Tillison, Andy (The Tangent, PO90) (January 2005, pt 2)

Parallel Digressions With Andy Tillison - Part 2

When we last left our interview subject - the multifaceted Andy Tillison (Parallel or 90 Degrees (PO90), The Tangent) in Part 1 - he was dashing off for a radio interview and a spot of tea, after having talked at length with our Josh Turner about the two (to date) Tangent releases, and a bit about PO90. Later that afternoon, Tillison and Turner regrouped (over the phone) and continued their conversation.

Joshua Turner: Hello.

Andy Tillison: Hi Josh.

JT: Oh, hi. Thanks a lot for getting back to me.

AT: I just did a short radio interview, so it wasn't quite as long as I was expecting.

JT: Okay. Do you actually have time now?

AT: I do. Have you got time?

JT: Oh, definitely. I always have time for you, Roine, and all the other talented artists who are out there.

AT: That's cool. Look, I wanted to say before you start asking me questions again, you know, you've written some very nice things about us in the past, nice reviews, and I've got them up on my web site and things. I think you wrote my favorite line about us last time on The Music That Died Alone, a review [for the Music Street Journal] where you said sort of like, you should [he chuckles], you should go buy this album now, you should run, not walk. [we both laugh] I really thought that was quite amusing. I remembered that one for quite a while. Yeah, you wrote some nice things, and it's good of you to continue the relationship. Yeah, nice to finally get the time to talk to you.

JT: I actually appreciate that it was, you know, acknowledged and recognized. The thing is that, I'm very honest and those are honest reviews and I actually think that highly of the music.

AT: Right.

JT: Just to jump into the questions, I really like your style and I do think you're one-of-a-kind and you're actually influencing a lot of people at this time, but I'm wondering who would you say are your influences?

AT: Oh, right now it depends what we are talking about here. Are we talking about keyboard playing or are we talking about writing?

JT: Why don't we talk about both?

AT: Right, okay; well let's... first of all writing. I mean, writing influences are obviously from a whole palette of different styles of progressive rock music that I grew up listening to, and if there is one thing that I will trumpet to everybody, [it] is how incredibly different all the progressive rock bands of the first era were from each other, and that's what I mean, that the first era you actually take a band like Van Der Graaf Generator and they are nothing like Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, apart from the fact that they both had an organ, and Emerson, Lake, and Palmer sounded nothing like Yes, because Yes' is much more [a] symphonic kind of sound, and Emerson, Lake, and Palmer was much more, you know, traditional baroque type of format, you know, Market Chamber group. And Pink Floyd didn't sound like either of those. Gentle Giant had a bit of, you know, this, that, or whatever in it and Jethro Tull didn't sound like that either, and then you got the National Health and the Caravans and the Hatfields from the Canterbury scene and they sort of have a little sound that was quite their own, but didn't sound like the others, you know. So there was so many different things going on.

So to work from a palette like that, you know, I can just go anything. The jazz classical music, there's soul, there's, you know, a bit of funk, all sorts of stuff in this great melting pot. So somebody's who's been brought up with progressive rock music has a very big palette to go on, and I guess that with The Tangent I wanted to kind of, like, apply [that] on the first record, I wanted to take the pure joy of playing and the uplifting feeling that progressive rock music can give you and push that forward. So I guess I was looking at, you know, a lot of... a lot of the Yes side of things, a lot of the ELP side of things and a lot of the Canterbury kind of stuff on the first record. On the second record, while keeping in line with those people, still keeping the Yes, the ELP, and, and Hatfield and Canterbury, keeping that kind of positivity, I tried to introduce a little bit of the darker stuff that's also been quite an influence on me. So I wanted to kind of bring out a bit more Roger Waters in there, a bit more Van Der Graaf, a bit more of the heavier end of King Crimson, just kind of, as they say, pull people in a little bit further, as I told you earlier on. I wanted to make this album a little bit more demanding of the listener.

So, I have this enormous palette of people to draw on as well, of course, as the outside progressive rock influences like, you know, the punk kind of ethic... Although obviously there's not a great deal of that in The Tangent's music. It's... there's still quite a lot of what I say in the lyrics that belongs more in the kind of anarchy punk camp and belongs in the ... that you wouldn't normally find in a standard progressive rock album, because I try to keep my lyrics very real world, and... I'm a big fan of Jon Anderson's lyrics, you mustn't get me wrong,... but rather than writing his kind of style, I like to write in a much more "this is what's happening in the world now" kind of framework. More in the way that Roger Waters decided to write on things like Amused To Death, which is a big influence of mine, that record.

