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163-520: Curved Air are an English progressive rock group formed in 1970 by musicians from mixed artistic backgrounds, including classical , folk and electronic sound. The resulting sound of the band is a mixture of progressive rock , folk rock , and fusion with classical elements. Curved Air released eight studio albums, the first three of which broke into the Top 20 in the UK Albums Chart , and had

326-535: A European, and especially British, phenomenon. Few American bands engaged in it, and the purest representatives of the genre, such as Starcastle and Happy the Man , remained limited to their own geographic regions. This is at least in part due to music industry differences between the US and Great Britain. Cultural factors were also involved, as US musicians tended to come from a blues background, while Europeans tended to have

489-568: A Spark", was originally recorded by Way and Kristina, but released as a Darryl Way solo track, with Way performing the vocals himself. Way and Kristina followed these recordings with a short tour in 1988, again under the Curved Air name. In 1990 the original Kristina, Way, Monkman and Pilkington-Miksa quartet gave a one-off reunion concert at the London's Town & Country , supported by Noden's Ictus. The performance, recorded by Francis Monkman,

652-535: A Top 10 new entry one week, followed by a dramatic decline the next, with most of these releases exiting the Top 75 completely. The majority of these acts would be indie and rock bands like the Wombats , Sea Power and Maxïmo Park , who would market their album to the type of people who would want to own the release via a physical format rather than streaming it. The first number one on the UK Albums Chart

815-421: A better on-stage sound mix than other groups with unusual combinations of instruments. Shaun's father, Guy Davies, made the perspex violins used by Way and later Jobson. Curved Air publicist Tony Brainsby fanned the enthusiastic audience response and a bidding war for the band ensued, and in summer 1970 Curved Air signed with Warner Bros. , becoming the first British band on the company's roster. The band received

978-456: A consecutive run of 70 weeks from November 1958 to March 1960, and had further runs at the top in 1960 and 1961, making a non-consecutive total of 115 weeks. The youngest artist to top the chart is Neil Reid , whose debut album topped the chart in 1972 when he was only 12 years old, while the youngest female artist is Billie Eilish who was 17 years old when she debuted at the top with When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? . The record for

1141-399: A continuous aesthetic movement between formalism and eclecticism ". Cotner also says that progressive rock incorporates both formal and eclectic elements, "It consists of a combination of factors – some of them intramusical ('within'), others extramusical or social ('without')." One way of conceptualising rock and roll in relation to "progressive music" is that progressive music pushed

1304-580: A couple of dates in the UK before recording a new studio album, North Star , released on 17 March 2014, supported by a 10-date tour from 1 March to 19 April with the Acoustic Strawbs and Martin Turner's Wishbone Ash . On 4 September 2015, Curved Air played a special concert at Under The Bridge, London, to mark the 45th Anniversary of the release of Air Conditioning . The album was played in full for

1467-443: A diversity of loosely associated style codes. When the "progressive" label arrived, the music was dubbed " progressive pop " before it was called "progressive rock", with the term "progressive" referring to the wide range of attempts to break with standard pop music formula. A number of additional factors contributed to the acquired "progressive" label: lyrics were more poetic; technology was harnessed for new sounds; music approached

1630-620: A following. Only Marillion and Saga experienced international success. Neo-prog bands tended to use Peter Gabriel -era Genesis as their "principal model". They were also influenced by funk , hard rock and punk rock . The genre's most successful band, Marillion, suffered particularly from accusations of similarity to Genesis, although they used a different vocal style, incorporated more hard rock elements, and were very influenced by bands including Camel and Pink Floyd . Authors Paul Hegarty and Martin Halliwell have pointed out that

1793-649: A formative influence for Curved Air", Monkman later remembered. Many of the early Curved Air songs were written for Sisyphus, among them "Young Mother in Style" and "Screw". Sisyphus was hired to provide accompaniment for Galt MacDermot 's new play, Who the Murderer Was , at the Mercury Theatre in Notting Hill Gate , serving as the pit band. Mark Hanau, an aspiring band manager at the time, saw

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1956-608: A foundation in classical music. North American progressive rock bands and artists often represented hybrid styles such as the complex arrangements of Todd Rundgren's Utopia and Rush , the eclectic psychedelia of Spirit , the hard rock of Captain Beyond , the Southern rock -tinged prog of Kansas , the jazz fusion of Frank Zappa and Return to Forever , and the eclectic fusion of the all-instrumental Dixie Dregs . British progressive rock acts had their greatest US success in

2119-430: A good working relationship, Sonja Kristina and Mike Wedgwood formed a new band with Kirby Gregory (electric guitar), Eddie Jobson (keyboards, violin), and Jim Russell (drums). Jobson had come from a band called Fat Grapple, who had been one of Curved Air's support acts on tour. The new musicians brought more direct rock energy, with young prodigy Eddie Jobson, influenced by Curved Air, kept the classical blend strongly in

2282-612: A hand injury, and was replaced by Ian Eyre. The band released " Back Street Luv " which reached number 4 in the UK Singles Chart to become the band's most successful single to date. The Second Album peaked at number 11. A non-LP follow-up single, "Sarah's Concern", went by unnoticed. The band played three U.S. tours and built a cult following there. In the course of constant touring drummer Pilkington-Miksa became ill in late 1971 and, for several months, Barry de Souza, who band members knew from studio work, sat in for him. It

2445-643: A handful of groups purposely emulated or referenced classical music. Writer Emily Robinson says that the narrowed definition of "progressive rock" was a measure against the term's loose application in the late 1960s, when it was "applied to everyone from Bob Dylan to the Rolling Stones ". Debate over the genre's criterion continued to the 2010s, particularly on Internet forums dedicated to prog. According to musicologists Paul Hegarty and Martin Halliwell, Bill Martin and Edward Macan authored major books about progressive rock while "effectively accept[ing]

2608-409: A harder sound in the style of arena rock . Few new progressive rock bands formed during this era, and those who did found that record labels were not interested in signing them. The short-lived supergroup U.K. was a notable exception since its members had established reputations; they produced two albums that were stylistically similar to previous artists and did little to advance the genre. Part of

2771-452: A high degree of commercial success during the early 1970s. Between them, the bands Jethro Tull , ELP , Rush , Yes , and Pink Floyd had four albums that reached number one in the US charts, and sixteen that reached the top ten. Mike Oldfield 's Tubular Bells (1973), an excerpt of which was used as the theme for the film The Exorcist , sold 16 million copies. Progressive rock came to be appreciated overseas, but it mostly remained

2934-584: A hit single with " Back Street Luv " (1971) which reached number 4 in the UK Singles Chart . The group evolved out of the band Sisyphus, who played one of their early gigs in the ballroom of Leith Hill Place, Surrey for a masked ball and which was formed by Darryl Way (who studied violin at Dartington College and the Royal College of Music ) and Francis Monkman , a member of the Royal Academy of Music . While wandering through an outlet store of

3097-410: A male artist and solo act to do so. The first female solo artist to have the UK's year-end best seller was Barbra Streisand in 1982, with Love Songs . The first studio album and non-soundtrack or cast recording album to top the decade-end chart was Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles in the 1960s – they became the first group to achieve this. James Blunt 's Back to Bedlam , in

3260-619: A message to the Curved Air Yahoo Group, Kristina advised that the new line-up would be herself, Darryl Way (violin), Florian Pilkington-Miksa (drums), Andy Christie (guitar) and Chris Harris (bass). Francis Monkman, who was originally pictured with Kristina, Way and Pilkington-Miksa for the reunion, left the project. "Unfortunately, he didn't have the same vision as the rest of us as to how (the new project) should be approached and wasn't prepared to compromise, so our ways had to part", commented Way. Sonja Kristina confirmed, "Francis

