I would like to thank everyone who attended the ProgYes mini festival at The Frazer Theatre on Sunday 28th August. Everyone who attended enjoyed the event, which provided an opportunity to listen to Progressive Rock, which followed on from 1960s Psychadelic music and which peaked in popularity in the mid 1970s.

At the ProgYes festival there were support performances from myself and friends and from the ‘Just Messin’ band. Then we had a headlining performance from SeYeS,  the fabulous Yes tribute band. They performed versions of 'Yours Is No Disgrace', 'Wondrous Stories' and many more, all perfectly delivered in an authentic 1970s Yes style.

Many thought that Progressive Rock would succeed pop music and might even have been considered alongside modern classical music. The term has been applied to the music of a number of bands, including Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Yes, Genesis and Jethro Tull, in other words, arguably some of the biggest bands this country has ever produced.

Unfortunately, Progressive Rock went into decline in the late 1970s. For some reason it was never accepted into the world of Classical music. It also fell out of favour with mainstream audiences. With its exotic, literary topics and elitist image, Progressive Rock had little to say to British youth growing up in the difficult times of the 1970s. It was overtaken by more aggressive, simpler forms of music such as Punk and Disco. However, it has retained a strong following and it now has its own specialist audience. At ProgYes we had a stall from Muse Music from Hebden Bridge and many people showed strong interest in the vast array of recorded music available in this genre.

Thanks very much to David Crosthwaite and his team at the Frazer Theatre and to everyone who helped with this event. I would like to see this become an annual event and let’s hope the next one is bigger and even more successful.

If you would like to hear more about Progressive Rock Music, please tune into my monthly show on the Internet/Podcast, also called ProgYes, which is broadcast on Phoenix FM (www.phoenixfm.co.uk). More information on my website  www.progyes.co.uk

I am a subscriber to Acid Dragon, and I have followed with interest your debate about whether the classification of Prog Rock is perhaps too clichéd and narrow. You also feature and champion many of my favourite albums and artists (such as Deep Purple's 'Concerto for Group and Orchestra' and Clark/Hutchinson). I agree that too many people are narrow minded about what they will accept as 'prog rock'.

My own view of Progressive rock is that it needn’t be restricted to very long tracks with long instrumental passages, although I do like that kind of thing. In fact I would argue that the Moody Blues were equally worthy of the ‘Prog’ tag, even though their albums would often feature a mixture of quite bright Justin Hayward pop songs along with  more doomy Mike Pinder material. I would also go as far as to say that some Beatles material was just as ... worthy of the ‘experimental/avante garde’ tag as Gong material. I believe it’s all a question of how you put your music across and how intelligent your approach is.