Prognosis

One of my favourite forms of music is prog rock. The likes of Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Pink Floyd, Genesis and Jethro Tull to name a few. Besides their long, often instrumental songs, their album covers always caught my eye. Bright illustrations by the likes of artist Roger Dean, with spaceships, strange creatures and storybook lands, that were often used by Yes for their sleeves.

Then of course there was Hipgnosis and their amazing Pink Floyd covers. Who can forget the burning man on Wish You Were Here, or the Dark Side of the Moon Prism.

So here's my contribution to the vast prog rock catalogue, that has existed since the early 1970s, with a cover of mine for local band Pentagon Island; named after a large roundabout on the A52, near one side the outskirts of Derby.

Like most prog albums, 'Both Sides of the River' is a concept. A post apocalyptic tale of two towns on each side of a contaminated river, who see their existence in quite different ways.  One side tries to make the best of this poisoned world that they now find themselves in, while the other is more aggressive, and dystopian in outlook.

Songs like 'Torchlight', 'Visions of the Past' and the title track explain how the population of each community deal with their circumstances, the life they used to have and the one that they have now.