Prog Rock & Prog Metal’s 7 Greatest Mythical Albums!

So rare it's as if these mythical albums never even existed....

Posted on April 1, 2016 by Chris Jennings in Features

4. Galaxetia – Interstellar Badgers

In 1972, in their converted garage in Portsmouth, Zak ‘The Yak’ Zimmerman (keyboards) and his brother Partridge (guitar and vocals) were creating some of the best South Coast prog rock sounds of the era….despite still struggling with the impact of decimalisation.

The space-age Interstellar Badgers came saddled with controversy, no more so than on “Rocket Badger” (disputed by Elton John as a rip-off of his own “Rocket Man”) and “Badger Bloody Badger”, which, ironically, was later ripped of by a little known bunch of miscreants called Black Sabbath.

Fast forward to 1988 and the Zimmerman brothers joined forces with keyboard genius Eric Lloyd Webber (no relation to West End muppet Andrew) and left the UK shores for an ill-fated 54 date tour of Zimbabwe, failing to return after being arrested at Harare airport for Badger smuggling.

Ever shrouded with misfortune, Galaxetia will always be remembered for their 1979 concert at the Albert Hall where their 180 metre inflatable Space-Badger became untethered during the encore and managed to get as far as the mid-Atlantic before being shot down by a Russian MiG.

3. Alan’s Foot – The Story Of Why

Shooting to fame after a series of impromptu gigs on a beach in Devon in 1981, Alan’s Foot went on to conquer the globe with their prog rock mastery.

The bands name, contrary to public opinion, referred to the unit of length and not a part of ‘Alan’s’ anatomy and shortly after taking the name they fought constantly against changing it to Alan’s 304.8 millimetres in order to clear up any confusion.

Famous for their disregard for backing vocals – choosing instead to use off key whistling – their experimental technique launched the surprisingly popular ‘Roger Whittaker metal’ sub-genre. Bands such as the Scorpions (“Wind Of Change”) and Guns N’ Roses (“Patience”) were inspired by Alan Foot’s methods and it is rumoured that Roger Glover, Mrs Mills and Enoch Powell provided the ‘whistles’ on the underrated track “Why is not a reasonable question given the circumstances”.