“Kate Bush gave me a copy of Aerial at a party. I knew it was a gentle, emotional record. She said, ‘Don’t fall asleep while listening!’” Simon Drake’s career as a magician was inspired by prog

Simon Drake.

In 2019 Prog got up close with a real prog wizard as Simon Drake, musical illusionist and advisor to Kate Bush, explained how he dealt his magic hand with Arthur Brown as the ace.

“My father died when I was 12, leaving a wife and five children. He was cremated the same month that I bought Fire by The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown; and Arthur was about to change me forever. When I saw him on Top Of The Pops cavorting about in a flaming helmet, I thought, ‘I want to do that!’