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Soundtracks Of Our Lives w/e 27th February 2011 CE
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IanB
IanB
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Re: Soundtracks Of Our Lives w/e 27th February 2011 CE
Mar 01, 2011, 11:13
Squid Tempest wrote:
IanB wrote:
Squid Tempest wrote:
IanB wrote:
Fatalist wrote:
Ah, Italian prog. When I embarked on my grand musical tour a few years ago, it was Italy that surprised me the most with the breadth and quality of stuff that had been produced in the 70s. Why were PFM the only band that anybody knew in the pre-internet age, when there we delights such as Il Balletto di Bronzo's Ys out there?? (it's alright, I know, ELP had something to do with it...)



VdGG obsessive fans (is there another kind?) would have known about Le Orme because of Hammill's lyrics for Felona but not much else would have made it over here.

What people under 40ish really don't / can't appreciate is how little information there was available about rock music in mainland Europe.

Unless you had a very good independent store with clued-in counter staff that specialised in imports (and they were few and far between) it was all about what the majors and the larger indies picked up under license for UK release. And if a band made it over here as a support act (like say Tea, the "Swiss Deep Purple")then a few thousand people would see them. Christ, even Canadian bands seemed a little exotic and "other" back in 75.

We knew about PFM because of ELP and Pete Sinfield and they rerecorded some of their music in English. I only knew about Popol Vuh because of the Herzog scores and well after the fact.


Plus of course the stuff that Peel obsessed about like Tangerine Dream.

Good points there though Ian, it is so easy to forget what it was like before the internet!


I wasn't counting the TDs and Fausts really. Pre Punk the stuff Peel played tended to be the records that were released by a UK major (Virgin, Vertigo, UA etc). We were in the dark culturally AND we used to mock bands that made it in Europe before they did anything here!


I like that use of footie grammar there - "take yer Tangerine Dreams and yer Fausts frinstance..." 8-)


I am the Saint and Greavsie of Prog
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