A massive debt to 1-2-3

 

Actually, that's absolutely true, Prog didn't happen just because of one band or any one set of circumstances, and would have found it's way regardless. But it's true to say that many British Prog bands would not have set out on the path they took but for 1-2-3's Marquee appearances, particularly YES, THE NICE, and KING CRIMSON. The whole idea of a band playing music with total freedom, odd bar lines and tempi, and rewritten sections of well-known songs definitely came from that source. Sadly, it was above the heads of the music press as well as the general public, two years before Prog became a genre at all. The other sad thing for 1-2-3 was that with Brian Epstein's death and Robert Stigwood's love of the Bee-Gees, the band lost their way for that crucial year or so when progressive music took flower. By the time they regrouped (as Clouds), they were merely part of the mainstream. With no records to confirm their pre-eminent position, this left the credit to the bands who had actually copied them. That's a fact, now acknowledged by history, but much too late to change the minds or perceptions of the record-buying public. Just seems incredibly ironic that a band of such importance to progressive music is a minor footnote to our site!