The Enid announce new DVD- The Enid At Town Hall Birmingham

After a huge amount of work donated by Enidi members Anthony Meadley and Algie Gray, we are all proud to announce that this fascinating DVD HD Video will be completed on November 1st.

Before the official, international release by EMI next year, the band is pressing up a special limited run of just 1000 discs for the fans.

The DVD is shot in 1080p high definition video and contains extra features including interviews with the band at Enid HQ in Northampton as well as the world premiere of the new album, Journey's End.

There are two soundtrack options; a standard stereo mix and a true 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound mix, both engineered by Max Read at The Lodge Recording Studio. 

TRACK LISTING:

Terra Firma
Terra Nova
Space Surfing
Malacandra
Shiva
Judgement (2009 Revision)
In The Region of the Summer Stars (2009 Revision)
Childe Roland
Ondine (featuring Francis Lickerish on lute)
The Lovers (piano solo)
Fand (2009 Revision)
Featuring guests Francis Lickerish, Grant Jamieson and John Beedle plus the brass section of the Chandos Symphony Orchestra
Dark Hydraulic

 

£18.00 PLUS P&P

Order Online from www.theenid.co.uk

THE ENID: a letter from Robert John Godfrey

By now it’s pretty obvious that I’m a huge fan of The Enid.

Because of that, I am sharing this message that Robert John Godfrey sent out. If you’re a fan of the band, the best way you can support the group is to take his words to heart. The Enid are getting ready to do some very impressive things, and it’s up to the fan base to help them along their way.

Anyway, enough of me. Here’s his post:


“JOURNEY’S END PIRATED BOOTLEGS

Innersanctum have finally bootlegged Journey’s End. This is obviously very upsetting for the band but entirely predictable as Gerald Palmer makes his position evermore untenable.

This is clearly nothing more than a spiteful act of desperation in an attempt to bully and damage the band.

As we review the position, it is now clear that Gerald, in spite of his wealth, is losing both the moral and legal battle with The Enid.

In the last year he and Steve Kalidoski have by their own hands destroyed the reputation of the Innersanctum label and the wider name of Adasam, the company Gerald named after his two young sons.


WE ARE STRONGER

As time goes on The Enid grow ever stronger and more able to fight back whilst Palmer has revealed himself for all the world to see.

For the time being, my one time friend is in denial. However, it is now only a matter of time before he will have to face the inevitable and hopefully walk away with some semblance of dignity whilst he still can.


A NEW DEVELOPMENT

In a new development, the band have obtained conclusive evidence of fraud and false accounting involving Gerald Palmer that may go back many years and involve many other artists. Investigations are in hand.


OPTIMISTIC

Overall we are optimistic – Thanks largely to the efforts of our manager Ian Eardley, and a fresh band with its new Journey’s End lineup, we have more going for us than at any time in our long and bumpy ride. From our modest beginnings we have come full circle in our relationship with EMI, who played such an important role in the early years and who have been quite splendid in all of this.

What we now need to do is to try and persuade EMI to take on the distribution of Journey’s End for us as they originally agreed before Palmer managed to make them nervous; at which point they put everything on hold.

We are holding our own financially and are stronger than we were a year ago: nevertheless, things are still very difficult with large legal bills to pay.


HOW YOU CAN HELP
For those of you who have not already done so, please join The Enidi in its new form and buy the two new marvelous releases of In the Region of the Summer Stars and Aerie Faerie Nonsense in all their long lost glory.

Go to the links below and provide us with any useful information you think may helpful.

See you all, I hope, during the course of the coming months as we prepare to tour around the world.

The whole band sends their warmest regards.



Yours sincerely,

Robert John Godfrey”

http://www.theenid.co.uk/
http://www.theenid.co.uk/enidshop

CD REVIEW: The Enid - Journey's End (2010, Enidiworks/Operation Seraphim)

Ahh, The Enid…

If you’ve been reading my blog the past few weeks, you’ve heard me rave about their performance at NEARfest 2010, and you’ve probably sorted out that I am a raving, drooling fanboy. Honestly, you’d be right. Ever since the first time I heard one of their compositions on Delicious Agony Radio, I’ve been hooked by them. No band sounds like The Enid, really.

