Power of Prog is proud to announce that legendary album reviewer and interviewer Kev Rowland has joined our team as a contributor. Kev is one of the most prolific writers on the scene right now his work is published in Acid Dragon, Prog Archives, Metal Music Archives, Jazz Music Archives, Feedback Fanzine among others. We look forward to Kev’s input here at Power of Prog and what he has to say.

Kev Rowland’s Bio

From 1990 – 2006 I ran Feedback fanzine in the UK, writing about bands that were never covered in the mainstream press, many of whom were in the progressive underground. During the period I built close ties with many of the UK groups in particular, including writing the newsletter for Freewill, getting gigs for Credo and writing the introduction to Galahad’s OCMDII compilation. I reviewed literally thousands of cassettes and then CDs from prog bands from throughout the world, and was lucky enough to interview many of them. During this period I also contributed to the French progzine Acid Dragon (which I am still doing, all these years later!), and was also asked to write for Rock ‘n’ Reel and once there was such a thing as the internet, for the Ghostland website.

In 2006 I moved to NZ, and stopped running Feedback (which was then renamed Amplified after I left at my request) having produced over 80 editions with more than 11,000 pages of print and heaven knows how many reviews and interviews.

Although I stopped writing and reviewing when I came over to NZ, I was gradually brought back into the scene (initially kicking and screaming until I accepted my fate) and started contributing to many different sites and magazines. I was heavily involved with the Crossover sub-genre team on Prog Archives, wrote the booklets for the Red Jasper reissues, and generally tried to be as involved in the scene as I had some 20 years previously. However, I stopped this in 2014 to start work on a book containing all of my progressive reviews from Feedback, and finally finished this at the end of 2016, after more than half a million words! (To be published by Gonzo Media hopefully later this year in three volumes, watch this space!)

My aim for 2017 was to review every album I had been sent over the last three years, but even though I managed to knock out more than 600 I still have plenty more to get through! The first five months of 2018 has seen me contribute more than 300 reviews so far, and I am ever so slowly starting to make a dent in my backlog, while also trying to keep up to date with new releases.

So much music, so little time…

Kev