Ed’s Letter

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INTRO

IF IT’S OUT THERE, IT’S IN HERE

Q&A

DAVID PAICH

DARK AND GREY: SIX OF THE BEST

Forty years ago, Genesis’ classic line-up reunited for a one-off show at the Milton Keynes Bowl. Billed as Six Of The Best, its aim was to raise money for Peter Gabriel’s then debtridden WOMAD project. Although the concert was never recorded, it holds a special place in the hearts of bandmembers and fans alike, who look back and recall the time that one of the UK’s biggest prog bands performed in a very muddy clay pit.

HUGH BANTON

Every month we get inside the mind of one of the biggest names in music. This issue it’s Hugh Banton. As Van der Graaf Generator’s longestserving keyboard player, his distinctive organ lines have underpinned the band’s best-known songs over three key periods of their career. Here, the one-time BBC engineer and organ builder recounts VdGG’s formative years and their reunion in the mid-00s – as explored in the new box set, Interference Patterns. He reveals to Prog why he’s proud of their creative output… and why he finally accepts the prog rock label.

JEAN-MICHEL JARRE

Progressive electronic pop doyen goes on a binaural odyssey by way of a trip back to Paris and 1968.

PORCUPINE TREE

Porcupine Tree: still one of modern prog’s finest

ORGAN REFRAMED

VENUE UNION CHAPEL, LONDON DATE 16/09/2022 Considering its

A SUNDAY IN SEPTEMBER

Voyager: kings and queen of prog singalongs! VENUE

MY PROG

HANS RUTTEN (THE GATHERING)

Waiting To Happen

It was their second album with vocalist Steve Hogarth, but Marillion’s Holidays In Eden was far from an easy ride. Originally released in 1991 and recently reissued as a deluxe package, the band’s sixth studio release found them struggling to replicate the commercial success they’d enjoyed in the 80s without compromising themselves artistically. Hogarth, Mark Kelly and Pete Trewavas look back on the challenges of creating their ‘pop’ album.

Black Moon

Since she emerged on the post-rock scene in 2019, British singer-songwriter AA Williams has defied expectations and followed her own path. Whether that’s through performing with experimental Japanese group MONO, reworking her debut EP with a 10-piece string ensemble, or giving Radiohead’s Creep a haunting makeover. Prog catches up with her to discuss her reflective second album, As The Moon Rests, and staying sane.

All God’s Children

King’s X have described it as “the most enjoyable album” they’ve recorded to date and Three Sides Of One serves as a reminder that the trio have no plans to pack up their instruments. Despite having had a challenging few years, bassist and frontman Dug Pinnick tells Prog why the time was right to make a bold return with their first new material in 14 years.

Theory of evolution

With a new singer and a new album, the future looks bright for Arena. Prog catches up with co-founder member Clive Nolan and new vocalist Damian Wilson to hear more about their 10th record, The Theory Of Molecular Inheritance, and how they’re finding a new lease of life nearly 30 years in.

The Post-War Dream

On Robin Armstrong’s ninth album as Cosmograf, he turns to the past in the hope of building a better future. The musician tells Prog about the fictional World War Two veteran at the heart of Heroic Materials and the music that inspired his tale.

Between The Lines

After much critical acclaim was heaped on their 2017 epic, Legends Of The Shires, prog metal exponents Threshold are back with their 12th studio album, the darkly brooding Dividing Lines. With tensions between bandmembers past and present now resolved, founding guitarist and producer Karl Groom sheds some light on the bleak themes it explores.

All The Rage

Forty-one years ago, Ultravox entered Conny Plank’s studio in West Germany to record the follow-up to the hugely successful Vienna. They had no songs and no ideas, but over the course of several months, the experimental Rage In Eden began to take shape. Midge Ure, Billy Currie and Warren Cann reminisce over the creation of an album that not only reached the UK Top 5 but also earned them comparisons to Genesis!

Bleed From Within

When …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead celebrated their 25th anniversary in 2020 with the release of X: The Godless Void And Other Stories, they certainly weren’t planning on creating a follow-up quite so soon. Two years on, multi-instrumentalist Conrad Keely tells Prog how XI: Bleed Here Now was inspired by a certain Canadian band and why they decided to embark on their very own journey into quadraphonic sound.

Joy is of essence of success!

Across their previous two albums, Heilung have used dark progressive neofolk to provide a window into Europe’s past. But on their latest, the experimental collective pay tribute to early civilisations a little further afield. Composer and throat singer Kai Uwe Faust explains how they’ve used ancient instruments, arcane scrolls and algebra to bring the mysterious Drif to life.