A bit of potted history, for those of you not quite familiar with the group (and taken from the NEARfest website):

“Formed in 1974 by keyboard player Robert John Godfrey, who eschewed a possible career as a concert pianist, The Enid fused rock based music with the power, dynamics and scale of symphonic classical music. Godfrey had stopped hanging around the Royal Festival Hall and started hanging around the Roundhouse, where he met and joined the young Barclay James Harvest, living and working with them over a three-year period in a farmhouse on the Yorkshire Moors. The Enid signed first to BUK records, a tiny label which was then a part of EMI, and in 1976 released their first album, "In the Region of the Summer Stars", based on the Tarot sequence and on the writings of Charles Williams. Comparisons to any other bands were pointless; Progressive rock it wasn't, although in many ways it was what prog rock should have been. The most "indie" of the "indie bands", The Enid and their fan base took direct control of all aspects of their career, from recording to mastering, artwork to distribution – decades before Marillion took credit for the same ideas.”

The Enid has gone through various configurations over the years. While their initial studio albums saw them crafting longer form instrumental compositions, interspersed with briefer pieces with a more accessible, melodic tone, by 1983 they had begun working in vocals and songs with lyrics. Something Wicked This Way Comes, their first foray into the arena of vocal music, saw them expressing and lamenting the fears of a cold war world, some 30 years after similar fears of fallout and poisoned skies. Future releases would see the band exploring the cyclical nature of being, musical re-tellings of novels by Laurens van de Post, and the place of man in a world dominated by science, often to the detriment to nature as a living being. Heavy, heady stuff, to be sure.

Journey’s End, the band’s first studio album in 13 years, does see The Enid covering similar ground. The subjects remain the same, and for good reason; in many ways we stand on the same precipice we have since the 1980’s, creeping ever closer to an inevitable collapse unless we can figure out a way to open our eyes to the problems that surround us. These are the messages that drive founder Robert John Godfrey, and his new band of Enidi, to create.

On Journey’s End, RJG is joined by fellow band founder member Dave Storey, who mans the drum kit. His rhythms are central to the band’s shifting sound. Supplementing these two original members is Max Read, who joined the band in 1997, and handles all vocals on this release; live, he also contributes guitar and synthesizer work as well. Jason Ducker plays all guitars on this album. Joining the band in 2003 for one show, he became an official member in 2007. The guitar position in The Enid is a special one; any person taking that role is inevitably compared to Stephen Stewart and/or Francis Lickerish, founder members of the band themselves and responsible for the harmony guitars that were such a part of the band’s early symphonic sound. It’s still early days for Jason, but he’s shown live and on record that he has the skills to take on this difficult role and handle it with comfort. Finally, Nick Willes completes the 21st Century Enid, playing bass and tympani/percussion. Anyone who has seen the band on their recent tour knows how much energy Nick adds to things, and his contributions are a huge part of the band’s performances.

Journey’s End is based around vocal songs. Things open with ‘Terra Firma,’ an almost funeral piece when the lyrics are looked at. It bemoans the systematic pillaging of the earth and its natural resources by the people who live across its crust. I look at the lyrics and wonder if perhaps something more metaphorical might have worked, and then realise that in this day and age, metaphors just don’t cut it. Better to cut to the quick than try and dance around things. Filled with layers of vocals and a fairly driving beat, it introduces The Enid 2010 in a big way. It’s followed by ‘Terra Nova,’ a 5-plus minute instrumental that is our first taste of how the new band tackles the more orchestral side of what The Enid can offer. It builds slowly, with long notes echoing almost like whale song in an ocean of faint ambient sounds. The piece sounds and feels very much like a soundscape more than a symphonic tone poem; while melodic lines do figure in roughly half way through, in many ways this piece doesn’t begin to evoke the older Enid style till well over three minutes in, when a single Ducker guitar line quietly begins to resolve itself. The slow pulse and swathes of choral vocalese are soothing and calming, contributing to the ambiance. Finally, with about 30 seconds to go, Godfrey offers up a brief piece of solo piano, closing up the piece in classic style.

