Ed’s Letter

Coincidental timing means that I’m writing this the night before the seventh annual Progressive Music Awards. I could have pretended that the event had already happened, but doing that would no doubt make something go awry on the night! And I’m not one to tempt fate like that. What I will say, however, is that I very much doubt we’ll ever go to press the day before the awards again. That’s a dual workload that none of the Prog team is likely to ever want to endure again, I can assure you!

So in this issue we look at the greatest ever keyoard players from this genre of ours. It’s our belief that the keyboard player is to prog what the guitar hero is to heavy metal. Judging by the enormous amount of you who got involved, you agree. Thank you for voting and offering your comments. Turn to page 33 to see how your favourites fared and whether your comments got included. And also, we know that these polls result in plenty of comments mulling over the results, both on social media and in your letters. You, the readers, voted for the Top 50, we didn’t choose the list. So perhaps try to refrain from the ‘How dare you not feature…’ type comments aimed at the magazine this time, eh?

We’ve also got fascinating stories with Fish, Phil Collins, The Pineapple Thief, Riverside, Hawkwind, Soft Machine, Coheed & Cambria and more this issue. And we’ll be bringing you all the coverage of the Awards in the next issue. But spare a thought for Art Ed Rus, who is currently finishing off designing Prog 91 at home with a bad back. That also sadly means he’ll miss the Awards. Rus, this issue’s for you. The awards won’t be the same without you, mate. Prog on…