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Master of Time 
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 Topic: The Enid
Posted: June 26 2012 at 08:12 |
The Enid is one of my favorite prog outfits and my favorite instrumental group. Though they are not entirely instrumental, and some albums have vocals, however the strongest material will be found in the instrumentals though some of the vocal stuff is great as well. This is definitely a band with a cult following, and I know they have some detractors but I absolutely love them. In the Region of the Summer Stars is in my opinion a masterpiece, though I also love albums like Aerie Faerie Nonsense and Arise and Shine, which is my favorite post-70s Enid album I have listened to. Some people find it too orchestral, but for those who enjoy that The Enid is fantastic. The Enid is led by Robert John Godfrey who conducted the orchestra on the first Barclay James Harvest album.
So how does everybody else feel about this great band?
Edited by Master of Time - June 26 2012 at 08:57
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Snow Dog
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Posted: June 26 2012 at 08:53 |
I like them
Edited by Snow Dog - June 26 2012 at 08:57
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TheGazzardian
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Posted: June 26 2012 at 10:09 |
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I love In The Region..., I also have their studio album from 2010 and it was pretty good but not quite as good.
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richardh
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Posted: June 26 2012 at 13:52 |
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I have a small handfull of albums. The recent studio and live ones are a real treat.Of the old ones I prefer Aerie Fairie Nonsense over Region Of The Summer Stars but both are excellent. Really interesting band that don't get enough attention.
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TODDLER
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Posted: June 29 2012 at 23:18 |
 Master of Time wrote:
The Enid is one of my favorite prog outfits and my favorite instrumental group. Though they are not entirely instrumental, and some albums have vocals, however the strongest material will be found in the instrumentals though some of the vocal stuff is great as well. This is definitely a band with a cult following, and I know they have some detractors but I absolutely love them. In the Region of the Summer Stars is in my opinion a masterpiece, though I also love albums like Aerie Faerie Nonsense and Arise and Shine, which is my favorite post-70s Enid album I have listened to. Some people find it too orchestral, but for those who enjoy that The Enid is fantastic. The Enid is led by Robert John Godfrey who conducted the orchestra on the first Barclay James Harvest album.
So how does everybody else feel about this great band?
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I was a late bloomer regarding this band. A friend attempted to introduce their music to me in the late 70's and my head was elsewhere. I first heard the Enid in 2001. I purchased "In the Region of the Summer Stars" and was shocked by the intensity of the music so much that I called Archie Patterson from "Eurock" and asked him to give me heads up on this band. He told me that the first 4 titles were all instrumental and not to collect anything further than that...because It would contain vocals in the style of opera and that I would not take a liking to it. He also explained that after the first 4 releases, the band was basically not the same in any sense. After hearing "Aerie Faerie Nonsense", "Touch Me", and "Six Pieces", I became curious and decided to invest more into the band's back catalog. "Something Wicked" and "The Spell" reminded me of 10CC as I have always been a huge 10CC fan and it was easy for me to spot those influences...whether they were intentional or not? The following year, I bought "White Goddess", "Seed and Sower" and "Tripping with the Light Fantastic" which actually turned out to be much more solid composition than that particular period of Spell and Wicked. All 3 titles included the vocal style which Archie refered to..however..I notice that on those particular releases, the band had re-polished their roots of the first 4 efforts. I began researching on the internet, discovered a website for the band, and was completely shocked to discover that the founding members were orphans at "Finchdon Manor". The band had this strange way of sounding like an orchestra. The duel harmony lead guitar parts of Stewart and Lickerish placed in the intense style of Classical rock was something I had never heard done before....at least of all, not in this fashion. The guitars were intense like Fripp , but had this "rock bite" of harmony that a person would actually hear in the harmony guitar parts of a rock group like Thin Lizzy or Wishbone Ash. So when you plug your guitar in and use distortion ...and just the right amount , it has that cry or bite of an edge that you hear in rock music...however...the notes and signature phrasing played by Stewart and Lickerish derive from the Classical world. It was a very witty concept or idea. I had never heard earlier complex prog bands such as ELP, Genesis, PFM, or even the guitar in Univers Zero sound quite like this. The whole story of how Robert John Godfrey met Stewart and Lickerish was simply fascinating. The Black community had created "Blues", "Jazz", "Rock N' Roll" from the pain and suffering they experienced as slaves..which was the irony of their life. To be that positive and create art from damnation. The founding members of the Enid created the sound of an orchestra within a prog band and were possibly influenced to do so from the pain and suffering of abandonment as orphans. This is my personal analogy of them. I don't expect anyone to agree with it, however...there is something about them which seperates their creations from almost everyone else in the history of prog and I honestly believe it has to do with their childhood or upbringing in that "Boys town of America" type school that tossed their fate as writers. The usage of the bell toll and the creepy atmosphere of certain pieces are bewitching. I had conversed with Francis Lickerish years ago. He was an interesting character. They are in a world of their own. I love the Enid.
