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I was born in 1964 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, and got my first turntable (a vintage case-shaped "Supraphon", Czechoslovakian make) around 1970 from my parents. There were few LP records at that time in Yugoslavia, mainly 7" singles were sold, so we had a mini collection of 1960s pop music: Ray Charles, Tom Jones, Pat Boone, Engelbert Humperdinck, Mary Hopkin, Rita Pavone, Sergio Endrigo... Italian staff... French chansons, to name a few.

Among these I had a pop single of KORNI GRUPA/KORNELYANS who would later act as a pioneering Yugoslavian prog band. During the 1970s when I was in my teens the preferred music was the local popular bands like BIJELO DUGME, SMAK, INDEXI or YU GRUPA so I was no exception, with occasional interest in Anglo-American hard rock, glam rock even disco, which were all still quite popular in the late 70s. To illustrate the variety of music styles I listened, I can mention that among my first LP records there were Louis Armstrong's double album "Starportrait" and ABBA's "Arrival" which I adored!

I was introduced to progressive rock for the first time in the high school around 1980 via PINK FLOYD's "The Wall" and GENESIS' "Nursery Cryme". Actually it was psychedelic rock that I was hooked on in the first place listening to the early FLOYD albums and the Californian sound of THE DOORS and JEFFERSON AIRPLANE. At the turn of the decades there was a famous discotheque/music club called "Cactus" in Sarajevo (Bosnia) which played mostly "progressive" music of the 1960-70s with some obligatory follow-up of the contemporary New Wave scene. It was allegedly named after the American blues rock band CACTUS and again allegedly it was quite unique place across former Yugoslavia. This was the place where I heard for the first time the acts like VANGELIS, MMEB, GOLDEN EARRING, JANE, STRING DRIVEN THING, UNDISPUTED TRUTH, NEU!, RARE BIRD, RARE EARTH, THE TEMPTATIONS, ALLMAN BROTHERS, BRAINTICKET, CAN, SWEET SMOKE, BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST... and many others.

Having said this, it may sound strange to many prog fans, but I never considered punk/new wave as opposition to prog rock, because I generally try to listen and explore the individual artists rather than genres and categories as such. Among my top favorite music ever are several punk/post punk era artists namely THE CLASH, THE STRANGLERS, JOY DIVISION, THE CURE, TALKING HEADS, NICK CAVE, TUXEDOMOON, DEAD CAN DANCE, THE SMITHS... Especially the New Wave scene in ex Yugoslavia was highly prolific and eclectic, giving the sense of a real social movement and urban art for the first time in a "socialist" country, acting that way as a real opposition to the cultural establishment of the already decaying political system (Tito died in 1980!).

Again maybe surprisingly for some prog purists, I simply love American West Cost folk rock/country rock/psychedelic/Americana styles and artists like Bob Dylan, Neil Young, CSNY, THE BYRDS, JEFFERSON AIRPLANE, GRATEFUL DEAD, THE DOORS, LOVE, FLYING BURRITO BROTHERS, GRAM PARSONS, LEONARD COHEN up to 1980s "roots revivalists" like GREEN ON RED, DREAM SYNDICATE, early REM, VIOLENT FEMMES and THIN WHITE ROPE. This is probably my favourite genre of music worth exploring, along with prog rock.

There was of course British Invasion and I would lie saying I did not enjoy in many of their prominent works such as THE BEATLES' "Revolver" and "Abbey Road", THE ROLLING STONES' "Beggar's Banquet" and "Sticky Fingers", THE WHO's "Who's Next" and "Quadrophenia", THE KINKS' "Face to Face", THE YARDBIRDS or THE ANIMALS. Although never a die-hard fan of any form of hard rock/heavy metal, I did like some early works of DEEP PURPLE, BLACK SABBATH, URIAH HEEP or BLUE OYSTER CULT, while I always considered LED ZEPPELIN a bit further ahead into progressive territory due to their exploratory nature and imaginative sound and Tolkien-inspired lyrics.

I had a collection of some 500 LP records resembling for the most part the musical spectrum I just described, alas it was all destroyed in 1992 during the war in ex Yugoslavia (shelling and siege of Sarajevo where I live). So basically I needed to refresh my entire old collection on CDs + some new stuff. In addition, I still have around 200 cassettes with taped music. Roughly 50% or more can be considered "progressive rock".

Now regarding my choice it is very difficult to single out favourites because probably if asked another time it would be considerably different, but this is my best shot below. My favourite progressive bands/artists thus would be (in alphabetical order):

1. AMON DUUL II 2. CAN 3. GENESIS 4. GONG 5. JETHRO TULL 6. KING CRIMSON 7. PINK FLOYD 8. TRAFFIC 9. VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR 10. YES

My favourite progressive albums include (in alphabetical order):

1. "Fragile"- YES 2. "H to He Who Am the Only One"- VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR 3. "Lark's Tongues in Aspic"- KING CRIMSON 4. "Least We Can Do Is Wave to Each Other"- VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR 5. "Meddle"- PINK FLOYD 6. "Mirage"- CAMEL 7. "Nursery Cryme"- GENESIS 8. "Selling England by the Pound"- GENESIS 9. "Wish You Were Here"- PINK FLOYD 10. "You"- GONG

Other comments: As I already said above, my musical taste is very eclectic and diverse so here are my favourite non-prog artists, squeezed to top 20 (in no order):

1. GRATEFUL DEAD 2. DOORS 3. BYRDS 4. JEFFERSON AIRPLANE/STARSHIP 5. STEELY DAN 6. BEATLES 7. CLASH 8. VELVET UNDERGROUND 9. LED ZEPPELIN 10. NEIL YOUNG 11. BOB DYLAN 12. CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG 13. STRANGLERS 14. TUXEDOMOON 15. DAVID SYLVIAN (ok he is included in the Prog here) 16. NICK CAVE 17. SMITHS 18. RADIOHEAD 19. PEARL JAM 20. DEAD CAN DANCE

As a separate entry I would mention my favourite ex Yugoslavian music artists prog or non-prog, trimmed to top 10 by geography:

1. INDEXI (proto-prog, soft rock, symphonic) Sarajevo, Bosnia 2. ZABRANJENO PUSENJE ("new primitives", pop-rock, rock-satire) Sarajevo, Bosnia 3. SCH (post-punk, industrial/noise, post-rock) Sarajevo, Bosnia 4. IDOLI (new wave, pop, art-pop) Belgrade, Serbia 5. EKATARINA VELIKA (post-punk, art/experimental rock) Belgrade, Serbia 6. LEB I SOL (jazz-rock, folk-fusion) Skopje, Macedonia 7. AZRA (new wave, pop-rock) Zagreb, Croatia 8. HAUSTOR (new wave, reggae/folk/art-rock) Zagreb, Croatia 9. BULDOZER (psychedelic, avant-prog rock, rock satire) Ljubljana, Slovenia 10. LACNI FRANZ (punk, new wave, art-rock/experimental) Maribor, Slovenia

You can contact me at: [email protected]