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David Surkamp's emotive, stratospherically high voice and aching, melancholic songs distinguished 1975's Pampered Menial and 1976's At The Sound Of The Bell, the two revered classics for which his band, [...]

Peggy to his friends, Dave Pegg is one of prog's most affable and gregarious individuals: a virtuosic, Brummie-born bassist who professes to have taught Fairport Convention and Jethro Tull how [...]

When Triumph re-formed briefly to play 2008's Sweden Rock festival, there was just one problem: they'd barely spoken to each other in 20 years. Collecting gongs at an awards ceremony [...]

Giuliano 'Jools' Gizzi still remembers Gun's first time on Top Of The Pops. It was August 1989, and their debut single Better Days had charted. Young Glaswegian upstarts in ripped [...]

Some solo careers are born of turmoil; a sudden, dramatic rift between an artist and the band in which they made their name. Steve Hackett's solo debut album Voyage Of [...]

This is solo album number 30,' explains Steve Hackett. 'I suppose if I keep at it there's a possibility of the John Wayne award for 'Most Westerns In The Saddle'!' [...]

Long after they had gone their separate ways, original Thin Lizzy guitarist Eric Bell encountered Phil Lynott shopping. 'I was walking past a 7-Eleven in London', Bell says today. 'I [...]

By 1973, the year in which Nektar made their most celebrated album, Remember The Future, the four virtuoso Brits who comprised the group were honorary Germans. They lived in Germany, [...]

'They've come over the water from Canada... Max Webster Band!' That was Radio 1 DJ Peter Powell introducing the Websters on Top Of The Pops in May 1979. Like many [...]

Like Django Reinhardt or Wes Montgomery, Pat Metheny is that relatively rare thing: a jazz guitarist who has become a household name. 'Jazz' doesn't begin to cover his remit, though, [...]

'The Strawbs' farewell album?' says Dave Cousins. 'Who told you that?' The esteemed prog folk act's sole constant since they formed in London in 1964, Cousins is referring to The [...]

With more than 30 studio albums to his name, Canadian guitarist Pat Travers really should be better/more widely known. But, he says, our destiny is not something we have control [...]

The last of Kevin Ayers' initial four solo LPs for Harvest, 1973's Bananamour has an inside-cover photo that captures him in all his louche decadence. Dressed in a suave white [...]

Playfully pro-umlaut, Jethro Tull's 23rd studio album, RokFlote, began life as an LP of flute instrumentals, but ended up being a scholarly song collection exploring Norse mythology and paganism. This [...]

Where improbable tales from rock's annals are concerned, Magna Carta's story fits the bill. They had encounters with ghosts, David Bowie and human entrails; and gigs in the Gaza Strip, [...]

Sufjan Stevens' sixth studio LP proper was always going to be tricky. Having earlier vowed to write a series of 50 albums themed around each of the USA's 50 states, [...]

Familiarity with your interviewee's whole career tends to grease the wheels, especially if you have an informed take on that deep-cut only seasoned fans know. But what if the artist [...]

The links between music and archery are not often discussed. Intriguing, then, that Conrad Keely believes his band's current album, XI: Bleed Here Now, benefited from him accessing his inner [...]

Some bands baulk at the big questions. Not Crippled Black Phoenix. During a four-way call with Justin Greaves and his Swedish bandmates Belinda Kordic and Joel Segerstedt, Prog queries their [...]

The way Envy Of None's bassist Andy Curran tells it, the 'humble origins' of the band owe something to a romantic little ditty titled Liquor & Whores. A 2017 single [...]

Formerly with 90s indie act The Auteurs, then art-pop trio Black Box Recorder, Luke Haines has long enjoyed journeying off-piste. A misanthropic provocateur whose 2009 memoir, Bad Vibes: Britpop And [...]

Lindisfarne's 1972 smash Lady Eleanor was an unlikely hit, not least because it was about snuffing it. 'It's a very mystical song, but I know it's about death,' the Geordie [...]

ELBOW Audio Vertigo POLYDOR The Bury band dream harder, ensuring their 10th LP is special. As Elbow's frontman Guy Garvey and his band of brothers push the envelope on their [...]

VENUE OLD FIRE STATION, CARLISLE DATE 30/11/2023 Introducing All Fall Down, the late Lindisfarne mainstay Alan Hull's 1972 protest song about the demolition of parts of Newcastle's beautiful old city, [...]

It takes inspiration and real compositional flair to make a solo guitar piece fly, but Steve Howe has done it time and time again. From The Yes Album's live gem [...]

There are albums that seem untimely, out of season. This ain't one of them. Deeply poignant, and suffused in autumnal melancholy, Luminescence is a darkly beautiful record, which chimes with [...]

VENUE WYLAM BREWERY, NEWCASTLE DATE 19/09/2023 'We hardly drink these days,' says Wishbone's Ash's venerable leader Andy Powell, alluding to tonight's ale manufacturing venue. Recreating the tracklisting of their classic [...]

Astonishing to think that all the dazzlingly inventive music compiled for this four-CD clamshell box was made in the same year. Naturally, journalist and label-catalogue consultant Mark Powell's informative sleeve [...]

VENUE SAGE, GATESHEAD DATE 15/03/202 'That was our very first hit in Holland and the Flemish p art of Belgium... maybe in Poland a little.' Focus have just aced their [...]

Edinburgh-born singer, bassist and guitarist David Paton has played on countless great records throughout his career. First striking gold as the voice and writer of Pilot's 70s power-pop smashes Magic [...]

If 1990's The Apprentice was a landmark for John Martyn, it was primarily because Island Records' rejection of it even after he had re-recorded it at his own expense marked [...]

Often cited as the founding fathers of celtic rock, Dublin's Horslips had talent to burn. Three of their five members were multi-instrumentalists who could turn their hands to just about [...]

The article focuses on musician Sting whose real name is Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner. It discusses his music album "If On A Winter's Night...." It also provides a short biography of the musician and a brief historical overview of his career. The highlights of his career, his music, and how he keeps himself fit are also tackled.