Writer, reviewer and music enthusiast Kev Rowland is a familiar name for many people interested in music in general and perhaps progressive rock in particular. From 1990 and onward he has written an astounding amount of reviews covering multiple genres, but where he made most impact was in progressive rock circles, as one of few voices with a passion for a type of music believed by the masses to be just about as relevant as the dodo when he started out. He became quite the respected voice as the man behind UK fanzine Feedback Fanzine, until he decided to leave the fanzine and the UK behind to relocate to New Zealand back in 2006. “The Progressive Underground Vol. III” is the third and final of three books where he compiles the progressive rock reviews he wrote for Feedback Fanzine between 1990 and 2006.
While my reviews for the first and second volumes of this series were rather similar, as the general content was just about the same, this concluding volume of this book trilogy has a wee bit more to offer. As such, this calls for some different words as well.
The important bit for those who have the first two volumes of this book series in their possession is that Kev concludes his round-up of reviews in this final volume, starting with artists with names from T in the alphabet and out to Z. In addition, shorter album reviews and all DVD reviews Kev wrote between 1990 and 2006 are included too, so for those with a desire to look through Kev’s thoughts on albums and DVDs by progressive rock and progressive metal bands reviewed between 1990 and 2006 this book covers the grounds not covered in the previous books. I rather presume most if not all that bought the first two volumes of Kev’s book will have had this one on pre-order already, and for those who are unaware of this series of books but with an interest in progressive rock reviewed between 1990 and 2006, I’d actually suggest to start out with Volume 1 of this trilogy.
The additional contents of this book that may draw in some new readers are two additional lines of content. The minor of these, which will be interesting to quite a few nonetheless, are concert reviews from 1990 and on to 2006 from shows with a wide variety of progressive rock bands that played in the UK. Lesser known artists such as Sphere and Revelation are covered, some of the classic neo-prog bands active in the 90’s are covered extensively, but also larger names such as Neal Morse and Steve Hackett have had their concerts reviewed by Kev in this section of the book.
The major draw that I suspect will make more people curious about this book are the 170 or so pages of interviews however. Several people are interviewed on multiple occasions, partially because they were active for sustained periods of time and thus warranted new interviews, some presumably also because they developed a friendship with Kev over the years. No matter what the reason, seeing the thoughts of some key people in the UK progressive rock scene develop over multiple interviews in the 16 year long time span this book cover will be interesting to many fans presumably. A few of the more well known people in the genre make appearances in this section of the book too, like Fish, Steve Howe and Kerry Livgren.
“The Progressive Underground Vol. III” concludes Kev Rowland’s book trilogy of reviews in a fine manner, adding a great deal of additional material beyond album reviews to make it an interesting purchase to consider also for fans of progressive rock in general. While artists that had more of an underground profile in the years between 1990 and 2006 have the greater amount of focus, this book – and the series in general – doesn’t focus exclusively in that direction. As such this book and the trilogy it concludes should be of interest also for those without that need to search for rough gems and forgotten jewels. The interview section of this book in particular is a strong selling point as far as I’m concerned: While album reviews are creations with something of a finite and defined audience reach, historical interviews with lesser known as well as more highly regarded artists will be of general interest to a larger group of fans, in my opinion at least.
In the name of transparency it also needs to be stated that author Kev Rowland is one of my friends – in a modern and digital understanding of the word. And while this doesn’t influence my stance being a long time reviewer myself, this is a fact that needs to be stated so that the reader doesn’t regard my words about this book with suspicion due to not being up front with this information.
My rating: 80/100
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