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The award-winning ProgBlog 

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Most people have heard of progressive rock (or prog rock, or simply prog) but the great majority of them treat it with mild disdain (at best) or outright hatred (at worst). Most of the criticism is a mindless rejection based on current trends and a misunderstanding of the genre; “dinosaur” is a common term of abuse, neatly parodied by Adrian Belew on King Crimson’s 1994 album Thrak.

There is an increasing quantity of literature on the subject, ranging from the analytical or academic (Edward Macan, Rocking the Classics; Kevin Holme-Hudson, Progressive Rock Revisited) to the fairly straightforward lists (Charles Snider, The Strawberry Bricks Guide to Progressive Rock.) There are also thousands of fans out there who not only continue to attend concerts, but also contribute to a growing network of fanzines and on-line forums. Fans are even served by Prog, a glossy magazine from Future Publishing entirely devoted to prog in all its forms founded in 2009 and still going strong.

The ProgBlog has been put together to encourage discussion about progressive rock music illustrated by personal observation.

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Gig review

Porto Antico Prog Fest 2025 - Genova

2nd - 3rd August 2025

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The 10th edition of the Porto Antico Prog Fest was an all-Italian affair dedicated to the memory of The Trip's Joe Vescovi and of Vilma Bonezzi.

There was a degree of continuity from the 2024 festival but there were also two 50th anniversary releases to celebrate, Goblin's Profondo Rosso sound track and Etna's self titled album which featured Elio Volpini from L'Uovo di Colombo.

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Latest album review

Yak - The Pink Man & The Bishop

(2025)

The Pink Man & The Bishop is Yak's fourth release, coming a decade after Quest For The Stones which is reviewed in these pages.

It's almost entirely the work of original member Martin Morgan, it's unmistakably Yak and it's excellent keyboard-dominated symphonic progressive rock.

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Latest posts from the archive

A continuing project to restore lost blogs and gig reviews unavailable since the migration of the site to a new webhost in 2021

Blog: Electrostatic maelstrom

Prompted by a post on the r/progrockmusic subreddit concerning 'Van der Graaf Generator and other dark music genres' I dusted off a blog from May 2015 (the 10th anniversary of the reunion) and updated the piece as my reply.

This article is based on that response and reflects a further 10 years of my experience of the band

 

Gig review: Porto Antico Prog Fest - Genova

5th - 6th August 2023

​It's always worth a trip to Genoa for the Porto Antico Prog Fest but the headline acts on the two nights, Änglagård marking the 30th anniversary of their debut Hybris and Area Open Project, celebrating the 50 years of Arbeit Mach Frei, made it even more special

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06 The ProgBlog June 2025 playlist.gif

 

Archive ProgBlog playlists can be found here:

2015     2017     2018     2019     2020     2021     2022     2023     2024     2025

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