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Dean
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Posted: June 30 2012 at 06:08 |
There are of course two versions of In The Region Of The Summer Stars and they are very different. In 1984 EMI had "lost" half the original tapes so RJG and Steve Stewart re-record the entire second half and change much of the first, creating a "version" of the original album. It's different, and on first hearing I did not like it... not just a little, but a lot - in my opinion they'd lost much of the dynamic interplay between the musicians that they had captured on the original recording - I think this is in part due to the lack of Francis Lickerish's input on the re-issue as he is a totally different guitarist to Stewart and added that "bite" that Toddler refers to. Later I grew to love both versions equally, taking the re-recorded version in context to their other 1980s releases and not comparing it back to the original or any of their 70s albums.
I have said this before, and it bears repeating - The Enid are a live band, and in that listening to them live is a completely different experience to listening to an album in the comfort of your living room. I first heard them at the Reading Festival in 1976 and was blown away and suckered in and all those other trite metaphors that we associate with bands we raise on a pedestal of adulation, but it was a true account of what happened - I went along to see Gong, Camel and 801 and came home an Enid convert who joined the Enid Appreciation Society (later The Stand) and followed them all over the Home Counties. I was at the famed Roundhouse and Hammersmith Odean gigs and saw them play NUS bars in numerous Polytechs and Uni's and even in a small provincial nite-club where I had the oportunity to chat with Steve and Francis at length after the gig. It's hard to empress the feeling of an Enid live gig and it's harder still to capture that on album, even the superb Live at Hammersmith (Vol1 & 2) and the recent DVD release of that show does not really convey it either - it's a "you had to be there" effect where the audience vibe and audience reaction lifts the experience to another level ... at the Cranfield Institute of Technology students union bar we would sit on the floor and become absorbed in the music as it washed over us - it wasn't a religious experience but an intense listening experience - like 200 people with a single intent of capturing every note in concentrated silence - and then the place would erupt in spontaneous applause that seemed to last as long as the set itself (and in many cases it did - the reports you read of six call backs at Reading and 20 minute standing ovations at Hammersmith are all true). I've taken friends of mine who were not into Prog at all to Enid shows and they've come away clutching T-Shirts, singles and albums raving about how great they were, yet if I'd played them an album beforehand I doubt they would have gone along with me. I know this sounds sycophantic, but I cannot help it - I have seen thousands of gigs in the past 40 years and none affected me or stayed with me like The Enid live - the only gig that came close was seeing some very close friends of mine play the gig of their lives at the Bloodstock indoor metal festival in 2005. I saw The Enid recently during their Journey's End tour and they are still that good, albeit without the power-house of the twined guitars of Steve and Francis.
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ExittheLemming
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Joined: October 19 2007
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Posted: June 30 2012 at 07:01 |
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I watched a series of You Tube interviews with Robert John Godfrey and have to say that the main mover and shaker behind the the Enid is an immensely likeable and candid fellow. In many respects the Enid are the 'posh prog' that is habitually pilloried as represented by Genesis re the dichotomy between Finchden Manor and say, Charterhouse (probably tenuously comparable but privilege appears to be a damn sight less resilient than deprivation in the lineage of the Prog giants)
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TODDLER
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Posted: June 30 2012 at 07:33 |
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Dean! You were a member of the "Enid Appreciation Society"? I just read your post and was on the edge of my seat. I remember back in 2003 or 4 ..contacting Francis Lickerish by e-mail..WHICH...I can't recall how I managed to do that...anyway,..he replied and addressed me as Christine who is my wife. He was flattered by my compliments , but called me Christine in every e-mail. LOL! I attempted to explain that she was my wife, but he continued to address me with her name so I went along with it. I told him how desperate I was to obtain the cd releases of the "Hammersmith 79". He e-mailed me and said he did not have the cd's but owned the sole copy of the film footage on VHS. He said he would mail the tape to me and only under 1 condition and that was if I promised to mail it back. When this VHS tape arrived in the mail, I played it, hearing the music , but with no picture. I had forgotten that the English video tapes did not work on American made VCR'S. I didn't have the money to have it converted, became nervous, and mailed the tape back the next morning. If you ever see him again, ask him if he remembers any of this. He was working at a rehab then and wrote me some long e-mails about his life. We conversed quite a bit about lute and guitar, but in the end..he still thought I was Christine. What a thrill for me as I was an Enid fanatic.
