A new decade, new bands, new albums. This was the beginning of an exciting time for music, as hard rock began to metamorphose, or at least diversify into nascent heavy metal with the rise of Black Sabbath and the harder (at least temporarily), heavier approach taken by Deep Purple, plus heavier, less bluesy albums from Led Zeppelin. But of course we’re concerned with the rise of progressive rock, and though it still had some way to go before properly establishing itself as a true music genre that could stand and face other forms of rock, and the later wave of disco and pop music, there were some important albums released this year. It was the year when certain bands and artists began to place their stamp on the world, and while at this point few if any were well-known and almost none had, or ever would have, hits in the charts, it was also, as I mentioned previously, the beginning of a time when purchase of albums began to overtake that of singles, as people looked more to the full story than just the highlights.
Inevitably, as we progress into the seventies, we’ll be dealing with more bands and more albums, and equally inevitably, and I hope understandably, I will be unable, nor would I be willing, to deal with every single one. Looking down Wiki’s list for 1970 I can count at least forty albums released this year, and while it might be fun to look into all of them for one year, I imagine the novelty would wear off quickly, for me at least, as the list only grows as more and more artists come on the scene. I also want to finish this before I die. So I will be cherry-picking from the list, taking the albums I see as either essential or important, or ones I feel made some contribution to the movement, even if they may not have made a big impact at first. I’ll also look into those which may not have made a big splash, prog-wise, in 1970 but which led to greater things for those bands. And of course, I’ll be selecting a few for our Over the Garden Wall feature, albums that didn’t do much to advance the cause of prog, and may only have been connected to it by the most tenuous of strands, but which provided the one element missing in most prog albums: fun. The jokers in the pack, as it were. Damn! Should have used that to name the section! Oh well, too late now.
One list which will however always be complete and on which I will, to the best of my ability, do my very best not to miss out anyone will be the list of bands formed in any particular year. This is I feel very important, as even if the bands in question did little or nothing, they still should be seen as if not contributing, then trying to contribute to the overall picture of prog rock, and some of them, indeed, while not finding fame with those bands, may have gone on to better things with other bands or even solo.
Something else I will look at from this year on will be those bands who didn’t make it, who decided either this wasn’t for them and disbanded, or who changed their direction away from prog, or who for whatever reason disappeared into the murky mists of the history of progressive rock. Some may even get a short article written on them, who knows? For now, though, here are the names that popped up in 1970.
Ange (1970 – )
Nationality: French
Original lineup: Christian, Francis and Tristan Décamps, Jean-Michel Brézovar, Jean-Claude Rio, Patrick Kachanian, Gérard Jelsch
First relevant album: Caricatures, 1972
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Impact: 0
The Trollheart Factor: 0
Linked to:
I always respect bands who sing in their native language, but it can be a two-edged sword. Look at Trust: they remained relatively unknown outside of France because they didn’t sing in English, eventually having to bow to pressure and release some of their albums in English. Ange were the same, though they seem to have stuck to their guns. Fronted by the three brothers Décamps, they released a quite impressive total of 23 albums up to 2018, but despite opening for Genesis at the Reading Festival in 1973, and gigging at over 100 concerts in the UK, they remained an enigma to the Brits, who couldn’t understand a word the guys were singing. Ange did release one album, their fifth, in English, but it sold badly and they probably said something like “Zut Alors! C’est ne pas un jeux des soldats!” Though probably not. As a result of nobody being able to understand them, they had no real impact on the prog scene that I can see.
Curved Air ((i) 1970 – 1972 (ii) 1974 - 1976 (iii) 2008 - )
Nationality: English
Original lineup: Darryl Way, Francis Monkman, Rob Martin, Florian Pilkington-Miksa, Sonja Kristina
First relevant album: Air Conditioning, 1970
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Impact: ?
The Trollheart Factor: 0
Linked to: Sky, Roxy Music, The Police
One of the few prog bands to have a hit single - and the only, I think, in 1970, and further, the only to have a top four single, Curved Air hit it big with “Back Street Luv” from their first album, which went to number four. However, commercially that was it for them. Captained by two polar opposites - Francis Monkman, who went on to form SKY, and who was a total jam fiend, loving extensive noodling and improvisations, and Darryl Way, a serious-as-**** violinist and keyboard player who liked everything to be just so - it was never going to work, and within a few years of their association they had split up. The band continued a few years later, resurrected but only for two more years, after which there was a lengthy hiatus, leading to the phenomenon of a band being technically around for almost fifty years but in that time only releasing a total of seven albums, the last of which came in the twenty-first century.
In addition to being the only (to my knowledge) prog band to have a hit in 1970, Curved Air were also famous in being the first rock band to use a violin, and for later featuring future Roxy Music member Eddie Jobson as well as founder of the Police, Stewart Copeland in their lineup. Also famous for being one of the few (at least, at that time) prog bands to feature a female lead singer.