‘Space Surfing’ is an interesting piece. Again based around vocals, this time Read runs his voice heavily through vocorders, creating an odd, effected sound for the first verse of the song. This is altogether a heavier track in so many ways, with bubbling bass work, an almost funky beat, and choppy chords turning this into an actual rock song. It remains odd, even after all these years, to hear The Enid doing straight up rock, but they do a good job on it. ‘Malacandra,’ on the other hand, is a full bore, no holds barred return to classic long form Enid composition. Nearly 14 minutes in length, it is grandiose, romantic, shifting; filled with lush keyboards, orchestral percussion, singing guitar lines, and dynamics the likes of which are almost unseen in modern progressive music. There are lyrics, there are vocal sections, and it all gels together in an intense and diverse piece that leaves one breathless. An earlier version of this piece was featured on the band’s 2009 touring CD Arise and Shine; here it is fully formed and evolved, and the difference is night and day. This is The Enid old timers are familiar with, but updated to sound as fresh as ever. For those fearing the loss of epic Enid, look no further; this is a harbinger of great things to come.

‘Shiva’ is the last but one track on Journey’s End, a comparatively ‘brief’ 8-minute vocal song with layers upon layers of Max Read vocals. The liner notes state ‘these alone took many days of studio time and compromise up to about 60 tracks of real voice plus the use of a vocoder to create the choir-like scale of sound at the end of Shiva.’ The effort was worth it; this is song like no other in the band’s C.V., combining the sprightly upbeat sound of pieces like ‘Humouresque’ or ‘Bridal Dance,’ the orchestrals of ‘Under The Summer Stars,’ and the vocals of…well, there isn’t a song with vocals in the band’s catalogue that sounds at all like this. It’s a one of a kind. And honestly, if this is how The Enid will handle vocals in the future, I say bring it on.

The album closes out with ‘The Art of Melody – Journey’s End.’ One final instrumental, it gives the old fans a final taste of old-fashioned classical Enid. Quiet, placid, rising to a peak and then slowly dwindling away to silence, it is the end of the journey posited by this album. ‘Shiva,’ the previous track, closed out with the following lyrics:

‘Welcome all our friends
Please come inside
Welcome in
Come in to the light.’

‘The Art of Melody’ is that light, the end of the journey out of the long dark night we’ve created for ourselves, and the dawning of a new day.

This is the kind of album The Enid made in 1983…filled with a message and wonderful music. Perhaps nothing has changed since the band released Something Wicked This Way Comes that year. Perhaps it’s time for another message to be delivered. Perhaps Journey’s End is the album more people need to hear.



Track Listing:
1. Terra Firma 7:08
2. Terra Nova 5:38
3. Space Surfing 4:57
4. Malacandra 13:56
5. Shiva 7:59
6. The Art of Melody - Journey’s End 5:20

Band Members:
Robert John Godfrey – keyboards, piano
Max Read – vocals
Jason Ducker – guitar
Dave Storey – drums, percussion
Nick Willes – bass, tympani, percussion
Elsa – growl

CD REVIEW: The Enid - Arise and Shine (2009, Enidiworks/Operation Seraphim)

For the next 2 weeks, I’ll be taking a look at the two newest albums from British cult legends The Enid. When the band finally returned fully to active duty last year, it opened a stream of new and old material coming out (or back out into print), rewarding their patient fanbase with treasures both old and new to enjoy or discover. The first of these releases was their release Arise and Shine, featuring the newly reconstituted band performing material both old and new.