So those are the kinds of basic influences I use to write the records. And as for keyboard players, you know, it all goes right back to one man, you know, who else could it be? Rick, you know; he's just a guy you're going to straight-away as school. This... incredibly charismatic figure who plays the same instrument as me, and then of course Hugh Banton from Van Der Graaf Generator goes to the same school as me, but he's a little bit older. And Keith Emerson. These very key figures in my life just made me want to play the keyboards, and then of course I just end up going through the punk rock thing without too many keyboard heroes to watch, so on keyboards I end up discovering quite a lot of things by Elton John and how Elton really kind of defined the role of the piano in modern rock music and working out how he did that and... you know, up 'till, right up till now, you know, where I've got an enormous amount of keyboard players to look at and respect in the world today. You know, from Martin Orford who's in IQ, Tomas Bodin from The Flower Kings, of course, and, you know, my favorite one of all from recent years, who is Neal Morse, because going back, Neal's... you know, usually held in, you know, in people's minds as being this incredible songwriter and leader of Spock's Beard and leader of Transatlantic, if they want to say that, but [he laughs] all those kind of things that, you know... I just wind the bit when he plays the organ solos on that live DVD, Live In Europe DVD, backwards and forwards to watch how he plays. I mean, because he's got a real touch with the Hammond Organ that, I haven't heard in a very long time. He's got some kind of magic with it and I really do like watching him play. One day I hope I'll get to meet him, talk to him about playing, but... you know, it's... maybe something for the future, but, yeah...

You know, I've just watched the great keyboard players and just like anybody else really who's trying to be a progressive rock keyboard player now, you end up talking about the same guys really... those are the people who've influenced me the most I suppose, and outside the world of traditional prog, you know, there's Richard Barbieri from Japan of course, who is now in Porcupine Tree, when you think about it, so he was another important guy.

JT: Okay, you talk about playing the keys. How did you actually learn to play the keyboards and when did this actually begin?

AT: Right. Well, I started to learn when I was six years old. Um, I was, I can't remember it, I can't remember if I told you this, or if I just told the other guy I was talking to. I grew up in a very musical home, where my mom played the piano, and I had access to a fantastic record collection of classical music and really... you know. So I started on piano when I was six, doing, you know, proper classical music... um, was the actual kind of attitude that I got playing proper classical music, and I really didn't discover rock music until I was twelve, anyway. So as soon as I, you know, discovered Rick Wakeman and Keith Emerson and Hugh Banton, I guess that I just had to sit down and start, you know, try to work out what they did, 'cause at the school that I was at, nobody wanted to teach me how to play rock music or anything like that. So I just started sitting down quietly and listening to records and working out what these people had been doing and I discovered that I had an ability, which was to play for me. I could hear a piece of music and I'd play it back, which was really... fortunate, because nobody was prepared to teach me how to play this. It meant I was able to teach myself, so I was able to go through records like Close To The Edge and learn the solos and work out what was happening and then try to eventually set myself free and... improvise with the kind of things I've learned. So I developed my own style. So yeah, since I was six, and I got my first electronic keyboard....um, many, many years ago now. About thirty years ago, and I've never been without one since, you know. In fact, the attic's full of the bloody things. [he laughs] Too many in our house now.

JT: Just to get an idea of what your current tastes are, what's the last CD that you purchased?

AT: The last CD that I purchased... wow, that's a very difficult question. [he laughs] I can't remember actually what my last one I purchased was. I mean, I do a lot of... I do a lot of listening to other people's... Um, I guess that it will have been... the last one I might have bought had been The Flower Kings' latest, release Adam & Eve, but that doesn't really count. I've just acquired a copy of One by Neal Morse and... but, the last one I actually went out and bought, um, from a shop and brought home was Hail To The Thief by Radiohead, which is a fantastic record, absolute killer and... So like... I'm listening to all sorts of stuff, but over the past two years I've been so busy recording that I haven't had a great deal of time to go out and sort of buy records. I try to buy as many as I can, and I'm also doing an enormous amount of catch-up, because a great deal of music got away from me during the seventies and I've been trying to catch up on a lot of stuff I missed out on. Particularly Italian stuff, and there is a band who I really rate at this moment. It's a band who released an album in about year 2000 and they were called La Torre dell'Alchemista, and they're quite a recent band and I've played that album to death. I think it's absolutely fantastic. If anybody has not heard that band and they like The Tangent, you really ought to give them a checkout. This group is called Alcala De La Camiseta, fantastic band. They're kind of like the Italian Tangent, so there you go.

JT: Okay, you mentioned The Flower Kings' latest, Adam & Eve, and you mentioned the latest from Neal Morse, One. What can you tell me about your impression of those albums?

