early 2007 and a very good friend of mine introduces me to Porcupine Tree.  I’m blown away and start buying their CDs.  Big time.  Another (German)  friend introduces me to a lot of new-ish prog bands like Arena, Dream Theatre, Spock’s Beard.  

Realising there’s a very active, vibrant music scene outside of mainstream for exactly the kind of music I love was a revelation to me.  In the last two years I’ve bought more CDs and gone to more gigs than I did in the previous 20.

I still love the old classics but have a load of new favourites now: Pendragon, Anathema, The Pineapple Thief, RPWL, Gazpacho, Porcupine Tree,  Magenta, Frost*, Steve Thorne,  Pure Reason Revolution, Arena.

Despite the recession the entire prog scene feels really vibrant and alive to me – it’s an exciting time to be into good music again!  So now I buy a lot of music (physical only, no downloads for me, though I do rip everything I buy) and go to a lot of gigs.  One of my hobbies is photography so you’ll often find me down the front at gigs with a camera and I post the best pics from every gig at  http://www.myspace.com/neilpalfreyman I also keep my gig calenda on MySpace up to date so feel free to say hello if your ever at any of the same gigs!




Edited by Neil Palfreyman - April 14 2009 at 02:28