Steve ‘Progmeister’ Petch

Hi I’m Steve Petch known to many as The Progmeister. I live; work and play on Teesside and I am a dyed in the wool Prog Rock fan being so since the age of twelve. I was passionate about many forms of music well before that. Growing up in the sixties I became intrigued with different rhythms and musical textures usually via TV and film enjoying theme music and scores. Not being a fan of The Beatles and Rolling Stones I developed a love for bands like Manfred Mann, Procol Harum, The Beach Boys and even The Monkees. It was when I heard Focus for the very first time that I realised that was veering away from mainstream pop enjoying longer form songs and musical pieces. The ensuing years saw me attending gigs by the big guns like Pink Floyd, Genesis with Peter Gabriel and my favourite Prog band Camel. Prog remains one of my favourite musical forms though my greatest weakness is West coast fusion heralded by artists like Dave Grusin, Lee Ritenour, Larry Carlton and Chick Corea’s Return To Forever, Spyro Gyra and Weather Report.

After watching a BBC documentary about Prog I became disappointed at the way he genre was being represented by some of the contributors so I decided to set up a website back in 2009 www.theprogmeister.com celebrating both classic Prog and reviewing new releases. The website is still going strong to this day and keeps the Prog flag flying.

Having written and collaborated with original music inspired by the prog genre and playing keys with local musicians I gained an informed view of the music scene and immersed myself in its many forms. Music chronicles your life and is a work in progress. My show here on Progzilla every second Sunday of The month at 6:00 pm UK Time gives The Progmeister a voice adding another dimension to the written word. Please join me whilst I share opinions and my views about classic Prog, new releases and many other forms of music. I hope over my two hour spot I play something that both entertains and may introduce the listener to something new. See you down there…