garethsprogblogApr 196 minBrighton rockBrighton is a progressive city, including the constituency of the only Green Party MP in the UK. Under normal circumstances, much less...
garethsprogblogMar 297 minHow prog is skiing?The Page family annual ski trips have resumed after quite understandable Covid restrictions kept the European pistes closed to UK...
garethsprogblogMar 188 minProg and the violinSometime in 1978 or 1979 in a Zoology class at Goldsmiths’, fellow students Jo Wallace and Karen Fraser were discussing the use of the...
garethsprogblogFeb 117 minEconomicsI pay £1.50 for four pints (2.27 litres) of milk at our local Co-op which is a third more than is strictly necessary. Our local...
garethsprogblogFeb 96 minTickets, please!When I first started going to Italy with the intention of seeing a live band, I felt I had to buy a ticket beforehand. Navigating...
garethsprogblogDec 6, 20215 minDoing What I Know For God And The Economy (and Independent Record Stores)The badly managed response to the effects of Covid on the music industry has been commented on in the ProgBlog pages and in a recent...
garethsprogblogJul 10, 20207 minLive albums for lockdown (part 2)While a live album can’t compare with being physically present at a gig, the best of them are able to convey a sense of outstanding music...
garethsprogblogJul 3, 20207 minLive albums for lockdown (part 1)By this time of the year in 2019, even with a slow start, I’d seen ten gigs and attended Steve Hackett’s The Edge of Light playback,...
garethsprogblogJun 14, 20207 minLockdown singles and EPsEven though much of the world has been in lockdown to reduce the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, many musicians have been working away...
garethsprogblogJul 7, 20188 minThe NHS at 70Britain’s National Health Service celebrated its 70th anniversary last week, having come into effect on July 5th 1948. Despite a...
garethsprogblogFeb 5, 20177 minJohn WettonI bought myself a bass guitar shortly after my 18th birthday, a Fender Precision copy with a sunburst finish and no manufacturer’s...
garethsprogblogNov 6, 20165 minStrange but trueI visited the You Say You Want a Revolution? Records and Rebels 1966 - 1970 exhibition at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum in November...
garethsprogblogApr 25, 20165 minThe Fender RhodesThe desire for the authentic sounds of the 70s harboured by some modern prog bands has led to a quiet revolution in digital samples. The...
garethsprogblogMar 13, 20166 minKeith EmersonAlready 2016 seems to have been blighted by more high-profile musician deaths than previous years. I was still reading articles about Sir...
garethsprogblogSep 12, 20155 minBuilding utopia with progI was offered, and accepted, a new job this week. My rolling post-retirement contract with the private organisation that was drafted in...
garethsprogblogJul 4, 20155 minChris SquireChris Squire died on 27th June 2015. He was being treated for Acute Erythroid Leukaemia in Phoenix, Arizona. A true giant of the bass,...
garethsprogblogApr 20, 20156 minWar and peaceIt’s indisputable that progressive rock was a genre of grand concepts from the straightforward interpretation of classic novels (Camel’s...
garethsprogblogFeb 1, 20156 minThe magic fluteBack in 2015, the lack of availability of albums by progressivo Italiano band Jumbo forced me to buy a download of DNA, the first of...
garethsprogblogDec 7, 20145 minBurmese BlueThe headline for a review of a Procol Harum gig in The Independent from early December 2014 suggested that Procol Harum should be...
garethsprogblogJul 12, 20147 minThe instruments of Prog: the Mellotron and the mini-MoogI’ve been lucky enough to play around on a Mellotron but I didn’t have the foresight to buy the Beast. The instrument was in a music shop...