Bands That Mean A Lot To Me Episode 3 | IQ

Welcome to episode three of Bands that mean a lot to me. The most unsuspecting of the bands in this series of reflections are IQ. Why, I hear you say? Well, it all began with a friend who gave me an album whilst I was visiting him one evening. It went something like this, “I bought this LP from the car boot sale, I think it is right up your street, you can have it if you want?” I stared at the fron cover for a while as I liked the artwork immediately. The LP was called The Wake and I was quite excited by the very proggy instrumentation and long form tracks. However, having looked at the photographs of the band on the rear cover they looked more Frankie Goes To Hollywood than a serious prog band. Listening to it whilst playing snooker and drinking extremely powerful home brewed ale the clutch of songs weren’t leaving their mark on me. On my return home I looked at the cover once more before inserting into my collection, it’s price tag of 65p revealing a significant bargain. It was quite a few years before I took it out and listened to it again. I was pleasantly surprised by what I heard. Sometimes revisiting albums highlight nuances previously missed. At this point that I started searching for the bands other titles. To say I was shocked is an understatement. I had no idea of just how many albums they had made to that point, the most recent being their epic Subterranea. This would have been 1998 and found me buying up IQ’s Back catalogue. The bands previous album to Subterranea, Ever, soon became my favourite of there albums at that point and is still up there in my top three.

As a band I really started to appreciate their individual talents realising that it was the classic line up of Mike Holmes / guitars, keys, Peter Nicholls / vocals, Martin Orford / keyboards, flute, Paul Cook / drums and John Jowett / bass, that recorded what became my favourite IQ albums for so many years to come. In my opinion it was their next album The Seventh House recorded in 2000 that propelled them into a different league with my own musical preferences. Hailing it the best work so far I had become a devout IQ head at this point attending their live gigs on many occasions, the pinnacle of which in the above guise was at Bury Met in 2004 following the release of what became my favourite IQ album of all time, Dark Matter. An album to this day still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Many criticised the epic concluding track Harvest Of Souls claiming it to be a Genesis rip off comparing it to their classic opus Supper’s Ready. Something I would repute to the present day I may add! In fact, as I write I am seeing the horrendous war in the middle East unfolding and the words of Harvest Of Souls have never been more relative and a piece for any fan or indeed lover of any music sit down and listen to.

All was going well until the cracks in this configuration of the band started to show. Drummer Paul Cook was replaced by Andy Edwards, though the most crushing blow for me personally was the decision made by keyboard player Martin Orford aka “Widge” to leave the band a fairly short while afterwards. Widge after all along with guitarist Mike Holmes were founder members of IQ. Following a tour in 2007 which I believe was the last tour with Widge, the band set about writing their next album Frequency with keyboard player Mark Westworth who stayed with IQ till 2010. Frequency is certainly a good album and quite refined in many ways with some great songs within. However, this configuration of the band especially in a live setting just didn’t work as well for me. Following Mark Westworth’s, Andy Edwards and John Jowett’s departure the biggest shift away from the classic IQ sound was about to happen as they recruited a very talented young keyboard player Neil Durant and return to the fold of original bass player Tim Esau whom I had known socially for a few years prior to that. We remain good mates to this present day enjoying a beer or two now and again. With this new tour de force a more Prog metal edged direction was forged resulting in their album The Road Of Bones in 2014. A dark and bleak album inspired by vampires and their likes. I bought the deluxe edition with two discs and to be honest I am glad that I did as I preferred the tracks on the second disc.

The Road Of Bones also heralded the return of drummer Paul Cook which pleased me no end as I thing he is a solid player and completes the IQ sound and along with Tim Esau brought back a little originality to the band. It was about this time that I had been communicating with then newbie Neil Durant who invited me to interview the band on their thirty year anniversary tour which I duly did. Myself and bosom buddy Alan Peterson drove to The Assembly in Leamington Spa. There we met up with Neil and ushered back stage and deep beneath it too. I looked at the various members of the band and took solace in the fact that Tim and I had already met. I asked where we should conduct the interview whereupon Mike Holmes suggested Tammy Wynette’s Caravan. Ever had that feeling when someone is taking the piss? Except that he wasn’t, there beneath the stage was said caravan in which we all filed and made ourselves comfortable in. It was a fabulous interview and remains the most bizarre I have ever done to this present day. I remain very much an IQ fan though I prefer their original prog leaning which they returned to in 2025 and their Dominion album. Though it is the quirkiness and sense of humour that I have loved all these years and why I think they have endured as the darlings of the Neo-Prog world. I have so many fantastic memories of travelling to see IQ play with people who sadly are no longer with us and some I just lost contact with. This is why this band seem so much to me. I stayed in touch with Widge for a couple of years following his departure from IQ and really enjoyed our chats over the phone. I really enjoyed his solo output too and his last album The Old Road which is where I first heard the wonderful David Longdon’s voice, but that’s a different tale.