The opposition?

Just checking something out for the Trivia section and came across this review for Quiet Sun. Written by somebody who appears anti-prog but at the same time likes this record - makes strange if apparently informed reading (and the silly sod gave his e.mail address....):

 

The last gasp of progressive rock, June 11, 2004

Reviewer: [email protected] from LONDON United Kingdom

On a break from Roxy Music--and while also recording Diamond Head--Phil Manzanera reformed his high school prog rock band Quiet Sun, which had suffered cruel rejection at the hands of record company execs (the letters are reprinted on the CD liner).
Mainstream should answer all your questions about progressive rock--was it a majestic fusion of jazz, rock and classical music? Or just a bunch of public schoolboys twatting about? Yes, and oh, yes.
In many ways Mainstream represents the end of an era (or "an ear", as Robert Wyatt might have it). The whole prog rock bandwagon was crashing and burning like the R101. Genesis had just promoted Phil Collins to front man, Yes and ELP had started releasing triple LPs, and a whole slew of lesser bands, from Caravan to Gentle Giant were facing financial if not artistic bankruptcy. Manzanera himself was about to pen the "Rock Follies" soundtrack. And in a few short months punk would have rendered a whole generation of music completely unlistenable. And yet...angry, passionate talents like Wyatt and Quiet Sun's drummer Charles Hayward would re-emerge as a kind of Bolshevik old guard to the new wave, Hayward with the seminal and still startling This Heat. After nearly 30 years, this is well worth dusting off--though it would have been nice if the original Quiet Sun demo could have been squeezed on this all too brief CD.

Edited by Dick Heath

Is that an extract of the review, or the whole thing? It doesn't really say anything about "Quiet sun" does it?

Interesting to see the mention of "Rock follies", which was a pretty good mini-series on TV about a female singing trio. Rula Lenska (is that the correct name?) and Julie Covington starred in it. The music was rather good, although it sounds a bit dated now.

 

Progressive music reached it's height of popularity in 1972 and 1973 when Jethro Tull released two number one albums in the US and one number three double album (Living in the Past). That's when progrock was riding high in the charts with Dark Side of the Moon, Close to the Edge, etc. Pink Floyd released The Wall in 1979 and that was the last gasp.

Since then, progrock has been mostly an underground phenomenom for newer bands.