3423-504: A much-publicized advance of £100,000 and their debut album Air Conditioning was released in November notable for its being issued as the first commercially available LP picture disc in the UK. The album reached number 8 in the UK Albums Chart , preceded by a single, "It Happened Today". John Peel picked up on the band and they performed on several Peel radio Sessions and Roundhouse ‘Implosion’ events. Bass player Rob Martin left due to

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3586-477: A new chart record for the most weeks spent inside the top 40 of the UK Albums Chart for a girl group album. As of 2022, it had spent 69 weeks in the Top 40. To date, Little Mix are the girl group with the most Top 5 albums, with seven as of 2021. In July 2021, ABBA's Gold: Greatest Hits was officially recognised by the Official Charts Company as the first album to spend over 1000 weeks on

3749-501: A newfound sophisticated musicality and ambitious lyricism in black pop. Among these musicians were Sly Stone , Stevie Wonder , Marvin Gaye , Curtis Mayfield , and George Clinton . In discussing the development, Bill Martin cites 1970s albums by Wonder ( Talking Book , Innervisions , Songs in the Key of Life ), War ( All Day Music , The World Is a Ghetto , War Live ), and

3912-434: A prescient notion of new wave and punk. New wave, which surfaced around 1978–79 with some of the same attitudes and aesthetic as punk, was characterised by Martin as "progressive" multiplied by "punk". Bands in the genre tended to be less hostile towards progressive rock than the punks, and there were crossovers, such as Fripp and Eno's involvement with Talking Heads , and Yes' replacement of Rick Wakeman and Jon Anderson with

4075-422: A progressive idea ... Ironically, and quite paradoxically, 'progressive rock', the classic era of the late 1960s through the mid- and late 1970s, introduces not only the explosive and exploratory sounds of technology ... but traditional music forms (classical and European folk) and (often) a pastiche compositional style and artificial constructs ( concept albums ) which suggests postmodernism ." In 1966,

4238-483: A re-formed Yes released the relatively mainstream 90125 (1983), which yielded their only US number-one single, " Owner of a Lonely Heart ". One band who remained successful into the 1980s while maintaining a progressive approach was Pink Floyd, who released The Wall late in 1979. The album, which brought punk anger into progressive rock, was a huge success and was later filmed as Pink Floyd – The Wall . Punk and progressive rock were not necessarily as opposed as

4401-445: A second generation of neo-prog bands, emerged in the 1990s. The use of the term "progressive" to describe groups that follow in the style of bands from ten to twenty years earlier is somewhat controversial, as it has been seen as a contradiction of the spirit of experimentation and progress. These new bands were aided in part by the availability of personal computer-based recording studios , which reduced album production expenses, and

4564-616: A selection of popular tracks performed by session artists in the style of a recent hit (and unconnected with the BBC series of Top of the Pops albums, which would follow in the 1990s). This decision was soon overturned, with these anonymous cover albums being taken out the chart again. On the Official Albums Chart Top 50 for the week ending 18 August 1973, all the compilations listed as 'various artists' albums were taken out of

4727-522: A solo artist of any gender) with 23 weeks, 11 of which were consecutive (which is also a record for a female artist). The first studio album and non-soundtrack or cast recording album to top the year-end chart was With the Beatles by The Beatles in 1963 – they became the first group to achieve this feat. Elton John 's Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player in 1973, marks the first album by

4890-407: A split live album with Gong offshoot Here & Now . The term " post-progressive " identifies progressive rock that returns to its original principles while dissociating from 1970s progressive rock styles, and may be located after 1978. Martin credits Roxy Music 's Brian Eno as the sub-genre's most important catalyst, explaining that his 1973–77 output merged aspects of progressive rock with

5053-471: A style derivative of English bands. The "Kosmische music" scene in Germany came to be labelled as " krautrock " internationally and is frequently cited as part of the progressive rock genre or an entirely distinct phenomenon. Krautrock bands such as Can , which included two members who had studied under Karlheinz Stockhausen , tended to be more strongly influenced by 20th-century classical music than

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5216-459: A three-week tour of the UK, put together by Darryl Way's manager, Miles Copeland III . The reunion interrupted Way's new band, Stark Naked and the Car Thieves, and since the bass slot for Curved Air needed filling, Way brought along the new band's bassist, Phil Kohn. The reunion tour saw Sonja Kristina play her role as Curved Air's sex symbol far more dramatically than she had before. Between

5379-427: A total of 66 weeks and most top ten albums by any artist, charting 53 releases. Until this same month, he also held the record for the most number one albums by a solo artist in a tie with Robbie Williams , however when Williams' XXV album reached the top on 16 September 2022, the former Take That star broke this record with 14 number ones albums to Presley's 13 chart toppers, with Williams moving into second place in

5542-431: A wider palette than that drawn on by the most popular 1970s bands. Progressive rock is varied and is based on fusions of styles, approaches, and genres, tapping into broader cultural resonances that connect to avant-garde art, classical music and folk music , performance and the moving image. Although a unidirectional English "progressive" style emerged in the late 1960s, by 1967, progressive rock had come to constitute

5705-620: Is commonly believed. Both genres reject commercialism, and punk bands did see a need for musical advancement. Author Doyle Green noted that post-punk emerged as "a kind of 'progressive punk ' ". Post-punk artists rejected the high cultural references of 1960s rock artists like the Beatles and Bob Dylan as well as paradigms that defined rock as "progressive", "art", or "studio perfectionism". In contrast to punk rock, it balances punk's energy and skepticism with art school consciousness, Dadaist experimentalism, and atmospheric, ambient soundscapes. World music , especially African and Asian traditions,

5868-463: Is completely the opposite way; he just wants to play and things just come out of the cosmos". As Monkman explained, Basically Darryl and I respect each others' work, but we don't really see eye-to-eye on most things. And we never really got the co-writing thing together. I wanted to get my first "epic" together, so it looks like a split forming at the time of the Second Album . In fact, the centre

6031-543: Is conceptual by definition, due to its prominent theme of questioning the values of Christianity. Its guttural vocals are sometimes used by bands who can be classified as progressive, such as Mastodon , Mudvayne and Opeth . Symphonic metal is an extension of the tendency towards orchestral passages in early progressive rock. Progressive rock has also served as a key inspiration for genres such as post-rock , post-metal and avant-garde metal , math rock , power metal and neo-classical metal . New prog describes

6194-403: Is divided by 1000 and added to the pure sales of the album. This calculation was designed to ensure that the chart rundown continues to reflect the popularity of the albums themselves, rather than just the performance of one or two smash hit singles. The final number one album on the UK Albums Chart to be based purely on sales alone was Smoke + Mirrors by Imagine Dragons . On 1 March 2015, In

6357-460: Is implied by unsympathetic critics." In early references to the music, "progressive" was partly related to progressive politics , but those connotations were lost during the 1970s. On "progressive music", Holm-Hudson writes that it "moves continuously between explicit and implicit references to genres and strategies derived not only from European art music, but other cultural domains (such as East Indian, Celtic, folk, and African) and hence involves

6520-659: Is literally our root on bass and Kit Morgan the fire on guitar. Great chemistry and communication," Sonja Kristina commented. This lineup (Kristina, Pilkington-Miksa, Harris, Morgan, Sax and Norton) continued to gig as Curved Air until 2013. The band played at the London High Voltage Festival 2011 (23–24 July), alongside Spock's Beard , Jethro Tull , Dream Theater , and Queensrÿche , among others. In October 2013, Kirby Gregory returned to replace Kit Morgan on guitar. The new lineup (Kristina, Pilkington-Miksa, Harris, Gregory, Sax and Norton) initially played

6683-495: Is sometimes limited to a stereotype of long solos, long albums, fantasy lyrics, grandiose stage sets and costumes, and an obsessive dedication to technical skill. While the genre is often cited for its merging of high culture and low culture , few artists incorporated literal classical themes in their work to any great degree, and only a handful of groups, such as Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Renaissance , purposely emulated or referenced classical music. The genre coincided with

