ProgJect Drummer Jonathan Mover Reflects on Band's First Tour
The former GTR and Marillion drummer rediscovered the joy of playing progressive rock classics.
Thank you for spending some time with Michael’s Record Collection today. It’s always amazing to talk to a musician with a storied career — particularly when that career has been a bit under the radar. Jonathan Mover isn’t a household name but many of the artists and bands he’s played drums with are, and he’s extremely well known within the music industry.
I had the opportunity to catch up with Jonathan recently to reflect on the first tour of his band ProgJect, an homage band that pays respects to the iconic songs by progressive rock’s most accomplished bands. We also spoke about a variety of other topics. I hope you enjoy this somewhat lengthy issue. There was a lot to unpack and there’s even more in the embedded video below.
Back in January, I spoke with Saga vocalist Michael Sadler about a new band he had joined (in addition to his main Saga gig). The band was called ProgJect and it was dedicated to paying homage to the iconic songs in progressive rock history. Made up of stellar musicians, ProgJect’s aim was to have fun bringing back classic prog rock to live audiences. That conversation with Sadler took place prior to rehearsals for ProgJect’s spring tour.
The band recently crossed the country from California to Florida, playing about 20 dates over the course of roughly a month. I caught one of the last shows added to the band’s itinerary — and one of the last shows on the tour — as ProgJect played the small but cozy Tuffy’s Music Box in Sanford, Florida, a venue not far from my home.
The show was all a prog rock fan could hope for. The songs were played well and with the appropriate respect given, yet the musicians involved weren’t simply making exact copies of the songs as they had been played on the records on which they originally appeared. The five members of ProgJect brought their own personalities to the songs. While not exact, note-for-note copies, the songs were played pretty faithfully overall and there was nothing missing that would make fans of the songs scratch their heads. The differences were sometimes subtle and sometimes a bit more pronounced but never in a way that damaged the classics that fans have come to know and love.
Watching the band perform was exhilarating. It was easy to see how much fun the musicians were having both with the material and in playing to the small venue’s intimate but reverent crowd. Once the dust settled on the end of the band’s spring tour, I caught up with ProgJect founder and drummer Jonathan Mover.
“It went better than we expected,” he said about the spring tour. “Not only were we received very well and wonderfully by all of the audiences — it was really overwhelming and with multiple standing ovations every night. And just people loving the experience as much as we loved playing it. We got invited back by every venue at the end of the night. Every promoter was very pleased. And musically it just got better and better every night.”
The band used protocols to stay safe throughout the tour.
“We did a month on the road with nine guys on a bus and nobody got COVID,” Mover said.
ProgJect, with Mover on drums; Sadler on vocals; Mike Keneally on guitar and backing vocals; Ryo Okumoto on keyboards; and Matt Dorsey on bass and vocals, played virtually every night, with a few days off while traveling to a different area for the next run of shows. In our discussion, Mover’s enthusiasm for the tour couldn’t have been more apparent.
“The band just came together better and better, right from the first gig,” he said. “We got tighter and more connected with each other the more we went on, and by the last show that we played, which was that sold-out 1,000 people for the Cruise to the Edge concert before they left shore, it was just amazing. What a high note to end on. And it exceeded everything, and we made money, which no band does on their first tour. And we made good money. Everybody's happy. It was a success all around and you know, just paving the way for the future.”
ProgJect played the likes of “Siberian Khatru” (Yes), a King Crimson medley featuring both parts of “Larks’ Tongues in Aspic” and “One More Red Nightmare,” “Firth of Fifth” and “Cinema Show” (Genesis), U.K.’s “Rendezvous 6:02,” Gentle Giant’s “Two Weeks in Spain,” medleys of songs by Rush and Bill Bruford, multiple Pink Floyd classics, and more.
As enjoyable as the songs are under normal listening conditions, it’s amplified to see skilled musicians who love those works perform them. The band’s enjoyment was evident.
“You can't wipe the smiles off our faces,” Mover said. “And it's funny because I've been playing drums professionally 45-plus years, and I have so many friends that have seen me play and with everybody I've played with, and everybody said to me, ‘We've never seen you smile like this when you play. You know, you don't look unhappy when you're playing, but this was just, you know, grinning ear to ear.’ I can't help it. It's just it's so great.”
Mover said the band is going to work on additional songs to add to the repertoire ahead of the band’s fall tour dates, and eventually it is likely that a live DVD or CD release will happen. Some of the material he wants to perform in the future includes more Gentle Giant and a medley from the Genesis classic, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.
Those on the west coast and in the Pacific Northwest and other areas the band will be touring this summer and fall are in for a treat and they should bring any items they’d like to have signed, because the members of ProgJect spend some time with the fans after each show, whenever possible.
