It's Prog Jim, Just As We Know It

My name is Old Blodger and I'm a Prog-aholic.

Yes folks, we've reached a time when it's not only safe to declare a love of progressive rock music, it's actually cool. I'm old enough to have lived through Prog's first incarnation. My introduction to 'proper' gigs (I'll gloss over seeing Cliff & the Shadows in panto at the London Palladium at the age of nine) was Emerson, Lake & Palmer in Cardiff's Capitol theatre circa 1972. It had the lot - Emerson's stab-the-Hammond-with-knives trick, Lake's white suit with the tulip lapels, Palmer's three hour drum solo and Tarkus the half tank/half armadillo. Magic. It kicked off a lifelong love affair with all things ending with '-rock', including Hard, Heavy, Kraut, Folk, Jazz, Funk, Symphonic, etc.

I'm tempted to list the gigs that I subsequently attended but it's easier to say that the one major seventies band that I never saw live was Led Zeppelin. I could've, I just didn't want to.

Then, in 1977 my musical world fell apart as Punk reared its ugly little bonce and 'virtuosity' became a dirty word. Prog-rock died overnight, as did nipple-length hair and my wardobe of loons, tank tops and platform boots. Keith Emerson went from sell-out megastadium tours, replete with symphony orchestra backing, to playing his local pub in Sussex.

After a few intense years Punk, too, pretty much died out as a major force and rock gradually regained its foothold during the eighties. It has continued to morph into innumerable sub-genres ever since - Indie, Grunge, Hair Metal, Emo, Sleaze, Death Metal - but, until very recently, Prog remained persona-non-grata, the love that dare not speak its name.

In 1998 a mini media revolution took place when a new magazine called Classic Rock (CR) hit the racks. It started life as very much a niche market product, appealing to a select group of rock's cognoscenti. It covered a wide range of bands and genres from rock's genesis (see what I did there) in the sixties, through the glory days of the seventies and on to the contemporary cutting edge. Looking back, it was a bit chicken and egg. Did CR help create the rebirth of 'classic' rock or was it a reaction to what was already happening? Either way, CR is now one of the UK's best selling music mags, so much so that a few months ago it had the audacity and balls to publish an offshoot mag called 'Classic Rock Presents Prog'. For this to occur there obviously needs to exist a sizeable readership willing to fork out nearly eight quid per issue (try living in Ireland where this sum is miraculously transformed into over eleven euro!!!).

Both CR and its Prog sister are full of articles about, interviews with, and reviews of, hip young bands who've embraced their dads' record collections and are now carrying the torch into the 21st century and beyond. Which is marvellous. I love Muse, Bigelf, The Mars Volta et al but the best thing for me is seeing all the old guys crawling out from under their...er...rocks.

This month's CR's list of upcoming tours includes such luminaries as Jack Bruce, Roger Chapman, Alice Cooper, Curved Air, Deep Purple, Dio, Fleetwood Mac, Focus, Wishbone Ash, Gong with Steve Hillage, Steve Hackett, Hawkwind, Barclay James Harvest, Nazareth, Paul Rodgers, Uriah Heep and ZZ Top. In addition, Yes are playing Dublin at the end of November, Rick Wakeman recently played 'The Six Wives of Henry VIII' in its entirety at Hampton Court and Emerson, Lake and Palmer are all out there gigging, though not with each other. Amazing. It's as though the last thirty five years didn't happen.

And these tours aren't like those packages where a line-up of beat bands from the sixties, consisting of one original member and three twenty year olds, play their greatest hits in Butlins holiday camps. No, these bands may have lost a member or two to death or 'musical differences' along the way but they are largely intact. Neither are they resting on their laurels, the majority of them having recently released brand new material.

Of course, all things must pass, human nature being what it is, and a new derivative of Punk will eventually come along to once again cleanse the world of pompous circumstance, but for now I'm going to enjoy every last guitar twiddle, mellotron flourish, crumhorn toot and interminable drum solo.

Keep the Sabbath dream alive,
oldblodger

P.S. If you want to find out more about Prog (and who doesn't?) there's a myriad of websites dedicated to the genre. A great place to start is at the excellent www.progarchives.com