Prog Rock Fans Unite! (on the Persian rug)

mike65

BBC 4 has a progtastic evening coming up on January 2nd - the centre point of which is Emerson Lake and Palmer show I think.

Times article

Details update

Prog at the BBC BBC4 9:00pm-10:00pm (1 hour ) Fri 2 Jan

Footage from the BBC studios of some of Britain's most popular progressive rock bands dating back to the early 1970s. Featuring performances by Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Yes, Genesis, Caravan, Barclay James Harvest, Gentle Giant, Family, Atomic Rooster and more. Part of Prog Rock at the BBC season

Prog Rock Britannia - An Observation in Three Movements BBC4 10:00pm-11:30pm (1 hour 30 minutes) Fri 2 Jan

Feature-length documentary structured in three parts, charting the birth, rise and decline of progressive rock - the musical genre known for complex structure, technical virtuosity and literary influences. Beginning with the psychedelic pop scene that spawned the movement in the late 1960s, it then moves on to its golden age with the global success of bands such as ELP, Yes and Genesis. The final part observes its fall from grace as the impact of punk and the over-ambition and commercialisation of the music led to its downfall. Featuring contributions by Soft Machine's Robert Wyatt, Mike Oldfield, King Crimson's Pete Sinfield, Rick Wakeman from Yes, Genesis's Phil Collins, Arthur Brown from Kingdom Come, ELP's Carl Palmer and Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull.

The Old Grey Whistle Test: ELP on Tour BBC4 9:40pm-10:30pm (50 minutes) Sat 3 Jan

Bob Harris introduces a film that goes behind the scenes of Emerson, Lake and Palmer's 1973 European tour, including Greg Lake suffering from laryngitis in Vienna, Keith Emerson destroying a keyboard, and Carl Palmer in rehearsal.

When in Rome: Genesis in Concert BBC4 9:00pm-10:30pm (1 hour 30 minutes) Sun 4 Jan

The final concert of Genesis's 2007 22-date European tour, held in Rome's ancient Circo Massimo and attended by 500,000 fans for whom admittance was free. Featuring old favourites such as Land of Confusion, No Son of Mine, Follow You, Follow Me and the band's first single to hit the charts I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe).

Genesis: Come Rain Or Shine BBC4 11:30pm-12:30am (1 hour ) Sun 4 Jan

Documentary going behind the scenes of Genesis's preparations for the re-formed band's 2007 European stadium tour, from initial design meetings for the £10million stage production to rehearsals. Through backstage and archive clips, the musicians reflect upon the history of the group and their hopes for the future, providing an insight into how they keep their public and private lives separate.

Both the Genisis progs are repeats the concert was suprisingly good - great design.

Aligator Farmer

Whohoo!
I'm keeping all the christmas wrapping paper so I can make a cape to watch this in.

big b

There's not that much ELP captured on video, so my guess is they'll show either Pictures at an Exhibition or maybe the Montreaux show that's always on Sky Arts.
Although I'm fairly sure the Beeb had some footage from Montreal (?) Olympic stadium from the Works tour, when ELP played with full orchestra. It would be nice to see something different alright.


Aspiring keyboard artists and drummers could do a lot worse than tuning into whatever ELP show they come up with.

damonjewel

There was a great series back on ITV in the 80's called Rock of the 70's it was real late night fodder, which was originally made by Belgian TV. Thats how I got into ELP, Genesis, Atomic Rooster, Yes etc. Although some of the clips are up on youtube there doesn't seem to be any official release. Shall be looking forward to this, however i always feel the premise of this kind of thing would really show the common knowledge excesses (e.g. the persian rug, peter gabriel dressed as a flower etc) without showing th e depth of prog music highlighting other bands that were also important such as VDGG

big b

A fair shout, Damon. But they'll show pretty much what the masses will expect to see.
Pleasantly surprised at the ELP footage they'll be showing. I have a boot of the Tarkus tour from Japan 72, so it'll be cool to see more footage from that era.

But yes, in general it'll be a compilation of short clips of the main players. The BBC must have reams of footage from the 70's & should be bodily forced to show some classic gigs in their entirety!

The Genesis stuff from last year is pretty good. Mike's spot on, the staging was awesome. I'm fairly sure they'll only show about an hour of hit-related highlights rather than the full show, which was much more all-eras orientated. But hey, classic rock is getting airtime, I'll enjoy what we get.

Incidentally, I think in the " come rain or shine" doc, Patrick Woodroffe, the lighting designer, talks about a fan emailing him & basically telling him what's expected visually at a Genesis gig.

Guess who the author was?

damonjewel

Yes I shouldn't hope for too much from this, but will most definitely watch it all the same.

One thing of note is that they always dig up Bob Harris for this kind of thing who I have always had deep suspicions about. I think Stuart MaConie who does the freak show on BBC6 radio every sunday has a much better understanding and affinity to Prog than anyone, as well as being a decent presenter.

mike65

http://www.bbc.co.uk/musictv/progbritannia/video/prog2/

PattheMetaller

Oh, as a proggie, i'll tune in. But to be 100% i'll be listening to "Fish on Friday" on Planet Rock.

bowsie casey

mike65 wrote: »

BBC 4 has a progtastic evening coming up on January 2nd...

Is this on Sky ? Don't think I have BBC4 .... :-(

big b

bowsie casey wrote: »

Is this on Sky ? Don't think I have BBC4 .... :-(

You can tune BBC4 in manually on your sky box, bowsie. It's a free to air channel.

full instructions on how to do it (it's easy!) on the satellite board

mike65

Bump, if you missed them, tonights programmes are repeated from 2.10 am till 4.45 am.

bnt

Some fairly interesting bits so far. It was a pleasant surprise to see them mention Yes' Tales From Topographic Oceans without the usual nasty remarks - that's one I'm appreciating more as time goes by.

