Back in 2015, the lack of availability of albums by progressivo Italiano band Jumbo forced me to buy a download of DNA, the first of...

The headline for a review of a Procol Harum gig in The Independent from early December 2014 suggested that Procol Harum should be...

I’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...

Lewes is a really pleasant place, nestled in the Sussex Downs and only 50 minutes from Croydon. The name Lewes has two possible...

When did prog emerge? That's one of the great prog questions...

I was a bit shocked, though not at all surprised, to hear Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has hired former M&S chief executive Stuart Rose...

Towards the end of the golden era of progressive rock, the denigration of the genre took a number of different forms. One of these was...

The annual dash for number one at Christmas refers to singles and thus excludes the vast majority of prog. In recent years it’s been the...

Lean years for prog? When I moved on from the Transfusion Centre in 1986 to work at Charing Cross Hospital, part of my leaving present...

Prog was born in an era of possibilities, at a time of cultural and social freedom brought about by some amazing technological...

Neo-prog The rise of neo-prog coincided with my time at the Transfusion Centre, which largely passed me by. The absence of column inches...

There’s an almost unspoken agreement that jazz-rock fusion comes under the prog umbrella. This relationship, forged in the late 60s and...

University challenges I arrived at university with the best hi-fi system in my hall of residence. I’d worked at the steel mill in Barrow...

Citizen Smith At the start of the third year Jim and I went to see Barbara Thompson at the Tramshed and, to Jim’s surprise, he knew the...

There is an increasing amount of printed information about Rock Progressivo Italiano (RPI.) From the odd line or two in the original...

Barrow Civic Hall (subsequently Forum 28, now the Forum) was a concert hall with decent acoustics and the venue for my earliest gig...

School inadvertently fuelled my love for all things prog. Our old fashioned wooden desks had lids so that you could leave your belongings...

In mid-May I was in Dublin to see Steve Hackett and while I was there I indulged in some retail therapy. Tower Records in Wicklow Street...

In the early 70s, radio was a vital medium which began to play an increasingly important role in my interest in prog. Though BBC Radio 3...

Though most readers will have a good understanding of the term ‘progressive rock’ it is inherent in the nature of many prog fans to query...