Fan Fare
Entertainment behind the scenes
Supertramp’s Roger Hodgson giving a little back to his fans
Anyone who has ever been within earshot of a radio is familiar with Supertramp’s endless list of hit songs: ”Give a Little Bit,” “Dreamer,” “Breakfast in America,” “The Logical Song” … But the British singer/songwriter behind the tunes is, by his own account, “an unknown quantity,” not quite up there in name recognition with a McCartney, a Jagger or a Townshend.
“Roger Hodgson the name is not a very bankable name,” Hodgson told Reuters on Tuesday.
Or, more to the point, promoters and agents in the United States are not quite as tuned in to his potential as their international counterparts.
Hodgson (pictured at the Grammy Museum on Feb. 28) quit the prog rock band in 1983 to focus on raising his family in verdant northern California. He returned to the business in 2001, and is a hot commodity in Europe, South America, Canada and Australia.
Prog Rock Redux
It has been around 35 years since Punk burst onto the rock scene and drove the complex, shoe-staring indulgence that is prog rock into seeming oblivion with no more than three, probably untuned chords. Signs are, though, that prog may be on the way back.
First, mainstream media has started to get all retrospective about it — a sure sign of resurgence. The BBC ”celebrated” prog — or progressive rock, to give it its proper name — with a nostalgic documentary at the end of 2008. It has been repeated and triggered coverage of the genre elsewhere. The Guardian recently pointed to prog’s new, growing fan base.
