Its a good and inspiring guide to the underground and progressive rock music in the 60s and 70s. It wasn't that expencive at Play.com. £19.99 I think. But I will endeed cost me a lot more, now that I have to go out and by all that music!

The music's all that matters / Paul Stump http://www.amazon.co.uk/Musics-All-That-Matters-

I'm reading it at the mo.

 

I don't think any of these books even mention 1-2-3, which immediately discredits them as serious studies. Chris Welsh is a personal friend of Yes, even in the pre-fame days, which says it all. The Nice/ELP have every reason to avoid the subject too. Check the more serious studies for the real truth.

 

I definitely think The Nice and Yes have early claims as forerunners, and though both bands sprang from 1-2-3, that band did not itself impact on the mainstream as the other two did, it was just too early (1966-67). King Crimson is generally looked on as the birth of the genre proper (and I agree), but for me, ELP and Yes remain two of the most crucial and important bands in defining the genre.

 

Rocking the Classics: English Progressive Rock and the Counterculture"

Are you sure - but it is along time since I read this book? To me it a thesis on prog rock based on examining aspects of 5 classic progressive rock albums in detail, but elsewhere there is a superficial historical overview, lack of detail, and some inaccuracies. There is, however, an Interesting attempt  to indicate "typical" modern progressive rock bands(from the viewpoint of when Rocking The Classics was written), with Djam Karet about taking the honour. While brave, I have to say about as debatable and risky as Charles Shaar Murray's hypothesis in Crosstown Traffic, that if Hendrix was alive when that  book was publshed, he would sound rather like Sonny Sharrock......