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Dean
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Posted: June 30 2012 at 07:47 |
TODDLER wrote:
Dean! You were a member of the "Enid Appreciation Society"? I just read your post and was on the edge of my seat. I remember back in 2003 or 4 ..contacting Francis Lickerish by e-mail..WHICH...I can't recall how I managed to do that...anyway,..he replied and addressed me as Christine who is my wife. He was flattered by my compliments , but called me Christine in every e-mail. LOL! I attempted to explain that she was my wife, but he continued to address me with her name so I went along with it. I told him how desperate I was to obtain the cd releases of the "Hammersmith 79". He e-mailed me and said he did not have the cd's but owned the sole copy of the film footage on VHS. He said he would mail the tape to me and only under 1 condition and that was if I promised to mail it back. When this VHS tape arrived in the mail, I played it, hearing the music , but with no picture. I had forgotten that the English video tapes did not work on American made VCR'S. I didn't have the money to have it converted, became nervous, and mailed the tape back the next morning. If you ever see him again, ask him if he remembers any of this. He was working at a rehab then and wrote me some long e-mails about his life. We conversed quite a bit about lute and guitar, but in the end..he still thought I was Christine. What a thrill for me as I was an Enid fanatic. |
I also had a (oh so very brief) exchange of emails with Francis around that time (he contacted me asking after an oil painting I did of him back in '77 that I no longer owned as I had given it to a friend of mine as a 21st birthday present) and he spoke about getting back into music after a very long and difficult period in his life, he talked about employing medieval and earlier scales and modulations and of course the lute - this has since materialised as Secret Green with their very brilliant To Wake The King album...an absolute must-have for any Enid fan and recommended listening for anyone who likes good old-fashioned folk-tinged Symphonic Prog.
Francis donated his copy of Hammersmith '79 to RJG and it is available from TheEnidi online store - I've scanned the front-row of the gig footage and cannot see myself, I was too far to the left of the stage to be captured on film 
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TODDLER
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Posted: June 30 2012 at 09:24 |
Dean wrote:
TODDLER wrote:
Dean! You were a member of the "Enid Appreciation Society"? I just read your post and was on the edge of my seat. I remember back in 2003 or 4 ..contacting Francis Lickerish by e-mail..WHICH...I can't recall how I managed to do that...anyway,..he replied and addressed me as Christine who is my wife. He was flattered by my compliments , but called me Christine in every e-mail. LOL! I attempted to explain that she was my wife, but he continued to address me with her name so I went along with it. I told him how desperate I was to obtain the cd releases of the "Hammersmith 79". He e-mailed me and said he did not have the cd's but owned the sole copy of the film footage on VHS. He said he would mail the tape to me and only under 1 condition and that was if I promised to mail it back. When this VHS tape arrived in the mail, I played it, hearing the music , but with no picture. I had forgotten that the English video tapes did not work on American made VCR'S. I didn't have the money to have it converted, became nervous, and mailed the tape back the next morning. If you ever see him again, ask him if he remembers any of this. He was working at a rehab then and wrote me some long e-mails about his life. We conversed quite a bit about lute and guitar, but in the end..he still thought I was Christine. What a thrill for me as I was an Enid fanatic. |
I also had a (oh so very brief) exchange of emails with Francis around that time (he contacted me asking after an oil painting I did of him back in '77 that I no longer owned as I had given it to a friend of mine as a 21st birthday present) and he spoke about getting back into music after a very long and difficult period in his life, he talked about employing medieval and earlier scales and modulations and of course the lute - this has since materialised as Secret Green with their very brilliant To Wake The King album...an absolute must-have for any Enid fan and recommended listening for anyone who likes good old-fashioned folk-tinged Symphonic Prog. There was a band Francis Lickerish joined or formed on his own after his departure from the Enid. I read about this band on a website and perhaps that is how I obtained his e-mail address. I can no longer recall the name of that band, but I believe I saw that oil painting of yours either on that website or possibly another one. It was amazing! I seem to recall him kicking one of his legs foward in the painting...but I can't be sure. It seems there has been a particular painting of Francis Lickerish circulating on the net. It seems I may have seen it on more than one site. If this is in fact your painting...I find your work amazing! He is one of the all time underground prog heroes of the day and the painting serves an important purpose. I can't begin to tell you how many American prog fans I have crossed paths with who have no idea how great of a guitarist he really is. Even his work with the Enid does not accurately match up with his diversity and impeccable technique and feel for the instrument. In which case it is common for guitarists to tow the line and express their talents from a distant star (so to speak), within the compositions of a prog band. Thus, it is difficult for a majority of people to realize their potential as players. Not every great composer wants their guitarist to guide their band like Steve Howe did on the Yes Album. To rehearse a piece like "Fool/The Tower of Babel" or as titled on an earlier cd release..."Fool/The Falling Tower" ...with a unit of progressive/Classically trained musicians takes hours of practice. The piece has a beautiful melodic feel to it while the technical side of getting the piece precise and tight is one intense challenge. Once you play that piece everyday for a year, become jaded with the sections of it and not practice it for 1 day...and attempt to play it the following day, you will make mistakes. The Enid are complex in a way that differs from other complex bands. Didn't they practice between 12 to 15 hours a day before recording their early albums? Isn't that the reason why Nick Magnus departed? The pressures and demand of hard work in the Enid, to my knowledge has always been relentless. I believe that once you're in, you must live the life of the Enid and it is not like that with a majority of prog bands.
