LONDON PROG GIGS
Former promoter Chris Parkins reignites his passion for live prog via his listings group.
How do you encourage people to attend gigs? It might sound like the opener of a joke, but the punch line has had promoters and bands scratching their heads for years.
“It’s not a new thing; it’s always been difficult,” says Chris Parkins, the man behind the London Prog Gigs Facebook page. “When I was social secretary at university in the 1970s, we were asking the same question then: how do you get people off their arses and to gigs?”
Parkins fell in love with prog when a school friend played him Close To The Edge back in the day, but once he finished his studies, music took a back seat and he got stuck into the family business of furniture importing. All that changed about 10 years ago when he discovered a copy of Prog which in turn led to him to his first Cruise To The Edge.
“I had such a fantastic time and it really sparked my prog interest,” he says. Soon afterwards, he created the original London Prog Gigs page as a prog meet-up group, but within a few years, it had expanded to include gig and venue listings too. It’s now accessed and loved by a passionate community of prog fans around the world, and has even helped connect bands to local promoters. It’s also given Parkins’ social life a boost.
“I go to more gigs these days than I have done for years; I think I went to about 60 last year,” the Londoner admits. “I’ve also started getting involved in promotions. London Prog Gigs are co-promoting Prog The Forest charity gig at Fiddler’s Elbow [in Camden] on July 6 and I hope that by putting the group’s name on a gig, it might encourage more people to go. If it works, maybe I could do more.”
Although only a few months into 2019, Parkins’ gig diary is already filling up and he reels off a long list of gigs he’s looking forward to seeing this month, from PFM and Tangerine Dream, to IO Earth and Crippled
Black Phoenix. The capital’s live music scene keeps him so busy that he feels no need to extend his boundaries. “There’s a huge amount of stuff on but I’m not looking to take over the world,” he states, “I’m doing this group because it’s fun, it’s rewarding and I enjoy going to gigs.” NRS
Visit www.facebook.com/ groups/LondonProgGigs.
“I go to more gigs these days than I have done for years.”