Latest articles by Mike Barnes
The band once boasted the combined creative genius of Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood and scored nine Top 20 hits… so what went wrong?
The UK prog legends took on a surrogate line-up and reclaimed their prog crown with their 2020 album
When the late Dave Greenslade left Colosseum, he had a handful of unfinished songs which launched a short but inspiring run at the dawn of the synth era
American drummer recalls his life and times with Frank Zappa, Weather Report, Phil Collins, Unitopia and even the Bee Gees
Mike Oldfield's eighth studio album, 1983's Crises, saw him riding a wave of new popularity in the 80s
The lead single from 1972 album Bandstand – featuring a newly-arrived John Wetton – was inspired by a club in a converted Leicester shop
He’d left Yes to join Robert Fripp in the hope of growing and learning. He didn’t expect it to happen the way it did
A fateful Jaco Pastorius show, a run-in with LA cops, rebuilding a Genesis song… Please Don’t Touch! aimed to tackle the unanswerable question, ‘What is prog?’
Guitarist believes his solo debut proved Genesis had a future after Peter Gabriel’s departure – but it also led to two years of soul-searching
Their first album in six years tackles conflicts across the planet and with the planet, and sees them pushing themselves in a direction they probably won’t again
Prog visionary and punk inspiration reflects on his overclocked solo shows and admits: “Two to three hours was maybe too much Hammill for anybody!”
Surreal imagery, crediting classic poets and philosophers, trying to scare each other with freak-out jams, inspiration from mime artists… it’s without doubt the most adventurous music any member the band ever made
In 2018, Fairport Convention’s first female vocalist found herself inspired by a trapped rainbow, a bad Elvis impersonator and her early work with Giles, Giles and Fripp
A bottle of wine, a thesaurus and a rhyming dictionary sent his career out of the doldrums, into the Top 5, and helped make 1983 album Crises a success
The pair had been planning to revisit 1995 album Outside before Bowie’s death took fans, friends and colleagues by surprise in 2016
He set out to confound expectations of pedal steel with post-country band Cochise. Thanks to Captain Beefheart, Love and Hank Marvin, the session hero is pleased to reflect that he got away with it
As part of Prog's look at prog's golden year of 1973 (for a 2013 cover feature), Ray Jackson discussed Geordie folk rockers Lindisfarne's own philosophy at the time
5-disc collection marks eighth album’s 50th anniversary, complete with two entire concert recordings and bonus Steven Wilson mixes
Death, dysfunction and ecological disaster surrounded Ian Anderson as his changing world shaped a “forever tainted” record
Suddenly out of work in 2012, he started to take songwriting seriously and learned to stop feeling intimidated by other musicians
What happens when a band’s trademark vocalist leaves? In 1970, the answer for this band was to take the pain and rely on their other strengths
The revered double bassist worked with Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, John Martyn, Bert Jansch and countless others. On 2012 album Connected he assembled some of his proudest moments
He shares memories of Pye Hastings, Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers, Andy Latimer and many other collaborators from his rich heritage, soon to be include with his long, long awaited debut solo album