AT: I think there's certain ... Adam & Eve is a... is an album that's got to be a controversy for, amongst Flower King... listeners. I mean, it's like... the thing is that, obviously... Adam & Eve was definitely very different from the one that preceded it. The one that preceded it was Unfold The Future, which is kind of like the most ... it is the most brilliant piece of writing that the Flower Kings ever did. I would have thought... After making a record like that, and then making Adam & Eve, a lot of people kind of said, "Oh well, what happened to all the genius that was there?" you know. "What happened to all the jazz? What happened to all this and the complexity of Unfold The Future? Where has all that gone on, on Adam & Eve?" But, you should never quite look at it that way. I mean, I think that when a band's been going as long as The Flower Kings [have] and the repertoire is strong and convincing as what they've been able to produce over the past eleven years, you ... rather than... you know... you shouldn't really look at it in a kind of way of saying like, "Is this album as good as the last one?" I mean, it's beyond that now. The Flower Kings is a... kind of like, a complete work in progress of which Adam & Eve is just the latest chapter and it's obviously very tempting to just say, "Well, I don't think it is as good as their earlier stuff," and anything like that.

But what you got to do is put records by a band like this in context with the rest of their work, and if you put Adam & Eve in context with the rest of their work, it is a... it's a phenomenal piece of music in just the same way as Unfold The Future. It's just taking [it] from another point of view and there's been bands who've done this before, anyway. I mean, it's a very, very similar situation to the... what happened to Yes between... if you imagine that Unfold The Future is the Yes album Relayer and then after Relayer, Yes went from [that to a] much more scaled down and less complex, a lot more melodic album, and much more traditional sort of thing called Going For The One, and The Flower Kings did the same thing. They came back to Earth a little bit. They just came, drew back a bit from the kinds of peaks that they reached with Unfold The Future, but that doesn't make the new album a bad record at all. It's actually a fantastic record, it's got some really strong tunes on it and, you know, I think it belongs with the... the body of their work in a, you know, in just... it's just as important as anything they've released, you know.

The Flower Kings are one of the most important progressive rock bands we've had since 1990, so, you know, I think that their work deserves a lot better scrutiny than "is it as good as the last one," and, [he laughs] so... you know, which of course certainly has already happened with The Tangent already [we laugh] even on only our second album. I mean, a lot of people dived in on day one and just said, "Oh no, it's not as good as the first one," and some of them have to sort of like come back and say, "Well, we listened to it again now and, uh, we've changed our mind."

JT: Exactly!

AT: There you go. [I laugh] Then Neal Morse's that you mentioned. I haven't listened to One as much obviously, cause it's only just reached me really. I've been... I've listened to it a couple of times now... all the way through and my reaction is of course it's, it's superb as usual. He... he is... he is a phenomenal man, absolutely incredible man, and I just do not know how he does it [he laughs]. Um, the only problem is there... the only... the two words I used after I said it, incredible as usual. I think that's probably the little problem that I'm having with One so far is that it's just sounding as usual. [we laugh] I don't know how long Neal intends to stay there, but it's a very good place to stay, if you see what I mean. It's like... how do you put it?... I mean, like Dave Gilmour always plays the same guitar solo on every song, but it's a bloody good guitar solo [I laugh]. You know, I could hear him play that guitar solo forever, so there's no real problem, and it's the same with Neal. I mean, he's made this album. I think that really he kind of, [he laughs]... it's that it's so strong. I don't know. It hasn't moved on a great deal from the things he's done before, but, but damn it, it's still good. [he laughs].

I find it real hard to be... subjective about -- objective, I mean really -- about Neal Morse's stuff, because, you know, sometimes you want to hate him, and it just absolutely comes over and it knocks me, it knocks his spots off every time, even if it is exactly the same as the last one and you can hear, you can even sing, "Full moon rising today," over the same tune that's going on in One. You can do it; but the point is it's exactly what I want to hear. I just, he has this magic. I don't know how he gets away with it, and I, you know, I've been a fan since I first heard him and... it was '94, '95 when I first heard them... you know, pretty early on in their career. I even stage-managed for them one night and they don't [he laughs], they probably don't realize I was one of their roadies once... at one gig ... [he laughs], but I don't think they got to meet me particularly. I just, you know, helped them get onto the stage and that kind of stuff.

JT: Huh.

AT: They didn't realize that I was a progressive keyboard player myself. I was just completely in awe of them and like... yes. I mean, what do you think of One?

JT: I really like it. I think it's a grower and I think that there's some really strong parts actually later on the album as well, especially that duet that he has later on.

AT: Right. Yeah. I mean, the point is I guess, I'm just going to listen to it again and again and as soon I get to know it, it will be like it's been there all my life. [he laughs]. I just... I think that the problem is that, you know, perhaps that... maybe some of the Gentle Giant vocals were done one too many times.