The Enid in 2009 is a somewhat different beast from that which strode the stage in the 1970s, 1980s, and even 1990s, yet some familiar threads remain constant. Chief among these is Robert John Godfrey, founder member and one of two links to the original band that recorded classics such as In the Region of the Summer Stars, Aerie Faerie Nonsense and Six Pieces. It’s obvious that RJG has expended no small effort to refresh his keyboard skills, and while no songs on Arise and Shine require the kind of dexterous piano playing that exemplified pieces like ‘Touch Me’ and ‘The Loved Ones,’ it’s obvious he’s put the time in to ensure he could play the material he once wrote, and is writing still. The second link to the past is drummer/percussionist Dave Storey, who was also an original member and played with the band until 1979. His drumming is key to the grand and sometimes propulsive Enid music, and having him back in the group is a major key to their tight performances of the sometimes complex Enid material.

New to the band are Max Read, who contributes keyboards, vocals and programming on this release, and Jason Ducker, who adds bass and guitar to the mix. At the NEARfest performance, RJG stated that he doubted the band would still be going now were it not for Read, and on this release I find his contributions perhaps a bit difficult to sort out but perhaps most integral to the richness of these performances, even in a less overdubbed, live setting. Ducker, on the other hand, has an immediately identifiable guitar voice, and it’s clear that he’s captured the traditional Enid guitar sound perfectly. While it is sad that the days of the twin Stewart/Lickerish guitar harmonies are gone, Ducker is no slouch, and deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as those two, even if just for his playing (time will tell from a writing standpoint).

As mentioned above Arise and Shine contains material both old and new. Among the oldest tracks represented here are ‘Apocalypse - Judgement Day’ and ‘Avalon - Under The Summer Stars,’ both from In the Region of the Summer Stars, the band’s debut release. These renditions are faithful to the originals while still adding freshness in different ways, whether it’s modern timbres or tones, or what have you. ‘Apocalypse - Judgement Day’ has always been a favourite of mine, and the rendition here is excellent and impressive. Two tracks are also featured from the band’s last release pre-reformation, 1997’s White Goddess. Album opener ‘Castles In The Air – Fantasy’ and second track ‘Riguardon - The Dancing Lizard’ are among the shortest tracks on Arise and Shine, but they are bright, uplifting pieces of music that feature the band’s symphonic, almost classical direction. ‘Riguardon - The Dancing Lizard’ in particular matches the ancillary title well, as the song feels almost like a dance, expressed in notes rather than moves.

One track that might seem surprising to listeners most familiar with the band’s earliest output would be ‘Dark Hydraulic Forces Of The Id,’ originally released on 1994’s Tripping The Light Fantastic. The band’s foray into dance rhythms and sounds may come as a complete shock to listeners familiar with the ornate, romantic symphonics The Enid had previously committed to wax, but when one considers that they had previously performed most of the music for pop/dance artist Kim Wilde’s debut release, perhaps the idea of them playing dance music isn’t that far fetched. ‘Dark Hydraulic Forces Of The Id’ is a dramatic, almost cinematic extended composition, and this band does the material justice while making it clear that this music merits re-evaluation, and should not be disregarded due to its rhythmic, dance like nature.

Rounding out Arise and Shine are two additional pieces from the group’s 1980’s output. ‘Chaldean Crossing’ was one of the centerpieces of the band’s ‘final’ album, 1988’s The Seed and the Sower, based on Laurens van de Post's book of the same title, the song has a definite Eastern feel to its arrangement and sonic choices, and this arrangement offers a strange kind of respectful, restrained grandeur that is entirely in keeping with that Eastern motif. Finally, ‘Sheets From The Blue Yonder’ is a take on the 1986 track ‘Sheets of Blue’ from the Salome album. One of two extended tracks on that release, this composition offers Ducker great opportunity to show off his guitar playing, proving that he is well deserving of his post in The Enid.

Arise and Shine, I think, was intended as much to reintroduce people to the music of The Enid as it was to show what the current band was going to offer listeners old and new. In both cases I believe the release succeeds, and while the furthest thing from a comprehensive greatest hits or best of, is a great starting point for people wholly unfamiliar with The Enid as musicians or writers. Even though I have a good portion of the band’s catalogue I keep returning to this album, as it’s been very enjoyable to revisit old musical friends dusted off, dusted down, and with a new and glimmering coat of paint.

