THE POET, THE PIPER AND THE FOOL

This UK band is rooted in the late Seventies, they did a lot of gigs and had a sensational live act featuring slide-projections and Peter Gabriel like stage visuals. They earned a growing cult-following and the record company MCA contracted the band, this resulted in a few singles and two albums, Grace and Live. Everybody was waiting for the final breakthrough but unfortunately Grace disbanded in 1981, just before Marillion starts to speerhead the neo-prog movement. In the late Eighties a smokey pub is the craddle for a reunion and Grace starts to perform on stage and to write new songs. On this CD (released in 1992) you can listen to nine tracks from that era, to start with the fluent and swinging The Piper delivering impressive church organ sounds. The cheerful flute sounds give a folky undertone to this song, also on the rest of the CD the flute sound can be traced frequently. The track The Fields sounds quite simple because of the monotone drumming but the Steve Rothery-like guitar work and the tasteful contributions on flute, saxophone and keyboards makes it to a pleasant listening session. The Poet is in the vein of The Fields and also delivers Tony Banks-like organ work and delicate guitar soli. On Raindance the atmosphere is close to Peter Gabriel his emotional song Biko because of the moving vocals, the tight and hypnotizing rhythm and the bagpipe sound. Then the swinging Success and the dreamy Lullaby (featuring electric piano play). The highlight is Holy man that contains two parts: firs folky, then again Tony Banks-like organ work and finally a varied sound blending all styles on this CD. Despite the echoes of Genesis and Marillion, the sound of Grace is varied and original, this unknown band deserves more attention.