White Willow. Discovering Launched in 1987, The Laser’s

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IF IT’S OUT THERE, IT’S IN HERE JETHRO TULL’S THICK AS A BRICK HITS 50

The Velvet Opera main man reflects on a remarkable career, plotting a line from the nascent UK psych scene to Alan Parsons, by way of Hair: The Musical, Mick Fleetwood, Cozy Powell and Jon Lord.

He’s the serious leader of King Crimson, a hugely influential guitarist and one half of the playful Toyah & Robert’s Sunday Lunch series, but who is the real Robert Fripp? In an often candid interview, the guitar hero sits down with Prog for the very first time to muse over his lengthy career so far, the collaborations that helped make him the master of Frippertronics and his plans for the future, which include several books and even a spoken-word tour.

Every month we get inside the mind of one of the biggest names in music. This issue it’s Adrian Belew. The Kentucky-born musician was discovered by Frank Zappa while playing in a cover band and went on to work with both David Bowie and Talking Heads. At the beginning of the 80s, he became King Crimson’s lyricist, vocalist, second guitarist and occasional drummer. Over the next few decades, he remained in place throughout several different incarnations of the band and contributed to studio albums including Discipline, Three Of A Perfect Pair and Thrak. He’s recently released his 25th solo record, Elevator, and is also behind the audio manipulation app, FLUX. Prog catches up with him to discuss his past, present and future

SIX BY SIX

Yes give a thrilling performance of some extraordinary

DOMINIQUE LEONETTI (LAZULI)

In a candid and at times emotional interview, John Mitchell reveals the personal traumas – old and new – that went into the making of A Model Life, his harrowing yet ultimately uplifting fifth album as Lonely Robot.

Now four decades into his career in music, No-Man’s Tim Bowness reflects on ageing, the creative spirit and the themes, collaborations and clever editing techniques behind his avant-garde new solo album, Butterfly Mind.

In the absence of a new Spock’s Beard album since 2018’s Noise Floor, keyboardist Ryo Okumoto has made up for lost time with a new solo record, The Myth Of The Mostrophus. He tells Prog about rediscovering his solo groove and how a chance encounter with I Am The Manic Whale’s Michael Whiteman cured his writer’s block.

In December 1980, Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin

Thirty-nine years ago on the summer solstice, Ozric Tentacles formed at Stonehenge Free Festival. This year, the band’s mastermind Ed Wynne celebrated with the release of a new single, taken from his latest collaborative project, Tumbling Through The Floativerse. Wynne reveals how the album with Gracerooms’ Gre Vanderloo came about and what’s next for his main band

For their fifth album, Oceans Of Slumber have traded progressive death metal suites for episodic, eclectic anthems. Vocalist Cammie Beverly guides us through their evolution – and the anger that’s at the heart of Starlight And Ash

Fifty-two years ago, a very different Fairport Convention released Full House. Following up the genre-defining Liege & Lief was always going to be a challenge, but the band’s 1970 studio album became a pivotal point in their career. Released after both founder member Ashley Hutchings and vocalist Sandy Denny had left, it marked the arrival of bassist Dave ‘Peggy’ Pegg. To coincide with its performance in full at this year’s Cropredy Festival, Prog catches up with the album’s four surviving musicians – Richard Thompson, Simon Nicol, Dave Pegg and Dave Mattacks – to uncover the story behind its creation.

When faced with the challenge of writing his first ever solo album, Charlie Griffiths was only ever going to write about one thing. The discovery of the prehistoric tiktaalik gave scientists huge clues as to how fish evolved into mankind, and now the Haken guitarist has combined his passion for palaeontology and prog metal into a remarkable concept album. He talks to Prog about fossils, Serbian opera singers and why the world needs more Derek Shulmans

He was the Glasgow-born skiffle-mad kid who conquered the world, and now Al Stewart’s impressive career is celebrated through a new 50-CD box set, The Admiralty Lights. Now in his seventh decade, the singer-songwriter recalls the making of the set’s centrepiece, Past, Present & Future; an album that saw him ditch love songs in favour of history books and very nearly lose out to The Wombles along the way.

Since their inception in 2017, experimental rockers Black Midi have gone from strength to strength bringing their eclectic sounds to new ears. But all that might have come to a head were it not for the enforced break that came about in early 2020. The trio tell Prog how they found new energy to fuel their latest release, Hellfire, and why they certainly won’t be writing a political album any time soon.

Just when Astra looked like prog’s next stars, the band’s spark fizzled out. Ten years after his last album, Conor Riley returns with Birth, plugging into the cosmos and making the music he loves for its own sake. Prog catches up with him to discuss reinvention and his new band’s debut record, Born.