Join me again next week as I take a look at, and listen to, Journey's End, the first new full-fledged studio album from the Enid since 1997.



1. Castles In The Air – Fantasy (5:52)
2. Riguardon - The Dancing Lizard (4:46)
3. Chaldean Crossing - 2009 Revision (9:32)
4. Dark Hydraulic Forces Of The Id (13:28)
5. Sheets From The Blue Yonder (11:15)
6. Apocalypse - Judgement Day (8:09)
7. Avalon - Under The Summer Stars (6:43)
8. Malacandra - The Silent Planet (Early Version) (12:39)

Band Members:
Robert John Godfrey – keyboards, programming
Max Read –vocals, keyboards, programming
Jason Ducker – guitar, bass
Dave Storey – drums, percussion

The last NEARfest 2010 post: the haul...

Obligatory swag:
NF t-shirt
NF program
NF pint glass

Not so obligatory swag:
Frogg Cafe t-shirt (came with the CD below)

CDs:
Frogg Cafe - Bateless Edge
The Enid - Journey's End
The Enid - Arise and Shine
King Crimson - Lizard 40th Anniversary Edition
Cabezas De Cera - CDC Live USA CD/DVD
Strawbs - Dancing to the Devil's Beat
Strawbs - The Broken-Hearted Bride
Strawbs - Live at NEARfest 2004
Deluge Grander - The Form of the Good
RPWL: The Gentle Art of Music
Birds and Buildings - Bantam to Behemoth
Renaissance - In the Land of the Rising Sun: Live in Japan 2001
The Tangent - Going off on One 2CD/DVD Limited Edition
IQ: Stage: Dark Matter Live in America and Germany 2005 DVD
The Enid: Something Wicked This Way Comes: Live at Claret Hall Farm and Stonehenge 1984 DVD

NEARfest 2010...the last 5 bands

This meant it was time for...

THREE FRIENDS, essentially Gary Green and Malcolm Mortimore from Gentle Giant, with a bunch of other musicians. This was going to be a nostalgia trip, and nothing more, but it was a wonderful one. Gary’s a stunning guitar player, Mortimore was pounding the skins with abandon, and the rest of the current crew were excellent, playing very intricate and complicated Gentle Giant material like they were born to do so. I don’t recall the name of the guy who sang (they brought in a new singer 2 weeks before the show), but he was excellent. I was thrilled to hear Boys in the Band and The Advent of Panurge and Prologue/School Days and Proclamation and…so many other songs. Gary was dead chuffed to be on stage playing to 1000 people, and his comment about this being more than three friends now, and how that probably means having to do a new album (‘Oh shit, what did I just say?’) was met with much applause and laughter in the audience. They were wonderful to talk to after the show as well…relieved, I think, that it went off so well, and genuinely touched by the response they got.

Saturday night ended much like Friday…drive home, offload pictures (this time so tired I left the camera on overnight, plugged into my PC), sleep. Sunday morning came earlier than Saturday did, and again, I posted a few teaser photos, tried to eat breakfast, and we headed off, a bit later than the day before, but all in all not too bad. I did my last purchasing for the weekend, and ambled into the theatre for MORAINE. Coming from Cascadia (the Pacific Northwest), their music is occasionally melodic, occasionally angular, occasionally noisy, but played with a lot of skill and subtlety. I think they have loads of room to grow, and they have great potential to be a force in the years to come if their first album is any indication. I do not think this performance will be spoken of in the same kind of reverent tone as other Sunday openers from the past (Sleepytime Gorilla Museum 2003, Hidria Spacefolk 2004, Guapo 2006), but this only means that there’s time for them to grow and evolve and progress.

