Basil Francis

Gentle Giant – Interview [Steven Wilson Remix]

Every self-respecting progressive rock fan ought to own at least a handful of Gentle Giant albums. After all, they’re the band who stayed truest to the spirit of the genre during its early days with their famous proclamation on the…

Voyager – Fearless in Love

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll have no doubt heard about Voyager representing Australia at Eurovision this year, the very first prog metal band to do so, and arguably the first progressive band ever to grace the Eurovision…

Simone Dow & Scott Kay – Voyager

Nearly a quarter of a century after their inception in 1999, Voyager are finally receiving the acclaim they deserve after representing Australia at the ever-popular Eurovision Song Contest in 2023, placing first in the second Semi-Final and ninth in the…

Furio Chirico’s The Trip – Equinox

Look up any list of “best drummers of all time” and there’s always a glaring omission: Furio Chirico. Never heard of him? Listen to this: What Chirico lacks in subtlety, he makes up for in pure speed and dexterity. Elsewhere…

Holocaust – Heavy Metal Mania: Complete Recordings, Vol.1 1980-1984

“I’ve got heavy metal music in my blood,” goes the anthemic chorus in the title track for this six-disc compilation, “and I’d like to get it to you if I could.” The clause is so politely put that I can’t…

Centipede – Septober Energy [Remastered]

There could hardly be a more enticing prospect to a prog rock fan than Centipede, the fifty-piece group that contained a veritable who’s who of distinguished early figures of the prog scene. Led by pianist Keith Tippett, whose previous albums…

Soft Machine – Bundles [Remastered]

Frequent prog scribbler Sid Smith claims, in the liner notes for this newly released reissue of Bundles, that “it’s been fashionable … to heap praise upon the first four or possibly five Soft Machine albums and pour scorn on [the…

Van der Graaf Generator – The Bath Forum Concert

Previously on TPA: “The show was filmed with a multi-camera set up so there will hopefully be a high quality record of this late period of the band’s career recorded for posterity.” – Jez Rowden Well, I’m here to tell…

Gregg Inhofer – thisOneness

With the recent release of a box set including three albums from American band thisOneness, recorded in the ’70s, only one of which has been available previously, TPA’s Basil Francis spoke to keyboardist Gregg Inhofer about the bands short career…

thisOneness – The Story of thisOneness

Unless you are a long-time subscriber to Prog Line, a fantastic YouTube channel that posts full albums by obscure prog bands from times gone by, there’s a very good chance you’ve never heard of thisOneness, the Minnesota band who released…

T P A

Author: Basil Francis