A L B U M  R E V I E W S

These reviews of most of Galahad's albums are culled from various web editions of editions of Modern Dance magazine. They're reproduced here by kind permission of editor Dave W Hughes.

Year Zero
Yet another change from the multidirectional band Galahad, this time they metamorphosis several times in the space of 56 minutes which coincidentally is also the length of this offering. Fifteen pieces of music in an eclectic variety of styles - the common factor is the classic way that each piece is produced. The band as we are all aware (or should be) from many previous albums are musically superb and the concept of the material is as descriptive as anything else around. There's music from many genres including a bit of speaker throbbing heavy metal, some futuristic sounds and some haunting lyrics which give way to some south eastern style ambience (TD eat your heart out). The whole soundscape is excellent, with a very special guest star here in the form of John Wetton and if this had been on vinyl I would have worn it out by now. As Tina would have put it 'simply the best'.

Wise Old Bird, Modern Dance #42

 

Following Ghosts
This is the fifth studio album from Galahad and shows the band still ever marching forwards. The sheer diversity of the eleven tracks here prove the point. Sounds stretch from progressive to heavy beat music and from a long (14 minutes) progressive piece to a short (2 mins) instrumental, it's a fascinating concept and goes together well. The album starts at a blistering pace and is balanced out with difficult and sometimes very complex arrangements. One of my favourites being a powerful song entitled Imago. There are two new songs written to give a theme, i.e. A Short Reflection On Two Past Lives Pt1/Pt2. Part 1 being acoustic and Pt.2 being epic like! Karma For One starts off very lively and then develops into a gorgeous song full of feeling and musically competes with the pulsating Ocean Blue. The individual talents of the group blend in well together and lyrically the songs are thought provoking. So, it's one great step for Galahad....!

Zaphod, Modern Dance #27

 

De-constructing Ghosts
ATTENTION! This is not Galahad as we know and love them, there's no prog rock, only an assault on your bass cones. The blame seems to lie with Neal Pepper who edited and mastered this disk, although Stuart Nicholson was project co-ordinator. This idea of taking a prog rock album and turning it into a club thing has been done before lately by Marillion, but I didn't think this sort of thing would appeal to Galahad, but it did so that's that. So taking off my rock hat and not having a clubbing hat to replace it with, all I can say is this album will attract a completely different audience who will appreciate it for what it is, quite a good album. It should be good as the songs come from a cracking rock album Constructing Ghosts.

Arthur, Modern Dance #28

 

Other Crimes & Misdemeanours II
I'm always a little wary about albums that are full of early recordings, re-mixes and bits of tapes that have been forgotten because normally they've been forgotten for a reason. Well this album isn't like that, all the material on here is OK. In fact most of it is excellent. The album is arranged in four sessions, first up was recorded back in '86, 2 years after forming. The two tracks are The Opiate and Dreaming From The Inside - their first single released in'87 with only 500 pressings. Session 2 contains 4 songs recorded in 90 with only Stuart Nicholson and Roy Keyworth from the last line-up, but there's a better feeling from the music. By session 3 Stuart is the last surviving original member now being supported by Mark Andrews from the last session and new boy Steve Smith both on keyboards. There are just 2 songs both which are interesting with diverse vocals and keyboards. Lastly session 4 was recorded after the band had been on Tommy Vance's Friday Night Rock Show and is on more commercial lines, 4 songs recorded in Nov 91 in a hope of attracting interested management companies. Although this faded at the time I would have thought that 'Pretty In The Sun' would have had them reaching for their cheque books, but it didn't and so ended in 1991 for them. One of Galahad's problems could be personnel!!! From 1985 to 1996 there have been 23 members of the band. The last line up stayed put to record a superb album in 95 but that's another story previously covered in the Modem Dance Magazine.

Ford, Modern Dance website #4

 

Dizzy, in Modern Dance #38, put together his thoughts on five of the band's albums under the banner "GALAHAD - A Few Steps In Chivalry":

Nothing is Written (Avalon GHCD3) was released in 1985 and is a truly excellent creation. The opening song Face the Sun sets the standard for good quality lyrics and its nice instrumentally, this is not an exciting album but neither is it dull, it is the sort of sound you can play at the drop of a hat. I have enjoyed this and it has been a pleasurable listening experience, it seems to be quite a political album with songs about extraterrestrials, Mrs. Thatcher's government, the silent revolution, the order of things and the danger of total non-compassionate automation. The last song is Religious Prayer I'm not sure exactly what the meaning is although it seems to make me feel guilty for this lack of understanding. If you don't buy another album this year you should have this one.

In a Moment of Complete Madness (GHCD 2) came out in 1989 and was the spark that lit Galahad's rise in status and the ability to sell albums in over 30 countries. The music is quality progressive rock. The album was originally only five tracks, on this release you get three extra tracks as a bonus with re-recorded versions of the acoustic meanderings of Painted Lady, the atmospheric 11 minute version of Ghost of Durtal and the epic Welcome to Paradise. The first five songs that made up the original are all perfectly superb but it's the last track Lady Messiah that hit the high for me. An excellent musical collection.

Not All There (GAQ1CD) saw slight change of direction for Galahad, this 1994 offering is by the Galahad Acoustic Quintet, comprising Stuart Nicholson (vocals), Mark Andrews (keyboards), Roy Kenworth (guitars), Spence Luckman (drums) and Sarah Quilter (blowing instruments) plus extra special guest Neil 'big one' Pepper! First and last songs (Sir Galahad scenes 1&2) have been composed around words by A.L. Tennyson and a great job has been made of them, this album is a little more folky than previously and I find the whole concept excellent. There's some very melodic music here; track ten is probably my favourite with the chanting in Legless in Gaza. Not enough people have heard of this album or it would have sold mega amounts.

Classic Rock Live (GHCRS1), is, obviously, a live album, recorded on the 22nd April 1995 at the Herringthorp leisure centre Rotherham. (Dizzy height's) What you have here is what you get with Galahad live on stage, there are absolutely no overdubs, any mistakes are real and so is the audience! The band line-up is the same as in '94 and as far as I know this is their only live release, plus it's a joint venture with Avalon Records and the Classic Rock Society. For this live set they had, I think, four previous albums to draw from and this accounts for 7 out of the 8 songs, the other 'The Chase' is from I know not where, but I do know it's a cracking song. The album opens with 'Sleepers' which is a great song about the French underground during the second world war and which had an album named after it in 1994. Great live album.

For the last album in this group we have a collection of songs released in 1997 but had existed since the summer of '95. The album, Other Crimes & Misdemeanours II (GHCD5), is split into four sessions, session one contains only two tracks but one of them 'Dreaming from the Inside' is a fabulous song and the other 'Opiate' while different in context is full of dramatic synth to make this an exciting song. Session two includes four tracks that carry on the trend of excellent rock. Session three however contains 'Aqua Nimue', which is like something from Mike Oldfield with a powerful over dub, it only two and a half minutes but seems longer. The only other song in this session is very short but makes up for that in the quality of the vocal (reminds me of Greg Lake). Finally session four finishes the album with four soft rock songs to make this a very pleasurable album and an ace in the hole for the Galahad collection.