Lunchtime came again, and again it was a burger from the outside tent. I was too lazy to go anywhere, and it was too hot. In any case, the burger was again good, and I risked some cheese on it. It was nice to get some air, and relax, and talk to people, and not feel rushed at all. I had no idea how much fresh air I’d be getting.

Band 2 on day 3 was THE PINEAPPLE THIEF from the UK. I have 2 of their albums…the 2 CD compilation 3000 Days and the newest studio album Someone Here is Missing. I was somewhat less than impressed with the albums after repeated listens, but still was hoping that perhaps the band would be more energetic on stage. I went in with no expectations of hopes, and discovered something…it is in fact possible to have zero expectations and still not have them met. It was shoegazer music of the worst kind, with whiny vocals and a plodding morose mid tempo beat that only succeeded in beating into my head just how gray their music is. I don’t mind maudlin, morose music…I love the darker Cure stuff, and Depeche Mode, and Radiohead, and so on, but this was just blah in extremis. Comparing them to Radiohead is an insult…to Radiohead. In the end, and trying to say something positive…I enjoyed every minute of their performance…that I spent outside, getting fresh air. I didn’t like them, and am not ashamed to admit it.

For me, tension was starting to mount a little bit. THE ENID was the band I had most wanted to see (in case you’d not already guessed), and honestly I was beginning to think that maybe I was building myself up too much. I was trying to will the time to pass more quickly so they could hit the stage. When we finally got in there and were seated, I had about 90 seconds of pure, unadulterated, undistilled terror sweep over me…’there’s no way they’re gonna live up to my hopes oh dear sweet merciful Yahweh what have I done to myself?’ I had been talking them up to all of my friends, and how would I face them after they failed to live up to my glowing and running commentary?

Well…

The first 6 or 7 minutes were sublime. I was totally unfamiliar save for a listen that morning in sleep induced coma of the new album, so my first real listen was when they played. And it was interesting and different…a melding of Something Wicked This Way Comes and Six Pieces. Lots of layered, processed, vocodered vocals, and tympani and guitars and layers of keys, and I was getting into it, and…


Then disaster struck.

The PC that handled the band’s effects and sound processing/shaping crashed. The band stopped. There was no way they could continue. And I died a little inside. Whilst the crew tried to get them band off and running again, the audience began calling out for a drum solo. Dave Storey obliged, adding in Summer Holiday as last seen on the Hammersmith live DVD. I think the fact that they didn’t all leave the stage, but tried to entertain and keep the audience happy in the midst of crisis, was a huge factor in their favour. When things finally got up and running again, instead of picking up where they left off, the band started from page one and began their set all over again. Journey’s End was intense stuff, and at the end of that part of their set they got a loud and rapturous ovation from a very appreciative crowd. The second part of their performance was a selection of mostly older material, going all the way back to In the Region of the Summer Stars. They started things off with Judgment and Under the Summer Stars, and my jaw dropped when the tympani drum opening on Judgment led us into the second set. I see that as an encore piece for some reason, so it was ballsy (to me) to kick things back off with it. Robert John Godfrey also offered up a lovely piano rendition of The Lovers, also off In the Region, and Sheets of Blue was another excellent piece. At some point I did start floating around the theatre…I was gobsmacked.

I know after the performance people asked me if my expectations had been met, and honestly, as lofty as they were, not only were they met, but exceeded. So much so, in fact, what when RJG and the band got up to the tables, I had a hard time expressing how much the music meant to me. I got to hug RJG as well, which is insufficient means for expressing my love of his music, but it has to do.

