How did you find these bands?

I went up to Cambridge in 1968 and the place was awash with early prog. Sid Barrett came from there, as did Dave Gilmour, so Floyd were well known and popular though I'd never heard of them when I went. The folk scene in Cambridge introduced us to prog folk bands like Fairport and Steeleye. We visited each other's rooms to listen, browsed through each other's record collections, borrowed and lent and sampled. I also tried to start a prog band, but I was too slow to learn (I blame the fact that I had to work for my exams) and they soon replaced me with someone who could actually play bass in time and in tune.

Mormegil wrote: I'd have to say (and kudos to the marketing departments), but a lot of the prog bands I followed in the '70s were because of some really striking cover art! It's one of those "the cover's cool so the music must be great!" kind of things.

Snow Dog wrote: Oh well  I am obviously barking mad. I never heard Prog on mainstream radio. What else can I say? Just explaing why it is not unusual for his dad not to have heard of those bands.

I only really became aware of rock music around 1979 and, even though we were well into the punk/new wave era by then, there was still a reasonable amount of prog on mainstream media.  I remember seeing a Mike Oldfield concert (Exposed tour) and a Genesis show (round about the time of Duke), both on BBC2.  There were various singles in the charts (Genesis, Rush, Peter Gabriel). There was The Wall. I remember seeing a massive window display for Drama in one of the local record shops. The Friday Rock Show on Radio 1, although mainly heavy metal by then, did feature some prog.  On it, I heard archive sessions of Caravan and VDGG. I also heard And You and I which was what inspired me to buy my first Yes album.  Certainly progressive rock (as it was called then) was unfashionable and on the wane and it's true that I was in a minority amongst my peers, but I wasn't alone in being interested in this stuff, and digging into early 70s back catalogues etc. My recollection is that even those who didn't like it had heard of most of the major bands.

I don't think I've ever seen Old Grey Whistle Test, only heard tales of it lol. Didn't even know there was a prog show on the radio!
A couple of you said you went by album covers, I do that, it's not the best way to go. Anyone name an album they bought at the time completely unknowing of the band, just based on the cover?
Was it any good?

Similar thread. Boom.

Edited by Dayvenkirq - March 27 2013 at 17:09

Oh well  I am obviously barking mad. I never heard Prog on mainstream radio. What else can I say? Just explaing why it is not unusual for his dad not to have heard of those bands.

elbownut wrote: I was fortunate to have some friends who were into prog when I was at school. So a lot of discoveries were from them and word of mouth generally. As has been mentioned already, in the seventies prog was pretty mainstream and was on radio and TV. I discovered a lot of great stuff listening to the likes of Alan Freeman on Radio 1 and watching The Old Grey Whistle Test on BBC2. What memories !

I was fortunate to have some friends who were into prog when I was at school. So a lot of discoveries were from them and word of mouth generally.

lazland wrote: Snow Dog wrote: cstack3 wrote: dysoriented wrote: I asked my father the other day if he had heard of some of the 70's prog acts I listen to. To name a few, King Crimson, Hawkwind, Gentle Giant, Caravan... And he said no. This absolutely baffled me, because his music, in general is proggy! David Bowie, Queen, Bryan Ferry. So I suppose, what I'm asking here is, how was it marketed back then? I was told "We didn't have the internet back then to discover music, we just made do''. And it made me wonder, how people found out about these bands? As I'm guessing it was just as niche then as it is now. Does that make sense?  (By the way, I don't just mean those select few, I mean the whole prog scene, obviously there's a ton of bands/musicians that were active at the time) Ha!  Prog was HUGELY popular back then!  Singles by Yes, ELP, Focus, Flash and other bands received as much airplay back then as Justin Bieber does today!   Rock magazines like Circus were full of news about Yes, Genesis etc.   Not in the UK it wasn't. Most kids never heard of those bands It was a strange situation then. Shows such as Top of the Pops were full of glam, crappy "soul" music from the States, and corny pop. However, the music press then regarded what we call prog or art rock as the epitome, and shows such as Old Grey Whistle Test catered for serious music fans. When Rick Wakeman appeared on this, aided by a news dispute on BBC1, he became an overnight star. Bands such as Yes, Led Zep, The Who, Deep Purple et al sold albums by the truckload. Serious bands sold out gigs at large venues.

I did not discover prog until the mid to late 80s, though i had superficially been aware of it when i was young in the seventies. A friend lent me some prog albums in 1985, and then i became, as one friend put it, "the beating heart of the used record stores of my city".
      I bought big names, and also took gambles on very obscure albums. Though the cover of a record is not the most important thing, it was a pretty big factor in what i decided to gamble on.
          My prog listening and awareness just mushroomed from then on.