It’s natural to think that prog fans wouldn’t be that interested in Eurovision, a contest centred around mainly pop music, where artists try to appeal to as large an audience as possible – quite the opposite of prog, really. But…
View More Basil’s Eurovision Roundup 2025Author: Basil Francis
Cosmic Cathedral – Deep Water
Cosmic Cathedral is a new prog supergroup consisting of Neal Morse (Transatlantic), Chester Thompson (Genesis), Phil Keaggy (Glass Harp) & Byron House (session player with Robert Plant, Dolly Parton, etc.). But don’t be fooled, this is still very much a…
View More Cosmic Cathedral – Deep WaterRobin A. Smith presents Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells
Gopass Arena, Bratislava, Slovakia Wednesday, 26th March 2025 It began with a friend of mine showing me a poster of Tubular Bells playing in his hometown of Bratislava. I initially thought nothing of it, as I had seen many other…
View More Robin A. Smith presents Mike Oldfield’s Tubular BellsZiferblat
Eurovision season is upon us again, and the continent has once again proffered an interesting selection of tunes to be blared into the homes of more than 150 million people in May. This year, I decided to follow all the…
View More ZiferblatDream Theater – Parasomnia
You go on a date. On paper, they look great and have all the qualities you’d expect of a potential match. You meet the person and they’re fun, friendly and feel very familiar. Too familiar. They remind you of an…
View More Dream Theater – ParasomniaStorm Corrosion – Storm Corrosion (2024 Re-issue)
In 2012, one of the most hotly anticipated collaboration projects in the progressive sphere came to fruition (no, I am not talking about Squackett). Steven Wilson and Mikael Åkerfeldt had been working together for a decade and Opeth had plunged…
View More Storm Corrosion – Storm Corrosion (2024 Re-issue)Opeth – The Last Will And Testament
As a longtime Dream Theater fan, Opeth has always been on my periphery (pun slightly intended). From the start, they were billed to me as “more metal than Dream Theater” which put me off exploring them, as I’m more interested…
View More Opeth – The Last Will And TestamentBonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band – Still Barking (20 Disc Boxset)
Dear reader, I’m Bonzoed out. When I took the reins in reviewing this mammoth twenty-disc boxset, I fully intended to explore every facet just as I did with Keith Emerson’s similarly-sized Variations. But after stumbling through five bizarre LPs and…
View More Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band – Still Barking (20 Disc Boxset)Various Artists – Lazy Days: The British Progressive Pop Sounds Of 1975
At the beginning of this year, I reviewed Patterns on the Window, which chronicled the year 1974 in terms of British prog, pop rock and pub rock. While I was disappointed that very little of the compilation could be deemed…
View More Various Artists – Lazy Days: The British Progressive Pop Sounds Of 1975Dream Theater
Arena Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia Tuesday, 29th October 2024 A year (almost to the day) before this very gig, Dream Theater announced the return of founding drummer Mike Portnoy. This wasn’t news I took happily as I was upset by the…
View More Dream Theater