Dinner break, last day, and most of us went our separate ways. I ended up at Campus Pizza, as I usually do, and had a couple slices. I was already beginning to feel the crash coming as the end of the weekend approached. Finally making it back to the venue, I ran into Jon Yarger, who asked if I was ready to have my ass musically kicked. I said that honestly I was probably gonna end up hanging out with Brett Kull in the recording booth, and was told he’d not be there, as the headliner had specifically demanded no filming or recording. This, coupled with the strict no cameras policy for his performance, started leaving a bad taste in my mouth…a bad taste that would be build up as an 830 pm start slipped to 9 slipped to 930…when we were finally let into the theatre. As we waited, another film showed, similar to the one screening each morning, about how NF is all about the people, and this is where I got nervous. I had images of ill-advised chestbumps on screen, and when I saw the first one, I feared mine would be in there. I was relieved that instead people were only subjected to me saying this was my ninth NEARfest,and my rambling semi-lucid ramble about why NEARfest is so special. Then I watched as Ray and Jim and Kevin and Tom, in my eyes clearly uncomfortable, began stalling for time. I don’t care who you are, there’s no excuse for rock star attitude and prima donna acts. I was growing increasingly disgusted with the situation, and when the lights finally went down, and I watched 5 lighting trusses descend to the stage, I think I was done.

I still gave EDDIE JOBSON AND THE ULTIMATE ZERO PROJECT (alternatively Eddie Jobson and the Eddie Jobson Ultimate Eddie Jobson Zero Eddie Jobson Project, starring Eddie Jobson) a chance. 7 minutes of noise which I assume was actually impressive (to someone) violin playing led into individual introductions for Billy Sheehan and Mike Mangini and T.J. Helmerich and Marco Minnemann. The band shifted into King Crimson’s Indiscipline, and while I’ll admit the song choices were good (a bunch of UK, including Ceasar’s Palace Blues, Nevermore, In the Dead of Night, Danger Money, and more; Crimson’s Indiscipline and Starless; ELP’s Bitches Crystal), the playing left me cold, save for Billy Sheehan’s always enjoyable bass playing, and Minnemann’s excellent drumming. Jobson was more impressive on keys than violin, but on Starless all the life and space was sucked out of it, leaving it dense, overpacked, and less than the original. When you have a guy like Helmerich who can play 8-finger tap guitar, you do not have him playing the staccato violin part while you play Robert Fripp’s lines. It was a vanity and ego stroke of epic proportions, and it feels awful and horrible saying this about a band signed as a headliner, but I felt nothing from it. At all. So much nothing, in fact, that not only did I step out early, I didn’t go to get any signatures. Instead I spent the last hour of the performance talking to some friends and hanging out. After the festival finally let out, and most everyone queued for signatures, I waited, chatted with a few more people (Adam and Don and Andre, Cyndee and Jeff, Jen from PE, Adam, and far too many others to remember them all), and started feeling the comedown actually coming down.

The Enid News

Major bits of Enid news...rather than try to summarise, I'm providing RJG's words for you to absorb and process. There's a lot going on...I hope dearly it comes to fruition:

JOURNEYS END - But Not The End Of The Story

This may be the last major concept album from The Enid, but not the "last album". After this comes "Virtuoso", and "Fand Grosse". Along side that, the ongoing "Redux Project" - A five year plan and a legacy. My bid for immortality!

Journey's End is the certainly our most optimistic and thought provoking album. Allegorical in nature, it deals with our place in the cosmos, the nature of eternity and the final question - the journey into the shadows - the inevitable path we must all tread.

Although Journey's End contains many of the creative ingredients of the "FarOut" project which I finally abandoned in 2006, it is not that album by another name. It has a very different concept and is much more sanguine than FarOut would have been had it ever seen the light of day.

As the album nears it's compositional end, I too am gradually nearing mine. There is no escape from the slow silent killer we call diabetes. For me it is now or never.

VIRTUOSO - A Bridge Too Far?

For the last two years I have made a serious effort to regain my piano technique - as it used to be in 1969 when, if the plans of my parents had been adhered to, I would have attempted to be in the final of The Leeds International Piano Competition.

One of the ways I have been doing this, is by creating exciting virtuoso arrangements for solo piano of certain pieces by The Enid - most notably "Childe Roland". Now the rest of the band and I are experimenting with "all live" - unplugged chamber versions of some of our most enduring pieces across the decades.

FAND GROSSE - THE DEFINITIVE VERSION FOR TWO BANDS

Plans are afoot to team up with Secret Green and do monster performances of Fand in a special extended arrangement for both bands. More news as things progress.