“What's so cool about (playing with ProgJect is) we come out and spend time with the fans (after the show),” Mover said. “What's really great is we’re fans too. So, when we come out and talk to people and somebody comes up and says, ‘Oh man, I can't believe you played “Karn Evil 9,” the entire first impression, and blah, blah, blah,’ I say, ‘Yeah, wasn't that great?’ Because I always loved what Carl was doing, or I changed this part and it's so exciting. And we all feel that way. We're such fans of the music that we're playing, which is very different from you know, me playing with Satriani or Alice Cooper.”
Those unfamiliar with Mover’s work before ProgJect have heard of some of the artists and bands with whom he’s played. He’s had a varied and storied career, playing drums for the likes of Aretha Franklin, Alice Cooper, Joe Satriani, The Tubes, and Saigon Kick. He was a founding member of GTR with guitar legends Steve Hackett and Steve Howe, and for a brief period he was Mick Pointer’s replacement in UK prog rock outfit Marillion.
Mover’s love of music started at an early age. His father was a musician, and the future drummer grew up with the sound of music filling his home.
“Music was in the family,” he said. “My father was a professional musician before he got married and then a little bit in the early years before the children came. He was a horn player — trumpet and trombone — and he played with the Dorsey Brothers, Rudy Vallee, and the Ink Spots, and stuff like that. So, there was always music in the house. He obviously listened to lots of jazz and big band. My mother was more into classical, and she loved gospel.”
Turned on to more modern music, including progressive rock, by older siblings, Mover’s first inclination to become a drummer came from listening to Iron Butterfly’s classic, “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.”
“I heard that drum solo, which is an incredibly intoxicating solo, because of it being a melodic solo,” Mover said. “And it's really one of the great drum solos, unlike something that let's say, like Carl Palmer would play, which was crazy speed and chops. Ron Bushy played a melodic solo based on a groove. You could remember it like a great lyric or a great melody.”
Mover told his parents about his interest in learning to play drums, but things didn’t go according to plan. There was no shiny drum kit brought in to provide him his start as a future rock drummer.
“The next thing I knew, I was holding a pair of sticks as big as baseball bats, standing up at a snare drum with 30 or 40 other kids that couldn't play instruments, trying to play a Sousa march or something and it was just despicable,” he said. “It was terrible. And I’m sure I was equally as horrible as they were. But it didn't capture my interest at all because I wanted to play a drum kit and play music. So, I let that go.”
Mover fell in love with the Emerson, Lake & Palmer classic, “Lucky Man,” and asked his parents to take him to the store so he could buy the album. But things again didn’t go as planned. While thumbing through the bin of ELP records at the store, he came across the Brain Salad Surgery album and fell in love with the cover artwork by Swiss artist H.R. Giger.
“I saw the cover of Brain Salad Surgery, and it didn't matter that ‘Lucky Man’ wasn't on it. I had to have that record,” Mover said. “I listened to the record and two things were immediately apparent: ‘Karn Evil 9’ first, second, and third impression — especially the third impression. The lyric and the story, reading about the dystopian future with a robot that takes over just blew my mind. And then of course hearing the song ‘Toccata,’ which has a drum solo in it that also incorporates Moog synthesizer drums — that to me was the best of everything. Here I was listening to drums again, but it had the synthesizer that Keith (Emerson) was playing, that I heard in ‘Lucky Man.’ So that was when drums came around a second time and then from there, I actually got interested in playing.”
A neighbor gave Mover a four-piece, pink champagne sparkle Rogers drum kit on loan, and he took some lessons from instructor Donn Carr in his hometown of Peabody, Massachusetts, but he also learned from playing along with his favorite records.
“The very first song I ever played with headphones on start to finish was ‘Siberian Khatru’ off of Yessongs,” he said. “I also remember playing to the Who’s Next record an awful lot.”
Carr taught Mover proper grip on the drumsticks and many of the other basics, but what Mover really wanted to do was play along with the music he loved.
“What kind of kept me there was he would let me play to a song at the end of the lesson,” Mover said. “And so, I would bring my records in and play with him. And I don't remember how long I stayed with him, but it wasn't very long and then it was really back to (being) self-taught.”
The great drummers of that era became Mover’s new “instructors.” He learned from playing along with legends like Phil Collins, Bill Bruford, Simon Phillips, Steve Gadd, Terry Bozzio, Jethro Tull’s Barriemore Barlow, the drummers in Gentle Giant, and jazz drummers like Tony Williams, Peter Erskine, and Billy Cobham.
Because most of the music Mover loved came out of England, he took a chance on going to England to make his way in music. He auditioned to play with punk/new-wave artist Toyah Willcox (prior to her eventual marriage to King Crimson’s Robert Fripp) and got the gig. But, in an unfortunate twist, Toyah put her music on hold for a year to film the 1984 television adaptation of The Ebony Tower, acting alongside Sir Laurence Olivier.
