Latest articles by Johnny Sharp
“The day I ask the audience to sing my songs I might as well go home. It’s hard enough for trained singers, let alone an audience who will massacre it”: How Ian Anderson refined Jethro Tull stage shows
He took a long hard look at his production values when The Broadsword And The Beast was first released in 1982
"So Jaco Pastorius and Joni Mitchell walk past and ask, ‘Hey, is there a party here?’." The story of Italian prog legends PFM
Newly signed to InsideOut Music, Italian prog legends Premiata Forneria Marconi returned with new album Emotional Tattoos in both English and Italian
“A mature viewpoint without sounding remotely irrelevant or unwelcome”: Galahad’s The Long Goodbye
12th studio album tackles nuanced experience rather than youthful certainty - assisted by timeless songcraft
“At first when we met, he was Gavin Harrison the world-famous drummer, but since then he’s become a mate." The Pineapple Thief take a big step up
The story of Yeovil-based prog rockers The Pineapple Thief's thirteenth studio album, 2020's Versions Of The Truth
"It turned out to be a wonderful show, and it healed us for a little while": Nirvana at Reading 1992 - a story of rumours, a wheelchair and salvation
In the build-up to Nirvana's final UK show the band were unhappy and underprepared... and then Kurt Cobain was pushed onstage in a wheelchair
“It was a finished product, called A for Anderson, intended as a solo record. Then the record company heard it." The story of Jethro Tull and A
When 1980's A came out it featured a new Jethro Tull line-up, a new sound and songs about the threat of nuclear war and terrorism. Not everyone was impressed.
Either ‘too progressive’ or ‘not progressive enough’: the impressive boxset that reveals some heart-breaking detail behind The Pineapple Thief's early career
Not yet ratedThe Pineapple Thief's How Did We Find Our Way – 1999-2006 8 CD boxset
Meet Laura Meade, the most dangerous woman in America!
On her latest solo album, IZZ’s Laura Meade turns history into herstory while exploring Hollywood’s love-hate relationship with female celebrities...
30 musicians on the album that changed their life as a kid
Members of Kiss, Black Sabbath, Guns N’ Roses, Def Leppard, Rage Against The Machine and more reveal the albums that set them on the path to rock stardom
"We had the opportunity to reimagine what we do to a certain degree." Big Big Train and the making of Common Ground
Big Big Train's thirteenth studio album Common Ground saw a new line-up but the same classy approach and prog rock sound
“Our days of easily digestible folky paeans are behind us. Goodbye chamber pop, hello folk prog”: When Fleet Foxes acted like men driven mad on Crack-Up
Their third album, released in 2017, delivered a patchwork of instrumentation, influences and indulgence
Einar Solberg - 16: "An impressive and adventurous new chapter."
Not yet ratedLeprous man goes it alone with a journey of self-examination
Far above the clouds: Pure Reason Revolution and Above Cirrus
The much-loved UK proggers' reunion spawns a second album, but there are line-up issues to discuss with Pure Reason Revolution
Winger fail to reinvent themselves again, but who cares when the choruses are this big?
Reanimated 80s FM rockers Winger return with comfortingly familiar seventh album Seven
“More cheery stuff from IQ!": The story of The Road Of Bones
The inside story of UK proggers IQ's eleventh studio album, 2014's The Road Of Bones
Floor Jansen goes it alone to seek more mainstream acclaim
Paragon is the debut solo album from Nightwish singer Floor Jansen
“We give Yes a run for their money when it comes to changing band line‑ups!" Galahad and the story of Seas Of Change
How UK prog rockers Galahad's made their eleventh studio album, 2018's Seas Of Change, amid fluctuating line-up upheaval
Alabama Shakes: celebrating a decade of a defining rock’n’soul voice
A tenth anniversary expansion for Alabama Shakes' southern rock’n’soul landmark, Boys & Girls
Ginger Wildheart: "It was time to divorce the wife and move in with the bit on the side"
How maverick Britrocker Ginger Wildheart survived another messy divorce to shack up with his new band, Ginger Wildheart & The Sinners
How the Alan Parsons Project struck gold with Eye In Sky
The story of how the Alan Parsons Project went stratospheric with 1982's Eye In The Sky
Other Worlds by The Pretty Reckless: worth a quick visit, but no need to hang about
Other Worlds sees songs from The Pretty Reckless's Death By Rock And Roll reconfigured, with added Soundgarden and David Bowie
Clutch wanted to make a party album: it did not go as planned
Clutch's Neil Fallon and Jean-Paul Gaster on the making of thirteenth studio album Sunrise On Slaughter Beach
Massive Wagons's Triggered!: successfully straddling the pub and the enormodome
Maverick northwest crowd-pleasers Massive Wagons deliver once again on sixth album Triggered!