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6846-560: The Lovechild record). Mike Wedgwood joined Caravan . In 1974 Chrysalis sued the band. "We had broken their contract on the advice of Clifford Davis, who said we could prove that they had not been acting in our best interests, but by then he was no longer our manager!" Monkman explained. In order to discharge an enormous unpaid VAT bill, in September 1974 the band's mainstays (Kristina, Way, Monkman, and Pilkington-Miksa) reunited for

7009-819: The Melody Maker chart from 8 November 1958 to March 1960; the Record Retailer chart from 1960 to 1969; and the Official Albums Chart from 1969 on. For eight weeks in February and March 1971 no Official Albums Chart was compiled due to a postal strike – for this period, the OCC uses the chart compiled by Melody Maker instead. In the 1970s the new album chart was revealed at 12:45 pm on Thursdays on BBC Radio 1 , and then moved to 6:05 pm (later 6:30 pm) on Wednesday evenings during

7172-583: The Internet , which made it easier for bands outside of the mainstream to reach widespread audiences. Record stores specialising in progressive rock appeared in large cities. The shred music of the 1980s was a major influence on the progressive rock groups of the 1990s. Some of the newer bands, such as the Flower Kings , Spock's Beard and Glass Hammer , played a 1970s-style symphonic prog, but with an updated sound. A number of them began to explore

7335-565: The Isle of Wight Festival to a generally positive response. For the 2009 dates in Japan on 16 and 17 January at Club Citta, Kawasaki , the guitarist was Kit Morgan who replaced Christie. On 9 August 2009, Eddie Jobson stood in for Darryl Way at a one-off gig in Chislehurst . A live album consisting of recordings from the previous UK tour, Live Atmosphere , was released on 2 April 2012. Way

7498-500: The Now That's What I Call Music series was launched by EMI/Virgin, followed by CBS/WEA's rival Hits Album series a year later and Chrysalis/MCA's Out Now! in 1985. From this point in the 1980s, every regular edition of Now That's What I Call Music topped the albums chart (apart from Now 4 which was kept of the number one spot by the first ever Hits Album ), with these albums from the three major-label joint-ventures joined in

7661-506: The Orange Music Electronic Company , Monkman was intrigued by the sound of Way testing his first electrically amplified violin, and the two "got to talking." They discovered they had a lot in common, and in 1969 invited pianist Nick Simon who, along with bassist Rob Martin and drummer Florian Pilkington-Miksa , completed the line-up of Sisyphus. "Darryl and Nick were very much into Spirit . One could cite them as

7824-619: The Peter Powell and Bruno Brookes shows. In October 1987 it moved to Monday lunchtimes, during the Gary Davies show, and from April to October 1993 it briefly had its show from 7:00–8:00 pm on Sunday evenings, introduced by Lynn Parsons . Since October 1993 it has been included in The Official Chart show from 4:00–5:45 pm on Fridays (previously from 4:00–7:00 pm on Sundays). A weekly 'Album Chart' show

7987-425: The hippie counterculture in favour of a modernist , avant-garde approach. Similarities between the two terms are that they both describe a mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility. However, art rock is more likely to have experimental or avant-garde influences. "Prog" was devised in the 1990s as a shorthand term, but later became a transferable adjective, also suggesting

8150-451: The new wave of British heavy metal – most notably Iron Maiden – onwards displayed progressive rock influences. Progressive metal reached a point of maturity with Queensrÿche 's 1988 concept album Operation: Mindcrime , Voivod 's 1989 Nothingface , which featured abstract lyrics and a King Crimson-like texture, and Dream Theater 's 1992 Images and Words . Progressive rock elements appear in other metal subgenres. Black metal

8313-884: The popular song began signalling a new possible means of expression that went beyond the three-minute love song , leading to an intersection between the "underground" and the "establishment" for listening publics. Hegarty and Halliwell identify the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Doors , the Pretty Things , the Zombies , the Byrds , the Grateful Dead and Pink Floyd "not merely as precursors of progressive rock but as essential developments of progressiveness in its early days". According to musicologist Walter Everett ,

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8476-457: The " Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon " on Chicago II . Jazz influences appeared in the music of British bands such as Traffic , Colosseum and If , together with Canterbury scene bands such as Soft Machine and Caravan . Canterbury scene bands emphasised the use of wind instruments, complex chord changes and long improvisations. Martin writes that in 1968, "full-blown progressive rock"

8639-404: The 2000s, marks the first album by a male artist and solo act to do it. Blunt was the only performer in history to top the decade chart with a debut album. The first female solo artist to achieve this feat was Adele in the 2010s, with 21 . Dua Lipa 's Future Nostalgia holds the record for having the lowest one-week sales while at the top of the chart in the modern era, when it was number one

8802-404: The 3,889 downloaded copies it sold out of 51,510 sales. Also on 16 September 2022, Columbia became the first record label to take the Top 3 chart positions with three different acts with releases by Robbie Williams, Ozzy Osbourne and Harry Styles occupying number 1, 2 and 3 (with parent company Sony Music also having the number 4 with a re-issue of Manic Street Preachers' Know Your Enemy ). In

8965-462: The Albums Chart, but this total does not include 2014's Gold – 40th Anniversary Edition (which like Queen's The Platinum Collection is a 3-CD set also including More ABBA Gold: More ABBA Hits and The Golden B-sides ) or additional weeks inside the Top 100 missing from the OCC's database before February 1994 (as with the singles chart, Music Week only published the Top 75 as this

9128-600: The Beach Boys and the Beatles  ... [They] brought expansions in harmony , instrumentation (and therefore timbre ), duration , rhythm , and the use of recording technology . Of these elements, the first and last were the most important in clearing a pathway toward the development of progressive rock. – Bill Martin Pet Sounds and Sgt. Pepper , with their lyrical unity, extended structure, complexity, eclecticism, experimentalism, and influences derived from classical music forms, are largely viewed as beginnings in

9291-565: The Beatles and the Yardbirds . The Beatles' Paul McCartney said in 1967: "we [the band] got a bit bored with 12 bars all the time, so we tried to get into something else. Then came Dylan, the Who , and the Beach Boys. ... We're all trying to do vaguely the same kind of thing." Rock music started to take itself seriously, paralleling earlier attempts in jazz (as swing gave way to bop , a move which did not succeed with audiences). In this period,

9454-469: The Beatles did, it is fair to assume that there would have been no progressive rock." In the aftermath of Sgt. Pepper , magazines such as Melody Maker drew a sharp line between "pop" and "rock", thus eliminating the "roll" from " rock and roll " (which now refers to the 1950s style). The only artists who remained "rock" would be those who were considered at the vanguard of compositional forms, far from "radio friendly" standards, as Americans increasingly used

9617-562: The Beatles' "experimental timbres, rhythms, tonal structures, and poetic texts" on their albums Rubber Soul (1965) and Revolver (1966) "encouraged a legion of young bands that were to create progressive rock in the early 1970s". Dylan's poetry, the Mothers of Invention 's album Freak Out! (1966) and the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) were all important in progressive rock's development. The productions of Phil Spector were key influences, as they introduced

9780-460: The British album charts than any other musical act, followed by the Beatles , Elvis Presley , U2 and ABBA . By most weeks at number one, the Beatles lead with a total of 176 weeks, and the most number one albums of all with 16, followed by The Rolling Stones and Robbie Williams with 14 number ones each. Similar to the situation regarding Elvis Presley's record-breaking tally of number ones on

