BBC4 Documentary on the Concept album with Rick Wakeman

[Bazcrim]

On Friday, 6th May at 10pm, BBC4 screen a documentary called "When Pop Went Epic: The Crazy World of the Concept Album". Rick Wakeman examines the roots of the concept album. BBC4 do good documentaries, so this should be worthwhile, especially with Rick at the helm. I see "Capes and Codpieces" in abundance!

[Steve983]

I suppose this will be the usual light hearted pi** take..?

[rickawakeman]

Can you define that for us colonists?

[Steve983]

Whenever Prog rock is mentioned in mainstream media its always poking fun and never taken seriously. Still hopefully the programme will be entertaining in one way or another...

[bondegezou]

BBC4 are probably going to do something a bit more serious.

Henry

[ProgTwin]

I don't mind the "usual light hearted pi** taking" in these documentaries. Especially when they are presented by someone like Rick. A few years ago when Channel 4 did their Top 10 Prog rundown, people moaned that presenter Bill Bailey took the pi**, but I personally think that it made for a much more enjoyable watch. What bugs me more, is people in the mainstream jumping on the "Prog is no longer a 4 letter word" bandwagon. You know the kind of thing: a music magazine such as Uncut (guilty) suddenly turning around and saying, actually we like Prog after all, despite slagging it off for years. Looking forward to this new doc though.

[chalkpie]

Are you not allowed to write "piss" in fear of getting reprimanded from the Queen her majesty? I think here Sean doesn't give a shit and actually encourages such brash vitriol.

[ProgTwin]

I'm new here, so wasn't sure about whether I could write piss or not. I based it on the fact that a previous poster hadn't written it either. In future I will endeavour to be more brash

[Halmyre]

I don't mind the "usual light hearted pi** taking" in these documentaries. Especially when they are presented by someone like Rick. A few years ago when Channel 4 did their Top 10 Prog rundown, people moaned that presenter Bill Bailey took the pi**, but I personally think that it made for a much more enjoyable watch.

I think Bill Bailey is a bit of a proghead himself.

[alanterrill]

I think Bill Bailey is a bit of a proghead himself.

Maybe -he's certainly listened to it and he's very intelligent, but he was born a bit late to have grown up with it. Here's one of his sketches that takes the piss out of a certain strand of prog:


And his knowledge of the way music is used in different scenarios is great:

[rickawakeman]

For those of us on the other side of the pond...who is this guy?

[Steve983]

For those of us on the other side of the pond...who is this guy?

Bill Bailey is an English comedian who is also very musically talented and uses it in his act. I saw him live once - very entertaining and clever guy.

[rickawakeman]

Thanks. Funny stuff.

[lovecraft]

I suppose this will be the usual light hearted pi** take..?

Having just watched it, yes, absolutely, but plenty of sincere praise for the genre from the man himself.

One strange thing though - lots to say about Tommy but no mention of its immediate predecessor, The Who Sell Out, which seemed a little remiss.

[Bazcrim]

Enjoyable documentary. But these 1 hour programmes can only skim over the subject. They need to be multi-episodic or on for around 2 hours to go reasonably in depth. The Lamb piece with A Powell was interesting as well as Roger Dean linking the Yes sleeves. I think it should have finished with S Wilson's Hand.Cannot.Erase as that is a perfect example of the modern concept album in execution and packaging. I am sure the man himself would have had plenty to say about the subject!

[progeezer's ghost]

Enjoyable documentary. But these 1 hour programmes can only skim over the subject. They need to be multi-episodic or on for around 2 hours to go reasonably in depth. The Lamb piece with A Powell was interesting as well as Roger Dean linking the Yes sleeves. I think it should have finished with S Wilson's Hand.Cannot.Erase as that is a perfect example of the modern concept album in execution and packaging. I am sure the man himself would have had plenty to say about the subject!

I personally have not seen the doc yet, but I agree with everything you said.

[mnprogger]

outside of the UK links with sound?

(there's an upload on YouTube but the sound is muted..not even captioning, lol).

[Steve983]

Enjoyable documentary. But these 1 hour programmes can only skim over the subject. They need to be multi-episodic or on for around 2 hours to go reasonably in depth. The Lamb piece with A Powell was interesting as well as Roger Dean linking the Yes sleeves. I think it should have finished with S Wilson's Hand.Cannot.Erase as that is a perfect example of the modern concept album in execution and packaging. I am sure the man himself would have had plenty to say about the subject!

My thoughts exactly.

[rael74]

It was a fantastic documentary. Obviously prog was at it's core, but a good third of it was about concept albums in other genres. It started with Guthrie, Sinatra, Pet Sounds, What's Goin On etc... ended up talking about Flaming Lips and Lady Gaga, so something for everyone.

For people HERE however, there was a 30 second glimpse of a goldmine when Aub Powell (Hipgnosis) opened up a folder of notes and doodles that he, Storm and Gabriel had worked through to create the concept art for the lamb. Jesus, what I'd give to look at the rest of that stuff.

Someone on another Genesis forum has tried to decipher what some of Gabriel's notes said.

My advice to you yanks, use a VPN to trick BBC Iplayer that you're in limey-land and watch it.