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Reading Thierry Sportouche’s editorial makes me sad. “Am I getting old? I see less and less young people interested in rock (and I don’t mention prog!). They have other interests. When they listen they prefer pop, commercial music and mainly rap and techno in France. They prefer downloading songs to listening to albums…”
Still, and this is Phil speaking now, there is much interest in progressive rock, and it has become again one of the most listed sub-genres on DISCOGS; the top category is Electronic and not Rock though.
I look through the current issue and must mention the most welcome contributions of Jean- Jacques Perez who does an excellent job on the JADE WARRIOR boxset of their four classic Island alb
ums: detailed, perceptive and not overlong. The same applies to his review of the PETE BARDENS 2 CD set of his solo albums of 1970 and 1971 – expect very little of CAMEL here; also of MAN – LIFE ON THE ROAD, a 6 CD set, again packed full of information to help the reader judge whether to invest or not. The second part of Jean-Jacques tribute to KLAUS SCHULZE is equally insightful.
Kevin Rowland is relatively quiet this issue, but he has still made the time to submit five reviews and has contributed so much in the past as well as his own formidable books (see elsewhere on this site) – well done for bringing the mighty DJAM KARET to our attention after 40 years of existence.
I cannot mention everybody, but I can comment impartially on my great friend Thierry Sportouche’s contributions in introducing me to OVERHEAD, a Finnish symphonic prog band six albums in.
I always enjoy reading Thierry’s friendly and probing interviews – his enthusiasm carries to the artists who respond, in this case, over five pages. Nor does he miss the opportunity to ask about one of Finland’s most famous WIGWAM bands – I had been wondering where they have gone myself. I then discovered their latest album “Telepathic Minds” was being tipped by some Bandcamp fans as a contender for prog album of the year – I definitely feel a review coming!
Also Thierry has generously allowed excerpts from our forthcoming book AROUND EUROPE IN 80 PROGRESSIVE ROCK GROUPS (I got a bit carried away and suggested 180 albums!). Regardless of the, as yet, unfinalised title, I must express my disappointment at the lack of pre-order interest in what we believe is unique in covering the European (excluding UK – already much covered by books) progressive rock scene.
I worry why even our subscribers don’t seem to be interested, especially in the context of Therry’s opening remarks. What hope has prog got if we don’t support such projects? We are not asking for money, merely expressions of interest so we can decide whether we can publish in the form of an illustrated book rather than just a download. Any sales will help fund ACID DRAGON and help to ensure its continuation. Surely the Dragon will not die after all these years through apathy? All we need is an e-mail to phil7jackson@madasafish.com. to give us the strength to continue.
We need more subscribers too! It is only £13/ 16 euros/ 18$ for three professionally produced issues annually.
To give you a taste of the kinds of groups covered in our excerpts from AROUND EUROPE IN 80 PROGRESSIVE ROCK GROUPS there are: ANEKDOTEN, ANGE and APHRODITE’S CHILD; elsewhere there will be the most famous like FOCUS and THE FLOWER KINGS and many others you may have missed along the way.
As far as the current issue is concerned the reviews include BIG BIG TRAIN, HAWKWIND - The Future Never Waits, YES – Mirror to the Sky, and others well worth checking out such as CARAVAGGIO from Italy, SENDELICA and Poland’s WALFAD.
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