I’ve lived in Edinburgh for 31 years but grew up on Merseyside. I was introduced to progressive rock as a 10 year old in 1972 by an older brother. The first prog albums I remember listening to include Thick As A Brick, Tarkus and Nursery Crimes. Due to the generosity of my sibling I was also able to attend many gigs in the early to mid seventies including Jethro Tull, Al Stewart, Roxy Music, Steeleye Span and Genesis. The Genesis concert was on the Selling England By The Pound tour in late 73 at the Liverpool Empire. The sight of a grown man cavorting around the stage with a flower on his head, bat wings, and talking free form gibberish between numbers, made quite an impression on my 11 year old self. The support act, I seem to recall, was Floyd collaborator Ron Geesin, who was equally weird in his own way.

The first gig I ever saw was The Kinks at the Liverpool Stadium in September 1973. My main recollection of this is one of my brother’s friends pouring beer over me (accidentally, I think). The Kinks might not seem a very prog choice, but nonetheless, Ray Davies did as much as anyone to explore the possibilities of the rock song cycle and concept album.

My own view is that progressive rock is essentially an approach to music (extending the boundaries of rock music in an almost dictionary definition sense of ‘progressive’) rather than a particular sound. Apart from anything else, the beauty of using this definition is that you can include under the ‘progressive’ banner, whether they like it or not, artists not normally considered as part of the canon. My honorary progressive rock artists would certainly include David Bowie and Brian Eno.

My favourite prog rock artists include: Van Der Graaf Generator, Yes, Soft Machine, Caravan, Hatfield and the North, National Health, Gong, Henry Cow, Tangerine Dream, Can, Kevin Ayers, Robert Wyatt, Peter Hammill and, as a folk prog rocker, Roy Harper. A heavy bias towards Canterbury there, but that particular brand of whimsical jazzy rock has always held a special appeal for me.

I listen to lots of music outside of prog and, as distant cousins, would mention the minimalists (particularly Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Gavin Bryars, Michael Nyman and David Borden). None of this is prog, or even rock, but Glass, for example, was certainly influenced by late 60s rock music and, in turn, influenced the likes of Eno and Bowie.

I listen to quite a lot of classical and contemporary classical music, that old oxymoron, and as examples of composers who are mixing acoustic and electronic music, and dissolving genres in interesting ways, I might mention Olafur Arnaulds, Max Richter, Anna Meredith and Mason Bates.

Thanks for reading this and Happy New Year.

A big hello , enjoy ~