JT: That's right.

AT: Because you know the Gentle Giant vocal bits.

JT: Uh huh.

AT: Um, the thing is that I now calculate that he's done more of them than Gentle Giant did [I laugh]. So when you think about it in those terms, perhaps it is time to move on.

JT: Yeah.

AT: Because he's been doing the Gentle Giant vocal bits since the first album, of course. And, uh, hell, I love it every time he does it. [we laugh] You can't win with Neal Morse can you? You can't win; I mean, you can tell when he is going to do an organ solo. I mean, it's like here you go, here's the organ solo, and it comes in and it's great. So, you know, it's just ... I'll probably be listening to it still in 20 years and enjoying every minute of it, so I still have more times to get into One and I think it will be... I think it will be very good.

JT: Yeah, I was just interested in just kind of getting your impression of that, because you did list Neal Morse as one of your influences and maybe fans will get a chance to hear you and Neal working together at some point in the future, too.

AT: Well, that would be a very, very lovely experience.

JT: I think that would be great.

AT: I mean, like, we'd have so many things to talk about. But, you know, we'd have lots of different opinions about things, which is very good to do, but, like, he's got this ... magic on the organ, he has a magic in his fingers that, I don't think I've really heard since the days of Rick Wakeman. He has a way of playing that... that gets me every time and... and to say he doesn't really sort of like, you know, go a great bundle on telling himself, telling everybody that he's a keyboard player.

JT: Right.

AT: He just sort of, like, does it, and everybody thinks of him as this songwriter. But what a keyboard player, you know. I mean, a lot of people don't realize that it is him playing it on the first one [The Light]. It's his keyboard playing, not Ryo's on the original album and, you know, I heard this stuff on the Transatlantic album and thought that was terrific playing and then when he actually came out live, and I thought "the guy actually does play live," just there, with no... with no safety net really. Just a couple of keyboards. It actually sounds wicked, you know. Great guy.

JT: And as long as we are talking about Neal, did you get a chance to see the Testimony DVD?

AT: Did I what?

JT: Have you gotten a chance to see the Testimony DVD?

AT: No, I haven't seen that, no.

JT: Well, you'd really enjoy that one, based off of what you're telling me.

AT: Right.

JT: He brought that material to a whole new level. If you get a chance, watch that DVD. Anyhow, to get us back on track, along the same lines of the last CD purchase, I'm wondering, what's the last concert that you actually attended as a fan?

AT: Oh, as a fan... the last concert... Well, we won't go any further about it, but the last concert I attended as a fan was The Flower Kings. I went to see them on the Adam & Eve tour. Not because they're mates of mine, not because of any other reason [but] the fact that I wanted to be at The Flower Kings concert, you know. I wanted to be there. I mean, they are, you know, one of my favorite bands of all-time, so I was there. But, you know about that... I... the last time I. trolled across to Holland [was] to watch Yes play in a field earlier this year [at Arrow Rock Festival*], and of course they were magnificent as usual... Even despite a couple of technical problems, they rose above it and... were absolutely superb as always. That was... that was a really lovely experience, watching them. And I also got to see Caravan on the same day, which was kind of really nice to see two of my favorites all on the same day, and there's more than two of my favorites. I got to see Robert Fripp. Huh, what a festival this was, you know. We don't have anything like that in England. You have to go to Holland to see it. A festival where you can see Robert Fripp, Yes, and Steve Vai, Caravan, [he laughs] Phish, all on the same day in one field.

JT: Whoa, that's unbelievable.

AT: That was quite some day. So, um, yeah, that was great and... you know, I've seen an awful lot of bands through the years. I went to see Camel... a couple of times ago when they were around; that was very good. But I guess the best gig I've seen in recent years must have been Yes, but not the one in Holland, but the one where I saw them in Sheffield with the orchestra, because that just blew me away. It was absolutely, that's the best gig I've ever seen.

JT: Wow.

AT: Without a doubt. And I did actually have the chance to see Spock's Beard the day I was roading for them and I stood down in the audience 'cause I realized this was a band that you needed to see and stand in front of and ... they were just astonishing, absolutely astonishing. So... yeah, fantastic. And that was of course with Neal singing for them at the time.

So, yeah, those are the last few gigs I've kind of gone to see as a fan. I've obviously been pretty busy with bands and things and not getting as much of a chance to go and do that kind of stuff as I'd like to, but, you know... And, of course, we don't get that many of them around here. [he laughs].

JT: Exactly.

AT: We have to, you know, wait for the moment and then go and see the band if you like.

