ON THIS VALETINE’S DAY:

IT’S TIME TO SHINE A LIGHT ON THE LITTLE ONES IN THE SHADOW.

The big ones were small too, once. Drawing by Sonia Mota – click for high larger version.

Having been a rock, hard rock and metal fan since the mid 1980s, when I was around 13 years old, I have enjoyed quite a few of the well known artists and albums. No stranger to Iron Maiden, Led Zeppelin, Metallica, but also a life time fan of Rush, Marillion and Pink Floyd, I keep discovering new bands and artists all year long. Over the years, bands that fit into the definition of progressive rock have proven to be what I like. Some of these giants are actually still active – think about the recent King Crimson tour, UK touring (for the last time, but still), Rush going on a 40th anniversary tour, and Pink Floyd releasing another album after almost 50 years.

The past 3-4 months I’ve picked up on reviewing progressive rock albums, something I did a couple of times (say 50-60) before for ProgArchives.com over the last 10 years. The number of reviews is around 1-2 per week right now, and between the promo’s I receive, I find many bands that are just starting or otherwise operating in the shadows of the aforementioned giants.

In our commercially operating world, these aspiring new bands get very little attention – standing in the shadow of the big ones. Yet they deserve it, and they have to, because the giants were small too, once – as shown in the cartoon above this article (courtesy of Sonia Mota – thank you very much!).

Think of Corvus Stone, who rose from the shadows last year by their own merit, but also of those who haven’t done that yet – like Murky Red, Progeland, Tiger Moth Tales, Tony Patterson & Brendan Eyre, or Joshua Leibowitz, and many, many more. All of them deserve to be heard, to be known, and to thrive. Not all of them may qualify as progressive rock either, but many get close – and in the end it’s all great music.

Now I don’t have the illusion to change that single handedly, but here on this web site you will find more and more attention going to these ‘little ones’ – in the form of the Track-of-the-Day, but also in album reviews and gig reports.

I hope you can all appreciate that, and spread the news, so the little ones will find a place in the spotlights too.