Interviews

Hailing from Northern Ireland, Fruupp are one of the most astonishing overlooked bands of the 70s, seamlessly fusing progressive rock with many other influences whilst remaining highly original in their output. Between 1973 and 1975, the band released four albums, all on Pye‘s progressive Dawn label. With each album, Fruupp explored new territory, and built up an exciting catalogue of well-crafted and highly memorable music. Although not an actual member of the band, Paul Charles was more than just a mere manager for Fruupp, and has an incredibly good memory of the years the band were together.

Steve Hackett is a man who little or no introduction to most, famous for adding his lyrical guitar work to some of Genesis’s most progressive works from 1971 to 1977 before embarking on a solo career that has seen Steve explore different facets of guitar playing some flamenco acoustic to blue and all points in between, In this interview with John Wenlock Smith of DPRP Steve talks about the recording of his new album Genesis Revisited 11 and the reasons why he chose to revisit these piece now

We meet up with the band Landmarq in a pub in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, UK before the opening gig, of their mini Autumn tour, at The Riga Music Bar. We gather around a table in the corner of a noisy pub with the whole band no less…. Steve Gee, Tracey Hitchings, Uwe Drose, Mike Varty and new band member Danny Martin. We talk about the bands history, Tracey’s battle with cancer, the search for their new drummer, the latest album and had some laughs along the way.

Mystery a band from Canada that have been around since the late 80’s, released seven albums and run by Michel St-Pere. It has now been 2 years since their last release ‘One Amongst the Living’ which they now follow up with a fantastic new release called ‘The World is a Game’. Mystery are a band who came to be much better known when their singer Benoit David was asked to join YES in 2009, replacing Jon Anderson. Obviously there are lots of comparisons but Mystery are a band that stand out on their own with music that is perfect to grace any Prog fans (new or old) Hi-Fi, Car Stereo or MP3 player. We talk to Michel St Pere and discuss Mystery’s background, their connections to YES, various band members, Tour plans and their music past and present, amongst other things.

Progressive Rock began somewhere and at some point, and whilst that’s a discussion that could run and run DPRP’s John Wenlock-Smith caught up with Keith Emerson, a man who needs little introduction having made his name in the 1960’s with The Nice and thereafter with the legendary Emerson Lake and Palmer.  In this interview Keith talks about the inspiration and creation of his latest album Three Fates and also has a few words to say about his old friend Rick Wakeman and about possible future plans and finally reveals why Brain Salad Surgery isn’t on the album of the same name…

The name Paul Mann is not necessarily one that most progressive rock fans will be familiar with, he doesn’t play in an band, nor is he a singer or lyricist, rather Paul Mann is a Conductor, on Orchestral Conductor who over the past 13 years has been a close friend of the late Jon Lord, Paul was the conductor for the London Symphony Orchestra when Deep Purple staged their 30^th anniversary concert at the Royal Albert Hall in 1999 for the Concerto for Group and Orchestra, In this interview Paul recounts the events that led to this final recording of Jon’s Concerto and shares his own memories of Jon both as a close friend and as a composer and musician.

With the release of their new CD, V, I contacted Paatos singer Petronella Nettermalm to chat about the album, the direction of the music and the new line-up.

I am delighted to be chatting with Alain Lebon, founder of the truly eclectic Soleil Zeuhl label, the home of the recent wonderful re-release of Dün’s Eros, and a label which has been releasing esoteric avant-prog and other delights since 1998.

Record producer, sound engineer, composer, singer, guitarist, band member of Arena, It Bites, Frost*, Kino, The Urbane and John Wetton, keen sailor and self-confessed petrol head, John Mitchell is currently one of the busiest and most in-demand personalities in prog. His upcoming live dates alone include the Fish Convention and a UK mini-tour with It Bites this autumn and winter culminating in the much anticipated Frost*Bites concert in London just before Christmas.

The past two years for Scottish singer, musician and songwriter Alan Reed has been a watershed. Parting company from Pallas, the band he had fronted for 26 years, Alan, with a little help from his friends, has been tirelessly working, recording and performing.