REDUX PROJECT - The Definitive Enid

Over the next five years The Enid will endeavour to record all of our past studio albums in enhanced arrangements and available in 5.1 surround sound. These will become the "director's cut" - the definitive Enid.

DOWNLOADING THE ENID - Coming Soon

Soon you will be able to download The Enid's Music. There will be no charge for this service. Instead we ask for donations to "The Enidi" based what you feel is deserved and ability to pay.

http://www.theenid.com/

Additional Enid show announced

(Info courtesy of ProgressiveEars and poster KenA)

Tuesday 26 May 2009 should be marked in your diary, as that day will see The Enid return to the stage. Much time has passed since they last performed, this time will see original drummer, Dave Storey together with Jason Ducker and Max Read. The band will perform a major new work alongside a selection from the back catalogue.

Tickets £10 are avaialble from the venue:

http://www.the12barswindon.com

Enid concert news

Courtesy of Max Read and the official Enid website:

THE ENID IN CONCERT AT THE BUSH HALL

SHEPHERDS BUSH - LONDON

Friday 29th May 2009

We finally have a date for our opening show, after a delay caused partially by some tragic events which befell our booking agent. The first of many new dates, this gig will present the new 21st century "Enid."

A brand new special studio recording featuring featuring the new line up performing all the music featured in the show will be available on the night.

The venue itself is a rather splendid old music hall with excellent acoustics and seated space as well as standing.

Click here for ticket details, directions etc.

In the queue...

As I have done in the past, here's a sampling of what I have been listening to, and what's up next. You may get to hear my thoughts on some of this, so use this as potential teasers for future content...

Marvin Ayres - Eccentric Deliquescence
Oxygene8 - Freak of Chance
The Lizards - Archeology
Days Between Stations - s/t debut release
The Red Masque - Fossileyes
Proto-Kaw - Before Became After
Proto-Kaw - The Wait of Glory
The Enid - In The Region of the Summer Stars
The Enid - Aerie Faerie Nonsense

The Enid news...

A bit of bubbling activity at The Lodge with the Enid finally...a year after releasing a few rehearsal clips on their website, Robert John Godfrey has issued forth a few more tantalising tidbits of info for the long patient faithful Enidi...

Read it all HERE.

Some highlights (any time you see "I" below, please remember this is Robert John Godfrey speaking, not yr. obd't blogger):

I have added a great rehearsal recording of "Dark Hydraulic" featuring Jason Ducker on Guitar and Dave Story on Drums. Not perfect but exciting I hope...

It looks like the new band will start touring in earnest from Feb 2009. However there are going to be quite a few low profile warm gigs before then. I am rather rusty and the younger band members need to get used to the way we do things...

A little bit about the new Album (Far Out - Working Title):

The following topics form the underling dynamic of The Enid's long awaited and still incomplete album - but I have now crossed the Rubicon with this task and I can be certain it will be finished, God willing.

The music itself paints a hopeful vision of a post-apocalyptic future. In fact this is the most optimistic music I have ever composed.

Yet it is also a warning - a picture of what the future can be but only if we are prepared to make the sacrifices now in order to have it. It could also be prediction of what we will never amount to - A Bridge Too Far.

Now Playing...

I took an enforced weekend off...spent it in bed with a nasty cold. I'm back on my feet and will be updating furiously this week...or as furiously as my time will allow ;-)

In any event, here are the albums that are currently getting a lot of spins here...

NEW RELEASES:
Marillion - Happiness is the Road Volume 1: Essence
Marillion - Happiness is the Road Volume 2: The Hard Shoulder
Cardboard Amanda - Cardboard Amanda
Karmakanic - Who's the Boss in the Factory

CATALOGUE RELEASES:
Strawbs - Hero & Heroine
Strawbs - Ghosts
The Enid - In the Region of the Summer Stars
The Enid - Aerie Faerie Nonsense

"I used to be half empty, but now I'm half full..."