9943-507: The British magazine Prog to honour the genre's established acts and to promote its newer bands. Honorees, however, are not invited to perform at the awards ceremony, as the promoters want an event "that doesn't last three weeks". In 2019, The Prog Report, named Mike Portnoy and Neal Morse artists of the decade for 2010-2019. During this time, Portnoy released 40 albums, 24 of them with Morse, while Morse released an additional 5 albums of his own. UK Albums Chart To qualify for

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10106-472: The British progressive rock bands, whose musical vocabulary leaned more towards the Romantic era . Many of these groups were very influential even among bands that had little enthusiasm for the symphonic variety of progressive rock. Concurrently, Black American popular musicians drew from progressive rock's conceptual album-oriented approach. This led to a progressive-soul movement in the 1970s that inspired

10269-523: The Byrds' vocal harmonies inspired those of Yes , and British folk rock bands like Fairport Convention , who emphasised instrumental virtuosity. Some of these artists, such as the Incredible String Band and Shirley and Dolly Collins , would prove influential through their use of instruments borrowed from world music and early music . Many groups and musicians played important roles in this development process, but none more than

10432-491: The Isley Brothers ( 3 + 3 ), while noting that the Who's progressive rock-influenced Who Are You (1978) also drew from the soul variant. Dominic Maxwell of The Times calls Wonder's mid-1970s albums "prog soul of the highest order, pushing the form yet always heartfelt, ambitious and listenable". Political and social trends of the late 1970s shifted away from the early 1970s hippie attitudes that had led to

10595-434: The London scene and recorded with a band of English musicians, initiated the trend towards guitar virtuosity and eccentricity in rock music. The Scottish band 1-2-3, later renamed Clouds , were formed in 1966 and began performing at London clubs a year later. According to Mojo 's George Knemeyer: "some claim [that they] had a vital influence on prog-rockers such as Yes, The Nice and Family." Symphonic rock artists in

10758-671: The Lonely Hour by Sam Smith became the first album to top the new streaming-incorporated Official Albums Chart. The weekly Top 75 UK Albums Chart (albums described as hits in the case of British Hit Singles & Albums or The Virgin Book of British Hit Albums) were published in Music Week magazine until 2021. In 2018 Future (publisher of 'Louder Sound' publications such as Metal Hammer and Classic Rock ) acquired Music Week publisher NewBay Media. Future decided that

10921-490: The Moody Blues, Procol Harum and Pink Floyd all contained elements of what is now called progressive rock, but none represented as complete an example of the genre as several bands that formed soon after. Almost all of the genre's major bands, including Jethro Tull, King Crimson , Yes , Genesis , Van der Graaf Generator , ELP , Gentle Giant , Barclay James Harvest and Renaissance , released their debut albums during

11084-530: The New York City art scene of the early 1960s. The trend of bands with names drawn from literature, such as the Doors , Steppenwolf and the Ides of March , were a further sign of rock music aligning itself with high culture. Dylan also led the way in blending rock with folk music styles. This was followed by folk rock groups such as the Byrds, who based their initial sound on that of the Beatles. In turn,

11247-717: The Nice's Ars Longa Vita Brevis . The latter, along with such tracks as " Rondo " and " America ", reflect a greater interest in music that is entirely instrumental. Sgt. Pepper's and Days both represent a growing tendency towards song cycles and suites made up of multiple movements . Focus incorporated and articulated jazz-style chords, and irregular off-beat drumming into their later rock-based riffs, and several bands that included jazz-style horn sections appeared, including Blood, Sweat & Tears and Chicago . Of these, Martin highlights Chicago in particular for their experimentation with suites and extended compositions, such as

11410-473: The Official Albums Chart, the album must be the correct length and price. It must be more than three tracks or 20 minutes long and not be classed as a budget album. A budget album costs between £0.50 and £3.75. Full details of the rules can be found on the OCC website. According to the canon of the OCC, the official British albums chart was the Record Mirror chart from 22 July 1956 to 1 November 1958;

11573-694: The Roundhouse in Chalk Farm several times, and each time we were further up the bill, until we were headlining. Sonja Kristina After a series of intensive rehearsals in Martin's family home in Gloucestershire , the five-piece launched a well-received UK tour, supporting Black Sabbath at one point. The band toured with their own sound engineer, Shaun Davies (later the producer for Way's post-Curved Air band, Wolf), which allowed them to achieve

11736-825: The Top 100 albums chart and given their own Top 20 chart (found in Music Week and Record Mirror ), with the main albums chart reformatted as a top 75 (as far as hit albums are concerned) to equal the singles chart. As of 2022, the OCC publishes the Official Compilations Chart Top 100 on their website, which as well as listing the chart places of all the various Now That's What I Call Music! , Hits Albums and Ministry of Sound Annuals that have been released, now include Motion Picture Cast Recordings such as The Greatest Showman or A Star Is Born and Original Broadway/West End cast albums such as Hamilton , all three of which were included in

11899-583: The UK Albums Chart. Curved Air split up, Way formed Darryl Way's Wolf , Pilkington-Miksa joined Kiki Dee 's band, and Monkman moved into session work and was later to play in, among others, the supergroup Sky . I don't think Florian thought it would really be Curved Air any more. Do you know that the new band was to be called the Sonja Kristina Band or Kristina – Wedgwood or something, but we were informed (by management) that it would be called Curved Air! Mike Wedgwood Having retained

12062-427: The UK. In February 2015, it was announced that due to the falling sales of albums and rise in popularity of audio streaming, the Official Albums Chart would begin including streaming data from March 2015. Under the revised methodology, the Official Charts Company takes the 12 most streamed tracks from one album, with the top-two songs being down-weighted in line with the average of the rest. The total of these streams

12225-508: The United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid 1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop ", the style was an emergence of psychedelic bands who abandoned standard pop traditions in favour of instrumentation and compositional techniques more frequently associated with jazz , folk , or classical music . Additional elements contributed to its " progressive " label: lyrics were more poetic, technology

12388-596: The Warehouse in New Orleans . By the time of the third album's release, serious musical differences within the band emerged. According to Sonja Kristina's Cherry Red interview (2007), Francis was fascinated with overtones and natural harmonies, and "His other obsession is/was jamming... real 'out there' cosmic rock jamming. And that is not Darryl at all... He's a very disciplined perfectionist, he likes things to be as precise and exquisite as possible. Whereas Francis

12551-441: The adjective "progressive" for groups like Jethro Tull , Family , East of Eden , Van der Graaf Generator and King Crimson . According to AllMusic : "Prog-rock began to emerge out of the British psychedelic scene in 1967, specifically a strain of classical/symphonic rock led by the Nice , Procol Harum , and the Moody Blues ( Days of Future Passed )." The availability of newly affordable recording equipment coincided with

12714-467: The album A Rainbow in Curved Air by contemporary composer Terry Riley . The name was suggested by Monkman who, having played in the first London performance of In C , was a great fan of Riley. The band's new sound immediately came together, and the five-piece Curved Air was born, Sonja Kristina being both the band's voice and its sex symbol. Tony [Brainsby] did very well and the music press came and checked us out and liked what they saw... We played

12877-420: The album Be Here Now by Oasis is a controversial second place, this is due to the fact its release date was irregular, being released on a Thursday instead of the usual Monday. The record was released on 21 August 1997 and sold around 813,000 in its first seven days, which surpasses the current claimant to the title, though this topic is still highly contested. In September 2020, The Rolling Stones became

13040-556: The all-time number 1 album record holders just two behind The Beatles. As of October 2023, The Rolling Stones join Williams in joint second place for overall artists with most number ones when they released their 14th No.1 album Hackney Diamonds . With Williams and Presley, the record was broken on a technicality, as many Presley's albums have been kept off the top spot by movie soundtracks, while with Williams such albums are now in their own chart. Taylor Swift and Madonna tie for

