Peter Hammill in The Wire magazine

 

I used to subscribe in the early nineties.  There did seem to be rather a lot of self-satisfied t**sers writing for the magazine in those days.  I mean the type who would pride themselves on being musically open-minded, but for whom it was an unstated fact that there were whole areas of music debarred from consideration because they weren't cool enough. 

 

I have to agree with most of what's been said here on this topic. Just because there's an article on Hammill in The Wire doesn't mean they've taken a suddenly friendly view toward prog. I too remember that issue (it was actually spread out over two issues, I believe) from ten or more years ago which was a condenscending A - Z of prog bands. But even then they were the kindest toward VdGG and Crimson, basically saying that they were the only two prog bands whose music still stands up. And even though he sells the least amount of product among the prog heavyweights, Hammill is more of a critic's darling than any of them (he's been getting glowing press over the last few years in all of the major British/European music rags - for example, anyone remember Uncut calling VdGG the "coolest, strangest band in prog" last year?). So The Wire probably feels they can run a major PH/VdGG article and not risk their reputation because PH is hipper and more respected than prog in general (in the media's eyes). He's also one of the only major proggers who has won the respect of artists who usually hate prog (John Lydon, Julian Cope, Mark E Smith [The Fall], Dave Thomas [Pere Ubu], Jello Biafra [Dead Kennedys], Nick Cave, etc).

 

'Superprog' was right - you can expect to see Hammill, Can, Scott Walker, and Faust in The Wire, but it'll be a cold day in you-know-where before you'll get any coverage of Jon Anderson, Uriah Heep, or Gentle Giant.