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We had 170 participants in the DPRPoll for 1997, 325 people in the DPRPoll for 1998 and this time
no less than 531 prog fans filled out the form on the Web Site. Mentioning the actual prizes
a day before the poll closed was enough to get more than 100 extra entries. ;-)
This page contains a summary of the results of the poll. Those of you who want to see more can
also view the full tables. You can jump from one table to the next one with the 'Next Table'
link at the top op the pages.
Before we have a look at the results of 1999 we would first like to thank the following
sponsors of the poll prizes:
GEP Records,
InsideOut Music,
Aubitt Records,
The Cage Arena Fan Club and
Wolverine.
Participants
As we mentioned above, 531 people participated in the DPRPoll 1999. Most people came from The
Netherlands (27%), USA (17%), while Germany (7%), UK (7%) and Canada (5%) also provided quite
some votes. It's good to see that the number of participants from the UK has increased, compared
to last year. At the same time, prog and internet penetration seem to gain momentum in
other 'far off' countries.
To view the full table of countries of participants, browse through the tables by clicking on
the 'Next Table' link.
The average participant of the DPRPoll 1999 was 33 years old, although ages ranged from 15 to
52 years ! Just imagine, the youngest one was born in the year of Marillion's Misplaced
Childhood, while the oldest one was in his twenties and might have experienced all those
highlights of the seventies !
The majority of the participants (75%) is between 25 and 40 years old.
Best Albums of 1999
A total of 299 different albums received votes for Best Album of 1999. Below
you will find the Top 20. For a full list, browse through the tables.
| # |
Band |
Album |
Votes |
Percentage |
Weighted Points |
| 1 |
Dream Theater |
Metropolis 2: Scenes from a Memory |
226 |
43.0% |
848 |
| 2 |
Spock's Beard |
Day for Night |
155 |
29.5% |
504 |
| 3 |
Camel |
Rajaz |
136 |
25.9% |
484 |
| 4 |
Porcupine Tree |
Stupid Dream |
128 |
24.3% |
468 |
| 5 |
Yes |
The Ladder |
119 |
22.6% |
388 |
| 6 |
Fish |
Raingods with Zippos |
123 |
23.4% |
336 |
| 7 |
Flower Kings |
Flower Power |
101 |
19.2% |
332 |
| 8 |
Marillion |
marillion.com |
101 |
19.2% |
304 |
| 9 |
Pallas |
Beat the Drum |
76 |
14.4% |
241 |
| 10 |
IQ |
The Lost Attic |
74 |
14.1% |
232 |
| 11 |
Liquid Tension Experiment |
Liquid Tension Experiment 2 |
69 |
13.1% |
206 |
| 12 |
C. Nolan & O. Wakeman |
Jabberwocky |
54 |
10.3% |
176 |
| 13 |
Rick Wakeman |
Return to the Center of the Earth |
34 |
6.5% |
118 |
| 14 |
Saga |
Full Circle |
44 |
8.4% |
116 |
| 15 |
Jethro Tull |
J Tull Dot Com |
43 |
8.2% |
111 |
| 16 |
Anekdoten |
From Within |
31 |
5.9% |
107 |
| 17 |
Neal Morse |
Neal Morse |
39 |
7.4% |
100 |
| 18 |
Colin Bass |
An Outcast of the Islands |
28 |
5.3% |
100 |
| 19 |
Steve Hackett |
Darktown |
36 |
6.8% |
97 |
| 20 |
Solaris |
Nostradamus - Book of Prophecies |
25 |
4.8% |
83 |
Dream Theater's new concept album is without a doubt the biggest favourite of last year. As last
year, Spock's Beard can be found at number 2. Porcupine Tree seems to have reached a larger
audience with their new one and Marillion slips down to a lower position again.
Best Tracks of 1999
Participants in the Poll were also asked to name their favourite track of
1999. The table below shows the 5 bands which got the most votes, regardless
of which track.
| # |
Band |
Votes for Best Track |
Percentage |
| 1 |
Dream Theater |
57 |
11.6% |
| 2 |
Yes |
44 |
8.9% |
| 3 |
Fish |
41 |
8.3% |
| 4 |
Porcupine Tree |
37 |
7.5% |
|
Spock's Beard |
37 |
7.5% |
The next table shows the actual Top 5 of best tracks of 1999.
Although various people have made it very clear that they find the other material on Raingods
With Zippos quite inferior, Fish seems to have thrown a bullseye with his modern sounding
and daring epic Plague of Ghosts. Another long one that did well last year was Marillion's
Interior Lullu, while prog fans also seemed to like the retro sound of Yes' Homeworld
a lot.
| # |
Band |
Track |
Votes |
Percentage |
| 1 |
Fish |
Plague of Ghosts |
36 |
7.3% |
| 2 |
Yes |
Homeworld (The Ladder) |
35 |
7.1% |
| 3 |
Marillion |
Interior Lulu |
28 |
5.7% |
| 4 |
Porcupine Tree |
Even Less |
19 |
3.9% |
| 5 |
Dream Theater |
Home |
16 |
3.3% |
Best Artwork of 1999
So, is this the statement that a good prog album should come in a Roger Dean sleeve ?
