noted ... they were rejected by the Neo team though, 8 years ago

... and I was 8 years younger in a nicer world... so?

Stumbled upon this and I'm surprised to read that The Last Detail were rejected for inclusion in the PA database. This can only have been for non-musical reasons, because this band was one of the Dutch Neo-Prog references at the end of the 80s and beginning of the 90s. I've had the pleasure to see them live once, in a double bill concert with other short-lived Dutch Neo-Prog hope Light in Nijmegen, I guess it was 1990. Anyway, a new attempt to get them included, as they should... with a bio (compiled from different sources, but especially the booklet of their compilation album) and a photo (taken from their bandcamp page).

The Last Detail were one of those "major" bands of the first - later - Dutch Neo-Prog wave, together with bands like For Absent Friends, Egdon Heath, Light and some others. They are the missing link between https://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=1366" rel="nofollow - Ywis and https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=3668" rel="nofollow - Timelock and were active between 1987 and 1992. After the demise of Ywis, Julian Driessen (keyboards) teamed up with Ruud Stoker (vocals) and Bart Feis (guitar, bass, e-bow) to form The Last Detail. They released a first cassette album, The Silhouette. Peter de Bruijne (bass) joined the band for the second cassette album Waterford. In 1988, for the re-recording of two tracks for the compilation album https://www.discogs.com/fr/release/3587347-Various-Exposure-88" rel="nofollow - Exposure 88 , they were joined by drummer René Kerst. De Bruijne and Kerst were soon replaced by Peter Stoker (bass) and Andy de Zeeuw (drums) and this line-up recorded their first CD album in the studios of Rinus Hollenberg, with whom Driessen had played before in Ywis. At Last... The Tale was released on CD in 1990 which garnered them a decent following in prog circles as a live act and led to support Saga when this band played a gig in the Netherlands that year. The relative success and the mounting pressure meant the end of The Last Detail, but not after the release of an EP for which some tracks were re-recorded and the release of a track on the https://www.discogs.com/fr/master/858821-Various-SI-Magazine-Compilation-Disc" rel="nofollow - SI Magazine compilation disc . The complete discography of the band appeared on a two-CD compilation album in 2019.
The music of The Last Detail is caracterised by a more compact song oriented approach of music, hoovering between Neo-Prog and melodic rock, just like Ywis before and Timelock after and comparable to some of the British Neo-Prog bands of that time as well as to Saga.


Discography on discogs: https://www.discogs.com/fr/artist/4758657-The-Last-Detail-2" rel="nofollow - https://www.discogs.com/fr/artist/4758657-The-Last-Detail-2

Bandcamp: https://thelastdetailnl.bandcamp.com/" rel="nofollow - https://thelastdetailnl.bandcamp.com/

It wasn't a unanimous rejection - there was a single 'yes' vote, and one member of the team voted move (presumably to Crossover). What I find strange is that one of the two guys who voted 'no' has reviewed all three of the original issues ('The Silhouette', 'Waterford' and 'At Last... the Tale') on https://rateyourmusic.com/artist/the_last_detail" rel="nofollow - RYM saying things like:"lyrical Prog Opera with the standard synth-laden Neo Prog acoustics and a slight AOR-ish vibe", "balancing between pompous, AOR-ish Euro Prog Rock of the 90's and emphatic, British-styled Neo Prog of the early-80's", "a mix of softened AOR/Prog/New Wave akin to CIRKEL and more emphatic Neo Prog with semi-symphonic acoustics and strong melodies, not far from similar-sounding German acts of the early-90's. Decent songwriting and vocals, not the best of the league, instrumental work is also pretty nice with MARILLION/PINK FLOYD/CAMEL influences all over" and "the overall effort is decent enough, lots of flashy keys and energetic moves on guitar and rhythms, dreamy breaks, CAMEL-lined melodic solos, even some big symphonic breaks".

Kev Rowland, a highly respected reviewer, who also used to be the leader of the Crossover team on PA, has reviewed the remastered and reissued double album of the band's material here:  https://powerofprog.com/the-last-detail-at-last-the-tale-and-other-stories-freia/" rel="nofollow - https://powerofprog.com/the-last-detail-at-last-the-tale-and-other-stories-freia/ :

From all that, it doesn't really sound as though the band should be excluded from PA to me. They're certainly included on https://www.proggnosis.com/Artist/1720" rel="nofollow - Proggnosis as a Neo Prog outfit.

