U.K.

The two-year existence of the prog supergroup U.K. was notable for marking the end of the glory days of progressive rock. Although the initial nucleus of the band was drummer Bill Bruford and bassist/vocalist John Wetton, who made up the rhythm section in the celebrated 1972-74 edition of King Crimson, the band’s collective c.v. read like a Who’s Who of British Prog.

Bruford began in Yes, toured with Genesis after Crimson broke up, and sat in with various bands including the cerebral post-Canterbury-hippie outfit National Health and space-rockers Gong and Absolute Elsewhere. Wetton had stints in Uriah Heep, Family, and Roxy Music as well as Crimson. Bruford brought along guitarist Allan Holdsworth, a true virtuoso who introduced an entire school of legato, saxophone-style playing and was an acknowledged influence on Eddie van Halen; his resume included prog (Soft Machine and Gong) and heavy metal (Tempest) as well as fusion (Tony Williams, Jean-Luc Ponty). Wetton brought in keyboard and violin whiz Eddie Jobson from Roxy; Jobson had also been with Curved Air and (most recently) Frank Zappa’s band.

The lineup was promising enough, as was the 1978 eponymous debut album U.K.. The featured track was “In the Dead of Night,” which showed off the band’s basic style: a mixture of King Crimson-style blockbuster prog and sophisticated fusion. The main elements were Jobson’s atmospheric keyboards; Holdsworth’s liquid-lightning soloing; and Bruford’s crisp, distinctive drumming. The instrumental “Presto Vivace,” which Jobson wrote while touring with Zappa, sounded like Zappa with a British stiff upper lip. The dark, reflective “Nevermore” featured Wetton’s increasingly competent singing – he was clearly becoming more interested in that than in his bass playing – and a mesmerizing Holdsworth solo. In all, a solid slab of up-to-the-minute prog.

Then a schism in the band led to its breakup: Bruford and Holdsworth wanted to keep things on the edge, while Wetton and Jobson had plans for rock stardom. The former duo departed to form the decidedly fusion-y band Bruford, with much the same band that had appeared on Bruford's pre-U.K. debut solo album Feels Good to Me (1977): ex-National Health keyboardist David Stewart and the Berklee-trained American bassist Jeff Berlin.

Meanwhile, Wetton and Jobson kept U.K. going. They brought in drummer Terry Bozzio from Zappa’s band, but no guitarist to fill Holdsworth’s slot.

Danger Money was a transitional album that combined prog epics (“Carrying No Cross”) with poppish tunes (“Rendezvous 6:02”) and a few in between (the ELP-ish title track). Bozzio was a technically impressive but less distinctive replacement for Bruford (he had fit in better with Zappa); the lack of guitar made the sound monochromatic, notwithstanding Jobson’s violin solos. The ensuing live album Night After Night was pure product, and U.K. broke up in 1979.

The final membership of U.K. then proceeded to finish selling out. Wetton formed the mutant arena-rock outfit Asia with Yes guitarist Steve Howe, Yes/Buggles keyboard player Geoff Downes, and ELP drummer Carl Palmer. Bozzio teamed up with his wife Dale and ex-Zappa bassist Patrick O’Hearn to form the new-wave-pop outfit Missing Persons. Jobson, after a brief stint in Jethro Tull, drifted off into the sunset through production and session work. Thus ended the prog saga.