I suppose U2, Simple Minds and Big Country were the 'Big 3' of.. well i'm not sure actually.. big, overblown, stadium-pomp- rock in the 80's?? U2 certainly openly decried any perceived 'prog' influences.. Simple Minds and Big Country perhaps more open minded to a degree.. i cant stand U2 but have a soft spot for the Scots contingent..

Actually (briefly) Runrig were quite big..

Apart from the UK NWOBPR at the start of the 80's, Marillion were the only big venue fillers.. Rush, Zappa..

It was mostly padded shoulder jackets with sleeves rolled up and bad mullets 

It's funny that you are on the forum of one of the best prog sites, and you google about what "neo-prog' is. kinda insulting if you ask me. Also disrespectful to all users, collabs and admins that contributed to the PA database. 

Also i don't need to google "neo-prog", I've been listening to this genre since the 90s. And Spock's Beard and Echolyn are not that. 

No offense, find some better resources. If you cannot, PA should be more than enough. 

Marillion

Alan Parsons Project

Rush

Kate Bush

Asia

Saga

I wanted to include a band called Zebra but even though they headlined Rosfest one year I think they just miss the mark as far as prog content goes (despite the fact that "who's behind the door" is pure symph prog ecstasy). The same thing goes for Triumph. Both bands were really more hard rock/ semi heavy metal overall though. Asia kind of miss the mark too technically speaking but are included because of who was in the band more than anything else and as such have strong prog ties.

Maybe we need a thread titled "How to Define and Classify Neo Prog". Then again, maybe we don't. 

neo-prog was also "big" in Japan during the 80's - though I'm not sure most of these bands travelled the planet before the 90's. 

It bites is considered proggy (not by me), and they sold a fair bit.

Neither Canada (I don't think most of anybody even knew of the existence of the other 5).

I saw Marillion in Toronto only on the Straws tour (which became the Magpie live album)... not aware they came to town before (and I was checking them out since Script's release)

Nogbad_The_Bad wrote: Discounting the original Big 6 Marillion Cardiacs Univers Zero IQ Dead Can Dance Art Zoyd

Interesting list, but when you know that UZ only played some 35 gigs in their first life (75 to 86)... 

not sure I would count DCD as "prog" in the 80's either. 

.

Rush

Marillion

Kate Bush (professed that a big influcence on her was prog through her brothers)

Peter Gabriel

Tangerine Dream (1980-1987 mainly)

The 1980s were a period where many of the big prog bands transitioned their music to the changing times in the rock music industry (aiming for more radio play, shorter songs, and less of what we normally consider prog). So, Rush, Yes, Pink Floyd, and Genesis had the chart success, but what of the prog element? I would say it declined considerably and the number of albums these bands released also declined in number (except for Rush). Marillion has been brought up often in this thread, and deservedly so, but their chart success was limited to Europe. Compare that with the "big six" of the 1970s where chart success was more widespread.

I think a better definition of "big six" should probably exclude chart success and weigh more heavily on what actual prog fans find great. This is after all a prog site, and we generally poo-poo mainstream music media because our beloved genre doesn't feel like it gets its proper due. So, why should we care about sales and chart success from the rest of the music-listening population that generally doesn't even have much familiarity with our genre? Ratings on PA and RYM would be better indicators to show which bands succeeded in getting interest from actual prog fans and thus a more representative "big six" that we, as prog fans, can identify with.

So, this may be a good starting point on determining which bands could make up the "big six" of the 1980s:

https://tinyurl.com/2p98ttb9 (this is a tiny URL for the top 250 albums of the 1980s on PA)

So Univers Zero, Eskaton, Cardiacs & Voivod are in with a shout!

The Alan Parsons Project can be considered for sure, but there's again the question what to think about it from 

the perspective of Progressive Rock, even Who's Who in Rock & Roll  did consider the band as a part of the genre.

If to approach the whole question not historically but from the perspective of today (the greatest classics from the 80's), 

my answer wouldn't be the same, but like Progaardvark a referring to the highest rated albums on RYM and PA.