Letters
Send your letters to us at: Prog, Future Publishing, 121-141 Westbourne Terrace, London, W2 6JR, or email prog@futurenet.com. Letters may be edited for length. We regret that we cannot reply to phone calls. For more comment and prog news and views, find us on facebook.com under Prog.
THE MIGHTY CAPED CRUSADER!
Great to see such an accurate and positive review of Rick Wakeman’s two nights at the London Palladium back in February spread over a double page in Prog 139. I was fortunate to be up in the dress circle on both nights and can honestly say they were two of the best concerts I’ve ever seen in my 54 years of attending such things! What made the shows doubly special was the friendliness of fellow Wakeman fans, whether in the street outside, in nearby restaurants, in the bar or in our seats. I was wearing my 2019 Rick Wakeman T-shirt from the Royal Festival Hall and it acted as a magnet for people coming up to me and striking up a conversation, even a member of the English Chamber Choir on the train home afterwards. As a result of this we attended Cadogan Hall recently to see the choir performing Rachmaninov!
Interesting to note, however, that none of the many people I spoke to had heard of either Prog mag or Porcupine Tree! As John Lennon once said,“Strange days indeed, most peculiar”and I can’t help but wonder if there is maybe a huge untapped market out there of a certain age, which, if opened up, could revolutionise sales of our favourite magazine and prog bands.
I have a vision of our esteemed editor (and maybe Steven Wilson) handing out fliers at concerts by 70s prog bands across the country…
A NEW SPIN ON ZAPPA?
After more than 10 years of Prog, there’s very little from the golden era of the 1970s that you haven’t already covered. Apart from the odd missed band, I can only really think of one topic that I would love to see explored in detail, and that is the interaction of Frank Zappa with the British and European progressive bands of the 1970s.
Recently on YouTube, transcripts have appeared of Frank’s compositions, together with analysis by academic musicians. These confirm that Frank was operating at an almost superhuman level of complexity and inspiration at the same time as progressive rock was being forged from European classical influences on rock on the other side of the Atlantic. This exploration was a much rarer thing in America at the time, and when it did begin to happen, jazz played a large part. What intrigues me is when I encounter throwaway references to Zappa encountering prog bands without further details. In the insert of the Caravan album CD, If I Could Do It All Over Again…, Pye Hastings recalls a 1969 festival in Belgium, where Frank Zappa And The Mothers Of Invention were due to appear, but work permit problems meant that only Frank could perform. He then jammed with several of these groups.
