BBC Concert Orchestra - Prog Rock: A Fanfare For The Common Man (2026)

The BBC Proms season is underway again, and Saturday 18th July's Prom was titled 'Prog Rock: A Fanfare for the Common Man'. Back in the heady days of the late 1960's and early-to-mid 70s, Prog(ressive Rock) was music unconstrained by established forms and conventions of blues, rhythm and blues, or folk music, although it often contained elements of these – and other genres including jazz. Indeed, a number of Prog Rockers had a background in jazz music, and like most musicians in these bands, they could really play. Much of the Prog Rock canon is difficult stuff involving unconventional time signatures, complex structures and harmonies and requires virtuosic playing and singing to pull it off. In a packed Albert Hall, the audience were treated to an aural tour of Prog Rock Land, rather like one of those old LP samplers which gave you tracks from many different bands. On this occasion, the variety of the music was cleverly guaranteed by having enlisted no fewer than seven different arrangers for the twenty songs performed by the always excellent BBC Concert Orchestra. One orchestrator, no matter how skilled, would have given us something more akin to a Prog Rock suite, which would have been less varied and not as interesting. Perhaps inevitably, the concert opened with Emerson, Lake and Palmer's re-working of Aaron Copland's 'Fanfare for the Common Man', arranged by Robert Ames for orchestra and rock band, and he also conducted the whole show. He proved ideal in leading proceedings, as he has a passion for the music and a masterful ability to keep the orchestra on track through tricky changes of tempo, dynamics and time signatures. As a nice touch, Carl Palmer played drums, and has lost none of his impressive ability. Ames then took us through pieces which had been first recorded by Jethro Tull, Genesis, Renaissance, The Moody Blues, Van der Graff Generator, Yes and Mike Oldfield. All were well played and nicely sung by the orchestra and singers Gruff Rhys, Guy Garvey, Jane Weaver, Peter Hammill and The Staves. 

A high point of this first half was Soft Machine’s 'Out-Bloody-Rageous', which lived up to its title with some fiendishly difficult rhythms and a top of the range, largely improvised sopranino sax solo by Andy Findon, while Peter Hamill was another surprise guest, taking lead vocal on his own 'Refugees'. Part two gave us music by Keith Emerson, Genesis, Gentle Giant, The Incredible String Band and Supertramp, and a highlight was a medley of non-UK tracks from Focus, Osibisa and Frank Zappa, all very skilfully orchestrated by Christian Balvig. Fiona Brice's arrangement of three King Crimson songs was equally brilliant and superbly sung by Guy Garvey and Gruff Rhys. As the concert moved towards its conclusion there had to be a taste of Pink Floyd, and there was, with 'The Great Gig In The Sky'. Still poignant and full of longing, the original improvised female vocal part was sung with heart and great skill by Vanessa Haynes. Again arranged by Fiona Brice, the orchestra’s masterful control made for a memorable musical experience for everyone listening. The evening ended appropriately with 'The Great Gates Of Kyiv' from Mussorgsky's 'Pictures At An Exhibition'. The original orchestration of this piano piece was by Ravel, before Keith Emerson arranged it for his rock band, and Robert Ames adapted it further. There’s no doubting the evening’s success, and the programme rightly earned several encores, and brought many in the audience to their feet to deliver rapturous applause. Here is the full concert, with just the announcements removed for a smoother flow, and although I felt that a couple of the tracks didn't work as well as others, it was an innovative idea, and is well worth a listen if you're a prog rock fan. 

