Fitzcarraldo

I was first introduced to progressive rock in 1972 by listening to EMERSON, LAKE PALMER, YES, PINK FLOYD and JETHRO TULL amongst others. My musical tastes are catholic, and progressive rock is only one of the many types of music that I like. During the 1970s I spent a lot of time with friends listening to, enjoying and avidly discussing progressive rock.

Albums were eagerly purchased or borrowed as they were released. My interest in the genre waned from the mid to late 1970s as the style of the music changed. Although family and career took centre stage in the 1980s and 1990s, I still listened on occasion to some of my old albums, but only started to get seriously interested in progressive rock again in the late 1990s and began the task of replacing with CDs my musicassettes and LPs (the latter long since sold or given away), as well as buying CDs of the albums that I never got round to owning the first time round.

Had it not been for the Internet I would not have persevered with this. Recently I have been hankering to hear progressive rock (actually, good rock music of any kind) from different and/or new bands - Italian progressive rock bands I had not heard previously, for example - and my search led me to this excellent Web site, which is a font of information. I am not really a collector of progressive rock albums in the strict sense of the word, as I do not collect for completeness and only tend to buy and retain albums I really like listening to.

I currently have only circa 70 progressive rock albums, although I do listen to friends' progressive rock albums occasionally. "Atom Heart Mother" (PINK FLOYD); "Darwin!