So last nights American Music Club gig left me none the wiser about the adoration which is often heaped upon the band. Occasionally the quality of the songs really did shine through, but in the main too many of the songs just sounded too clunky and unfocussed, the lyrical quality being lost in the average musical clothes which they were dressed in. I’m glad we went, but I don’t think that we will rush to see them again.

We just caught up with last nights showing of The Rotters Club which started on BBC2 last night. It looks like a perfect recreation of a time in my life which I well remember. Gently funny, yet prepared to show the horror of some of the events of the time, it was an impressive and enjoyable first show. Loved the brilliant review of “Tales From Topographic Oceans” by the Philip Chase character. Ah the happy days of my first flirtations with the world of prog rock.

For a while my musical world consisted purely of the likes of Pink Floyd, ELP, Genesis and Yes. I well remember the smug disdain my friends and I had for anyone who did not enjoy 20 minute songs about some sort of crazy hippy nonsense. Of course within a few years everything had turned full circle and we shook our heads in stunned amazement at our gullibility.