2017 has been quite a difficult year for me personally and once again work commitments have prevented me from attending many gigs that a consequently missed out on and contributing to the Progmeister site. However, my monthly Progcast show for ARFM Rock radio seems to be gathering a few more followers which makes it worthwhile. I am hoping for a sea change in 2018. I think the Queen’s speech this year was bang on and i have to echo a lot of her sentiment. The tragedy of the Manchester bombing was simply horrendous though as the Queen so eloquently put it “we took back ground with the concert held there only days after”. I did find the unity humbling. One of the highlights of the year for me was attending the Mortal remains (Pink Floyd) exhibition in London and to the Big Big Train gig afterwards. There i made some new friends and managed to catch up with some old ones too. It was great as always to talk to Matt Stevens who shook my hand and said to me “keep doing what you’re doing man, we all appreciate it”. This filled me with encouragement and at that time was much needed.
There have been some great albums released throughout 2017, some of which we didn’t get the opportunity to review as they came a little late in December. Thank you to the usual suspects at Cherry Red, TSM Promotions for the trickle of new releases for me to both play on my show and review. Here are the top ten albums 0f 2017, all of which i enjoyed immensely. I hope you had a brilliant Christmas, peace Love and light as always for the coming year. And remember, if you want to get in touch you can email me at progmeister@arfm.co.uk
- Big Big Train – The Second Brightest Star
- The Tangent – the Slow Rust Of Forgotten Machinery
- Steven Wilson – To The Bone
- Elbow – Little Fictions
- Lifesigns – Cardington
- Big Big Train – Grimspound
- Procol Harum – Novum
- Damanek – On Track
- The Pineapple Thief – Where We Stood
- Mostly Autumn – Sight Of Day