JT: Now I've got an interesting question here and when I ask this question to an artist, either they've been asked this question one too many times, or they don't know what it means. I got a feeling that you're going to have a good answer for this, but can you recall any Spinal Tap moments in your career?

AT: Spinal Tap? I mean, yeah. Well, we, we have had, we've been blessed by an enormously loud guitarist on several occasions in Parallel or 90 Degrees, particularly one called Graham Young, who is just unbelievably loud. And... he was really, really fast as well, but he's... I remember that the first gig we ever played with him, he was only 19 years old at the time, and he walked on stage at a concert... [he laughs] and we were about to... it was time to sound check and Graham decided to tune his guitar [he laughs] and I mean, basically, he did... his tuning his guitar was like a one-man rock concert. [I laugh] It was so unbelievably loud. It was only him on the stage and he played this ludicrously fast thing, which was supposed to tune his guitar up and he got a standing ovation, and we hadn't even gone on stage. [he laughs] Everybody was so impressed with this 19 year old kid who could play like this, and he stole the show before we'd even gone on.

JT: Oh wow.

AT: Yeah, and... the point was is that he didn't actually realize that, you know. We were playing at a rather left-wing benefit concert that night and it was being organized by a bunch of feminists and lesbians here in the UK and they, they put this band on and we, you know, we were quite kind of like politically, you know, "right on," as it were. Very liberal kind of band as we call it, and we sang a lot of protest songs and stuff about... you know, about mistreatments of people and other things like that, and we were... So we were the kind of band that these kind of people would have wanted to put on. But Graham hadn't kind of realized how important that kind of aspect of it was. That we're halfway through a song and so Graham rips his shirt off and sticks his guitar between his legs and starts licking the fret board [we both laugh], which is not the thing to do as a feminist, so I suppose that's my big favorite Spinal Tap moment.

JT: That's a pretty good one.

AT: He got completely carried away on his first night with the band [we laugh]. Graham Young he's called and... I don't know what he's doing now, but, um, I'm sure it's fast and loud.

[Quite possibly now in the group Urban Jazz Guerrillas from Leeds, UK; -ed.

JT: Did you get this recorded? Did you get this on camera?

AT: I had a recording of that years and years ago, but there's a lot of live recordings I won't be releasing. [I laugh]

JT: Okay. I actually have a slew of questions here that relate to your favorites, just to get an idea of what your tastes might be. But just for starters... like, what would you say is your favorite band?

AT: Well, my favorite band... Uh, you know, there's two. There's just two. There's, you know,... that's the answer I have to give you is Van Der Graaf Generator and Yes. Those are the two bands who I most consistently listen to over the years. It provides me with, you know... thirty years of absolute, well, certainly more than thirty years of absolute pleasure. There are many, many other bands who I love to death, of course. I mean, you know, I couldn't possibly get away without mentioning Pink Floyd, Roger Waters. I couldn't get away without mentioning XTC, who are a band who I've loved right since they first began. You know, there's just loads and loads that have brought me pleasure, but, you know, if I was to give you, you know, my favorite band, it would have to be those two - Yes and Van Der Graaf Generator, who represent to me the kind of two poles of progressive rock music. The kind of... the kind of darker, more mysterious side and then the most absolutely uplifting and joyous music I've ever heard in my life, you know, and... they have to be my favorites.

The Flower Kings were very lucky to become almost as, you know, important to me as them, 'cause, you know, they... I nearly didn't hear them... look what I nearly missed. They were... what a fantastic group they've been over the years and... uh, I guess I thought I'd never hear anything like as good as Yes again. When I first heard The Flower Kings, I've already told you, I was just blown away by it and... a big lump in my throat thinking wow, they can actually do it. They can get to the same place.

JT: Now that we've narrowed that down a little bit, like, what would you say is your favorite album?

