What the ... is Canterbury, anyway?

http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2848&a mp;PN=3&TPN=2

A much more fully developed thread started a couple of weeks ago .

Like Chinatown, Canterbury isn't just a place, it's a state of mind. The original Canterbury acts all had some connection (pretty tenuous in some cases) to the place, but these days there are even Canterbury bands in Japan.

well here in Texas we have Southern Rock whose
area covers Texas to Florida, we have Country and
Western which covers Tennessee to Texas to
Montana. Im afraid to catagorize English bands now,
kept seeing Canterbury as a term and assumed I
could chunk Jethro Tull, Gentle Giant, Renaissance,
Audience, Gryphon, VDDG for instance in that hat for
convenient keeping. No such luck, guess some
could be classified is 70s english progressive folk.
Forgot all the roots of this stuff, used to be hip back
in the 70s-80s but havent even thought about it in 20
years.

Having fun clearing the cobwebs though!

Edited by DallasBryan

Check out the excellent Calyx website,dedicated to all
things Canterbury/RIO

calyx.dub.fr/index

DallasBryan wrote: well here in Texas we have Southern Rock whose area covers Texas to Florida, we have Country and Western which covers Tennessee to Texas to Montana. Im afraid to catagorize English bands now, kept seeing Canterbury as a term and assumed I could chunk Jethro Tull, Gentle Giant, Renaissance, Audience, Gryphon, VDDG for instance in that hat for convenient keeping. No such luck, guess some could be classified is 70s english progressive folk. Forgot all the roots of this stuff, used to be hip back in the 70s-80s but havent even thought about it in 20 years. Having fun clearing the cobwebs though!

 

In the UK geographic change is measured in 10 of miles rather than 100's - I didn't realise this until my first visit Stateside in 1977,  flying down from Boston to Philly and the scenery below seemed to hardly change - and similarly more recently flying from Philly to LA.  However, too often when asked by Americans: which part of the UK I come from - I then get asked if I know somebody in the 20 million population of London - living 130 miles north of London is a long way in this part of the world. The daftness of such a  question is often met with a suitably daft answer.

Hence Canterbury originally and still now, largely related to musicians from that part of Kent - some exceptions: French band Moving Gelatine Plates, Caveman Hughscore (original Canterbury man Hugh Hopper gave the Oregon band that creditability - btw Hugh now lives in Whitstable, which might make us Brits think twice about his suitability.....),  US band Underground Railroad (but their keyboard player worked on the road with caravan in the 90's) and a couple of 70's Italian prog bands.