BBC announce "Prog Britannia" in autumn schedule

BBC 4 do it again - we hope.


Thanks to Sal for picking upon this in another place:


http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2008/09_september/12/bbcfour.shtml

(anybody confirm that film director Alex Cox narrating this - and why?)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2008/09_september/12/bbcfour.shtml

Just checked -suffer two rejections then it reopened on the third try - could it be traffic - this has only just been announced by the BEEB and quickly picked upon by PA and Prog Ears websites  and no doubt others.

Also note it works by cut'n'pasting the URL


Edited by Dick Heath - September 12 2008 at 14:48

Justice at last?
The BBC says:

Prog Rock Britannia is a comprehensive, feature-length documentary about progressive music and the generation of bands that made it - from the international success stories of Yes, Genesis, ELP, King Crimson and Jethro Tull, to the trials and tribulations of the lesser-known bands such as Caravan and Egg.

The film is structured in three parts, charting the birth, rise and decline of a movement famed for complex musical structures, weird time signatures, technical virtuosity and strange – quintessentially English – literary influences.

It looks at the psychedelic pop scene that gave birth to progressive rock in the late Sixties, the golden age of progressive music in the early Seventies – complete with drum solos and gatefold record sleeves – and the over-ambition, commercialisation and eventual fall from grace of this rarefied musical experiment at the hands of punk in 1977.

The documentary is a provocative, humorous but affectionate re-appraisal of a music that was the value system of an all-too-brief period in British popular music.

Contributors include Robert Wyatt, Mike Oldfield, Pete Sinfield, Rick Wakeman, Phil Collins, Arthur Brown, Carl Palmer and Ian Anderson.

By the way: "an all-too-brief period in British popular music"???
Fortunately, it was gloriously reborn elsewhere, as we all know!

I remember one Prog Rock special they did, said that "2112" was a 40 minute concept.. hmm.. always thought it as 20 minutes!

James wrote: There will be a lot of "mistakes" in it, I suspect.And Phil Collins is on every music programme on television it seems, it's all he seems to do now!

At least the BBC are acknowledging the existence of progressive rock over three hours on their premier arts channel; an opportunity for some to see some classic archive footage & interviews (some of which no doubt will have been seen before) & for others to start a thread on PA the day after complaining about the mistakes

Yes, there will be interviews with Phil Collins - but remember, to some he's now just an irritating late middle aged popster, but to others, he remains one of the finest prog rock drummers of the 1970s & a member of the biggest British prog rock band at the time (arguably without whom Genesis may not have made it past 1975/1976)

And yes - it's a shame this will probably only go up to the end of the 1970s & not show how healthy the genre still is (right Rachel?), but at least they're acknowledging it was there in the first place (and by not going past 1980 at least we'll be spared any archive footage of Pallas with Euan Lowson performing The Atlantis Suite )

So don't knock it people - just sit down, watch and marvel at how scary Steve Howe looks these days

There should be a Rick Wright tribute.

prog-chick wrote: WHEN IS IT ON? I NEED TO BUY MYSELF A TELLY!!!!! (and an aerial, and a licence.......yawn!)

no, just watch it on i-player