More Crowing Once
Nine years after their unexpected reunion, Atomic Rooster have returned with their first studio album in more than 40 years. The spooky Circle The Sun shows off an Edgar Allan Poe-inspired gothic vibe with an updated line-up that fans say takes them right back to the 70s. Prog catches up with guitarist Boltz Bolton and drummer Paul Everett find out more.
Words: Dave Ling
The Mighty Rooster are back with a new look and a familiar sound.
Images: Brian Sayle
W hen it comes to coverage in Prog, timing and circumstance were never friends to Atomic Rooster and it’s truly dumbfounding that this is our first interview with them since the magazine began back in 2009. Then again, over the last half-century or so, the existence of Atomic Rooster has been deeply fractured, and a new studio album, Circle The Sun, is the first in a whopping 42 years to bear the group’s name. Case dismissed, m’lud.
Formed in 1969 by keyboardist Vincent Crane and drummer Carl Palmer following the pair’s exit from The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, the latter’s tenure lasted just a year. Fuelled by Crane’s Hammond dark and eerie organ technique, Atomic Rooster went on to make some of the most dramatic and fascinating music of the 1970s, breaking up and reuniting at the dawn of the following decade, though their ambitions of the big time were soon thwarted. On Valentine’s Day 1989, believing he had let down himself and the world, the 45-year-old Crane shifted from this world to the next when he died by suicide. Atomic Rooster were over… or were they?