Proggier tracks from It Bites’ OATW

The Tall Ships is one of my favourite albums of the last 20 years. I'm not so familiar with the Francis Dunnery line up if I'm honest but they were always noted for bringing the worlds of pop and prog together perhaps in a similar way to what Genesis did with Duke. I would also recommend IQ - Are You Sitting Comfortably (1987) as an album that may be of interest to you.

I love IQ but had heard bad things about Are You Sitting Comfortably?, so I was pleasantly surprised to have enjoyed it as much as I did. It’s a good companion piece to OATW.

I listened to Frost*’s first album. Still need to digest it. The compositions are very cool but the production and vocals are... off-putting.

I’d like to listen to Tall Ships but didn’t find it on Spotify. I’ll check YouTube.

I don't understand It Bites. They don't sound like Prog to me. They sound like mediocre radio rock. 

miamiscot wrote: I don't understand It Bites. They don't sound like Prog to me. They sound like mediocre radio rock.  Clearly I am in the minority...

I think it was their intention to fool pop fans into listening to prog. Even on their very poppy debut there were some prog leanings here and there. Screaming on the Beaches is a good example.

The follow up One Around the World is their finest album IMO. Yellow Christian, Old man & the Angle and the title track are fantastic. They remain one of the best live bands I've ever seen. I also think Frank Dunnery was the best 'neo prog(?)' guitarist of the 80's.

They were also superb with John Mitchell on board on the Tall Ships tour.

Sadly their pop fans sussed them out too early, and insufficient numbers of prog fans took to them.

Crane wrote: A lot of their output is not prog. But I don’t know how you could listen to this and say it isn’t prog. I’ve been listening to Arena, who I like, but this is objectively proggier than much of Arena’s material. https://youtu.be/P_TKvlq1GHo

Classic song.

I think some folk objected to the poppy choice of sounds the band used. Had the intro to this song been played on 12 string, piano and mellotron, some PA folk would be frequently listing it in 'Favourite Epic' polls.

Crane wrote: Blacksword wrote: Classic song. I think some folk objected to the poppy choice of sounds the band used. Had the intro to this song been played on 12 string, piano and mellotron, some PA folk would be frequently listing it in 'Favourite Epic' polls. Agreed! As a composer myself, it has never been lost on me how complex some of IB’s music can be. It definitely stands abreast the classic 70’s bands, choice of sounds notwithstanding.

I was quite taken aback at how good IB were live. Their performance of OATW and the full length version of Old man & the Angel were astonishing. I remember reading a review of one of their gigs in a heavy metal magazine back in 87. The writer had been in awe of their 'musical literacy at such a young age' as he had put it, but said he thought they were simply 'too good' to be huge.

I remember they were referred to on a TV pop quiz as 'Marillion with sex; a far more palatable concept than sex WITH Marillion'