The Progressive Underground Volume One - Softcover

Rowland, Kev

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1908728841 ISBN 13: 9781908728845

Publisher: Gonzo Multimedia, 2018

Synopsis

Contrary to popular belief, progressive rock didn't disappear with the advent of punk, and the lack of media support didn't prevent new bands from forming and new music being created, it just drove it underground. It is hard to imagine these days, with everyone being permanently connected, but there was a time not long ago when communication was by word of mouth and letter. With no coverage by much of the media, it was down to fanzines and independent magazines to spread the word of what was actually happening in the scene, what was being released, and who was worth going to see in concert.

Most of these magazines survived for just a few issues, while others continued for many years, all having their part to play in spreading the word. One of the most important during this period was Feedback, which initially started as the newsletter of Mensa's Rock Music Special Interest Group in 1988, but when Kev Rowland became secretary in 1990 he determined to turn it into a magazine promoting music which often wasn't being written about in the mainstream press. Feedback soon became one of the key promoters of the underground progressive scene, and Kev one of the most well-known reviewers. He also became a contributor to Rock 'n' Reel, as well as later writing for the Ghostland website in the early days of prog on the web

The world had moved on by the time he emigrated to New Zealand in 2006, at which time he stopped running Feedback (which has just celebrated it's thirtieth anniversary, now renamed Amplified). It was now possible to discover information about bands and releases through the internet and the many progressive rock sites which had been set up, and even the mass media had decided that maybe there was something in this prog thing after all.

But the period when Kev was running Feedback was very special in many ways, a time that has now long gone. This volume captures reviews undertaken by Kev when he was running Feedback, here from bands A-H, written within the context of the period by someone who was very close to the scene. Along with the other two volumes in this series, this shines a spotlight onto a period when there were very few writing about the music in a constructive manner. Finally, it is again possible to discover some great music from wonderful bands, and this should be used as a guide to expand collections and understand that prog rock really didn't die, it just went underground.

About this title

About the Author

From 1990 - 2006 Kev Rowland ran Feedback fanzine in the UK, often writing about bands that were never covered in the mainstream press. He built close ties with many of the British prog groups in particular, including writing the newsletter for Freewill, getting gigs for Credo and writing the introduction to Galahad's OCMDII compilation. During this period he reviewed literally thousands of cassettes and then CDs from bands from throughout the world, and was lucky enough to interview many of them. He also contributed to the French progzine Acid Dragon, and wrote for Rock 'n' Reel, as well as the Ghostland website.

In 2006 rowland moved to NZ, and stopped running Feedback (which was then renamed Amplified on his departure, at his request) having produced over 80 editions with more than 11,000 pages of print and heaven knows how many reviews and interviews.

Although he stopped writing and reviewing when he came over to NZ, Rowland was gradually brought back into the scene and started contributing to many different sites and magazines. He is heavily involved with Prog Archives, wrote the booklets for the Red Jasper reissues, and generally tries to be as involved in the scene as he was previously. However, this all stopped in 2014 when he started to compile all his progressive reviews and interviews from Feedback into a digital format - remember, when he originally started it was using a typewriter and many of the reviews were only available in hard copy. It took more than two years to complete the initial draft, which contained more than half a million words, and Gonzo Media decided to have the text broken into three volumes and also include artwork of the covers in full cover. 

When he isn't listening to music, writing about music, or thinking about music, then he can be found on his lifestyle block in Canterbury with his wonderful and long-suffering wife Sara, and their 8 cats, 5 dogs, chickens, sheep, lambs, calves and cattle. Oh, apparently he has a day job as well. 

From the Back Cover

Back in the pre-internet days of the 1990's, prog rock bands relied on an informal network of fan magazines to help spread the word about their music. Foremost of these magazines was Kevin Rowland's Feedback, and Kev has now brought together all the progressive reviews he wrote during the 16 years of his tenure as editor. Reading these books is like stepping back into a distant world when the current prog rock scene was beginning to take shape. Many of the bands fell by the wayside, some went on to bigger things, but all are documented in these impressive books which provide a deep insight into the rebirth of prog rock.

