Some more Brit Prog, and we have got to the Canterbury Scene, a group of bands that formed in or around Canterbury with interchanging sets of musicians.  Caravan are the best known, and have already had a show of their own.  Some quotes about the scene

‘In the very best Canterbury music…the musically silly and the musically serious are juxtaposed in an amusing and endearing way.’

‘But the Canterbury school seems to me uniquely capable of making purely musical jokes without parody, without insult to other musicians or listeners, without vitiating musical or intellectual ideals.’
‘A tendency towards instrumental improvisation, and the way they sing – a uniquely English lyrical and vocal content’
We will take a chronological walk through the scene, beginning with the ur-group, the one that started it all.  This was The Wilde Flowers, active from 1964-69, whose members would go on to form Caravan and Soft Machine, both bands that were both successful and influential, and go on to other bands as well.

Of the Wilde Flowers, Richard Coughlan once said ‘We only had a few tunes, so how do you make them last a bit longer?  What do jazz musicians do?  Ah, I know, they improvise….    So a simple tune becomes a 10 minute event….’

Preshow

The Show

Postshow

A contribution from our friend Janeerah, this is a selected set of Tangerine Dream tracks from their middle period.  The preshow is an interesting set of Jan’s favourites from other electronic musicians.

Overall, it can be said that while Tangerine Dream is a Progressive group, there is little Rock in what they do.  What they do well is closer to ambient, music to establish a mood and relax to.  This is not music to get excited about, or with.

Having got that out of the way, they are indeed very good at this, so much so that they are a benchmark of the genre.

Preshow

The Show

Postshow

Passport is a German jazz-rock band formed in 1972 by Klaus Doldinger, who is the only member of the original lineup to remain constant (their second album had a complete turnover of musicians apart from Doldinger, for instance).  He, and the band, were still going in 2015 when this show went out.

There is a second show in the works, but I’ve got writer’s block over it at the moment….

Preshow

The Show

Postshow

A show concentrating on bass-players and playing both solo works and work with the groups they made famous 🙂  This first show includes Paul McCartney, Mark King, John Entwistle, Geddy Lee, Dave Pegg, Jeff Berlin, Patrick Scales, Tony Levin, Jaco Pastorious and Rick Kemp.  A vast coverage, and most have found fame in more than one group.

Ed was away from his desk and the show was broadcast by AlanDJ, with Mal on the plaza to back me up.  I lost connection to the radio stream during the postshow, and by the time I’d got it back, the audience had (quite understandably) dispersed.  It was a very complex show, as the playlist makes clear – still I did have time to include two requests in the postshow.

Preshow

The Show

Requests and postshow

A fourth set of Rarities and What-ifs, with contributions from both Malaclypse and myself (AlanDJ).  We try to keep a running list of this sort of thing as we find them, and serve up helpings every so often 🙂

Our First Anniversary show was hosted by Edison who presented a retrospective of his favourites from our first year’s broadcasts.

Covering the band from Power Windows in 1985 to the present day

The Show

Postshow

Covers this Canadian rock band from the eponymous first album up to 1984’s ‘Grace Under Pressure’.  Rush veer from Prog Rock almost to Metal and back again, with some very original influences.

The Show

Postshow

And what is Prog Folk, you ask? Well, there are a few definitions, but the one I worked with is Folk, but with a tendency towards modern instrumentation (“Electric Folk” if you like), placing a high value on good musicianship, a certain whimsicality in titles and in execution, often straying far from traditional tunes, but still retaining an overall “folk” feel.

Very hard to cut down the mass of tracks, even after putting some in the preshow and more in the postshow.  We may revisit this subject

The Show

Postshow

Another selection of rarities and what-ifs with contributions from the whole team.