ELO - Electric Light Orchestra ((i) 1970 – 1983 (ii) 1985-1986 (iii) 2000 - 2001 (iv) 2014 - )
Nationality: English
Original lineup: Jeff Lynne, Roy Wood, Bev Bevan
First relevant album: The Electric Light Orchestra, 1971
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Impact: 5
The Trollheart Factor: 10
Linked to: Jeff Lynne solo career, The Move, ELO Part II
I could write pages about ELO. But I won’t. Not here anyway. One of the very earliest bands I got into, ELO were one of the few prog rock(ish) bands who truly made it, crossing over into the world of pop to have a slew of hits, while somehow keeping their classical orchestral leanings, and in the process perhaps introducing younger people like me (hey! I was young once! Honestly!) to the delights of classical music. ELO would more or less hover on the fringes of the prog rock movement, being fairly quickly accepted by the mainstream music public, but I feel prog rock owes them a similar debt as it does to the likes of ELP for their dissemination of classical music tropes into, not only the world of prog but further afield. ELO essentially split after 1986, with drummer Bev Bevan forming ELO Part II (which went largely unremarked) until Lynne took the band name and added his for their twenty-first century reincarnation.
Founder member Roy Wood is one of a very small handful of prog musicians who assured themselves of immortality when, as leader of Wizzard, he advised us that he wished it could be Christmas every day. Indeed. And he keeps doing so every year, but he has never convinced me to think as he does.
Emerson, Lake and Palmer ((i)1970 – 1979 (ii) 1991 - 1998 (iii) 2001 )
Nationality: English
Original lineup: * Keith Emerson, Greg Lake, Carl Palmer
First relevant album: Emerson, Lake and Palmer, 1970
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Impact: 9
The Trollheart Factor: 3
Linked to: Asia, Emerson Lake and Powell, King Crimson, Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Atomic Rooster, The Nice
And these guys I could write a line or two about too. Continuing his efforts with earlier band The Nice to merge classical, jazz and rock music, ELP became possibly prog’s first ever supergroup, joining members of The Nice, Atomic Rooster and King Crimson, and becoming in the process a massive mainstay and star of the progressive rock world. Most of their material, being based on classical tunes, was instrumental, which left them, to me at any rate, a little less accessible than other bands such as Genesis or Rush, whose lyrics interested me as well as their music. ELP, along with Yes and Genesis, became the poster-boys for late seventies excess, not least due to the supermassive ego of Keith Emerson. Already fed to bursting by his time with the Nice, it became a true monster with ELP, as he forged a reputation for showmanship and some might say show-off-manship too, attacking his keyboard with knives, riding on it down to the stage and so on.
Singer and bassist Greg Lake joined ELO’s Roy Wood in creating a perennial favourite in the somewhat more sarcastic and bitter “I Believe in Father Christmas”. Indeed, again. Still, with characteristic ELP arrogance, Lake couldn’t resist ripping Prokofiev off for the melody. Despite their overblown excesses though, ELP have to be given credit the same as ELO for trying to bring classical music into rock, though in their case it never really crossed over into the pop scene, and they used more of a sense of superiority and aloofness rather than ELO’s cheerful friendly sharing of classical music.
This was the ONLY lineup of ELP, making them I think unique in prog. I suppose with a name like that, they couldn’t very well change band members, could they?
Gentle Giant (1970 –1980 )
Nationality: English/Scottish
Original lineup: Derek, Phil and Ray Shulman, Kerry Minnear, Gary Green, Martin Smith
First relevant album: Gentle Giant, 1970
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Impact: 8
The Trollheart Factor: 2
Linked to:
Everything that needs to be said about this band of brothers (sorry) has already been written in my article on ProGenitors: the Godfathers of Prog. Formed by three brothers, all multi-instrumentalists, Gentle Giant were probably one of the most talented bands of the prog era, per person, as each of them played multiple instruments and also sang. They released eleven albums over a ten-year period, but though feted and referenced by bigger prog artists, and loved by fans, they never really had even a hint of success. In the end they disbanded in 1980, perhaps a metaphor for the death, at the time, of progressive rock. They are fondly remembered though as one of the better prog bands.
Grobschnitt ((i) 1970 - 1989 (ii) 2007 – )
Nationality: German
Original lineup: Joachim Ehrig, Gerd Otto Kühn, Volker Kahrs, Stefan Danielak, Wolfgang Jäger, Rainer Loskand, Milla Kapolke
First relevant album: Grobschnitt, 1972
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Impact: ?
The Trollheart Factor: 0
Linked to:
Germans with a sense of humour? Surely not! Well, perhaps a candidate later for Over the Garden Wall, perhaps not; Grobschnitt (“rough cut”, as in how tobacco is cut) certainly did not take themselves too seriously, making weird noises and using odd effects in their music, as well as performing German comedy sketches and writing silly, nonsensical lyrics. But their fans took them seriously, and between 1972 and 1987 they released ten albums, not including live ones, of which there were many. Grobschnitt began as a psychedelic rock band, changed to symphonic prog, then a German post-punk derivative called NDW before ending up sort of in the same boat as Genesis, as a pop/rock band.
