Friday 30 August 2013

Underrated Bands: Galahad


The above, 'Empires Never Last', is one of my two favourite Galahad tracks, and is a kind of signature tune for this massively talented but underrated band.  A quick bio of Galahad reads that the band were kind of borne out of the back end of the '2nd Wave of British Prpg' (Marillion; IQ; Twelfth Night; Pallas; Pendragon etc.) in the mid-1980s, but only started properly recording in the early 1990s on their own indepemdent record label (and occasionally in conjunction with a Polish label), and, since then, they've largely remained beyond most (even discerning) listeners' radars.

Indeed, up until a few months ago, I was kind of only vaguely aware of Galahad as being an underground British prog band, but couldn't have named you one of their songs, which is more the pity.  However, I've tried to put this right by giving the band an extended listening over the last few months, which brings me to the second of my favourite tracks by the band, 'Richelieu's Prayer':


Love the way how the beautiful gentle melody of the first few minutes of this track gives way to archetypal (but much valued) Prog self-indulgence. 

Well, the two tracks above are currently my favourite Galahad tunes, but which other songs do I really like?  Well, I now find myself repeatedly playing both the title track and 'Seize the Day' from the 2112 'Battle Scars' album:



So there you have it:  here's where I'm at in the early stages of properly discovering and appreciating a great but massively hidden/underrated British Prog Rock band. 

Can't wait to see Galahad at Warsaw Klub Progresja on October 25th.  Seen a lot of good Prog-type bands at Warsaw Klub Progresja over the last couple of years:  The Flower Kings; Threshhold; Enochian Theory; Riverside; Pain of Salvation etc.

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