The Sense Of An Ending

Tim Bowness began his 40 years ago to the day when Prog catches up with him. It feels right for him to wax nostalgic.

“I started singing in bands in April 1982, during the Falklands War,” he says (he would’ve been 18 at the time). “I was in the north west [of England] and in a band with some school friends. I had my solo project, Always The Stranger, then I was in a Manchester band called Still. We got a hell of a lot of support, in a way you just couldn’t now. There were only a few radio stations then, but with a demo cassette you could get played on Piccadilly Radio, and on BBC Merseyside. You’d maybe get a half-page article in the Manchester Evening News or the Warrington Guardian, and they’d review you alongside the new Kate Bush or New Order single. It was such a confidence boost.”

Halcyon days, indeed. In this hyper-accelerated internet age, radio’s formatted within an inch of its life, and the chance of a small or unsigned band getting such paper