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The Latest Breaking News from Frank Zappa

“It takes $10,000 a day… the goal of getting on the road, playing in front of fans, outweighs the pain of losing the stuff”: Dweezil Zappa on sacrificing his out-there guitar collection, mixing Hendrix and building an immersive rig

The Zappa Plays Zappa tour is heading out this summer and Dweezil has funded it with an immense gear auction – the steep price, he says, is worth it

Guitar World

“I’m 16 and they were my heroes… They started to laugh because I was also playing the echo parts. I didn’t know they were a special effect”: Obsessive attention to detail was always Eddie Jobson’s superpower

From a backstage performance for Curved Air to being dragged onstage by Frank Zappa and out-complicating King Crimson, the UK violinist has managed to ignore distractions from making music

Louder

“The humorous interludes may prove divisive; it’s strongest when they dig hard into a groove”: Trifecta control the fusion in The New Normal

Steven Wilson band veterans Nick Beggs, Adam Holzman and Craig Blundell build on their 2021 debut

Louder

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“This is an intensely crafted ‘Super Guitar’ with a separate piezo output…”: Dweezil Zappa’s huge gear auction is full of utterly unique guitars, including his Hot Rats Gibson Les Paul, a Madonna-clad Jackson and a true one-off custom PRS

The inimitable Zappa is selling off some of his most unusual and prized guitar possessions in order to raise funds for his forthcoming tour dates

Guitar World

“Such a spectacle: 80,000 fans, eight-way spatial audio”: Did Roger Waters top Pink Floyd at Desert Trip in 2016? His guitarist Jonathan Wilson thinks so (and he wasn’t in the band at the time)

While not living his “Canyon life,” American musician and producer’s prog world includes Rush, Frank Zappa, Roy Harper, Robert Wyatt and others

Louder

"Prog music, or heavy music in general, is a very conservative scene. When you are willing to expose yourself emotionally, it’s a vulnerable place to be." Devin Townsend tackles The Prog Interview

From his early days with Steve Vai to battling through mental health problems and explaining to Prog just why he prefers Beefheart over Zappa, there’s much to cover in this therapeutic discussion…

Metal Hammer

From King Crimson to A-list hired gun with Talking Heads, Frank Zappa and David Bowie, Adrian Belew created his own language on the guitar – here are his 10 greatest guitar moments

With King Crimson, Talking Heads, as a solo artist, it didn't matter: Adrian Belew manipulated the guitar like no-one else, bending sound into new shapes

Guitar World

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"It's so mid-eighties I can see Molly Ringwald and the rest of the brat pack dancing in a bedroom in my mind's eye": Mr. Mister master the period cliches on Welcome To The Real World

Mr. Mister released four slickly produced albums. Three bombed. Welcome To The Real World certainly didn't

Louder

“The fact that he managed to mix the political with the comical and the absurd, without comprising his output, is a big influence”: Frank Zappa is Serj Tankian’s prog hero

System Of A Down vocalist hails the Mothers Of Invention leader for more than just his ambitious approach to making music

Louder

“It was just another riff, like Into The Fire. We didn’t make a big deal out of it and it wasn’t being considered as a track for the album": Ian Gillan on the unlikely success story of writing and recording Deep Purple's Smoke On The Water

"The downdraft from the mountains caused the smoke to blow across Lake Geneva, like a film set or dry ice on a stage show. At this point, Roger wrote the words ‘smoke on the water’ on a napkin”

MusicRadar

‘We wanted to invade media’: the hippies, nerds and Hollywood pros who brought The Simpsons to life

The Simpsons’ roots run deep. And as Matt Groening’s early collaborators explain, it owes its global success to a perfect storm of punk zine attitude and TV professionalism

The Guardian - UK

Tangerine Dream's Phaedra at 50 is on the cover of the new issue of Prog, on sale now!

Plus Chester Thompson, Big Big Train, Stackridge, Bill Nelson, The Pineapple Thief, Damian Wilson & Adam Wakeman and loads more...

