ARfm Soundscapes 19th March 2006

[Breezey]

Prog Paul is busy in the kitchen ;D so he's asked me to post his playlist!! Many thanks to Pure Reason Revolution and Stu from Galahad for their contribution to the show, also many thanks to Liz for the lovely flowers and the shortbread!!

As for the music that went something like this..........

Pallas- Ghostdancers
Flowerkings-Selfconsuming Fire
All About Eve-What Kind of Fool (2006)
Pure Reason Revolution-In Aurelia
Pure Reason Revolution-He Tried to Show Them Magic
Pure Reason Revolution-The Bright Ambassadors of Morning
Gary Numan- Haunted
Publius- Change Your Mind
Lee Saunders-The World Prepares
Graham Elks and Phil Crewe-World Anthem
GLOW-Glow
Symphony of Pain- Divine Time
Jebo-Sinking Without You
Galahad-The Automaton
Galahad-Haunted
Galahad-Room 801
Whitehorses-Dragon Hill
Never the Bride-This is a cry for love
Jump-Whistle at the Ghost
Revolving Doris- Leafblower

[Boatman]

Great to hear the Pure Reason Revolution interview.
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Interesting discussion on the prog debate and so refreshing to hear a band postive about prog as a musical genre whilst acknowledging the image issues.

Chloe certainly has a point about the accessibility, particularly some of the stage antics in the 70s that attracted media critcism and would put some people off today.

My own experience was that I loved ELP music, never saw them live, but did see a DVD with Keith Emerson on a revolving piano and had to agree that was perhaps a stunt too far!

As to how to define prog:

1) Is it a particular brand of music in the cretaive 70s so therefore prog today infers it is recreating that music in a nostalgic way?

2) is it an ever evolving imaginative genre that fits no other category than prog, in terms of still pushing the boundaries?

People will argue this for as long as Dark Side of The Moon remains in the album charts.

I think that prog, even much of that produced in the 70s, often still sounds timeless today. And long ago I decided to term this style, be it modern, or 70s, as quality rock, in that it has musicianship and imagination.

Nothing wrong with compact tracks, i.e no padding! Indeed it makes airplay a lot easier and to be fair people just haven't the time they used to have. This is the age of instant communications and "I want it all I want it now culture". There is greater competition on everyone's leisure time , older and younger!

That said, many of the long tracks in 70s prog were a patch-work quilt of many tracks sewn together take Supper's Ready for example - full of variety. Others though were clearly padded out and many people today would switch off if the variety wasn't strong enough to carry their attention.

Probably no harm in being compared to early Pink Floyd as a musical reference.

Odd we don't get the mainstream-media moaning as much about reproducing the poppy 60s and pop side of The Beatles sound in particular. Take Brit-pop etc and many of the "new" bands of today and you might as well be back in the 60s. Yet when it comes to prog, the rules suddenly change! Also classical music can have concept albums and have long pieces - yet we don't hear the same hatred in the media.

I hope bands like Pure Reason Revolution put this style of music back on the musical map in a positive way, and attract new blood and new ideas into this underrated area of music - whatever the media label it!

Great to hear the band and I can't wait to buy the album!

By the way thanks to Ralph for airing and sharing the Gary Numan track, I bought his earlier albums, along with those by a band called Magazine. The synths were fantastic and Are Freinds Electric still has that edge!

[Boatman]

Also enjoyed hearing Stu Nicholson from Galahad, yes Room 801 is rather good Paul! Be great to hear a new album from the lads at last and see them perform it and some classics at a Rotherham gig later this year.

[Tracie Law]

Hi Paul,
thank you so much for playing Divine Time today . I have to shamefully confess to being asleep at the time
as I was due to de-rig a PA tonight and I had consumed rather large quantities of vino, cointreau, brandy and irish coffee the night before. Hic
best wishes
Trace

[Paul B]

hi Trace,

Now I know the electronic doo daahs have been playing up but... errr... ;D

No problem with playing Divine Time, sir, or any other Symphony of Pain track for that matter... great tunes should be given lots of exposure!!

Looking forward to seeing you again on the 8th for the 'Ghost Hunt' and of course on the 9th for a progress update on Symphony of Pain..

Cheers

Prog Paul