Hello all prog fans! I'm glad I stumbled across this site- I think I found it about the same time I discovered Auralmoon internet radio. Very nice site and good forums as far s I can see :)

Anyways, I'm a secondary school student in the UK, and I got into prog several years ago through Tubular Bells (for a while, all I listened to was Tubular bells, because it was just so incredible and I didn't know what else to listen to). Thanks to my dad, I then got into Yes via Union (an odd starting point I guess) then the incredible Going for the one. Since then I have listened to all the Yes music I could, as well as getting into Genesis (after a VERY bad start- the first Genesis album I heard was "Calling all stations";)) and Pink Floyd. Then many other bands after finding Auralmoon and the Prog Archives .

Favourite prog bands:

-Yes (inc. ABWH)

-Rick Wakeman (his better albums anyway)

-Mike Oldfield

-Genesis

-Pink Floyd

-Steve Hillage

Bands I have heard already and would like to listen to more:

-The Flower Kings

-Spocks Beard

-Ayreon

-Pain of Salvation

-French TV

-Happy the Man

-Gong

-Anything else really!

If anyone could recommend good starting albums for the above bands, that would be really good :)

Aside from prog I like various classical, (some) folk, jazz, blues, metal... but generally, I don't actually own any albums as such in these genres, I just enjoy them.

Well nothing more to say I guess.

Hi Ferentix,

Recommendations:

Spock's Beard -  "Snow", "V", "The Kindness of Strangeness" and "Feel Euphoria" (uneven, but very strong in a lot of places)

The Flower Kings - "Unfold the Future", "Stardust We Are", "Flowerpower"

Pain of Salvation - "The Perfect Element", "Remedy Lane"

Gong - "Angel's Egg"

some more recommendations:

Indian Summer - "Indian Summer"

Raw Material - "Time Is"

Bubu - "Anabelas"

Gentle Giant - "Octopus", "In a Glass House", "Three Friends"

Catapilla - "Catapilla"

King Crimson - "In the Court of the Crimson King", "Red", "Discipline", "The Power to Believe" (just to give you a taste of what they're capable of, IMO this four is as representative of them as you can get with such a band)

and Dream Theater (yes - listen and decide for yourself) - "Images and Words", "Awake" and "Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence"

I have listened to a bit of Dream Theatre, and it was pretty good.

Thanks for the recommendations and the welcome :)