Mover was contacted by Marillion’s manager on the recommendation of producer Nick Tauber, who had learned of Mover’s drumming skills through bassist Phil Spalding — who had also worked with Toyah. Spalding eventually went on to join Mover in GTR. Meanwhile, Tauber was also working with Marillion at the time that the band needed to replace Pointer. While Mover was familiar with Marillion, he wasn’t initially a fan of their music.
“I hated them. I thought they were the worst Genesis clone band ever,” he said. “And the drummer was terrible.”
Despite his feelings about the Marillion songs he’d heard to that point, Mover said he was interested and flew to New York City to meet the band and see them open for Rush. Marillion was booed off the stage by Rush fans who weren’t into the Marillion aesthetic. Despite the boo birds, Mover liked what he saw.
“They were really good, and they were really good because they were playing with a good drummer. His name was John Marter,” he said. “And I don’t know why he didn’t join the band, but hearing their music from the Script (for a Jester’s Tear) record played in time and played well with a great backbeat…all of a sudden, I was like, ‘Wow, this music isn’t actually too bad.’”
The band and Mover met and got along well. He flew back to London to audition. The band held two days of auditions and Mover’s slot was on the second day. Although he initially didn’t think he’d gotten the gig, the band invited him to join them, and he flew to Germany to do a live radio program.
Upon returning to the UK, Mover stayed with Marillion’s then-singer Fish during writing sessions in Wales, sleeping on his kitchen floor in a sleeping bag. Mover co-wrote the song “Punch & Judy,” which made it onto the Fugazi album. He also said he contributed to “Jigsaw” and “Incubus,” though he wasn’t credited on the album for them. Things seemed to be going well, but then, suddenly, they weren’t.
“For various reasons that I won't get into, Fish just snapped on me one night, and in front of all the guys said some things to me that were not acceptable to me,” Mover said.
The next morning, Mover was out of the band and said that Fish apologized to him and gave him his earring, which he still has. Marillion ended up hiring Steve Hackett’s drummer, Ian Mosely. This meant that a drummer was needed in the Hackett camp and Mover jumped on that.
Although he was told that auditions had already taken place to replace Mosley in Hackett’s band, Mover took a chance and asked Hackett’s manager for one hour to convince the former Genesis guitarist that he was the right guy for the job.
“I said, ‘Do me a favor, please call Steve Hackett and tell him to give me an hour in a rehearsal room. If I get the gig, he pays for the room, and if I don't get the gig, I'll pay for the room.’ He said, ‘Okay.’ So, I hung up the phone,” Mover said. “He called me back five minutes later, and he said, ‘Steve Hackett says you have big balls and see you tomorrow at noon’ at wherever it was.”
After playing with Hackett, Mover was in, but then there was a new problem. Hackett canceled his upcoming tour. Instead, he had decided to team up with Howe and form the band that became GTR. Mover was asked to be the band’s drummer. They added Spalding on bass and vocalist Max Bacon and turned out a self-titled hit album in 1986 that reached No. 11 on the Billboard 200 chart in the U.S.
After one album and a successful tour, GTR broke up due to tensions between the two guitar legends. Mover went on to replace Anton Fig in the South African band Skollie for a tour of the Soviet Union. Having had an amazing time there, he spent a few years living part time in Moscow, working with Russian bands and artists.
After that, he recorded and toured with many well-known and successful bands and artists over the years. He did some uncredited recording, or “ghost drumming,” as well.
It was a guest spot with Genesis tribute band The Musical Box that reignited Mover’s love for playing the progressive music he grew up adoring and listening to. Mover filled in while The Musical Box’s drummer was waiting for his visa but grew tired of being told he wasn’t meticulously playing the same exact drum patterns that Phil Collins did on the record. Mover was more used to playing the live versions of the songs as performed by Chester Thompson while Collins was the front man.
Playing those old songs again served to reawaken his love of the prog rock classics, but Mover had no interest in simply starting up a tribute band. His vision was broader — a band that would pay tribute to an entire genre of music rather than just one band. The aim of the band would be to bring those songs back to life without trying to copy them exactly. It wasn’t hard to sell that idea to other musicians and Mover eventually assembled an outstanding lineup for ProgJect.
His vision was brought to successful fruition with the tour that just ended on May 1.
Mover said that ProgJect also wants to take the show internationally in the future as well. The biggest lesson he learned from the first tour is that his band needs a booking agent and a tour manager. Mover handled most of those responsibilities himself and it proved to be challenging.
“I don't mind wearing two hats, but this time around, I had like five on and it was too much. I don't want to do that again,” he said.
ProgJect will hit the road again in August and in the fall to hit some other areas the band didn’t cover in the spring. Mover also said he wants to take the band on tour internationally — perhaps next year.
I can attest to the enjoyment progressive rock fans will get from attending one of the band’s shows.
You can learn more about the band and check for tour dates at progject.com.
For my complete conversation with Jonathan Mover, please watch the video below. It was a great chat and Jonathan went into a lot more detail about his background, his Marillion experience, meeting his musical heroes at Steve Hackett’s party, and much more.
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