Classic Rock Society UK and Rhythm magazine

[Jaco]

justvreceived an e mail that the long standing CRS will be closing along with the magazine. Got this on the same day as Rhythm Drum magazine in the U.K. Is folding after 35 years. Just not enough of a market I guess for these iconic brands. Sad.

[Top Cat]

justvreceived an e mail that the long standing CRS will be closing along with the magazine. Got this on the same day as Rhythm Drum magazine in the U.K. Is folding after 35 years. Just not enough of a market I guess for these iconic brands. Sad.

Sad news, very sad. I guess no one is buying printed material anymore.

[Progatron]

Such a sad day for me. Writing for this magazine has been an absolute joy. I'm pretty stunned.

I'm thankful for the great interviews I got to conduct with such musicians as Martin Barre, Jordan Rudess, Steve Hackett, Don Airey, Roine Stolt, Arjen Lucassen, Neal Morse, Ted Leonard, Andy Tillison, John Mitchell, Floor Jansen, Courtney Swain, John Hackett, Glass Hammer, and anyone I am forgetting.

So much hard work behind the scenes by a dedicated team of volunteers, some of whom are going to be a lot more upset about this than I am. What a shame.

A sad day.

[Steve F.]

As an observer from 3,500 miles away, I was always hugely impressed by what the folks [all volunteers, right?] at the CRS were able to accomplish. Hundreds of concerts, all seemingly without a hitch. AND the magazine.

All because they simply loved it and wanted to see more of it.

They did really, really good. I wrote them and told them so.

[Progatron]

As an observer from 3,500 miles away, I was always hugely impressed by what the folks [all volunteers, right?] at the CRS were able to accomplish. Hundreds of concerts, all seemingly without a hitch. AND the magazine.

All because they simply loved it and wanted to see more of it.

They did really, really good. I wrote them and told them so.

Yes, all volunteers and all for the love of the music and the desire to promote live bands as much as possible. In fact, on one or two occasions I racked up long distance charges to interview an artist for a feature in the mag. I'm sure others did as well.

There may be something smaller and more immediate (read: online) in the works for the future. But the dust must settle first.

It was a sad day yesterday. I drank a lot of wine and went through my audio interview archive to reminisce about all the great fortune I had, being able to write about what I love.

[Nomenloony]

Some of us didn't feel very welcome at the CRS anymore - particularly those people who busted a gut lugging the stage around in the HLC before dozens of gigs and running the thing behind the scenes.

Keep your eyes peeled on www.spirit.rocks though - things will be happening there.

[Progatron]

Andy Tillison has joined a long list of people commenting on the news:



I heard the news about the Classic Rock Society having to end its operations last night. It was a very sad moment and something that I'd never even contemplated happening - it was so entrenched in my life - yet I had managed to drift too far from it in recent years, one of those things you always assume will be there until one day it isn't.

For me, the importance I attach to this society is more than mere hyperbole. Back in the late 90s I started my career in Prog as a stagehand, moving to stage manager... both of which could be described as "roadie". Po90 was formed as "a band that could play at the CRS". We weren't the only one. In those days the place was alive with new bands, freed from the shackles that had been placed on Prog Rock by the BBC/NME et al. I'd be shifting Mostly Autumn's gear one minute, showing IQ to their dressing room the next, apologising to Final Conflict that the "headline band" was being a pain in the arse. Being the only person who could communicate with Spock's Beards German road crew. And the place was alive with music, friendship and a renewed optimism.

While in the USA a year or so ago, I was talking to a group of prog rock fans who said that their main experience in the early days of the Prog Renaissance was reading on the internet about the events taking place in Rotherham, South Yorkshire where the society was based. Such an unlikely place, but the enlivening team of Jenny Allen, Martin Hudson, Paul Allwood and more was totally infectious. Prog's re-entry into the world came through the Internet, via Rotherham.

Friendships and relationships grew from here. On both sides of the very thin line that existed between performers and audience. We became friends with each other.. At the CRS my band Po90 met The Flower Kings for the first time. A few short years later we were back as "The Tangent" with members from both bands on the stage. And in the same venue... the exact same room in the same venue a few years later I met my fiancée Sally Collyer for the first time at a gig by Manning & Strangefish.

I know that I am not alone in feeling that the CRS didn't just give us a venue. It gave us a purpose. It was a social network before that phrase even existed. Po90 had (to start with) ONLY those gigs to work towards. A true egalitarianism began to show itself, the whole thing was reliant on everyone fulfilling their role. The audience needed a band. The Band needed an audience, they all needed a venue, and they all needed to belong together. They managed to make this work for DECADES. An astonishing achievement. Satellite record stalls. a magazine, a website... these guys were trail blazers. They even had their own awards ceremony. A self contained media industry dedicated to music fanatics let down by the mainstream. It may have been Prog, but it was as Punk as it gets.

Looking on now, I feel a fair few pangs of guilt. I just assumed everything was OK, and then, as Joni so sadly puts it, "you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone" Right now I can't even remember all the staff and helpers along the way. I mentioned three already, but there was Andy Faulkner, Steve Pilkington, Miles Bartaby, Stephen Lambe - so many others I really ought not to forget but can't quite put my aging finger on.

The CRS gave me a career. It introduced me to Sally. It took me around Europe and over the Atlantic. And it did the same for others too. And I have the albums by GLD, Credo, Jump, Mostly Autumn, Ritual to remind me that when it came to the rebirth of Prog... the CRS was Ground Zero. After that came the Summers Ends, the Rosfests, The Prog Magazines - not as rivals but as co-conspirators in a ready rolling ball game.

There is a hole in many of our lives today. We will hopefully manage to fill that hole but it won't ever be forgotten. Thankyou to everyone who made it happen. We spent a lot of our middle age getting brand new music. There are many who do not. We were lucky to have the CRS.

[Progatron]

The new site has just gone live! There are tweaks and minor fixes to be made in the coming weeks, but we are up and running, and it's good to be back doing what I love!

https://www.velvetthunder.co.uk/