The awards will celebrate the biggest achievers in the world of progressive music. The afternoon-cum-evening event will be a sit-down dinner, and will play host to approximately 200 people.
From the visionaries and pioneers of early Prog rock, to the innovators of the present day, the awards will celebrate and embrace forty years of a groundbreaking and unique genre of music. Steven Wilson leads the nominations with five, followed by both Steve Hackett and Ian Anderson, who are nominated in four categories each. Opeth’s Mikael Akerfeldt and It Bites both feature in three different categories.
A full list of all the nominees can be found below and at www.progrockmag.com/awards where readers can have their say by voting in five of the categories – New Blood, Live Event, Anthem, Album Of The Year and Grand Design.
Readers who vote will have the chance to win a “bumper prize of prog goodies” from all the band’s nominated as well as a piece of prog-related framed artwork from The Flood Gallery who will be hosting a prog art exhibition at the Awards themselves.
Jerry Ewing, Editor of Prog Magazine, says, “These awards have been a long time coming. But certainly when one considers the enormous amount of success that progressive artists have garnered over the past four decades, and perhaps more importantly the enjoyment they have given millions of fans over the years, it’s only right we give something back to the musicians themselves and given the buoyancy of the genre in recent years, we felt that the time was certainly right.
We think we’ve managed to get the balance of nominations right with acknowledgement of the original wave of progressive artists who have been such an inspiration to so many people, and today’s new wave of forward thinking musicians who carry the flame ever onwards.”
Chris Ingham, Group Publisher, says, “The idea of an award ceremony to celebrate prog rock is something that we have been thinking about since the inception of Prog Magazine. With the ongoing success of the magazine, and a rejuvenation in the genre, we felt this was the perfect opportunity. Early reaction from the artist and sponsors has been fantastic and given us a great platform to start this new annual awards ceremony. Prog Magazine has been a massive success for us and an award ceremony is testament to that.”
According to Future, Prog Magazine has gone from strength to strength since its launch in 2009, and has had a market-defying three years at the forefront of the prog scene. Originally part of the Classic Rock Magazine brand, Prog became its own entity this year and continues to find success, and The Progressive Music Awards are a credit to this. Having been embraced by prog’s affluent and notably dedicated cult following, the magazine has established itself at the heart of this most unique and underground of rock scenes.