AT: It's the same thing. It's two. It's, you know, Van Der Graaf Generator's Pawn Hearts, which, you know, is a true landmark in progressive rock music history. It was one of the earliest and most successful long format tracks, the 20-minute long epic. It was before "Close To The Edge" and it was before, just before "Supper's Ready" had been released. "A Plague Of Lighthouse Keepers" was the first of the big 20-minute epics. It's one that is still held in very high regard by a lot fans, but quite a lot of proggers don't even know about it... and they all know "Supper's Ready" and they know "Close To The Edge" and things, but, you know, "Plague Of Lighthouse Keepers" hasn't quite made it to the same kind of level of legend and really it ought to. It's a phenomenal piece and, on Yes' side [he laughs], although Close To The Edge is a brilliant record and something, you know, that I've loved since the first moment I heard it. It was the first progressive rock record I owned, the one that always moves me is Tales From Topographic Oceans, because that one has a depth to it that has managed to keep me fascinated in the record for 35 years, you know. Well, if it's 35... it can't be 35, it's 30 years or more now, but I have listened to that record and found new things in it every time, and new little bits, and time and time again I wonder how did they do that' What is that sound there and, you know, the lyrics to it lost... so many people criticized Yes' lyrics, and knowing that I'm so realist in my lyrics and so down-to-earth with what I sing about, a lot of people are very surprised to hear that I like Jon Anderson's lyrics. But they, I don't know what they mean, you know. And I don't pretend to know what Jon Anderson's lyrics mean, and the fact is that I stopped caring what they meant a long, long time ago, because the point is that Jon Anderson's lyrics can mean whatever you want them to mean and they just, they just take me to places that, you know, I could... they just make me imagine things. I just... he just colors the whole thing. He uses his voice as a musical instrument and, you know, how many of us do not like the, you know, "dawn of the light lying between the silence and soul sources," I mean, who knows what that means? [I laugh] But it doesn't matter. It's fantastic, like it's a beautiful use of English language, beautiful use of poetry in the way it scans along with the music. It's just... oh, you know. It sends me every time I hear it. [he laughs]

Here I am eulogizing about that, but it's a record that still sends shivers down my spine every time I hear it and, unfortunately I've never actually seen them do that particular one live. I missed it when they did it on the... Keys To Ascension tour, but I've seen them do "Ritual" and I've seen them do "The Gates Of Delirium" and I've seen them do "Close To The Edge" and I can't really complain, you know. But the actual first track I suppose is the one that will... I'll put on most, but there's barely a month that passes when I don't play that record.

JT: I also like to find out a little bit about the artist that might not be music-related, but just to continue on the thread of favorites, what would you say is your favorite movie?

AT: Movie? Well, a matter of fact my favorite movie was on television this afternoon and it's called A Matter Of Life And Death, which is, curiously, the title of Guy Manning's new album, but Guy Manning's new album is nothing really to do with the film. It's an old film made by a team of directors who call themselves The Archers... Powell and Pressburger. It stars David Niven as a World War II pilot who dies and ends up having a kind of like... battle between heaven and earth, and there is a kind of scene... I mean, they made a film called Heaven Can Wait about a football player back in the 1980s, which was very much a kind of remake of it. But the original movie made by Powell and Pressburger in the late 1940s I think, it was a true masterpiece of war propaganda, and at the same time it was a beautiful love story, and at the same time it was a fantasy, the kind of which Spielberg really picks up on, um, later on. And... it is a truly beautiful piece of filmmaking, a total classic. I don't know if you've ever heard of it. Have you heard of it?

JT: I don't think I've heard of it, no.

[Released in 1946; in the US, it was known as Stairway To Heaven. See the All Movie guide for more info. Heaven Can Wait, starring Warren Beatty, was a remake of the 1941 film, Here Comes Mr. Jordan . -ed.]

AT: It's a gem of a film. You really ought to see it. If you like Spielberg, you have to watch it cause this is kind of Spielberg thirties years before Spielberg, if you know what I mean.

[Spielberg did a film of a similar, though not so political, nature called Always (1989) -ed.]

And the special effects in it were actually masterful for the time and we have actually used parts of it in Parallel or 90 Degrees. We actually use a section of it for the beginning of... in, in one of the songs in Parallel or 90 Degrees'... Time Capsule album, that's right. We have a little bit where you can actually hear some of the dialogue from A Matter Of Life And Death in the background. It's a gorgeous film and... Uh yeah, I like a lot of films.

I like a lot of science fiction stuff, and one I've seen recently I really enjoyed. I saw a film called... I saw a war film the other night called Das Boot as a German-made film about the crew of a German submarine during the second world war, which is a truly harrowing film and possibly the best and most realistic war film I've ever seen, because of the way... it doesn't actually have a Hollywood feel to it. I mean, I think that Spielberg got quite close to being able to generate the horror of war during his film Saving Private Ryan, and of course in Schindler's List. But there's something about the way that Hollywood puts its mark on films like that. That means that this has to be this kind of like, you know, saluting... optimism that... that goes with it, and it all worked out in the end kind of thing. Whereas [in] Das Boot that doesn't happen. It's just a war film about how terrible war is and you don't get any warm feelings at the end. You don't see anybody do a nice salute. You don't see the flag flying half-mast. It's just bloody terrible and I kind of respect a film that can, that can be like that.