13203-422: The avant-garde since the mid-1970s. The term "progressive rock" is synonymous with " art rock ", "classical rock" (not to be confused with classic rock ), and "symphonic rock". Historically, "art rock" has been used to describe at least two related, but distinct, types of rock music. The first is progressive rock as it is generally understood, while the second usage refers to groups who rejected psychedelia and

13366-509: The band's four Warner Bros. albums.) In 1984, Darryl Way asked Sonja Kristina to provide vocals to several of his solo recordings, two of which, "Renegade" and "We're Only Human", were released as a single under the Curved Air name. A third track, a cover of "O Fortuna", was released as a Sonja Kristina solo track on the b-side to "Walk on By", but was withdrawn due to objections from the Carl Orff estate. Yet another track, "As Long as There's

13529-504: The band's previous breakup and the reunion tour she had worked as a croupier at the London Playboy Club and returned to the stage with Curved Air in see through lace, feathers and beads, highlighting her sexuality. A live album and single were recorded during the lauded three week reunion tour, and they succeeded in paying off the tax bill. With their debts paid, Monkman and Pilkington-Miksa had no more reason to remain in

13692-400: The band's tenth number one album, Voyage . With that album, ABBA also became the artist with the longest gap between number one studio albums, with 40 years (since The Visitors in 1981). The longest number one by a group is Simon and Garfunkel 's Bridge Over Troubled Water which was number one for 33 weeks (13 of which were consecutive). The longest consecutive number one by a group

13855-425: The band. And so, Curved Air broke up for the third time in as many years. However, Darryl Way wanted to continue Curved Air with Sonja Kristina. Way brought in two more "Car Thieves", guitarist Mick Jacques and drummer Stewart Copeland , Miles Copeland III's brother. Now more members of this new lineup came from Stark Naked and the Car Thieves than Curved Air . With Darryl Way at the helm, this new band often employed

14018-412: The best-selling studio album in UK chart history. Queen's Greatest Hits has sold over 7 million copies (including downloads and equivalent streams) as of July 2022. ABBA's Gold has sold over 6 million, and Sgt. Pepper has sold in excess of 5.4 million copies. The longest-running number one album, both consecutively and non-consecutively, is the soundtrack of the film South Pacific . It had

14181-465: The characterization of progressive rock offered by its critics. ... they each do so largely unconsciously." Academic John S. Cotner contests Macan's view that progressive rock cannot exist without the continuous and overt assimilation of classical music into rock. Author Kevin Holm-Hudson agrees that "progressive rock is a style far more diverse than what is heard from its mainstream groups and what

14344-542: The chart, but those billed as 'official soundtracks' (to films such as A Clockwork Orange and Cabaret ) were kept in. As the Ronco-released tie-in to the 1973 film That'll Be the Day was listed as a various artist album and not as a soundtrack, it disappeared from the chart after its seventh week at number one alongside EMI's former number one Pure Gold and Phillip's 20 Original Chart Hits . In 1983,

14507-404: The charts by many albums from all the regular compilation specialists like K-Tel, Telstar and Stylus. As the amount of compilations in the chart were keeping out artists from reaching number one or charting at all, it was decided that all the various artist albums would be removed from the Official Albums Chart Top 100. In January 1989, all the various artist compilation albums were removed from

14670-421: The condition of "art"; some harmonic language was imported from jazz and 19th-century classical music ; the album format overtook singles ; and the studio, rather than the stage, became the focus of musical activity, which often involved creating music for listening, not dancing. One of the best ways to define progressive rock is that it is a heterogeneous and troublesome genre – a formulation that becomes clear

14833-653: The creative process that had previously belonged to the artists, and established acts were pressured to create music with simpler harmony and song structures and fewer changes in meter. A number of symphonic pop bands, such as Supertramp , 10cc , the Alan Parsons Project and the Electric Light Orchestra , brought the orchestral-style arrangements into a context that emphasised pop singles while allowing for occasional instances of exploration. Jethro Tull, Gentle Giant and Pink Floyd opted for

14996-579: The decline. Music critics, who often labelled the concepts as "pretentious" and the sounds as "pompous" and "overblown", tended to be hostile towards the genre or to completely ignore it. After the late 1970s, progressive rock fragmented in numerous forms. Some bands achieved commercial success well into the 1980s (albeit with changed lineups and more compact song structures) or crossed into symphonic pop , arena rock , or new wave . Early groups who exhibited progressive features are retroactively described as " proto-prog ". The Canterbury scene , originating in

15159-626: The end of 1972 Monkman was a self-admitted "nervous wreck" and on the verge of physical and mental breakdown. He had to wear earplugs to go on the London Underground and went to a naturopath three times a week. Phantasmagoria was recorded with bassist/guitarist Mike Wedgwood , who replaced Eyre. The album's title was drawn from the Lewis Carroll poem of the same title. The album came out in April 1972 and reached number 20 in

15322-495: The first British female solo artist to have a number-one album in the UK with Never for Ever , as well as being the first album by any female solo artist to enter the chart at number 1. In August 2014 she became the first female artist to have eight albums in the Official UK Top 40 Albums Chart simultaneously, (altogether she had eleven albums in the Top 50 in one week). She is currently in fourth place for artists having

15485-548: The first act to have reached number one in the album chart during six different decades (1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2010s and 2020s). For solo artists, Elvis Presley was the first artist to score UK number-one albums in five different decades (the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 2000s and 2010s). In 2020, Bruce Springsteen became the first solo artist to score UK number-one albums in five consecutive decades (the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s) with his twelfth number-one album Letter to You . Just two weeks later, Kylie Minogue became

15648-467: The first artist to chart with an album released in a NFT format when Close to Home debuted at number 2 (with Steps beating the rapper to number one and becoming the first mixed-gender British act to get chart topping albums in four consecutive decades). A week later, Will of the People by Muse became the first NFT-listed album to top the charts, with the limited edition NFT listed as part of

15811-456: The first female solo artist to have UK number-one albums in five different decades (all consecutively, the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s), with her eighth UK number-one album Disco . In November 2021, ABBA became the third group (after The Rolling Stones and The Beatles) to score a UK number one album in five different decades (in ABBA's case, the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and 2020s) with

15974-546: The first time. The band was joined on stage by Darryl Way for "Vivaldi" and two other songs. Ian Eyre also played bass during "Back Street Luv". Kit Morgan returned to the band in November 2016, replacing Kirby Gregory, but left in August 2018 because of problems with his back, so former Purson guitarist George Hudson made his live debut with the band at The New Day Festival in Kent. Florian Pilkington-Miksa left in November 2017 and

16137-501: The genre fragmented from the late 1970s onwards. In Robert Fripp 's opinion, once "progressive rock" ceased to cover new ground – becoming a set of conventions to be repeated and imitated – the genre's premise had ceased to be "progressive". The era of record labels investing in their artists, giving them freedom to experiment and limited control over their content and marketing ended with the late 1970s. Corporate artists and repertoire staff exerted an increasing amount of control over

16300-410: The genre into greater complexity while retracing the roots of romantic and classical music. Sociologist Paul Willis believes: "We must never be in doubt that 'progressive' music followed rock 'n' roll, and that it could not have been any other way. We can see rock 'n' roll as a deconstruction and 'progressive' music as a reconstruction." Author Will Romano states that "rock itself can be interpreted as

16463-490: The genre's development and popularity. The rise in punk cynicism made the utopian ideals expressed in progressive rock lyrics unfashionable. Virtuosity was rejected, as the expense of purchasing quality instruments and the time investment of learning to play them were seen as barriers to rock's energy and immediacy. There were also changes in the music industry, as record companies disappeared and merged into large media conglomerates . Promoting and developing experimental music