I don't know, but this result seems to confirm one of the long standing prog clichés.
| # |
Band |
Album |
Votes |
Percentage |
| 1 |
Yes |
The Ladder |
77 |
15.8% |
| 2 |
Clive Nolan & Oliver Wakeman |
Jabberwocky |
39 |
8.0% |
| 3 |
Dream Theater |
Metropolis Pt 2: Scenes from a Memory |
34 |
7.0% |
| 4 |
Fish |
Raingods with Zippos |
29 |
5.9% |
| 5 |
Camel |
Rajaz |
29 |
5.9% |
Best Concert 1999
As you can imagine, loads of different concerts got votes for best gig of 1999. To get a clear
picture of which bands did best on the stage in 1999, we'll first have a look at the ones
that got the most votes, regardless of which concert.
| # |
Band |
Votes for Best Concert |
Percentage |
| 1 |
Spock's Beard |
65 |
14.6% |
| 2 |
IQ |
45 |
10.1% |
| 3 |
Arena |
27 |
6.1% |
| 4 |
Fish |
24 |
5.4% |
| 5 |
Yes |
22 |
4.9% |
For the second year in a row 'The Beard' turns out to be the most popular live band. With only
11 gigs in 1999, IQ is not doing bad either at 2nd place.
Now let's have a look at the actual gigs that got the most votes for Best Concert 1999.
| # |
Band |
When |
Where |
Votes |
Percentage |
| 1 |
Arena |
31-10-1999 |
Tivoli, Utrecht |
22 |
4.9% |
| 2 |
IQ |
4 april 1999 |
013, Tilburg, The Netherlands |
20 |
4.5% |
| 3 |
Spock's Beard |
28-09-99 |
013 Tilburg |
13 |
2.9% |
Arena's performance at the first Fan Club Convention of The Cage turns out to be the most
appreciated gig of last year. As was to be expected since most participants are from Holland,
number 2 and 3 were Dutch gigs as well. Both were gigs that were filmed for future release on
video; IQ's very last performance of Subterranea and Spock's Beard's amazing show at
the 013 in Tilburg.
Best Newcomer
Although both have been around for a while, the collaboration between Clive Nolan (Arena,
Shadowland, Pendragon) and Oliver Wakeman (son of Rick) was appreciated most as a newcoming
act. Spock's Beard frontman Neal Morse's solo album didn't do bad either.
| # |
Band |
Votes |
Percentage |
| 1 |
Clive Nolan & Oliver Wakeman |
24 |
6.4% |
| 2 |
Ice Age |
19 |
5.1% |
| 3 |
Neal Morse |
15 |
4.0% |
| 4 |
A.C.T. |
15 |
4.0% |
| 5 |
Mostly Autumn |
14 |
3.7% |
Biggest Disappointment of 1999
| # |
Disappointment |
Votes |
Percentage |
| 1 |
Marillion - marillion.com |
94 |
21% |
| 2 |
Yes - The Ladder |
46 |
10% |
| 3 |
Line-up changes in Arena |
19 |
4% |
| 4 |
Queensryche - Q2K |
18 |
4% |
| 5 |
Mike Oldfield - The Millennium Bell |
10 |
2% |
| |
Rick Wakeman - Return to the Center of the Earth |
10 |
2% |
This is turning into a bit of a 'given'. For the third year in a row Marillion turns out to be
the biggest disappointment for prog fans. Although some admit that marillion.com is better
than the previous album Radiation, still 20% of the participants dislikes it a lot (compared
to 25% last year for Radiation).
The Ladder by Yes seems to have its 'lovers and haters'; it ranks number 5 in the album
list, but number 2 in the disappointment list at the same time.
Many people named the departure of Paul Wrightson and/or John Jowitt from Arena, or the many line-up
changes in that band in general as a major disappointment.
In 1997, Queensryche already disappointed a lot of its fans with Hear in the Now Frontier.
With it's new album, Q2K, it doesn't seem to do much better. It only got 12 votes for
best album and can again be found high in the chart of disappointments. Whatever happened to the
band that made Operation Mindcrime and Promised Land ?
Click here if you also want to see how the participants of the poll evaluated DPRP.
Click here if you also want to see the list of prizes and winners.
You can also check out what the DPRP Team voted for themselves.
For comments about the poll, please e-mail Ed Sander.
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