Well, 2001, Stanley Kubrick, that's one of my faves. And... [he laughs] it's so difficult when somebody asks you... all those millions of examples of things that you could really say just flash through your mind. I think "oh no, I want to say that one, I want to say that one," [he laughs]. You know, I enjoy film a great deal, from police thrillers to romantic comedies and... you know, music is really where it's at for me, and I guess that it's one of the reasons why I've always liked albums like Tales From Topographic Oceans, because they are kind of more like a film, because... they're... longer lasting. There's something you can get your teeth into as supposed to a kind of like five minute long advert or pop video that you, you get as an alternative.

JT: Also along the same lines, do you have a favorite TV show?

AT: Well, actually [he laughs] [to] all science fiction I'm a friend. I'm terrible. I'm a real sucker for sci-fi. I've been watching Star Trek since I was a kid, since I was about eight years old, so obviously Star Trek is a big favorite of mine. And I've just been watching the remade version of Battlestar Galactica. [he laughs] Battlestar Galactica used to be this really cheesy 1970s ripoff of Star Wars. So, when I found out that somebody had remade Battlestar Galactica for the 90s, for the 2000s, I thought WHAT!? Out of all the things you could remake, why remake Battlestar Galactica, but I kind of... I watched it. WOW! This is good. Talk about... talk about improving something; I mean, it's just absolutely... it's miles better than the original version. It's got interesting kind of politics about it and I like watching the machinations of the politics within it and also... this series that they're running also has a kind of bit more realistic kind of way of addressing... you know, when a big laserbolt or bomb goes off on the Enterprise on Star Trek all that happens is you see a few sparks [I laugh] and then somebody says, "Yes, we'll fix that problem." [I laugh] That's what happens. Now on Battlestar Galactica, you know, somebody gets, the ship gets hit, well, people die. People fall out into space.

JT: Oh my!

AT: There's metalwork on the way out. They have to have a funeral and people are really sad and they're upset and you lose members of the cast and, you know, that has to be a bit more kind of... it's, it's a little bit harder to take, but at the same time it... I can kind of respect that sort of thing... When... when people don't make it so simple and hide the fact that hostility breeds death and misery and unhappiness in people. But Battlestar Galactica has been very good at, you know, even investigating those possibilities in a completely fictitious situation in a fictitious galaxy [he laughs] miles and miles away, so I kind of respect that.

JT: Yeah. Just as a suggestion, you may like a show -- it's no longer on, but you can get it as a DVD package. It's called Firefly and it's kind of a futuristic sci-fi show, but it's got a little bit of the Wild West type of aspect in it and it's got some humor in it, too. So, you'd probably like it. Have you heard of this one?

AT: I've never heard of Firefly, no, but it sounds interesting.

JT: That's probably one to check out... Now one last favorite I'd like to ask. Would you say you have a favorite book?

AT: Apart from Lord Of The Rings [he laughs]... Yeah, I read loads and loads of stuff by Arthur C. Clarke and, you know, I guess he has to be my favorite author really.* And if I was going to say, you know, a favorite novel, it would have to be 2001, and because there's something really special about that one and... some leap of imagination that, you know, it's... it's up there with some of the great progressive rock bands, is 2001. It's from the same era. From the late 1960s, you know, when all progressive rock was starting and people were really beginning to reach out. Progressive rock took place at this wonderful time, you know, in the years that're between 1967 through to, you know, 1975, the first wave. During the time we have the Woodstock festival. We have the French student riots. There's sort of like people rising up to take... you know, youth becoming more powerful in voice. We saw the growth of the peace movement. We saw people landing on the moon. We saw Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke working on the movie 2001. We saw Arthur C. Clarke releasing 2001 and these, the book and the film, were written before Armstrong had put his foot on the moon, but then he did, you know, and that's one helluva time, and I guess that 2001 must be the ultimate progressive rock novel, because, you know, it says... it has so many of the kind of sentiments and obstinance, you know, thoughts of the future that ... the bands that I loved were... you know, also preaching, really, I suppose. So, yeah, fantastic to read that book and I've read it a few times now. I love it more each time I read it.

JT: I've got one last question. It's kind of a quirky question and I kind of ask it for myself in order to identify with the artist, but do you have any pets?

AT: Yeah I do.

JT: What do you have?

AT: I've got a little dog.

JT: That's what I got.

I've got Bobbie. [I laugh] Bobbie the dog. Yes, she's smashing, is Bobbie. She's a little mongrel... a crossbreed and, me and my son, who was only about seven years old at the time... no, he's a bit older than that. Sorry, he would have been ten. Ten years old, and we're walking to see a football match to watch League United play football against Middleberg and we found this little dog that somebody had thrown over a fence and left to die presumably, 'cause she couldn't get out. And we released this little dog and dug a hole underneath the fence and... the dog came out and... she hasn't gone home yet. [he laughs] Nearly eight years ago now. So, we're still waiting for it to go home, but it looks like she's coming with us to France next week. She's a fantastic little dog and, you know, we've... uh, me and Sam, she's ... we've looked after her all that time and... yeah. I hope we'll have another eight years with her; fantastic little dog.

