Ed’s Letter

Welcome to the latest issue of Prog magazine. The big news in the music world as I write seems to be the impending retirements of some of the music world’s most-loved characters. Paul Simon, Elton John, Neil Diamond, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Slayer have all announced that the end of the road is nigh, in some form or another.

And here is Prog magazine, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Jethro Tull on the front cover. Shunting the semantics aside for a minute, Tull in the form of mainman Ian Anderson are still a going concern, as he makes patently clear in Philip Wilding’s excellent examination of the enduring appeal of Jethro Tull, which begins on page 34. If you think about what the band achieved in their first decade alone, it is truly remarkable.

Yet Tull’s is not the only 50th anniversary that progressive music will be celebrating this year. Yes is the obvious one, of course, and it’s also worth noting that King Crimson, Caravan, Can, Amon Düül II, Henry Cow and Rush all formed in 1968, while Soft Machine, Fairport Convention and Family all released their debut albums. Oh, and a French band by the name of Art Zoyd also formed. We catch up with those early exponents of Rock In Opposition for the first ever time on page 82.

In fact, there are more than a few of the original progressive rockers still with us in some form or another, making music and playing gigs. And that’s something I believe we should be inherently proud of. After all, didn’t the media try to tell us that punk rock swept prog under the carpet a long time ago?

So I doff my cap to those artists notching up a 50th anniversary for something this year. Well done. You make us all incredibly proud to support such a bold and adventurous musical genre.

Looks like we’re going to have a busy 2018 making sure we celebrate with you all. Let’s do this…