The Progressive Rock Revival 1981-1983; Andrew Wild sets the scene ready for Vol 2….

Kingmaker Publishing has form. Already on the ATB bookshelves are two volumes on Genesis and the top notch Big Big Train biography plus the autobiography of Marillion’s Mark Kelly. Very classy and high quality productions, so with the prospect of experienced writer Andrew Wild heading down the rabbit hole of the early Eighties Prog revival, the signs are good.

Edited by Gregory Spawton, he himself has a vested interest, declaring A Mirror Of Dreams as “a book which I have long wanted to see written. It’s the story of how, in the early 1980s, a number of rock bands ignored the naysayers and fashioned a second coming for the much-maligned and misunderstood genre of progressive rock.” He even features, uncannily, in a live shot of the late Geoff Mann fronting Twelfth Night at Reading Festival, holding a mirror to the crowd that shows his face!

It’s the first of two books by Wild which are set to provide the definitive account of the intertwined stories of six bands which led the progressive rock revival: Marillion, IQ, Pallas, Pendragon, Solstice and Twelfth Night – leading bands not afraid to fly in the face of musical trends and fashions.

The detailed narrative of their creation and development sees the story flit from London (The Marquee more often than not) to Scotland, Aylesbury and pockets of the UK where fledgling musicians were devouring the music of the Prog Rock giants while plotting their own moves. Like Gregory, a second chance for those who’d missed the 70s scene.

But it’s not all about the big six…. We’ll encounter Abel Ganz, Airbridge, Comedy Of Errors, Electric Gypsy, Galahad, Haze, It Bites, Jadis, Janysium, Lahost, The Lens, Liaison, Multi Story, No-Man, Pride Of Passion, Quasar, Tamarisk, Trilogy and Twice Bitten (and there may even be many more untapped – anyone remember Moriarty?). Wild has spoken with key non-musical figures such as veteran Aylesbury Friars promoter David Stopps, former Marillion manager John Arnison and Nigel Hutchings, the former manager of the legendary Marquee Club in London.

The text also takes liberal quotes from already published sources that pepper the layout with tons of images of artefacts and photos from the era – thank goodness there are still those fans who religiously keep a safe hold on their souvenirs from thee era. Carefully planned, several avenues are explored with a section dedicated to the healthy press and fanzine culture and a whole chapter dedicated to the tape making , the role of The Marquee, spiritual home the gig list takes up three pages. From a personal viewpoint, well done for the shout out for The Organ and Sean Worrall, responsible for putting on gigs at Bangor University (with a shameless shout out for our own Time Tunnel on Marillion… ) many of which I attended as a student there.

The story (so far) climaxes with the significance of Reading 1983 where Sounds decried the presence of the progressive revivallists, yet with another volume to come, plus the imminent release of an archive Palla CD box set based around their The Sentinel album that would appear in1984 it’s mouthwatering stuff for Prog Rock fans of a certain (vint)age!

Here’s Marillion live in 1983, having made the debut album breakthough:

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