JT: Okay.

AT: Do you have one?

JT: Oh yeah, I've got a Fox Terrier. His name is Rexleigh.

AT: Fox Terrier?

JT: Yeah.

AT: [he laughs] It's great having a dog, isn't it?

JT: Oh yeah, it's excellent. [I laugh] It's like family and friend all in one.

AT: Always a friend, you know. We get licked to death every night, you know. She comes onto our bed and licks us and, uh, smells, you know. We, we viciously complain every night and say, "GET DOWN!" and all that kind of stuff, you know, If she stopped jumping on the bed, I think we'd be unhappy.

JT: Yeah.

AT: Yeah.

JT: Okay.

AT: It's been really nice to talk to you, but I'm going to have to go.

JT: I just want to ask you one last thing. [I know, I know, I already said I asked the last question] I wanted to ask if there anything you'd like to say to your fans at this time?

AT: Um, well, [he laughs]... I think it's funny when people say, "say to your fans," I think "what fans?" And they say "oh yeah" and like... I guess, you know, the only thing I can say is to just never, however badly we get treated in the press and everything like that as progressive rock music fans, you know, just believe in it and keep on listening to it and there will always be something new. Even if we just listen to the old records that's there, you know, there's still plenty of new stuff to hear. I think it's going to go on for quite some time and I'm expecting... I'm expecting to make another one.. um, within the next... 18 months and, you know, just keep on listening to it and enjoy the music and tell as many people as you possibly can about it and... that's the only thing I can say, 'cause that's what I've tried to do.

JT: Okay. I just want to say you're a very funny, creative, and intuitive individual, and I just wish you a lot of luck in the future. And you're also a great conversationalist and this was a wonderful interview, so I appreciate the time that you took to talk with me.

AT: Oh, it's no problem, Josh. It's my pleasure to talk to you.

JT: Okay, and just enjoy the rest of your weekend.

AT: Okay mate. Alright, well, thank you very much for your time, thanks for writing about prog rock, and, um, I look forward to talking to you again in the future. I'll look for it. Is it going to be on Progressive Ears, this?

JT: It's going to be on ProgressiveWorld.net.

AT: ProgressiveWorld.net?

JT: Yeah.

AT: That'll be very nice.

JT: So just look for it out there and it should be out there soon.

AT: Okay, Josh. Good luck and I'll see you soon.

[See part one]

The Tangent will be playing at ROSFest 2005, which is scheduled for April 30 - May 1, 2005 (with a pre-show on April 29). "Regular" tickets go on sale February 26, 2005 ("gold" tickets have sold out).

[* See Bobo's report on the Arrow Rock Festival; **Not wishing to interrupt the flow further, I did want to just note that Mr. Clarke, who lives in Sri Lanka, survived the 2004 tsumani that struck that nation and others in the region, though is diving school was lost along with many of those who worked at it. - ed. (and Arthur C Clarke fan, too)]

Discography:
Gold Frankincense And Disk Drive - No More Travelling Chess (1992)
Parallel Or 90 Degrees - The Corner Of My Room (1996)
Parallel Or 90 Degrees - Afterlifecycle (1997)
Parallel Or 90 Degrees - The Time Capsule (1998)
Parallel Or 90 Degrees - No More Travelling Chess (1999)
Parallel Or 90 Degrees - Unbranded - Music From The EEC Surplus (2000)
Parallel Or 90 Degrees - Enjoy Your Own Smell (2001)
Parallel Or 90 Degrees - More Exotic Ways To Die (2002)
The Tangent - The Music That Died Alone (2003)
The Tangent - The World We Drive Through (2004)
The Tangent - Pyramids And Stars (2005)
The Tangent - A Place In The Queue (2006)
The Tangent - Not As Good As The Book (2008)
Parallel Or 90 Degrees - Jitters (2009)
Parallel Or 90 Degrees - A Can Of Worms - The Best of PO90 1996 - 2001 (box set) (2009) The Tangent - Down And Out In Paris And London (2009)
The Tangent - A Place On The Shelf (fanclub release) (2009)
The Tangent - COMM (2011)
The Tangent - London Or Paris, Berlin Or Southend-On-Sea (2012)
The Tangent - Le Sacre Du Travail (2013)
The Tangent - L'Etagère Du Travail (2013)
The Tangent - A Spark In The Aether - The Music That Died Alone: Volume 2 (2015)

The Tangent - Going Off On One (DVD) (2007)
The Tangent - Going Off On Two (DVD) (2010)