Issue 150

Prog

At the forefront of the modern day progressive music revival.

Prog1 min read
PROG PRESENTS… Discovering
A story that began at the legendary Marquee Club in London’s Wardour Street has finally arrived at the chapter where Prog writer Martin Kielty describes Solstice as “the band they were always meant to be”. With the beguiling presence of vocalist Jess
Prog1 min read
What’s On Your Free Solstice Digital Album
Taken from Silent Dance Taken from New Life Taken from Circles Taken from Spirit Taken from Kindred Spirits Taken from Prophecy Taken from Sia Taken from Sia Taken from Live In Veruno Taken from Light Up Taken from Return To Cropredy Taken from The S
Prog2 min read
Ed’s Letter
Hello and welcome to the latest issue of Prog. So then, issue 150! And little over 15 years since we launched this title back in 2009. Some of you have been with us since that very first issue with Pink Floyd on the front cover; some have joined in a
Prog6 min read
Bloody Well Write
Hard to believe it’s been 15 years since Prog magazine launched. I’ve been a reader since the first issue was unleashed with‘Pink Floyd & The Gods of Prog’. Progressive rock is a music that’ll never, ever go away. Nearly 20 years ago, I discovered ba
Prog1 min read
Prog
Editor Jerry Ewing Deputy Editor Natasha Scharf Art Editor Russell Fairbrother Production Editor Vanessa Thorpe News Editor Julian Marszalek Reviews Editor Dave Everley Associate Editor Jo Kendall Content Director Scott Rowley Jeremy Allen (JA), Joe
Prog3 min read
The Heat Goes On As Asia Return Again
Yes keyboard player Geoff Downes has teamed up with Lonely Robot’s John Mitchell, Planet X drummer Virgil Donati and singer Harry Whitley for a new version of Asia inspired by the same line-up’s performance at last year’s John Wetton memorial concert
Prog1 min read
Moody Blues’ Mike Pinder Dead At 82
Mike Pinder, one of the founding members of The Moody Blues, has died at the age 82. His passing was confirmed by his family and fellow Moodies bandmate John Lodge. Pinder had been the last surviving founding member of the band. Drummer Graeme Edge p
Prog1 min read
50th Anniversary Tribute For Cult Kevin Ayers Show
The 50th anniversary of the sold-out gig at the Rainbow Theatre in Finsbury Park, London by the incredible line-up of Kevin Ayers of Soft Machine fame, former Velvet Underground members John Cale and Nico, and a newly solo Brian Eno, and the live alb
Prog2 min read
Focus Are Back With New Material
Dutch prog legends return with Focus 12 on July 5 via on Spirit Of Unicorn Music, coinciding with a month-long tour supporting Asia’s Heat Of The Moment North American tour the same month. Released on vinyl, CD and digital platforms, it’s their first
Prog2 min read
Azure Go Full Blown Conceptual
Prog metallers Azure have revealed the depth of emotional investment that has gone into their third album, Fym. Their first fully committed concept album is out on May 23 via Marquee Avalon. “It was all a lot of work, but it was very joyful and emoti
Prog2 min read
Haken Bring Epic Show Back Home
Brits Haken will bring their special‘An Evening With’ shows to the UK and Europe this autumn. Having debuted the show concept in the USA earlier this year, they’re set unleash their“indescribable and indulgent” extravaganza in some of the biggest ven
Prog1 min read
Soundle Weekend Music Festival 2024 Is Go
Symphonic progressive rockers The Emerald Dawn and prog veterans Solstice have been confirmed as the headliners for the Soundle Weekend Music Festival 2024. Having taken a year off after its inaugural event, which was held in the market town of Oundl
Prog2 min read
Hfmc Weigh Up Fate And Freedom
