The Lens

Many moons ago, way down in darkest Hampshire, there was once a band called The Lens. With their spacy, melodic and mainly instrumental music, they were hardly the darlings of the late 1970's music press which were championing the cause of punk rock and the New Wave at the time, but that didn't bother The Lens. Not only were they producing some very innovative music, they were popular too, and gigs around the Southampton and Bournemouth areas were generally packed to the rafters.

Nationally they were feted (notably by the long-deceased Musicians Only) as the new saviours of progressive music, but this was a false dawn and although members of The Lens would go on to become major players in the so-called New Wave of Progressive Rock, this lay some years ahead.

20 years after the demise of The Lens a compilation of their music is timely, for the two main writers, Mike Holmes and Martin Orford went on to form IQ, one of the most significant and enduring progressive rock acts of the late 20th century. The new CD "A Word In Your Eye" features new recordings which catalogue their earliest writing collaborations and provide an insight into an era when although their music flew in the face of fashion, they provided the missing link between the old and new schools of Progressive Rock.