Musicians
This son of a scrap iron trader was born in Amsterdam in 1946. At age five he took guitar lessons and his first single was released in 1960, when he was thirteen years old.
Jan Akkerman
The inaugural public performance of this song took place at Belfast's Ulster Hall on 5 March 1971. Bassist John Paul Jones recalls that the crowd was unimpressed: "They were all bored to tears waiting to hear something they knew."
Stairway to Heaven
This album featured Vivian Stanshall mock-pretentiously introducing an array of instruments
Tubular Bells
This band borrowed Soft Machine's PA while they were on tour with Jimi Hendrix in the U.S.
Caravan
Two of the members of this 1970 power trio first met at the August 1969 Ninth Annual Blues Festival held at Plumpton Race Course in Streat, East Sussex.
Greg Lake and Keith Emerson
This keyboard player quit his studies at the Royal College of Music in 1969 to become a full-time session musician. His early sessions included playing on "Space Oddity" for David Bowie, and songs by Junior's Eyes, T. Rex, Elton John, and Cat Stevens.
Rick Wakeman
This Yes song was the B side to the single "Roundabout"
Long Distance Run Around
This 1975 album was Inspired by a band member's disappearance down a psychic black hole
Wish you were here
This band's name originated from a French pronunciation of a previous band's name
Matching Mole
This band, which was active from 1967 to 1977, was named after a Burmese Blue cat
Procol Harum
This former Yes musician was described by former Sniffin' Glue and NME journalist Danny Baker as "the architect of progressive music."
Pete Banks
This song about Timothy Leary was recorded by a bipolar British prog rock band in January 1968
Legend of a Mind
This album was the swan-song for multi-instrumentalist Phil Shulman and the debut for drummer John Weathers, the grooviest percussionist in all of prog
Octopus
This band's third album won over prog fans by featuring King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp
Van de Graaf Generator
This guitarist is known for his one note solos
Stephen Anderson
This musician and producer has become well known for his 5.1 surround sound remixes of King Crimson, Roxy Music, Gentle Giant, Jethro Tull, Yes, XTC and others
Steven Wilson
This song was inspired by a recurring dream Peter Gabriel was having where he swam in his backyard pool drinking cold red wine
Red Rain
In his review, Alan Niester of Rolling Stone summed up this english band's fifth album by its fifth incarnation by saying "You can't dance to it, can't keep a beat to it, and it doesn't even make good background music for washing the dishes."
Larks Tongues in Aspic
This prog rock supergroup formed in 1977 featured ex-members of King Crimson, Yes, Roxy Music and Soft Machine
U.K.
This Yes musician's parents became Lancashire county champions in ballroom dancing, winning several awards
Jon Anderson
This opera trained lead singer with a five octive vocal range was engaged to musician Roy Wood for four years, which she later described as "four of the funniest years of my life"
Annie Haslam
In this song, the lead character of this concept album finds himself in a red carpeted corridor surrounded by kneeling people slowly crawling towards a wooden door.
Carpet Crawlers
Few things are more archetypally "prog" than the side-long title cut of this band's fourth album. A 20-minute, seven-part suite, it takes place in an Orwellian dystopia where rocking is forbidden
2112 (Rush)
This band was named after a fictional Dickens character
Uriah Heep
Wishbone Ash's Andy Powell was drafted in by Miles Copeland to play the solo on this prog rock/folk band's signature track, "Ashes Are burning."
Renaissance