Francis donated his copy of Hammersmith '79 to RJG and it is available from TheEnidi online store - I've scanned the front-row of the gig footage and cannot see myself, I was too far to the left of the stage to be captured on film |
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Dean
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Posted: June 30 2012 at 09:36 |
TODDLER wrote:
but I believe I saw that oil painting of yours either on that website or possibly another one. It was amazing! I seem to recall him kicking one of his legs foward in the painting...but I can't be sure. It seems there has been a particular painting of Francis Lickerish circulating on the net. It seems I may have seen it on more than one site. If this is in fact your painting...I find your work amazing! |
this one:
Sadly that's the only photograph of the painting I have - I never did get his hat right - the photo was taken before i applied the final glaze, which I think I used to create a shadow from the spot-light onto the backdrop curtain - gah! It's been over thirty years since I last saw the original I can't remember... it's one of the few oil paintings I ever did, nice to work with but took ages to dry.
/edit: the pose was typical Francis - always very dramatic on stage - Steve would stand and play while Francis was leaping this way and that and still playing beautiful guitar.
Edited by Dean - June 30 2012 at 09:39
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TODDLER
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Posted: June 30 2012 at 10:03 |
Dean wrote:
TODDLER wrote:
but I believe I saw that oil painting of yours either on that website or possibly another one. It was amazing! I seem to recall him kicking one of his legs foward in the painting...but I can't be sure. It seems there has been a particular painting of Francis Lickerish circulating on the net. It seems I may have seen it on more than one site. If this is in fact your painting...I find your work amazing! |
this one:
Sadly that's the only photograph of the painting I have - I never did get his hat right - the photo was taken before i applied the final glaze, which I think I used to create a shadow from the spot-light onto the backdrop curtain - gah! It's been over thirty years since I last saw the original I can't remember... it's one of the few oil paintings I ever did, nice to work with but took ages to dry.
/edit: the pose was typical Francis - always very dramatic on stage - Steve would stand and play while Francis was leaping this way and that and still playing beautiful guitar. |
YES! This is it! Thank you so much for posting this. I love this painting. This should be in the prog art museum. This is very special to the history of prog.
Edited by TODDLER - June 30 2012 at 10:05
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Master of Time
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Posted: July 01 2012 at 17:13 |
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Wow, you guys have some really amazing stories about this band. Unfortunately I am too young to have experienced all of the the things you have and unfortunately have never been able o hear the original In the Region of the Summer Stars album. Also I live in the US and might never get a chance to see them live, and if they ever actually toured here they would never come where I live.
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TODDLER
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Posted: July 01 2012 at 20:49 |
Master of Time wrote:
Wow, you guys have some really amazing stories about this band. Unfortunately I am too young to have experienced all of the the things you have and unfortunately have never been able o hear the original In the Region of the Summer Stars album. Also I live in the US and might never get a chance to see them live, and if they ever actually toured here they would never come where I live. |
I believe the original version (release), of "In the Region of The Summer Stars" has been remeasterd for cd and available from Greg Walker's Synphonic Music website. Don't take my word for it. Check yourself. I'm just thinking that I saw it on there on a night when I fell asleep at the computer.
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M27Barney
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Posted: July 02 2012 at 06:39 |
I have seen them live @ the free-trade hall in Manchester, I thnk that FAND is one of the best instrumental prog peices of all time, very complex and orchestral. Mind you I have to be in a certain mood to listen to it.....
In the region of the summer stars is also a good CD....
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Withnail
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Posted: August 10 2012 at 08:54 |
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I was gutted to have missed their event with the CBSO in Birmingham last year. I had tickets but couldn't make it on the night. I really hope they do something like that again.
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The Enid