16626-456: The genre's legacy in this period was its influence on other styles, as several European guitarists brought a progressive rock approach to heavy metal and laid the groundwork for progressive metal . Michael Schenker , of UFO ; and Uli Jon Roth , who replaced Schenker in Scorpions , expanded the modal vocabulary available to guitarists. Roth studied classical music with the intent of using

16789-458: The genre's major acts released debut albums between 1983 and 1985 and shared the same manager, Keith Goodwin, a publicist who had been instrumental in promoting progressive rock during the 1970s. The previous decade's bands had the advantage of appearing during a prominent countercultural movement that provided them with a large potential audience, but the neo-prog bands were limited to a relatively niche demographic and found it difficult to attract

16952-427: The genre. These groups retained some of the song complexity and orchestral-style arrangements, but they moved away from lyrical mysticism in favour of more conventional themes such as relationships. These radio-friendly groups have been called "prog lite". Genesis transformed into a successful pop act, the prog supergroup Asia (consisting of members of Yes, King Crimson, and ELP) scored a number-one album in 1982, and

17115-478: The guitar in the way that classical composers used the violin. Finally, the Dutch-born and classically trained Alex and Eddie Van Halen formed Van Halen , featuring ground-breaking whammy-bar, tapping and cross-picking guitar performances that influenced " shred " music in the 1980s. By the early 1980s, progressive rock was thought to be all but dead as a style, an idea reinforced by the fact that some of

17278-607: The late 1960s had some chart success, including the singles " Nights in White Satin " (the Moody Blues, 1967) and " A Whiter Shade of Pale " (Procol Harum, 1967). The Moody Blues established the popularity of symphonic rock when they recorded Days of Future Passed together with the London Festival Orchestra . Classical influences sometimes took the form of pieces adapted from or inspired by classical works, such as Jeff Beck 's " Beck's Bolero " and parts of

17441-624: The late 1960s, denotes a subset of progressive rock bands who emphasised the use of wind instruments , complex chord changes and long improvisations. Rock in Opposition , from the late 1970s, was more avant-garde , and when combined with the Canterbury style, created avant-prog . In the 1980s, a new subgenre, neo-prog , enjoyed some commercial success, although it was also accused of being derivative and lacking in innovation. Post-progressive draws upon newer developments in popular music and

17604-472: The level of social and artistic correspondence among British and American rock musicians dramatically accelerated for bands like the Beatles , the Beach Boys and the Byrds who fused elements of cultivated music with the vernacular traditions of rock. Progressive rock was predicated on the "progressive" pop groups from the 1960s who combined rock and roll with various other music styles such as Indian ragas , oriental melodies and Gregorian chants , like

17767-509: The limits of the CD in the way that earlier groups had stretched the limits of the vinyl LP. Progressive rock and heavy metal have similar timelines. Both emerged from late-1960s psychedelia to achieve great early-1970s success despite a lack of radio airplay and support from critics, then faded in the mid-to-late 1970s and experienced revivals in the early 1980s. Each genre experienced a fragmentation of styles at this time, and many metal bands from

17930-493: The lyrics to the "Midnight Wire" songs. Kohn was later replaced by Tony Reeves , formerly of Colosseum and Greenslade , but the recording sessions for both Midnight Wire and 1976's Airborne were expensive and highly stressful for everyone involved. Both albums – as well as "Desiree", a single drawn from Airborne  – failed to break the charts. Finally we just played England too many times. ...we had no more new material, we didn't have much else in common, and there

18093-549: The main album chart or excluded. In August 1971, the British Market Research Bureau (BMRB) allowed low-priced budget albums to chart as well as standard compilations. This decision gave a number one to Music For Pleasure's Hot Hits 6 , which went straight in at the top of the chart and was joined at number 6 by a new entry for Hallmark's Top of the Pops Volume 18 , another album featuring

18256-486: The main artist albums chart before 2020. In addition to the main Compilations chart, all the 'Motion Picture Cast Recordings' and cast albums get their own Official Soundtrack Albums Chart Top 50, but are still classed as artist albums as far as the singles chart is concerned with, for example, only three tracks from early 2022 chart topper Encanto (a Disney soundtrack which sold 13,855 units to be at number one for

18419-411: The mid-1960s economic boom that allowed record labels to allocate more creative control to their artists, as well as the new journalistic division between "pop" and "rock" that lent generic significance to both terms. It saw a high level of popularity in the early-to-mid-1970s, but faded soon after. Conventional wisdom holds that the rise of punk rock caused this, but several more factors contributed to

18582-443: The mix. On the suggestion of manager Clifford Davis, they continued using the name Curved Air with the approval and support of the departing band members. Kristina later commented: What I wanted to do with the band at the time was get more of a rock edge to it, and Kirby's guitar playing really excited me – he was just really wild. And Jim was the same way, a very solid rock drummer. Mike and I really wanted to continue, and it

18745-596: The moment we leave behind characterizations based only on the most visible bands of the early to mid-1970s – Paul Hegarty and Martin Halliwell Critics of the genre often limit its scope to a stereotype of long solos, overlong albums, fantasy lyrics, grandiose stage sets and costumes, and an obsessive dedication to technical skill. While progressive rock is often cited for its merging of high culture and low culture, few artists incorporated literal classical themes in their work to any great degree, and only

18908-561: The most number one albums by a female artist in the UK, with 12 each, though in Madonna's case this includes the Evita film soundtrack which was a cast recording and not strictly a Madonna album as she does not perform on every track (of the album's 31 tracks, she performs on 22 songs but only on 8 songs by herself). Swift also holds the record for the most consecutive number one albums by a female artist with 9, just one behind Eminem who holds

19071-472: The most simultaneous UK Top 40 albums, behind Elvis Presley and David Bowie who both tie for the most simultaneous Top 40 albums (twelve each, both immediately following their deaths in 1977 and 2016 respectively), and The Beatles who had eleven in 2009 when remastered versions of their albums were released. The fastest selling album (first chart week sales) is 25 by Adele . Released in November 2015, it sold over 800,000 copies in its first week. However,

19234-475: The neo-prog bands were not so much plagiarising progressive rock as they were creating a new style from progressive rock elements, just as the bands of a decade before had created a new style from jazz and classical elements. Author Edward Macan counters by pointing out that these bands were at least partially motivated by a nostalgic desire to preserve a past style rather than a drive to innovate. A third wave of progressive rock bands, who can also be described as

19397-543: The oldest artist to top the charts is Vera Lynn , who was 92 years old when she was at number one with We'll Meet Again: The Very Best of Vera Lynn , released in 2009 (though the album only contains material she recorded between 1936 and 1959). Lynn, who died in 2020 at the age of 103, also leads the list for the oldest artist to have a chart album, when the 2017 release of Vera Lynn 100 , released to mark her 100th birthday (though again, this only contains material she recorded decades earlier), peaked at number 3. Currently,

19560-447: The oldest living male artist to have the topped the UK albums chart is Tom Jones , who reached the top in 2021 with new studio album Surrounded By Time at the age of 80, while 95 year old Tony Bennett charted at number 6 on the chart of 8–14 October 2021 with his Lady Gaga duets album Love For Sale , becoming recognised by Guinness World Records as the oldest person to release an album of new material. In 1980, Kate Bush became

19723-510: The oldies, "Melinda" and "Elfin Boy", were reworked and produced by Marvin Ayres . As Way explained, the band had two reasons for this: they were never satisfied with the way those tracks were originally recorded and they wanted to have the product that they owned and were in control of. "Reborn was our way of preparing for the live work", Sonja Kristina added. On Friday, 13 June, Curved Air performed at

19886-485: The original Curved Air's albums had broken the UK top 20, the new band's sole album, Air Cut , failed to chart at the time. Not long after the release, Eddie Jobson was asked to replace Brian Eno in Roxy Music , so Kirby Gregory and Jim Russell both left the group to form Stretch . Sonja Kristina recorded a demo tape for Warner Brothers but they discontinued the contract. (These demos were later issued as part of