Louder

“There was an amazing synergy. The longest single session was 72 hours. We fed the engineer speed pills… we’d scramble to write lyrics then pluck vocal harmonies out of the air”: How Nektar’s ambition and effort gave the world Remember The Future

The Bluebird character was invented at the same time by different creatives, a technical issue nearly killed off the recorded musical energy – and drugs fuelled almost every aspect of the production. But the resulting environment-themed epic was worth all the hard graft

Louder

"Epitomising the blend of prog-rock chops, pop sensibility and Zappa-influenced weirdness that was Max's secret formula": Max Webster's High Class In Borrowed Shoes

High Class In Borrowed Shoes is the second album by extravagantly dressed Canadian rock eccentrics and Rush buddies Max Webster

Louder

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Louder

“The band thought I was dead. My neck was bent like it was broken”: the time Frank Zappa was severely injured after being pushed offstage by a fan

Frank Zappa survived being assaulted onstage by a fan in London in 1971 – but he was left with lifelong pain

MusicRadar

Chester Thompson: 10 albums that define my career - "The funny part is, I actually taught Phil Collins the In The Air Tonight drum fill"

From Abe Laboriel to Zappa, Chester Thompson shares some of his career highlights following the release of his new solo album, Wake Up Call

Louder

“They said, ‘We did a little thing for you, but we don’t know if it will make the album. I said, ‘You’re crazy – this is the single!’” the epic life of ‘Funky’ Claude Nobs, the man who inspired Deep Purple’s Smoke On The Water

Claude Nobs was the man who co-founded the Montreux Jazz Festival – and crossed paths with Led Zeppelin, Frank Zappa and Deep Purple

Guitar World

“I never have boundaries regarding the gear I use – my rule is simply to follow my ears”: Dirty Sound Magnet sound like Hendrix meets the Doors by way of Zappa – Stavros Dzodzos explains how analog adventurism fuels their psychedelic sound

Dirty Sound Magnet have the sound of a band trying to shake loose reality. Guitarist/vocalist Dzodzos shares his analog-forward tone approach

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Louder

"Every time we finished a rehearsal, I felt that my brain was sweating": former Genesis/Weather Report drummer Chester Thompson on why playing with Frank Zappa was the best education he ever received

Playing with Frank Zappa could be a challenging experience, as legendary drummer Chester Thompson discovered

Louder

"Like a heavier Styx or a lighter Uriah Heep, but dressed like the Bee Gees": Angel by Angel - Album Of The Week Club review

Discovered by Gene Simmons and sold as a more wholesome alternative to Kiss, Angel's stage show was equally theatrical, but their music was a mix of pomp and prog

Louder

“Talkback microphones go to our in-ear monitors and our lighting guy… It messes with the audience’s minds. ‘If they improvised that, how did the lights know when to change?’” How Umphrey’s McGee keep their shows rolling

Lessons learned from Frank Zappa and always-on personal connections mean they avoid the pitfalls that can kill jam band performances

Louder

“When I listen to Sheik Yerbouti and Joe’s Garage, it reminds me of what a giant he was." Frank Zappa's incredibly busy and industrious 1979

Terry Bozzio and Adrian Belew look back on the year Frank Zappa created Baby Snakes, Sheik Yerbouti, Joe's Garage and more

Louder

“He was incapable of saying anything fond about anyone or anything. Affection didn’t exist in his life, only weird sex”: how Frank Zappa survived the 70s

Throughout the 1970s, he hated the hippies, loved jazz as much as rock and played dumb with incredible technical prowess, making his music thrillingly unique

Guitar World

“A Whammy pedal might be sacrilege on a vintage National, but live, it’s really interesting!” Troy Redfern may play slide guitar, but he doesn’t want to sound like Derek Trucks – and his bold solo approach blazes a new blues trail

There's already a lot of hype about the British blues maestro's new Kickstarter-funded album. Redfern checks in to share his unconventional gear pairings, and how his solos are informed by Frank Zappa's musical philosophy

Louder

"Undeniably brilliant but unlistenable": Pawn Hearts by Van der Graaf Generator - Album Of The Week Club review

Van der Graaf Generator's fourth album Pawn Hearts sums up all that is glorious and bewildering about the band: unconventional vocals, confrontational music, and the unruly spectre of jazz

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