The Enid, In The Region Of The Summer Stars

1976. I was a slightly rebellious 16 year old adolescent when I heard an advert on Capital Radio for a new album from a new band called The Enid. I remember being on a family holiday the next week in Devon. On a day trip to Plymouth I found the album in a record shop and went into a listening booth (remember them?) and fell deeply, passionately in love with what I heard. Now, anyone that was involved in the early days of The Enid knows that their cult following was almost of a religious fervour. And I soon found myself in the middle of it. What followed over the next 4 years and 60-plus gigs were some of the best moments of my life. So what was it about?

Band: The Enid
Title: In The Region of the Summer Stars
Recorded: 1974-75
Release date: 1976
Label: BUK
Distributors: DECCA\CBS\EMI
Cat No: BULP 2014

Side One:
The Fool…
…The Falling Tower
Death, The Reaper
The Lovers
The Devil

Side Two:
The Sun
The Last Judgement
In The Region Of The Summer Stars

As much of the original sleeve
as would fit on our scanner

1973. Some of the music that was to become 'In the Region of the Summer Stars' started life as a piece entitled 'The Quest For the Holy Grail'. This was a production that two Finchden Manor School students (Steve Stewart and Francis Lickerish) were preparing as the final performance for the school's closure, due to the death of its founder George Lyward. As a visiting old boy, Robert John Godfrey decided to join in with the venture and help the two guitarists with the musical composition. After the school closed RJG took the boys under his wing and they began writing in earnest what we now know as 'In the Region of the Summer Stars'. The concept album, based on tarot cards, was originally going to be entitled 'The Voyage Of The Acolyte.' (Sound familiar?). Apparently Tony Stratton-Smith's Charisma Records were originally interested in the project, but in the end did not sign them. Anyway, as the saying goes, "careless talk costs lives" or in this case album titles/concepts - Steve Hackett was also on Charisma. With the addition of drummer Dave Storey (although Robbie Dobson actually has the album credit), second keyboardist Glen Tollet and bassist Neil Kavanagh, 'In the Region of the Summer Stars' was recorded late 1974 and early 1975 and finally released in the summer of 1976 on BUK records (an EMI subsidiary). The album also featured Dave Hancock, who played the trumpet solo on the bridge between 'The Last Judgement' and 'In the Region of the Summer Stars'.

During the early 80s the band, with varying degrees of success, obtained the master tapes and re-released their back catalogue on their own label. Unfortunately, one of the tapes they were not able to get back was 'In the Region of the Summer Stars', or at least side two of it. Undeterred, in 1984 they went into the studio and re-recorded the piece. This time with the lineup of just RJG on keyboards, Stephen Stewart on guitars and Chris North providing drums and percussion. Some of the piece has changed and has a different feel from the original. Listening to the two now I feel that the 1984 version shows its age more than the original 1975 recording. Interestingly, when I last saw the band a couple of years ago the version they were playing live was faithful to the original arrangement.

Best described as classical music performed on rock instruments, as anyone who has heard The Enid knows, it is impossible to describe their music without making references to 19th and early 20th century orchestral composers. The music is complex and emotional.

The totally instrumental work is based around the piano and synthesizer sounds created by RJG combined with the dual lead guitar work of Stewart and Lickerish. However, do not get the impression that the Enid's work sounds like a Tomita or Vangelis or indeed Rick Wakeman album. The band's instrumentation is arranged as an orchestra. RJG went to great lengths to customize his sounds to effectively mimic brass, strings and woodwind. Because of these unique synthesizer sounds, although the album is a child of the early 70s, the album's sound has not dated so much as its contemporary works such as 'Journey to the Centre of the Earth' etc. The lead guitar work of Stewart and Lickerish is where the orchestra met rock with the guitars sometimes adding to the main melody, sometimes going off an a wild tangent around it. To add to the orchestral sound one of the tricks they used live and in the studio was a hidden orchestral reverb plate (two very large steel plates joined together by springs) which gave even the smallest hall an added audio openness.

Side one of the album has influences ranging from the Bartok-like 'The Fool . . . The Falling Tower' to the highly romantic Rachmaninov-style piano solo of 'The Lovers', a piece that was actually played at my own wedding (Thank you Gordon). To end the first side we have 'The Devil', the closest the band ever got to playing a heads-down heavy rock number. This track was later vocalized and re-recorded, with an even heavier rock arrangement, as the humorous single '665, The Great Bean'.

Side two is the joy of the whole Enid catalogue. Opening with a solo trumpet welcoming the dawn of a new day, 'The Sun' builds to a climax that heralds 'The Last Judgement'. Starting with a percussive rhythm not unlike Ravel's Bolero, around a theme based on a Latin gothic funeral mass (the 'Dies Irae'), the instrumentation builds and builds into a powerful crescendo of sound. This band had a real control of emotional power like no other. Quietness, the solo trumpet echoes again and we are taken to the land that is 'In The Region Of The Summer Stars'. With twin lilting guitars, the main theme of this piece is both joyous and reflective. The middle section has an almost power-chord guitar break with the guitars just playing with the main theme, and with a solo piano and harp-like keyboard, the piece finally drifts out in an almost Mahlerian way.

However, there is no real way to simply describe the majesty of this album in words, you simply have to find it and listen to it.