20049-447: The point at which the LP record emerged as a creative format whose importance was equal to or greater than that of the single. Bill Bruford , a veteran of several progressive rock bands, said that Sgt. Pepper transformed both musicians' ideas of what was possible and audiences' ideas of what was acceptable in music. He believed that: "Without the Beatles, or someone else who had done what

20212-595: The point when "all English bands in the genre should have ceased to exist". More of the major bands, including Van der Graaf Generator, Gentle Giant and U.K. , dissolved between 1978 and 1980. Many bands had by the mid-1970s reached the limit of how far they could experiment in a rock context, and fans had wearied of the extended, epic compositions. The sounds of the Hammond , Minimoog and Mellotron had been thoroughly explored, and their use became clichéd. Those bands who continued to record often simplified their sound, and

20375-558: The pop duo the Buggles . When King Crimson reformed in 1981, they released an album, Discipline , which Macan says "inaugurated" the new post-progressive style. The new King Crimson line-up featured guitarist and vocalist Adrian Belew , who also collaborated with Talking Heads, playing live with the band and featuring on their 1980 album Remain in Light . According to Martin, Talking Heads also created "a kind of new-wave music that

20538-566: The possibility of using the recording studio to create music that otherwise could never be achieved. The same is said for the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds (1966), which Brian Wilson intended as an answer to Rubber Soul and which in turn influenced the Beatles when they made Sgt. Pepper . Dylan introduced a literary element to rock through his fascination with the Surrealists and the French Symbolists , and his immersion in

20701-407: The previous 66 years of the chart, this occurrence where one label has had the Top 3 has only happened twice before with Parlophone taking the Top 3 positions in 1964 with two albums by The Beatles and Stay With The Hollies and K-Tel having three TV-advertised compilations at number 1, 2 and 3 on the chart of 31 December 1972. The fastest-selling debut albums (first-week sales): Sam Smith holds

20864-466: The principal progressive groups had developed a more commercial sound. ... What went out of the music of these now ex-progressive groups ... was any significant evocation of art music. – John Covach Some established artists moved towards music that was simpler and more commercially viable. Arena rock bands like Journey , Kansas , Styx , GTR , ELO and Foreigner either had begun as progressive rock bands or included members with strong ties to

21027-524: The progressive rock genre and as turning points wherein rock, which previously had been considered dance music, became music that was made for listening to. Between Pet Sounds and Sgt. Pepper , the Beach Boys released the single " Good Vibrations " (1966), dubbed a " pocket symphony " by Derek Taylor , the band's publicist. The song contained an eclectic array of exotic instruments and several disjunctive key and modal shifts. Scott Interrante of Popmatters wrote that its influence on progressive rock and

21190-509: The psychedelic movement "can't be overstated". Martin likened the song to the Beatles' " A Day in the Life " from Sgt. Pepper , in that they showcase "the same reasons why much progressive rock is difficult to dance to". Although Sgt. Pepper was preceded by several albums that had begun to bridge the line between "disposable" pop and "serious" rock, it successfully gave an established "commercial" voice to an alternative youth culture and marked

21353-407: The publication would go monthly from March 2021, and so a bespoke monthly Official Albums Chart Top 75 (similar to album charts used by Top of the Pops in the early 1990s and Absolute 80s on Sundays) started to be published from this date alongside monthly singles charts and specialist/genre charts. By 2022, the weekly album chart had started to regularly feature a pattern of acts getting

21516-429: The record for most weeks spent in the Top 10 by a debut album with In the Lonely Hour , with 76, surpassing a record previously held by Emeli Sandé . Over more than sixty years of compiling album sales, the various chart compiling firms have had a problem with the success of multi-artist compilation albums, with these albums (mostly TV-advertised collections featuring a number of hits) either being allowed to chart in

21679-411: The record for the most consecutive number one albums in Official Albums Chart history with 10. Adele is the female solo artist with the most weeks at number one, with a total of 37 weeks. Spice Girls are the female group with the most weeks at number one, with a total of 18 weeks (15 of which were for their debut album Spice ). In March 2018, Little Mix 's fourth studio album Glory Days , set

21842-463: The record for the steepest drop from number one when their album Anxiety Replacement Therapy fell out of the Top 200 altogether with second week sales of 880 copies. This occurrence of number one albums dropping out of the top 100 in their second week of release prompted an article in The Guardian newspaper wondering whether the UK album chart was broken. On 26 August 2022, Aitch became

22005-506: The rise of a London underground scene at which the psychedelic drug LSD was commonly used. Pink Floyd and Soft Machine functioned as house bands at all-night events at locations such as Middle Earth and the UFO Club , where they experimented with sound textures and long-form songs. Many psychedelic, folk rock and early progressive bands were aided by exposure from BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel . Jimi Hendrix , who rose to prominence in

22168-402: The romantic relationship they had formed while bandmates and were married in 1982. Curved Air as a group were largely inactive for the next three decades, though a handful of retrospective releases and compilations were released during this time. ( Warner Bros. Records released the band's first compilation, The Best of Curved Air , in April 1976, though it naturally only contained material from

22331-407: The same classical and folk influences as the original band and played the now classic Curved Air songs at their shows), but their core sound was rooted in pop, rhythm and blues, and hard rock. Miles Copeland III, still serving as Curved Air's manager, put the group on his own label, BTM. The band kicked off with a European tour, which started poorly. Way, a notorious perfectionist, grew impatient with

22494-472: The same geographic areas in which British heavy metal bands experienced their greatest popularity. The overlap in audiences led to the success of arena rock bands, such as Boston , Kansas , and Styx , who combined elements of the two styles. Progressive rock achieved popularity in Continental Europe more quickly than it did in the US. Italy remained generally uninterested in rock music until

22657-464: The show and decided he wanted to manage Sisyphus. He felt that Sonja Kristina , an aspiring folk musician who he had seen in the London stage production of Hair , was the missing ingredient in the group. On 1 January 1970, Hanau contacted her through the singer and impresario Roy Guest . She listened to a cassette of the band's music and was impressed. With Kristina's joining and Nick Simon's departure, Sisyphus metamorphosed into Curved Air, named after

22820-484: The singles chart , The Official Charts Company has classed re-issues of The Beatles' Abbey Road , and The Rolling Stones' Exile on Main Street and Goats Head Soup , as brand new hits/number 1s due to the amount of bonus material available, formats released and the fact that the issuing record label had changed. As of September 2022, Elvis Presley is still the male solo artist with the most weeks at number one with

22983-766: The strong Italian progressive rock scene developed in the early 1970s. Progressive rock emerged in Yugoslavia in the late 1960s, dominating the Yugoslav rock scene until the late 1970s. Few of the European groups were successful outside of their own countries, with the exceptions of Dutch bands like Focus and Golden Earring who wrote English-language lyrics, and the Italians Le Orme and PFM , whose English lyrics were written by Peter Hammill and Peter Sinfield , respectively. Some European bands played in

23146-427: The struggling of his bandmates, especially novice drummer Copeland. Eventually, the musicians found a way of working together and became a popular live act. The group struggled with studio work. Phil Kohn left and the band, unable to replace him in time for the sessions for Midnight Wire , relied on guest musicians to play both bass (John G Perry) and keyboards (Peter Wood). Norma Tager, a friend of Kristina's, penned

23309-628: The wave of progressive rock bands in the 2000s who revived the genre. According to Entertainment Weekly ' s Evan Serpick, "success stories like System of a Down and up-and-comers like the Dillinger Escape Plan , Lightning Bolt , Coheed and Cambria , and the Mars Volta create incredibly complex and inventive music that sounds like a heavier, more aggressive version of '70s behemoths such as Led Zeppelin and King Crimson." The Progressive Music Awards were launched in 2012 by

