I refer to the activities of Cruise to the Edge, a tour company which offers the combination of cruising to exotic destinations whilst being entertained by your favourite prog rockers. Yes, really. Prog rockers. On a ship.
In a way it all makes sense. In the 1960s and 70s lots of people liked progressive rock. Those people are getting old. Old people like going on cruises. You have to concede there is a shrewd aspect to the plan.
But Oh Jesus. Has it really come to this? You can go aboard the Poesia and, after dining at the "wonderful sushi bar" watch members of Yes rendering extracts from Tales of Topographic Oceans, winding down afterwards by a massage at the "enchanting Balinese spa"? Not very rock and roll is it?
I'm aware that my horror at this prospect arises partly from the coupling together of two concepts I had previously thought unconnected. Old people going on a cruise surely did not have anything to do with men playing electric guitars. The answer turns out to have been that if you wait long enough, it will do. Time has undone us all.
Just as worrying is the idea that a prog rock cruise might actually turn out to be quite fun. And not just in an ironic way. I always disliked Yes, but before punk came along I knew every word and nuance of the albums Genesis made when Peter Gabriel was at the helm, and one of the acts cruising to the edge is Steve Hackett, their self-effacing guitar player during that period. My wife wouldn't come, but then again she might be glad of the chance to get rid of me for a week.
In an irony not acknowledged on the company's website, one of the acts is a band called Saga.
In the fullness of time there will I expect be a cruise ship for ageing punk rockers. I'm saving for the deposit now.