Track listing

01 Fanfare For The Common Man - Emerson, Lake & Palmer (Copland arr. Robert Ames)
02 Living In The Past - Jethro Tull (arr. Sam Gale)
03 Out-Bloody-Rageous - Soft Machine (arr. Sam Gale)
04 I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe) - Genesis (arr. Sam Gale)
05 Northern Lights - Renaissance (arr. Christian Balvig)
06 Nights In White Satin - The Moody Blues (arr. Fiona Brice)
07 Refugees - Van Der Graaf Generator (arr. Adam Dennis)
08 And You And I - Yes (arr. Peter Riley)
09 Tubular Bells, Part One (excerpts) - Mike Oldfield (arr. Adam Dennis)
10 Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression, Part 2 - Emerson, Lake & Palmer (arr. Robert Ames)
11 Sylvia - Focus (arr. Christian Balvig)
12 Komfo - Osibisa (arr. Christian Balvig)
13 Peaches En Regalia - Frank Zappa (arr. Christian Balvig)
14 21st Century Schizoid Man/I Talk to The Wind/Court Of The Crimson King - King Crimson                                                                                                                              (arr. Fiona Brice)
15 Entangled - Genesis (arr Fiona Brice)
16 On Reflection - Gentle Giant (arr. Sam Gale)
17 Maker Of Islands - The Incredible String Band (arr. Christian Balvig)
18 Great Gig In The Sky - Pink Floyd (arr. Fiona Brice)
19 Crime Of The Century - Supertramp (arr. Christian Balvig)
20 The Great Gates Of Kiev - Emerson, Lake & Palmer - (Mussorgsky arr. Robert Ames)

Performers:
Guy Garvey vocals
Jane Weaver vocals
Gruff Rhys vocals
Carl Palmer drums
Peter Hammill vocals
Vanessa Hayes vocals
The Staves vocals
BBC Concert Orchestra
Robert Ames conductor

King Crimson - Uncertain Times (2018)

Tonight we have a guest post from geofmcm, with his entry in the ever-popular "create your own 'new' RadKrim album" game. This involves making up an album from all the new music written, improvised by, or edited from improvisations by, the RadKrim lineup of King Crimson. Having three drummers in the band means that there are a number of tracks which are basically drum solos, and if they are given a title then they are a contender for the album, so we start with one of them, and 'Devil Dogs Of Tessellation Row' leads neatly into a demo of one of their new compositions, 'The Errors'. Following the interlude 'Interlude', we have the second drum piece, 'CatalytKc No 9', cross-fading into the live 'Hoodoo', which has some editing to shorten it and echo added to make it easier on the ears. That's followed by one of their more experimental pieces in 'Ahriman's Ceaseless Corruptions', and then we're back with a live take of 'Suitable Grounds For The Blues'. 'Cadenzas' is a unique addition to this album, as often in concert the band would follow 'Moodchild' with  Tony Levin, Robert Fripp and Jeremy Stacey all playing a 1:30 'Cadenza', each in turn, and Geof has taken three of these performances and blended them together into one piece, panning left, right and centre, and I then cross-faded that into the beginning of the highlight of the whole album, 'Radical Action Suite'. Finally I found a painting that seemed to fit the concept from Francesca Sundsten, who was the partner of band member Bill Reiflin, and who provided the artwork for a number of King Crimson albums, in particular the striking 'one-eyed man' on the cover of their 2016 release 'Radical Action (To Unseat The Hold Of Monkey Mind)'. Sundsten died in 2019, just a year before her partner Reiflin, and so this album is a tribute to both of them, as well as a reminder that King Crimson are still alive and well, and producing challenging music well into the 21st Century (Schizoid Man).   

Track listing

01 Devil Dogs Of Tessellation Row
02 The Errors
03 Interlude
04 CatalytiKc No. 9
05 Hoodoo
06 Ahriman's Ceaseless Corruptions
07 Suitable Grounds For The Blues
08 Cadenzas
09 Radical Action Suite

Various Artists - The Planets (2015)