23472-584: The week beginning 15 May 2020 with sales of only 7,317, while in 2021 You Me At Six ( Suckapunch ) and Ben Howard ( Collections from the Whiteout ) became the first artists to have a number one album exit the Top 100 with only one week on the chart (though when The Guinness Book of British Hit Albums did their list of number one albums with the fewest weeks on the chart, it was based on the Top 75 countdown and featured acts such as Little Angels with their 1993 album Jam ). In 2023, The Lottery Winners made

23635-531: The years 1968–1970. Most of these were folk-rock albums that gave little indication of what the bands' mature sound would become, but King Crimson's In the Court of the Crimson King (1969) and Yes' self-titled debut album (1969) were early, fully formed examples of the genre. Most of the genre's major bands released their most critically acclaimed albums during the years 1971–1976. The genre experienced

23798-459: Was Songs for Swingin' Lovers! by Frank Sinatra for the week ending 22 July 1956. As of the week ending 21 November 2024, the UK Albums Chart has had 1381 different number one albums. The current number one album is Together at Home by From Zero and Linkin Park . The most successful artists in the charts depend on the criteria used. As of February 2016, Queen albums have spent more time on

23961-531: Was a cover version of " Baby Please Don't Go ” and although the shows were sold out and always successful the new recordings did not chart. After months of gradually losing steam, Curved Air broke up so quietly that, by Sonja Kristina's recollections, most of the music press wrote off the band's absence as a "sabbatical". Copeland formed The Police , Reeves returned to work as a producer and played in semi-pro band Big Chief along with Jacques, and Kristina and Way both pursued solo careers. Kristina and Copeland maintained

24124-478: Was also a major influence. Progressive rock's impact was felt in the work of some post-punk artists, although they tended not to emulate classical rock or Canterbury groups but rather Roxy Music , King Crimson, and krautrock bands, particularly Can. Punishment of Luxury 's music borrowed from both progressive and punk rock, whilst Alternative TV , who were fronted by the founder of the influential punk fanzine Sniffin' Glue Mark Perry , toured and released

24287-471: Was captured on the Alive, 1990 album, released in 2000. Following the one-off reunion, guitarist Mike Gore instigated a series of jam sessions which involved three fifths of Curved Air's original lineup: Monkman, Pilkington-Miksa, and Martin. In 1991 several of these jams were recorded, ultimately being released as a Monkman solo album called Jam in 2002. In early 2008, the band regrouped. On 4 May 2008, in

24450-416: Was de Souza who played with Curved Air at the 1971 Beat Club German TV performance of "Back Street Luv", the televised version of which became well known. In late 1971, Sonja Kristina joined Faces , Soft Machine , Marc Bolan and David Bedford to do a Christmas radio show for the BBC. One highlighted performance was on 7 May 1971 when Curved Air was the opening act for B.B. King and Johnny Winter at

24613-425: Was harnessed for new sounds, music approached the condition of " art ", and the studio, rather than the stage, became the focus of musical activity , which often involved creating music for listening rather than dancing. Progressive rock is based on fusions of styles, approaches and genres, involving a continuous move between formalism and eclecticism . Due to its historical reception, the scope of progressive rock

24776-501: Was in at the beginning but had extremely different ideas from Darryl about how he wanted this new Curved Air to prepare and develop. Eventually, he withdrew. We continued with Darryl as our musical director and producer." The new line-up played in Southern England, Italy and Malta in 2008. In 2008 a CD/box set Reborn was released, with 12 re-recorded Curved Air tracks and two new songs ("Coming Home" and "The Fury"). Two of

24939-612: Was indisposed for their dates in October 2009 and Robert Norton (keyboards) and Paul Sax (violin) stood in for him. Sax had played on Sonja Kristina's 1991 album Songs from The Acid Folk and both Sax and Norton played on her 1995 album Harmonics of Love . "Robert Norton is exceptional – as is Paul Sax, a master violinist – one of the first entrants to the Yehudi Menuhin school – a passionate and brave performer very well qualified to step into Darryl's light ... Chris Harris

25102-437: Was licensed out to BBC Radio 2 and presented by Simon Mayo , until it ended on 2 April 2007. Though album sales tend to produce more revenue and, over time, act as a greater measure of an artist's success, this chart receives less media attention than the UK Singles Chart , because overall sales of an album are more important than its peak position. 2005 saw a record number of artist album sales with 126.2 million sold in

25265-482: Was little prospect of improvement. So we just decided to round off our schedule and leave it at that. Sort of 'Call me if you can think of anything.' Stewart Copeland Citing dissatisfaction with BTM Records' inability to support Curved Air financially, Way departed. Though Alex Richman from the Butts Band stepped in on keyboards, the loss of the band's de facto leader was a blow. This line-up's final release

25428-573: Was never really solid after Rob left. This division was reflected in the arrangement of tracks on Second Album and Phantasmagoria ; side A of both albums was occupied by music composed by Darryl Way, while side B was devoted solely to Monkman's compositions, with no true collaboration between the two writers. While working in the studio the band was in a dire condition. "I remember the moment when Clifford Davis, our manager after Mark Hanau, spelled out what we were going to have to do just to get somewhere near even. We felt burned out", Monkman later said. By

25591-458: Was not part of the marketing strategy for these large corporations, who focused their attention on identifying and targeting profitable market niches . Four of progressive rock's most successful bands – King Crimson, Yes, ELP and Genesis – went on hiatus or experienced major personnel changes during the mid-1970s. Macan notes the September 1974 breakup of King Crimson as particularly significant, noting that Fripp (much later) referred to 1974 as

25754-407: Was not yet in existence; however, albums were released by three bands who would later come to the forefront of the music: Jethro Tull , Caravan and Soft Machine. The term "progressive rock", which appeared in the liner notes of Caravan's 1968 self-titled debut LP , came to be applied to bands that used classical music techniques to expand the styles and concepts available to rock music. The Nice,

25917-417: Was our manager Clifford Davis who said we would do a better business continuing to call the band Curved Air. So we kept the name and followed along the same pattern as before, as a writer's band. Everybody in the new band contributed material except for Jim Russell, who really wasn't a writer. Before it had mainly been Darryl and Francis, but I had managed to get some of my compositions in. Whereas all three of

26080-446: Was replaced by Andy Tween. In 2019, Kirby Gregory returned on guitar in place of Hudson, and Grzegorz Gadziomski replaced Paul Sax on violin, both playing with the band at London's 100 Club on 17 October. Disbanded Disbanded Disbanded Additional personnel Disbanded Progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog ) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in

26243-406: Was the Beatles' Please Please Me , which held the top spot for a straight 30 weeks. The longest number one by a male solo artist was Elvis Presley with G.I. Blues which stayed at the top for 22 weeks (his Blue Hawaii album was also the longest consecutive number one album for a male artist with 17 weeks). Adele 's album 21 has the most weeks at number one by a female solo artist (and by

26406-635: Was the perfect synthesis of punk urgency and attitude and progressive-rock sophistication and creativity. A good deal of the more interesting rock since that time is clearly 'post-Talking Heads' music, but this means that it is post-progressive rock as well." A second wave of progressive rock bands appeared in the early 1980s and have since been categorised as a separate " neo-prog " subgenre. These largely keyboard-based bands played extended compositions with complex musical and lyrical structures. Several of these bands were signed by major record labels, including Marillion , IQ , Pendragon and Pallas . Most of

26569-441: Was the public chart for store owners to use in their record shops with the Top 150 Artist Albums Chart being for industry insiders/ChartsPlus subscribers). For many years, The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was the best-selling album in UK chart history, but is now in third place after being supplanted by Queen's Greatest Hits and then also by ABBA's Gold: Greatest Hits . However, Sgt. Pepper still remains

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