Happy Birthday, STEVE HACKETT & PETER GABRIEL (70)

    • Official Post

    Steve's birthday was yesterday, Peter's is today. Steve is busy as always and touring like he was in his twenties.

    Peter is VERY silent at the moment. Last gigs are also more than three years ago.


    What do you think is more realistic


    a) Steve Hackett plays a show without any Genesis track

    b) Peter Gabriel releases a new album

    cheers

    Christian


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  • What a choice! That made me laugh...Still congratulations to both men for all the pleasure their work has given me over the years.

    "She looks at me and gently smiles, as if she knew I'd ask her all the time..."

  • Yes, it matters to me. I haven't enjoyed a full album of Peter's work since Security; but, to each, his or her own.

    OK :)


    Personally I've become increasingly bored these last few years with trying out new prog rock bands. Which is weird, because several of my favourite artists are of course prog rock. My favourite three are all prog: Genesis, Porcupine Tree and Marillion (although Marillion has admittedly a fair amount of mediocre stuff; however, their best work is magnificent to me, and Hogarth is one of my favourite vocalists). Camel and Pendragon are #4 and #5.


    I'm not undermining prog rock as a genre, or denying the amount of work the bands put into their music, but the older I get, the less music I feel I need. And I find that when I do seek new music that gives me a listening experience that I cannot get from many other places; sounds I've never heard before. Sigur Ros, whom I started listening to in 2016, is an example. I also got into R.E.M. over the last two or three years. Fabulously inventive rock group, easily America's best in my book. Much of the newer prog rock I've tried in recent years just hasn't given me the same happiness and satisfaction as bands like those.


    To be honest, I feel like in this dark and difficult time we're living through, I mostly just want to hear easy music: some nice upbeat rock, a bit of metal, acoustic/folky stuff, ambient music, some nice jazzy chillout/lounge, with the occasional bit of prog thrown in. I've learned that sometimes, the simplest music can be the most affecting. There's just too many prog rock bands out there to explore and it got really exhausting once I'd finished exploring all the classic prog groups back in university and tried to move onto more challenging groups. That was back when I used to post their album covers multiple times a day on the old forum. :)


    But, as you mentioned, this is a matter of personal preference. The prog rock I do enjoy is still awesome at the end of the day. It just nowadays takes a particularly interesting and different prog rock band to impress me, and I prefer ones who don't make too many lengthy/over-complicated songs. :)

  • May I point you in the general direction of XTC, the albums Black Sea, Big Express and Oranges and Lemons would be good starting points. I'm sure you can hear them somewhere before parting with hard cash!

    Ian


    Putting the old-fashioned Staffordshire plate in the dishwasher!