The "Radio Times" advertises the following programme on BBC Radio 4 tomorrow morning at 10.30 am (Saturday, 1st April - I assume it's not an April Fool!):

"My Wizard - born out of jazz[?!] and killed off by the punk movement, progressive rock spawned numerous mind-altering album sleeves and was catalyst for stadium-rock pomposity. John Aizelwood investigates the phenomenon known as "prog rock" and asks why such a dispirate group of bands were pigeon-holed as "prog" when their influences actually incorporated styles as diverse as classical, jazz, folk and blues. Among those contributing to the programme are former [?] prog rock musicians Keith Emerson, Ian ANderson, Dave Brock and Fish."

There's a picture of a certain tall blonde chap with long flowing hair and cape circa 1975, and a commentary that concludes: "no matter how much the critics hated it, the fans always did and still do love it. It was created by musicians who were bold with their innovations, which puts prog rock closer to radiohead than we might like to accept as the truth."

And you'll be amazed to learn that the BBC is conducting this throrough investigation into prog rock in the space of just...30 minutes..??!!!

Still, apparently Ian Anderson describes prog rockers in the prgramme as "rock n roll lepers" - I imagine anything with Mr ANderson (Ian not Jon) should provide some entertainment!

chopper wrote: Get with it Phil, Snow Dog posted this a few days ago. And I still forgot all about it this morning!

D'oh! He must get his Radio Times before me! And I still missed it too!!

Here's the link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/pip/2pfhl/ - http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/pip/2pfhl/

I popsteg this link in my thread already!!!

How many threads do you guys need????

http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=20931&PN=1&TPN=1 - http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=20931& amp;PN=1&TPN=1

^ The original.......and best thread!!!

I thought it was interesting and funny.''The genre that dare not speak its name''

Ian Anderson is quoted as saying that Pink Floyd were the ultimate prog band then Dave Gilmour is asked whether they were a prog band and he says ''I though we we were Psychedelic!!''

Rick Wakeman likes going into a record shop to buy a prog album to going into a chemist to buy contraceptives!

Ian Anderson can kiss my backside.You should never bite the hand that feeds you and he gnawed all the way up to the elbow. So Tull where a kind of Prog Rock debunking outfit? They just pretended to be part of the genre? Well I say we toss them out of here and hold their fans to ridicule...

What was the point of the program at all? The whole tone was dismissive and mocking,yet the presenter was at pains to point out that A Passion Play topped the US charts and Topographic Oceans the UK chart.

An absolute disgrace....

I enjoyed it. Rick Wakeman was funny talking about Topographic Oceans, and Fish came out with some interesting comments.

You're right about Ian Anderson though Tony R, he was talking total cobblers.

Jethro Tull only did concept albums as "a bit of fun" and a Spinal Tap-style "p!ss take" of the genre? He obviously forgot about Aqualung - an album built around an attack on organised religion. Pretty heavyweight and pretentious concept there I would have thought!

Thanks to those of you who posted the link on the two threads. I did not know about the programme and was able to listen to it this evening via the Internet. I didn't think it was dismissive and mocking, at least not in a nasty way if you know what I mean. But it did have the feel of a documentary about a bygone age.

What is interesting is that they bothered to make the programme at all. I reckon that the Internet is rekindling an interest in Progressive Rock to the extent that it is coming to the attention of today's media.

It was also interesting to hear them making the distinction between "progressive rock" and Progressive Rock (aka 'Prog').

I just listened to the programme and thought it was excellent. Shame it wasn't longer but we're lucky to get a programme like that at all.

It was funny and I liked to hear the people not taking themselves too seriously. I had a good laugh about Alan White getting stuck in the egg and needing oxygen pumped in.

I expect that Ian Anderson has a very narrow definition of what Prog is. He seems to think of it as a short period in the 70's when everyone was making really long songs. I don't think he would say that Aqualung is a progressive rock album. Pink Floyd didn't think of themselves as Prog either, they thought of themselves as more of a psychedelic band.

Tony R wrote: Ian Anderson can kiss my backside.You should never bite the hand that feeds you and he gnawed all the way up to the elbow. So Tull where a kind of Prog Rock debunking outfit? They just pretended to be part of the genre? Well I say we toss them out of here and hold their fans to ridicule... What was the point of the program at all? The whole tone was dismissive and mocking,yet the presenter was at pains to point out that A Passion Play topped the US charts and Topographic Oceans the UK chart. An absolute disgrace....

I enjoy listening to any program about prog, but you make good points, Tony. I was dissapointed with Andersons comments too..  I've heard his views on this before.

The program was too short and the general tone, was dismissive of the enormous success that prog achieved in it's glory days. It compounded the general public perception of prog. In short, why bother going to the effort and expense of making a program about music, or any form of art, if all it's going to do is run it down.