Gong, Alan Parsons, Rush In Contention At 2017 Progressive Music Awards

Gong, Alan Parsons and Rush are among the big names in contention for honours at the 2017 Progressive Music Awards. Returning for a sixth year this autumn, the event will be held on 14 September at the Underglobe in London. This year, the annual ceremony will include nine new categories, all created with the aim of exploring prog’s growing impact in the world of music and culture over the last 12 months.

Among the new categories at this year’s Progressive Music Awards is the Reissue Of The Year award. For 2017, the contenders for the coveted prize include Rush (2112), Alan Parsons Project (Tales Of Mystery And Imagination), Vangelis’ Delectus box set, Steve Hillage (Searching For The Spark) and The Brain Box.

Other new categories in the reader-voted section include Video Of The Year and Album Cover Of The Year. Among those in contention for the popular Band/Artist Of The Year category are Gong, Steve Hackett, Roger Waters and Marillion. The award has now been divided into International Band/Artist and UK Band/Artist to reflect the popularity of progressive music around the world.

The Event Of The Year award, meanwhile, has been extended beyond live concerts and festivals with the aim of showcasing prog’s renewed popularity in popular culture. Included among this year’s nominees are the Ramblin’ Man Fair, Yes’ induction to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, the V&A’s popular Pink Floyd exhibition (Their Mortal Remains) and the BBC’s tribute to satirical prog god, Brian Pern.

Opeth are up for four nominations, Video Of The Year, Album Cover Of The Year, International Band/Artist and Album Of The Year, for last year’s Sorceress. The Swedish prog rockers picked up the Best Band gong in 2015. Other previous Progressive Music Awards winners also return to the list of nominees. Among them are Big Big Train, who won a hat-trick of awards in 2016. They’re up for awards in three categories including Album Of The Year and Album Cover Of The Year. Marillion are also up for another three categories – their popular Marillion Weekends are up for voting in the Event Of The Year category. They last won Live Event in 2015.

Elsewhere, the Chris Squire Virtuoso Award will return for another year, along with the coveted Prog God, won in 2016 by Jon Anderson.

“It’s been a strange six months for us at Prog magazine to say the least,” reflects Editor Jerry Ewing. “With the well-publicised demise of the old TeamRock company and our subsequent return to our old stomping ground of Future Publishing, I felt we wanted to try and both convey the shifting to pastures new but equally get the message across that it very much is business as usual. This is certainly the most comprehensive and far-reaching list of nominees we’ve ever had, and also represents a very good cross section of where progressive music is at in 2017.”

uDiscover is proud to be partnering with Ramblin’ Man Fair for the second year running, and is giving away a pair of VIP and a pair of standard tickets to this year’s event. To enter the competition and be in with a chance of winning, click here.

Format: UK English