Greg Spawton - Big Big Train


Kev Rowland has been a very important part of my musical history. From some of my earliest projects he has enthusiastically followed my career, writing numerous great reviews and articles along the way. He has assiduously supported our particular genre of rock music, and still does. When I decided to branch out and start writing musicals I wasn't really sure what the reaction from the public would be, but one of the first 'lights in the sky' for me was reading Kev's incredibly positive reactions.

Thank you Kev Rowland for flying the flag for Progressive Rock, Symphonic Rock and beyond!

Clive Nolan - Arena, Pendragon

From the Inside Flap

Foreword

Many years ago in a galaxy far, far away there was a young band ploughing their own very unfashionable furrow, namely 'progressive rock', which at the time, i.e. the late 80s and early 90s, was really not very cool. However, they persevereda nd against the odds gradually managed to build up a reasonable fan base by playing hundreds of local gigs. They then decided to record a proper demo at alocal studio containing state of the art recording equipment, the resulting EP was called 'In A Moment of Madness': this was initially released on cassette only and sold at local gigs.

'Madness'seemed to go down well so the band decided to release a full album 'Nothing IsWritten', self-written, produced, funded and distributed, not bad for a very young band, three members of whom were still teenagers or thereabouts at thetime! Yes, it is hard to believe how young we were at the time.

The band set up a post box at their local Post Office sorting office from which they would collect mail every day. Of course this was long before the days of email, the internet or social media and communication took a little longer and wasn't instant like it is today, but that was part of the buzz. Moreover, therewas something very exciting about receiving actual letters, written by hand by very enthusiastic followers and fans. I always replied to every single letter, which was very time consuming, but worth it for the goodwill alone.

The majority of mail was from fans interested in buying our albums, T-shirts etc. but much of the interest was also coming from a burgeoning network of fanzines that began to increase noticeably by the week. It seemed that we weren't the only ones interested in this very uncool music, there appeared to be a healthy underground scene if you knew where to look. As time went on the band even managed to garner interest from mainstream 'rock' magazines such as Kerrang! and Metal Hammer.

However,one such fanzine who wrote in to ask about the band went by the unusual name of RockSIG which caught the eye of myself and which turned out to be a rock fanzine for members of Mensa. This magazine was compiled and written almost exclusively by one Kevin Rowland. RockSIG eventually changed its name to Feedback, the name of the band was Galahad.

We began corresponding on a regular basis; it was great to know that there were like minded people out there. Kevin was incredibly supportive of the band for which we were very grateful in those, somewhat naïve early days, and I'm proud to say that we became firm friends and have remained so over the years, even though Kevin now lives on the other side of the Globe in New Zealand! Kev also wrote the booklet notes for our 'Other Crimes and Misdemeanours II' in 1997, twenty years ago now. How time flies when you having fun!

I was always struck by Kev's unerring enthusiasm and incredible passion about music and the amount of time he must have put in to what was essentially a hobby, and the fact that he has had the patience and found the time to listen to literally thousands of releases over the years. In addition, I am grateful that we stood out a little bit from the crowd for him, and of course, the fact that he also had a demanding full time job and was raising a family at the same time, along with Sara of course. :-)

He has also turned me on to a great deal of new music plus we also got to know many other rock and prog aficionados such as Artur Chachlowski in Poland who is a dear friend of both of us plus various musicians such as Mark Colton, Clive Nolan, Karl Groom to name but a few.

I thank you Kevin for your friendship and support over the years, not just to Galahad but to hundreds of other bands for whom in some way you have helped to spread the word, the gospel according to rock and prog.

StuNicholson, Galahad

Edition details

• Publisher: Gonzo Multimedia
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1908728841
• ISBN 13: 9781908728845
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304