For Eternal Snapshots, the fifth studio album from HFMC, out on June 6 via Glassville Records, singer and guitarist Hasse Fröberg was determined to stretch himself as a songwriter. “I wanted to force myself to write lyrics in a new way,” he says. “Th
Prog2 min read
Fad Gadgets
Between 1996 and 2011, Danish highend firm Bang & Olufsen produced the Beosound 9000, a beautiful (and expensive) six-CD changer, which you could mount on the wall and show off proudly to your guests. With the growing enthusiasm for physical media an
Prog1 min read
Justin Hayward Extends The Blue World Tour
Justin Hayward has announced a run of seven additional UK dates this autumn as part of his ongoing The Blue World tour, which includes two shows in Scotland – his first dates north of the border in five years. Joining him on the tour are guitarist Mi
Prog2 min read
Lauri Porra
THE TAPESTRY OF Lauri Porra’s musical identity has been sewn together by myriad threads. A fourth-generation musician raised in a classical household in Helsinki (he’s a direct descendant of composer Sibelius), he went in search of new musical horizo
Prog2 min read
Kris Barras
“It was their guitarist, Tony MacAlpine, who first drew me in, although Brett Garsed, who was the guitarist on their last album, Quantum, is a player that I’ve loved as well. From about the age of 15 and into my early 20s, I had this thing where I go
Prog2 min read
The Last Dinner Party
(Island/Universal, 2024) In 2022, a five-piece group called The Dinner Party were lauded by mainstream media as the new saviours of pop, a theatrical Queen-Kate Bush hybrid for Gens Z and Alpha. Signed to a major label, they’d supported The Rolling S
Prog2 min read
Myrath
Zaher Zorgati and Kevin Codfert – the singer and the keyboardist producer respectively of Tunisian prog metellars Myrath – are laughing loud and long, incredulous at the cliché that bands make music for themselves and if anyone else likes it then“it’
Prog3 min read
Pallbearer
CELEBRATED DOYENS OF progressive doom metal, Pallbearer became legendary almost immediately. Debut album Sorrow And Extinction emerged in 2012 to widespread acclaim, as this mysterious band from Little Rock, Arkansas, skilfully blended enormous, post
Prog1 min read
US, THEM & YOU
Compiled by 1 HAWKWIND Stories From Time And Space (CHERRY RED) 2 JANE WEAVER Love In Constant Spectacle (FIRE) 3 PETER GABRIEL i/o (REAL WORLD RECORDS) 4 MIKE OLDFIELD Tubular Bells – 50th Anniversary Edition (UMC) 5 TAME IMPALA Lonerism (FICTION) 6
Prog2 min read
Win! Carl Palmer Box Set
He’s best known for his role in Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s iconic sound. Now drummer Carl Palmer’s work is celebrated with his own career-defining box set, Fanfare For The Common Man. We have a copy to give away to a lucky reader this month. The three-
Prog3 min read
Final Coil
FINAL COIL WAS originally a solo project born from the mind of multi-instrumentalist Phil Stiles back in 2002, but it didn’t remain a one-man band for long. After meeting guitarist Richard Awdry through a mutual friend, the duo wrote and recorded som
Prog1 min read
Now Our Turn…
Jerry Ewing BILL FISHER How To Think Like A Billionaire SEPTAPHONIC RECORDS Russell Fairbrother KEVIN KASTNING & MARK WINGFIELD Rubicon II GREYDISC RECORDS Natasha Scharf CALEB LANDRY JONES Hey Gary, Hey Dawn SACRED BONES Christopher Sampson JOHNNY C
Prog3 min read
Plantoid
IT TOOK PLANTOID three moves around the UK – from Lincoln to London to Brighton – for roots to form, to find a supportive record label, and for their career to blossom further. Although the bandmembers are still young in age, theirs is certainly not
Prog15 min read
“Like Having A Brick Wall coming At You!”