I was answering a comment the other week on one of my Manfred Mann posts and it reminded me that the 1973 hit single 'Joybringer' was based on the melody from 'Saturn:The Bringer Of Joy' from Gustav Holst's 'The Planets Suite'. It's always been my favourite piece of classical music - one of the few pieces that I can listen to regularly - and I wondered if any other rock songs were based on sections of it. I know that when Gustav Holst died his daughter Imogen took over looking after the copyright of his music, and one thing she was very insistent on was that no other form of music other than orchestral was to be used while it was in copyright, so I've often wondered how King Crimson got away with using 'Mars:The Bringer Of War' as the basis or their 'The Devil's Triangle' from their 'In The Wake Of Poseidon' album in 1970, but somehow they did, and so I now had two pieces. The rest of the album took some research, as those did seem to be the two most popular pieces, but once I found Cailyn Lloyd's 'Voyager' album from 2015 I had the choice of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, all of which he'd covered in a progressive rock style, with organ and guitar well to the fore. Jeff Wayne and Rick Wakeman had also decided to record an album based on 'The Planets', but they covered the whole suite, using keyboards and orchestra, and so I chose what was generally considered to be the best track from that recording, 'Venus:Bringer of Peace'. 
When Holst wrote the suite, he originally intended the whole thing to be played on two pianos, and it was later scored for orchestra to become the classical piece that we know today, but I thought it would be interesting to hear at least one piece in its original form, so 'Mercury:The Winged Messenger' is played on two pianos by Richard Markham and David Nettle. On my trawl of the net in search of new interpretations, one of the most unusual that I found was a Youtube video of a concert by a jazz trio, led by pianist Ryan Skiles. He's scored the whole thing for a jazz trio, and it was something of a triumph, with many complementary comments, so I decided to use 'Saturn:The Bringer Of Old Age' from the concert for this album. To round it all off we have Neptune:The Mystic' from probably the most famous modern interpretation, by Isao Tomita, who recorded the whole suite on keyboards and synthesizers in 1976. This was the first time that Imogen Holst became infamous in the rock world when she forced the withdrawal of all UK copies of the album, although I managed to get my hands on one just before they were recalled, as did a number of other fans of the Japanese synth wizard, and the album is more freely available now since the copyright expired. If you haven't heard 'The Planets' played by an orchestra then I do recommend it, and you'll recognise at least a couple of the pieces even if you aren't into classical music. If you are already a fan then I hope that this rock version shows it in a new light.    

Track listing

01 Mars:The Bringer Of War (King Crimson)
02 Venus:The Bringer Of Peace (Rick Wakeman & Jeff Wayne)
03 Mercury:The Winger Messenger (Richard Markham & David Nettle)
04 Joybringer (Manfred Mann's Earth Band)
05 Saturn:The Bringer Of Old Age (Ryan Skiles Trio)
06 Uranus:The Magician (Cailyn Lloyd)
07 Neptune:The Mystic (Isao Tomita)

Rachel Flowers - Hearing Prog Is Believing (2018)

Rachel Flowers was born in 1993 in National City, California, arriving 15 weeks prematurely, and weighing just one pound five ounces. She lost her eyesight at three months due to retinopathy of prematurity, but from a very young age she exhibited an extraordinary musical talent, being able to pick up melodies immediately, and was soon playing by ear every song she heard. As what you are about to read might seem a bit unbelievable, then before you carry on, check out this Youtube video of her playing Emerson, Lake And Palmer's  'Tarkus' entirely from memory at age 19, on Emerson's actual Modular Moog, which I believe was being renovated by her family at the time. Rachel has perfect pitch, and at four and a half years old she began her formal music training through the Southern California Conservatory of Music, where she studied piano, music theory, ear training, music history, Braille music code, and adaptive computer music applications. While studying, she learned to play the flute and saxophone, and some mallet instruments, and is also proficient on piano and keyboards, and can play guitar, chapman stick, and bass. Her great musical loves are jazz and progressive rock, but she can also turn her hand to classical, soul, and R&B, but it's her superlative interpretations of classic prog rock that I'm featuring here. There are a number of videos of her playing on Youtube, and many other songs posted on Soundcloud, so do check them all out, and she is currently working on her second album of original songs. The cover is based on the poster for the 2017 film of her life, 'Hearing Is Believing'.

Track listing

01 Red King Crimson)
02 Trilogy (Emerson, Lake & Palmer)
03 Larks Tongue In Aspic Part I (King Crimson)
04 Larks Tongue In Aspic Part II (King Crimson)
05 2nd Bridge from 'Five Bridges' (The Nice)
06 Starless (King Crimson)

Due to potential licencing issues I've been asked by Rachel to remove the links to this album, but she's happy for you to listen to the music on her Soundcloud page, so links are now the song titles.