Jackson Heights (1970 – 1973 )
Nationality: English
Original lineup: Lee Jackson, Charlie Harcourt, Tommy Sloane, Mario Enrique Covarrubias Tapia
First relevant album: King Progress, 1970
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Impact: 0
The Trollheart Factor: 0
Linked to:ELP, The Nice. Phil Collins, Jon Anderson
Keith Emerson wasn’t the only one who went solo after the breakup of The Nice. Remember Jackson Heights? Neither do I. Seems they were less than successful, despite putting out three albums, and disbanded three years after they formed. Oddly enough, I could have sworn founder Lee Jackson would have been part of Python Lee Jackson, who had that big hit, but if he was, Wiki ain’t sayin’ nothin’ about it.
Jane (1970 – )
Nationality: German
Original lineup: Peter Panka, Klaus Hess, Werner Nadolny, Charlie Maucher, Bernd Pulst
First relevant album: Together, 1972
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Impact: 0
The Trollheart Factor: 0
Linked to: Peter Panka’s Jane, Werner Nadolny’s Jane
What can I tell you? A German Krautrock band from Hanover who went through so many lineup changes it must have seemed like someone had installed revolving doors in the studio!
Kansas (1970 – )
Nationality: American
Original lineup: Kerry Livgren, Dave Hope, Phil Ehart, Lynn Meredith, Dan Wright, Don Motre, Greg Allen, Larry Baker
First relevant album: Kansas, 1974
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Impact: 7
The Trollheart Factor: 5
Linked to: Saratoga, Proto-Kaw, Streets, Seventh Key, AD, Deep Purple, Shooting Star, Native Window, Dixie Dregs, White Clover
Known even to non-prog fans as the band behind “Carry On Wayward Son” and “Dust in the Wind”, Kansas always seemed to me to be more in the pomp rock area, like Magnum, but hey, I never claimed to know everything about prog! I’m reliably informed that they were one of the major American prog rock bands of the seventies, and seemingly bucked the trend among proggers by consistently bothering the charts, and in the US of all places. This certainly made them a household name, and helped them sell out huge arenas across the States, rivalling American stadium rock favourites like Toto and Journey.
Khan (1970 – 1972)
Nationality: English
Original lineup: Steve Hillage, Nick Greenwood, Dick Heninghem, Pip Pyle
First relevant album: Space Shanty, 1972
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Impact: 0
The Trollheart Factor: 0
Linked to:Gong, Kevin Ayers, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown
Perhaps the shortest-lived prog band of 1970, certainly the shortest-lived Canterbury band, Khan was formed by folk/blues legend Steve Hillage but only managed to release the one album before disinterest from his record label led Hillage to disband the band and head Gong-ward. By all accounts (well, Wiki’s) their only album was pretty special, so we may end up having to listen to it when the time comes.
Mogul Thrash (1970 – 1971 )
Nationality: English
Original lineup: James Litherland, Michael Rosen, Bill Harrison, John Wetton, Roger Ball, Michael Duncan
First relevant album: Mogul Thrash, 1971
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Impact: 0 (other than giving the world John Wetton, I guess)
The Trollheart Factor: 2
Linked to: King Crimson, Family, The Average White Band, Asia, Roxy Music, Colosseum, Uriah Heep
Guess I spoke too soon! Mogul Thrash also only got together for one album before splitting. If they left any mark behind it was to give us John Wetton, who would go on to find fame with, among others, King Crimson, Roxy Music and of course end his career with Asia.
Catherine Ribeiro + Alpes ( 1970 – 1981)
Nationality: French
Original lineup: Catherine Ribeiro, Patrice Moullet
First relevant album: No. 2, 1970
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Impact: 0
The Trollheart Factor: 2
Linked to: Catherine Ribeiro + 2 Bis
Yes, we experienced Catherine and her two lesbian friends in the previous section, when we checked out what was her first album released in 1969 as part of our Over the Garden Wall feature. So why is she here again? Well, it seems that after that one album she and Patrice changed the band name, and so technically 1970 saw the birth of Catherine Ribeiro + Alpes, which was the name they retained right up to their last album, released in 1980.
YU Grupa ((i) 1970 – 1981 (ii) 1987 - )
Nationality: Serbian
Original lineup: Dragi and "Žika" Jeli?, Miodrag Okrugi?, Velibor Bogdanovi?
First relevant album: YU Grupa, 1973
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Impact: 0
The Trollheart Factor: 0
Linked to: A whole lot of Serbian bands I ain’t even gonna try to write down! Nobody outside of their native country though.
Surely the first, certainly the longest-lasting prog rock band to come out of the former Yugoslavia, from which presumably they originally took their name, YU Grupa were the first to combine traditional Balkan instruments into their music. They’re big in Belgrade, apparently.