(1/2 hour later): I hoped they would say some more about the ongoing influence Progressive has on modern bands. Without it, we wouldn't have The Smashing Pumpkins, Muse, System Of A Down, Tool, and others. :cool:

damonjewel

Well that was a good evenings viewing, the first program had some great clips. It was certainly a game of 2 halves with an easy in With The Nice, Moody Blues, Jethro Tull up to the Family and then we started to go really freaky with ELP, YES and the Soft Machine

tracklist was

The Nice - America
Moody Blues - Questions
Jethro Tull - Witch's promise
Wishbone Ash - Vas Dis
Atomic Rooster - Tomorrow night
Family - In my own time
Yes - Yours is no disgrace
ELP - Pictures at an Exhibition (Closing part, Great gates of Kiev)
Soft Machine - fanfare
Caravan - My dog, my dog he's at it again
Genesis - I know what I like
King Crimson - frame by frame

The second program had some interesting insights, and was quite enjoyable but I felt that it focused to much on the English public schoolboy thing, strangely there was barely a mention of Floyd, VDGG, Gentle Giant, Mahivishnu and Gong. Also it seemed to argue that Prog was a purely English phenomena with no mention of any European prog e.g. Focus, PFM, Horslips, Tangerine Dream etc

It all gets repeated on Tuesday again with a bonus programme performance by Mike Oldfields Tubular bells

20:30–21:00 Tubular Bells: Mike Oldfield
A live studio performance from 1974 of Mike Oldfield's composition Tubular Bells. (R)

21:00–22:30 Prog Rock Britannia: An Observation in Three Movements
Documentary about the history of progressive music, structured in three parts. (R)

23:15–00:15 Prog at the BBC
Includes Yes, Genesis, ELP, Caravan

mike65

I taped the second programme (apointment with QI) and have e-mailed bbcfour looking for some live prog shows for thier Friday night concert slot.

mike65

damonjewel wrote: »

The second program had some interesting insights, and was quite enjoyable but I felt that it focused to much on the English public schoolboy thing, strangely there was barely a mention of Floyd, VDGG, Gentle Giant, Mahivishnu and Gong. Also it seemed to argue that Prog was a purely English phenomena with no mention of any European prog e.g. Focus, PFM, Horslips, Tangerine Dream etc

Twas called Prog Britannia, hense lack of Huns

Just watched it, the oversight regarding the Floyd was curious, they have not lacked air-time on BBC Four in the lasst 2 years but to ignore them except in passing, made no sense at all. It also made the mistake of not acknowledging the 80s revival with bands like Marillion, IQ etc.

damonjewel

I understand it was called Prog Brittania but it made Prog out as a genre to be an exclusively English phenomena.

As for floyd, I would agree that maybe they had said all they need to say about Floyd in other documentaries, but then at the same time give a fair bit of time to The Beatles Sgt Papper, which also has had its fair share of coverage in other documentaries.

Anyway this evening's timeshift programme did redress the balance somewhat, giving a nod to Euro Prog with an all too short clip of CAN. It also talked about Floyds rightful place in the scheme of Prog. And gave a small bit about how prog acts survived Punk (Floyd, Gabriel, Yes, Genesis) whilst discussing a little about of Progs influence today using Radiohead as an example.

As for the ELP program, oh dear it was very dreary, took an awful long time to get to the music,

mike65

Bump!

If you missed it all the first time round they are re showing a few progs again Friday. BBC4

21:45
Sounds of the Seventies
The Moody Blues, The Faces and David Bowie
Performances from The Moody Blues, The Faces and David Bowie. (R)

22:00
Prog at the BBC
Includes Yes, Genesis, ELP, Caravan, Barclay James Harvest, Gentle Giant, and Family. (R)

23:00
Prog Rock Britannia: An Observation in Three Movements
Documentary about progressive music and the generation of bands that were involved.

mike65

Bump again! :pac: if you missed them the first two times...

9 pm tonight

Prog Rock Britannia - An Observation in Three Movements BBC4

Feature-length documentary structured in three parts, charting the birth, rise and decline of progressive rock - the musical genre known for complex structure, technical virtuosity and literary influences. Beginning with the psychedelic pop scene that spawned the movement in the late 1960s, it then moves on to its golden age with the global success of bands such as ELP, Yes and Genesis. The final part observes its fall from grace as the impact of punk and the over-ambition and commercialisation of the music led to its downfall. Featuring contributions by Soft Machine's Robert Wyatt, Mike Oldfield, King Crimson's Pete Sinfield, Rick Wakeman from Yes, Genesis's Phil Collins, Arthur Brown from Kingdom Come, ELP's Carl Palmer and Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull.

Followed by

Prog at the BBC

Footage from the BBC studios of some of Britain's most popular progressive rock bands dating back to the early 1970s. Featuring performances by Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Yes, Genesis, Caravan, Barclay James Harvest, Gentle Giant, Family, Atomic Rooster and more. Part of Prog Rock at the BBC season

Aligator Farmer

Cheers Mike, just watching the prog at the beeb show now.
What a unique voice that guy from Family has.
And what a great (and fast!) version of yours is no disgrace by Yes, Steve Howe was on fire and they cut it short.
Agh!

mike65

Something I didn't comment on the last time was, how you can have 90 mins of Prog and not cover Pink Floyd, who were only mentioned en passànt?