It needs all positive votes to be cleared to be added. 

Edit: I completed the discography on https://awesomeprog.com/artists/10849" rel="nofollow - AwesomeProg , and added all the supported album links I could find.

Oh well, this all sounds utterly ridiculous. Especially considering the presence of Ywis and Timelock in PA under Neo (listen to them!), and the completely similar sounding The Last Detail would not be Neo-Prog? This is pure inconsistency and a rewriting of prog history. Again: ridiculous and very amateurish.

Basing on the site rules, they can't be re-evaluated unless they release new material. I don't know if there's an alternative way. 

^ Yes, I know - that is also what Cristi referred to. But there's a difference between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. 

Regarding style and sound The Last Detail were a continuation of Ywis and Timelock in that sense a continuation of The Last Detail. And I consider Timelock even more AOR oriented than The Last Detail. That's the inconsistency I was talking about, because the other two bands are listed here under Neo. Suffices to listen to TLD to hear the similarities in style compared to both Ywis and Timelock.

Other than that, it is also an historic aberration not to list them in PA (under Neo). Dutch Prog at that time (late 80s, early 90s), especially compared to the British Neo bands, were more compact, melodic and song oriented. "Crossover Prog" didn't exist (and IMO should not exist, since it is a horrible invention of PA that the music world has not adopted): it was either symphonic/progressive rock or Neo-Prog (if I remember well how the Dutch Prog magazine Sym-Info (later SI-magazine) talked about it). The Last Detail were one of those bands that held up high the Prog flag in the Netherlands. Unfortunately, none (or hardly any) of those bands had a long life (thinking of Light, Egdon Heath, TLD - only For Absent Friends seem to continue, but with long pauses between albums).

I consider it just a correction of an error of appreciation (and lack of knowledge of Dutch Prog history) 12 years ago to include The Last Detail in PA.

Maybe suggest them for another subgenre, like crossover. 

(Long ago, see above. Keishiro suggested the band to be "moved"; I think such a band could only have been moved to crossover). 

I was just trying to find a loophole to have the band evaluated. 

Write (PM) the admins about the band, ask for advice. 

My own opinion: I understand the "spirit of the law", but taking a decision is not up to me. I assume that only the admins can give a green light to an exception. 

^ Somehow this shows the lack of direction of PA. I know the captain has left the ship long ago (only doing patchwork when necessary), so nobody seems to be in charge anymore.

That said, there's no emergency. I mean, the band was considered Neo-Prog 30 years ago and they're not active anymore. Twelve years ago two nay-sayers, with a clear absence of knowledge of the Dutch Prog scene and of the presence of Ywis and Timelock in the PA-database under Neo-Prog (they seem to have been added  in 2007 or even before), prevented the inclusion of The Last Detail. This incoherence is a PA responsibility that no-one seems to be willing to take up/be accountable for. I am just a visitor complaining about this. It is up to PA to be a coherent database or not, whoever PA is nowadays.So no, I'm not going to write to an admin about this. If PA pretends to be "the most complete and powerful progressive rock resource" then it should live up to it's pretensions, whoever the captain is.  If it is incapable to live up to that then we're just looking at the sinking of a ship.

But if such situations, errors and omissions are not reported or presented to the admins, how will they know, if we don't make them aware of them?! 

As I stated above, it's crossover to my ears. Alas, I won't bring it back to the neo team as it won't get approved by our team unless Keishiro changes his vote. 

The Last Detail is prog and belong in PA, IMO but it's crossover not neo prog. Keishiro voted move from neo (to...crossover?) and I would do the same, so I guess that's a majority for a move to crossover (?) with the current team. So I suppose I can, no I will, alert Keishiro and ask for his advice.

Why would you stubbornly declare The Last Detail neo and not accept them as crossover?!!

Anyway this re-evaluation is based on unanimous approvals by Admins.

^ It doesn't matter if a) PA wants to practice historical revisionism and b) create an inconsistency with the two directly related bands. But, apparently, I know nothing about prog, because I joined PA in 2020...  

It's up to those in charge.

Three 'yes' votes already in Crossover anyway, so we are now just waiting for one more 'yes' vote for the band to be officially cleared by one of the Special Collaborators in the team, and then added. I expect the band will be in the archives very soon. 

"many artists change their style"