Fully aware of the horrors perpetrated by Soviet leaders against their own citizens and knowing that the Soviet form of communism was deeply flawed, I was still more tolerant of the USSR than of the USA up until Boris Yeltsin oversaw the disbandment of the bloc in 1991 and then carried out dramatic economic reforms in the early 90s; I’d even wanted to expand my horizons with a visit to Leningrad from Helsinki while on an InterRail trip in 1983, but organising a visa while alr

If you thought that the only musical export from Sweden was the over-produced Abba singing meaningless nonsense, you need to reappraise. Not only was Bo Hansson riding the golden age of progressive rock, it was the Swedes who resurrected the genre and began the ‘third wave’, not just as ‘prog’ but as genuine progressive rock in the 90s. Bring on the Bo Hansson, Anekdoten and Änglagård T-shirts!

ProgBlog goes in search of Norwegian prog

It was the 20th anniversary of the live reunion of Van der Graaf Generator in May this year. I eventually secured my seat at the concert...