At the completion of a take on the new instrumental track, Robert Fripp, Bill Bruford and John Wetton down tools and file out of the heavily padded door in Olympic’s Studio Two and into the adjacent control room, where engineer George Chkiantz sits a
Prog2 min read
Red And Me: Mel Collins
Sax player Mel Collins – who had previously appeared on 1970’s In The Wake Of Poseidon, Lizard and 1971’s Islands – split from King Crimson, alongside bandmates Boz Burrell and Ian Wallace, after a long and often difficult US tour in early 1972. Quic
Prog2 min read
Red And Me: David Cross
In 2023 the David Cross Band released Ice Blue, Silver Sky, which aside from a collection of original material also featured two King Crimson numbers the violinist had a hand in writing, Exiles from Larks’ Tongues In Aspic and Starless. The latter tr
Prog2 min read
Red And Me: Jakko Jakszyk
“In 1974 I was 16 years old and I briefly worked in the record department of WH Smith’s on Watford High Street. The albums arrived in large boxes and I used to unpack them. I knew the release dates of various records and so I knew that when those box
Prog2 min read
Red And Me: Pat Mastelotto
“I first saw King Crimson at the Cow Palace in San Francisco in June 1974. They opened for Ten Years After. They played a short set, but they played Starless. I know because I left with the bass riff and the coda going through my head for weeks after
Prog4 min read
Q&A CHARLIE BRAMALD
Since joining Ghost Of The Machine in 2022, Yorkshire-based vocalist Charlie Bramald has kept himself busy. He’s also released music with ambient proggers Nova Cascade, alt rock/prog hybrid Shadows On Mercury and Nine Skies, which has helped him leav
Prog7 min read
The Beat Goes On
When King Crimson mastermind Robert Fripp leaked curious details of BEAT in spring 2024, more than a few eyebrows were raised. The project celebrates King Crimson’s 80s albums Discipline (1981), Beat (1982) and Three Of A Perfect Pair (1984). Think o
Prog5 min read
Soul Trader
Last year Oliver Wakeman’s record label politely pointed out that he hadn’t made an album of his own for a long, long time. He was taken aback; to him it felt like he’d barely stopped releasing music. There was Collaborations – the 2022 box set featu
Prog5 min read
Where Words Are Not (Always) Needed
On 2020’s These Are Not Your Dreams, Australian post-rock trio Sleepmakeswaves threw caution to the wind. Swerving producers and deadlines, they did things on their own terms. For a band that guitarist Otto Wicks-Green says are “always learning”, tha
Prog7 min read
A Traveller Of Time And Space
The good rocketship Hawkwind have launched their 36th studio album into the progosphere! On Stories From Time And Space, the group have lost none of their sense of injustice about the world. Bandleader Dave Brock reveals the drive behind their new mu
Prog7 min read
Lone Star
One of the most reliable and prolific prog bands of the 21st century, The Tangent are nothing if not adaptable. Two years on from Songs From The Hard Shoulder, these revered veterans are about to release a record with one significant difference. Defy
Prog7 min read
Shifting Gear
The last time Prog spoke to Wheel, the future looked bright. The Anglo-Finnish band were about to release their second album, Resident Human, and frontman James Lascelles seemed in good spirits as he discussed mindfulness and the benefits of yoga and
Prog1 min read
Led Chapstick
Alex Lifeson’s guitar contribution isn’t the only link to rock and fusion royalty on The New Normal. Soft Machine’s Theo Travis plays sax on Daddy Long Legs, while Sibling Rivalry features Beggs playing a vintage Chapman Stick that had previously bel
Prog7 min read
S* A* S*
Whatever you choose to call it: “difficult second album syndrome” or “sophomore slump”, it remains a threatening, hovering spectre for bands that have created cracking debut records. Whether caused by a lack of suitable songs or a psychological dread
Prog6 min read
Far From Normal
“I have to be honest with you, I’m not really a prog musician,” confesses Nick Beggs. That’s a disarming proclamation from a musician who has played with Steven Wilson, Steve Hackett, led the prog power trio The Mute Gods, and who recently filled in
Prog7 min read
Apollo Has Fallen
Derek Sherinian is more bashful and reserved than usual. The former Dream Theater and Sons Of Apollo keyboard player has been known to be somewhat scathing of his old bandmates. Indeed, there was a sense that the muchlauded Sons Of Apollo project – w
Prog13 min read
The Prog Interview Anthony Phillips
Anthony Phillips can often be portrayed as a loser in the labyrinthine Genesis saga. A founder member of the storied outfit, he came from the Anon camp right back there at Charterhouse, with Mike Rutherford and Richard Macphail. Phillips was instrume
Prog47 min read
Yes
