Didn’t get an invite to the biggest night of the prog calendar? Well you can catch up with all the action from the evening here…
The fourth annual Progressive Music Awards here held last Thursday at the Underglobe, beneath Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. Steven Wilson was the big winner, walking away with three awards ion the night, whilst Genesis keyboard player Tony Banks waked away with the top honour of Prog God, receiving his award from ex-band mate and last year’s recipient Peter Gabriel.
The ceremony was hosted by television presenter Matthew Wright, in front of an audience that also included Harry Shearer, Van der Graf Generator’s Peter Hammill, Tristan Fry (Sky), Carl Palmer, Anthony Phillips, Tim Bowness, John Mitchell, Matt Stevens, Walking Dead creator Charlie Adlard, comedian Matt Berry, actor Mark Benton and various members of TesseracT, Magenta and Touchstone, as well as a raft of music biz VIPs. Von Hertzen Brothers provided live entertainment.
The full list of winners from the night was:
Limelight - HEIGHTS
Vanguard - PURSON
Anthem - PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING - GAGARIN
Live Event - MARILLION WEEKENDERS
Grand Design - STEVEN WILSON - HAND.CANNOT.ERASE.
Album Of The Year* - STEVEN WILSON - HAND.CANNOT.ERASE.*
Band/Artist Of The Year - OPETH
Outer Limits - ROY WOOD
Commercial Breakthrough - STEVEN WILSON
Chris Squire Virtuoso Award - DANNY THOMPSON
Guiding Light - ROGER DEAN
Visionary - BILL NELSON
Lifetime Achievement - GENTLE GIANT
Prog God - TONY BANKS
Among the many highlights was Peter Gabriel’s ribbing of ex-colleague Tony Banks, Banks’ own riposte back about keeping all his hair, Rick Wakeman’s hilarious stand-up routine prior to presenting to Roger Dean, Harry Shearer’s hilarious presentation to Danny Thompson and many more. The show was aired live on the evening via Periscope, and you can watch all the footage here in the clips below.