There was another very appealing side to this band and that was the release of the contractual obligatory singles. How can a totally instrumental 'Classical Rock ' band have a top 10 single? Well basically they didn't stand a chance, but decided to have a bit of a laugh anyway and released a number of humorous singles. The first release 'Golden Earrings' was a cover of a 1930s popular song arranged very theatrically by RJG. This track also saw the first 'vocal' performance by RJG. Their reworking of 'The Devil' off the first album, entitled '665, The Great Bean', has one of my favourite verses of all time: -

"Discos in heaven all shut at 11 and they only serve pop in the bars Sir, I'll put you at ease with some good Lebanese, a blue film and two or three jars Sir"

These first forays into the pop charts were eventually followed by 'The Dambusters March / Land of Hope and Glory' (after a lot of problems with Elgar's publishers over copyright) and later 'Heigh Ho' (from Disney's Snow White) and 'When You Wish Upon A Star' (from Pinocchio). Funnily, perhaps sadly, listening to 'When You Wish….' again, I do get the feeling that, with its use of a quotation from 'Fand', and released when it was, this song was really an epitaph for that first version of The Enid and the first generation of fans. The innocence had gone and things were never quite the same again.

The common thread of all the fans in the early days was that they were mainly intelligent adolescents that had been brought up listening to classical music. On stage Robert John Godfrey came over as a cross between Master of Ceremonies, conductor, keyboard wizard, and your favourite uncle. Guitarist Francis Lickerish, with his reading of mythical tales out of his big story book, sitting cross legged centre stage whilst the band slowly built up the opening of the tone poem Fand, was your mystical mentor. They both held the audience in the palm of their hands and the band became the darlings of the Marquee club and Reading festival.

L to R. Stephen Stewart, Robert John Godfrey, Francis Lickerish and
Tony Freer kick out the jams on 'Wild Thing' at the Enid Society Convention

Some of the above plus Dave Storey, Terry Pack, Willie Gilmour
and that hymn sheet.

If you want an idea of what we, the fans, were like, watch the promenaders at the Last Night of the Proms. With the affectionate, knowing banter and in-jokes between the fans and the band, the waving of Union Jacks, and the rapt attention paid to the music, every Enid gig in those days was a rock'n'roll equivalent of that celebrated event. The band added to this similarity by opening each concert with 'God Save the Queen' and closing it with 'The Dambusters March / Land of Hope and Glory'. The highlight of each year was the candle-lit Enid Christmas Carol concert held at the Marquee with the band doing traditional carols 'Enid style'. Remember the big hymn sheets they used to have at school assembly? Well The Enid even had one on stage so everyone could sing along….

An Enid society was formed, with the motto 'All members one of another'. Someone asked me at the time, 'Is this a religious cult or something?' Well, it almost felt like it. Indeed, reminiscing with friends recently, we all remarked that special things like being able to sit-in at a soundcheck or being invited to the band's house were almost like receiving 'a blessing from above'. It would also be embarrassing to mention the discussions that raged at the time about the symbolism of the three-finger design of the 'Touch Me' cover…. An Enid Society conference was organized, along with picnics and other get-togethers. I think the peak of this fervour was the first, packed, Hammersmith Odeon headline gig of March 3rd 1979, which saw displays of regional banners, and coach parties being organised to get people to the gig. The concert was recorded and later released as a live album. It was at this time that the UK's Radio One dubbed them "The biggest cult band in Europe".

One interesting fact illustrates The Enid effect. Towards the end (and to me, and many others, the classic original band ended in late 1980 with the split that saw the departure of Francis Lickerish), many of the early fans regarded their concerts not as just an evening out to see a band, but as a social event, where meeting the many friends we had made during that time was a least as important as the gig itself. Indeed, some of the people I met over those years remain my closest friends to this day.

Over the years 1976 to 1980 the band were to release three more albums ('Aerie Faerie Nonsense', 'Touch Me', and 'Six Pieces'). All great albums, but nothing so unique and touching as 'In the Region of the Summer Stars'. The band, although always in essence the trinity of Robert John Godfrey, Steven Stewart and Francis Lickerish, grew to a seven piece on stage. By 1979 they should have been on the brink of major stardom but through a series of bad deals, bad management and internal disputes never quite got there. Obviously the rise of Punk Rock in 1977-8 didn't exactly help matters.

Surprisingly, the last studio album to feature the three original band members was not 'Six Pieces', but in fact Kim Wilde's self-titled first album. If you listen to the first track on Kim's album,' Water on Glass', RJG's keyboard sound is unmistakable. So the next time you hear 'Kids in America' on the radio remember, you are really listening to Kim and her backing band:- The Enid (with members of the Enid society doing "We're the Kids....".

1980. The original band had split. The Enid Society was wound up. It was the end of an era. However, this was not the end of The Enid's story, as a new and very different Enid rose from the ashes in 1983 with 'Something Wicked This Way Comes'. And the band still continues to this day under the constant leadership of the one remaining original member, Robert John Godfrey.

Over the years the band has become something of a legend and as in all good legends, a number of myths have grown up around the band, a famous one concerns a member running away to Ireland due to fear of nuclear war. I don't really want to start a debate, but let's just say that it would be wise not to completely believe everything you read officially or unofficially about this enigmatic band.

Tommy Vance, of Radio One's Friday Rock Show, once stated "Robert John Godfrey is to my mind one of the greatest composers this country has ever had". But, to the majority of music lovers The Enid have remained "Too Rock to be Classical and too Classical to be Rock," never really fully accepted by either audience. Perhaps to address this problem, Robert John Godfrey's latest venture is 'Legend For Piano And Orchestra', a fully orchestral piano concerto based on some Enid themes. Hopefully this composition, which appears tailored for 'Classic FM' listening, will finally bring RJG the critical acclaim he so rightly deserves.

A quarter of a century later looking back over the whole Enid career to date you can truly say that in the field of 'progressive' rock music there has never been a band as musically unique, complex, touching and English as The Enid.

From those of us that have known and grown with you these past 25 years, a very happy birthday, Enid.

Yours truly,
Ian Oakley
Bathtub of Adventures
Ian Oakley for B.O.A Ink 1999.