Hello all!

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

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

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,