For a band as accustomed to turbulence as Yes, the 1990s seemed especially unstable. If the 70s were their crowning progressive years and the 80s an MTV-assisted commercial triumph, the 90s looked confusing and clouded – not made any easier by 1991’s
Prog2 min read
Art Rock
It’s been 35 years since German post-punk pioneers Xmal Deutschland’s last album, but Codes (Sacred Bones), the comeback of singer/frontwoman Anja Huwe, is fresh and thrilling. Proudly dramatic, and often using bilingual spoken-word techniques, it co
Prog1 min read
The Uk’s Biggest Heavy Metal Magazine
Available from all good newsagents and supermarkets NEW ISSUE ON SALE NOW THE BIGGEST BANDS. THE HEAVIEST MUSIC. WORLD-EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS. BUY YOUR ISSUE TODAY PRINT EDITION AVAILABLE FROM HTTPS://TINYURL.COM/METALHAMMERMAG DIGITAL EDITIONS AVAILAB
Prog2 min read
And Last But Not Least
Multifaceted Argentinian artist Gabriel Agudo has sung regularly for The Steve Rothery Band, and the favour’s returned on his ambitious second solo album. Tales & Thunders (bit.ly/GabrielAgudo) is an engaging selection of modern prog songs embracing
Prog2 min read
Progressive Folk
Winter McQuinn has a varied CV: Aussie psych pop soft rocker, double Bachelor of Music graduate, frontman of Melbourne area pop candy quintet Sunfruits, freelance publicist at Third Eye Stimuli Records or co-founder of environmental music organisatio
Prog3 min read
Jethro Tull
VENUE THE LONDON PALLADIUM DATE 23/04/2024 “If that didn’t make you depressed, this one certainly will,” chuckles Ian Anderson as he leads the current line-up of Jethro Tull into a barnstorming version of Dark Ages, a chilling look at climate change
Prog2 min read
Mew With Danish Chamber Orchestra
VENUE BARBICAN HALL, LONDON DATE 03/04/2024 Rock bands playing with orchestras isn’t always an idea which works. Sometimes the two elements can pull against each other or sit awkwardly, as if on a mismatched blind date. And sometimes the strategy jus
Prog3 min read
Hawkwind
VENUE O2 CITY HALL, NEWCASTLE DATE 05/04/2024 The warriors on the edge of time (or maybe borrowed time, of which more later) breeze into the toon on a Friday night and land at a respectably attended but not heaving City Hall, on the very day their ne
Prog2 min read
John Mitchell
VENUE THE CAMDEN CLUB, LONDON DATE 06/04/2024 SUPPORT STORM DEVA The last time John Mitchell played solo in London, last February at the Islington Assembly Hall, it probably wasn’t his best performance. Erroneously billed as ‘An Evening With John Mit
Prog2 min read
Zombi
VENUE SCHUBAS TAVERN, CHICAGO, IL, USA DATE 05/04/2024 Schubas Tavern is an intimate venue in the Lakeview neighborhood that’s built around the ideal connection between the performer and the audience. From time to time, that means nearly blowing said
Prog2 min read
Spriggan Mist
VENUE THE 1865, SOUTHAMPTON DATE 24/03/2024 SUPPORT THE WOOD DEMONS Few bands would enlist a world-champion kickboxer to lead their pre-gig routine, but it’s all part of Spriggan Mist’s unique approach. As the headliners limber up backstage with Kloe
Prog3 min read
Myrkur
VENUE ACADEMY 2, MANCHESTER DATE 09/04/2024 SUPPORT JONATHAN HULTÉN Like some fey guardian peering from the eaves of a primaeval forest, Myrkur straddles different worlds. The onewoman project of Danish multi-instrumentalist Amalie Bruun was initiall
Prog2 min read
Soft Machine
VENUE RONNIE SCOTT’S JAZZ CLUB, LONDON DATE 10/04/2024 In an onstage announcement, Soft Machine guitarist John Etheridge dedicates tonight’s concert to drummer John Marshall, who first played in the Softs in 1972 and died in 2023, proclaiming him as
Prog3 min read
Kyros
VENUE OSLO HACKNEY, LONDON DATE 25/04/2024 SUPPORT AZURE, LEONI JANE KENNEDY Well, this is a turn-up for the books. We’re at a prog gig (obviously) not exclusively populated by people of, er, (cough) a certain age. And there’s an outbreak of dancing
Prog2 min read
Chelsea Wolfe
VENUE HEAVEN, LONDON DATE 02/04/2024 SUPPORT MAUD THE MOTH Chambered within old brick arches, Heaven resembles more of an ancient tomb than the setting for one of London’s most vibrant LGBTQ+ nightclubs, its shadowy structure befitting the ever-myste
Prog1 min read
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Prog7 min read
Winter’s End
VENUE THE DRILL HALL, CHEPSTOW DATE 12/04/2024-14/04/2024 Many times, at both Winter’s and Summer’s End festivals, Prog has commented about being introduced to bands from beyond the UK who wouldn’t necessarily get the chance to play here, which goes
Prog3 min read
Kevin Comeau (crown Lands)
Where’s home? Uxbridge, Ontario: the Trail Capital of Canada. Your earliest memory of prog? I uploaded my uncle’s Rush albums onto my iPod Nano when I was 14. The first album I listened to was A Farewell To Kings. Xanadu was the first time I heard Ta

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