The Bathtub of Adventures

How I sold my soul for 'Baroque'n'Roll'
(A personal view of 'Prog' - Past -Present and Future)
By Ian Oakley

Part 2. The 2nd Wave 1981-1990 - 'Neo Prog'

I think most people agree that the advent of 'Punk Rock' in Britain 1977 effectively and at least commercially 'killed' the first wave of the 'Prog' movement.

In 1982 things began to change. After half a decade people were rediscovering their love of progressive rock and were unashamed of going against the current fashions ('New Romantic' at that time). The bands soon found a home at the Marquee Club in Wardour Street, London where for the next two years twice a week or so one or other of the leading bands of the movement played host. 'Neo Prog' was born.

Neo Prog.

Another category that can be included under the general discussed 'Prog' banner.
Again British, primarily English in origin with strong similarities to 'Symphonic Prog'. However, the main difference is the strong song based vocal domination using the symphonic element to create colour and contrast rather than the main structural item. It's almost the reverse of Symphonic where the instrumentation was just as, if not in most cases more, important than the song.

Prime examples - Marillion / IQ / Pendragon/ Pallas / Twelfth Night

From a modern musicians point of view, keyboardist Tomas Bodin of Sweden's The Flower Kings argues that the hallmark of Neo Prog was the use of keyboard presets...

I can see where Tomas is coming from but I cant agree Tomas is looking at it purely in terms of keyboard sounds. Yes 'Classic' prog musicians including Tomas do stick to the 'classic' analogue set up: - Strings/ Organ/ Mellotron and piano. Neo 'Prog' is characterized by its 80's keyboard sound set ups BUT that's when it was born and not only did these new keyboards sound 'up to date' they were a damn sight easier to use both in the studio and especially live. They were also very cheap in comparison.

Then 'samples' came along. And what happened? The new 'Prog' keyboardists of today went straight back to the sounds of the classic analogue set up (but in most cases not the actual machines). So we have a real strange situation now in that a re-mastered album from the 80's (classic example Pallas and 'The Sentinel') can sound more dated than an early re-mastered 70's album...

The structure of Neo, being a British phenomenon, was always based on Genesis more than any other band.
Although in the early 70's at least commercially ELP were bigger than Genesis and Yes, Genesis to many were THE quintessential British Prog band*. Yes was number three King Crimson / Van Der Graft Generator were really just cults (except for King Crimsons highly popular debut 'Court Of The Crimson King') and bands like Gentle Giant were a relatively unknown obscurity.

Genesis's albums from 'Trick Of The Tail' to 'Then There Were Three' and maybe some of 'Duke' pointed the way for Neo. (And most of the Neo Proggers (later band members and fans) were at the very impressionably age of 13-16 when Trick Of The Tail came out)…..

After 'Duke' Genesis lost most of their Symphonic sound and increasingly took on the American influences of Motown and 'R and B'. But Punk had happened / Heavy Metal was starting - there was a lot more aggression to the music. So the new bands who were raised on Genesis and liked everything up to, well at least, Wind and Wuthering took off (over?) at the point Genesis arguably became a mainstream pop band. Took that more (simplistic?) Trick Of The Tail symphonic /song sound but added the aggression of punk/ metal.

Importantly -lyrically -a lot had also changed. Whether people liked it or not a lesson was learnt from the Punk movement. Neo's lyrics were a lot more relevant political and direct than any of the perceived 'first wave'. Out went Greek mythology and Science Fiction and in came 'real' observations on life, the Irish 'problem', the cold war, addiction, 'Thatcher's' Britain etc.

* Its interesting for me to hear that in nearly all the American 'Prog' / 'Pomp' bands of the past 20 years the point of reference and main influence seems to have been Yes (big time) / Gentle Giant and King Crimson in that order. With Genesis hardly making an appearance.

Part 3. The 3rd Wave - The Internet and Beyond

Ian Oakley

If you don't have the BoA navigation to the
left of your screen click below to reload