Greatest Ever Prog Rock

Yet more activity on the Galahad front........ Galahad are pleased to announce that their track 'Empires Never Last' will feature on a rather nifty compilation entitled 'Greatest Ever Prog Rock' which will be released on the Union Square imprint on the 2nd April 2012. The album is a 3 CD compilation featuring tracks from 40  bands from all eras of Prog including Yes, Camel, Curved Air, Rick Wakeman, Marillion, Colosseum, The Moody Blues, Uriah Heep, Twelfth Night, IQ amongst many others

The recording of Battle Scars - an update

Well, 'Battle Scars' is now 99.9% mixed subject to a few minor adjustments here and there and will be mastered in the next couple of weeks or so. It is all sounding very big, fat, heavy, dark, light, uplifting, rocking, dancing, progging, trancing, epic etc, etc... Karl Groom has really excelled himself with this recording totally capturing our vision for this album. In fact we all feel that is easily the best studio album we have ever recorded ( yes, I know we would say  that but we really, really do!) in terms of songwriting, performances, mixing, arrangements and pure sonic quality! Neil is an integral part of this recording and we are sure he would be very proud of what we have achieved with 'Battle Scars'. He's probably looking down on us right now telling us to get on with it! The final track running order is: 1. Battle Scars 2. Reach for the Sun 3. Singularity 4. Bitter and Twisted 5. Suspended Animation 6. Beyond the Barbed Wire 7. Seize the Day Bonus: Sleepers 2012 In fact you can all judge for yourselves once it has been released to the waiting world (!) hopefully around Mid April....2012!! We hope you like it, we certainly do...

Whitchurch 92/93 - Live Archives Vol.2

Many, many moons ago, way back in the early 1990’s, a couple of brothers and very enthusiastic live music fans, Dave and Pete Martin, decided to organise occasional rock shows at the village hall of a small, quiet but idyllic Hampshire village called Whitchurch. They very kindly asked if Galahad would play a few of these gigs after having seen us, I believe, at the London Astoria playing with Pendragon amongst others in 1991. As a result Galahad played several gigs at this bijou, on the face of it unremarkable venue. But these gigs were special, very special, small yes, but with the audience packed in like sardines, the beer flowing freely, hot sweat running down the walls, the atmosphere was electric, strangely reminiscent of some heady times at the Marquee Club in London, which was odd considering we were playing in the most unlikely of venues tucked away deep in the Hampshire countryside. These were some of the most memorable and fun shows the band ever played and we think the members of the incredibly receptive audience would agree, if of course they can remember! Those gigs will always linger long in the memory, Pete and Dave went on to better things in bigger venues, but these gigs were where it all started and will always have a special place within the heart and the history of the band. Fast forward to 2011…and the good news is that these shows were recorded both in audio and video format, plus our dear friends at OSKAR Productions in Poland asked if they could release these now ‘historical’ musical documents, to which we replied ‘of course’ you can. Thus ‘Whitchurch - 92/93 - Live Archives vol. 2’ will be released as a digipak double album featuring an audio CD of the show played by the band on 18 July 1992 and a DVD of the show the band played on the 16 July 1993, which is made all the more poignant as both concerts feature Neil on bass guitar, who was in fine form, as were the rest of us at the time!   More news on release dates, availability etc to follow in due course.

Suspended Animation

Here's a preview of Suspended Animation from the forthcoming Galahad album Battle Scars.
The music was written by Neil Pepper and was mixed for the International Prog Rock Show

http://m.youtube.com/?client=mv-google&rdm=4nyrj9yni&tsp=1#/watch?v=MTVxreXhHgY

The images are mainly of the Loreley concert from September 2011. It was Neil's last gig with the band.


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Neil Pepper

NEIL……
Neil Pepper, affectionately known as ‘Big One’ to the band, has finally lost his battle against cancer.
Throughout the whole of the last eighteen months or so and despite all the problems he suffered he always remained incredibly positive, showed immense dignity and never gave in to this most unforgiving of conditions. He even bought new recording equipment and a new bass guitar as well as writing many new songs, several of which will appear on the next Galahad album ‘Battle Scars’.
Ironically, in the last couple of years Neil had brought a renewed vibrancy and spirit to the band, making it a very productive and positive time in the bands career from a writing and recording perspective. In fact, despite being in a great deal of discomfort he still managed to record all his bass tracks on both the forthcoming new Galahad albums.
Neil was and still is an integral part of the ‘Galahad’ family having been involved for many years, we shared so many good times in the studio and on the road which will never be forgotten.
We are all devastated and Galahad will never be the same without him and he can never be replaced. Therefore for the foreseeable future Galahad will continue ‘officially’ as a four piece.
We will always think of him when writing, rehearsing or performing and we will miss him so, so much.
He passed away on Friday 2 September 2011 aged just 44, exactly one year after having performed his final show with the band at Loreley in Germany, which fittingly was one of the most memorable gigs we have ever played.
He leaves behind his lovely wife Jojo and three young children Finnian, Poppy and Rosie.

A quick recording update.....

All the heavy guitars have now been tracked by Roy. The way the new album is sounding, it will have a much heavier edge than Empires Never Last. Throw in some spectacular performances by Spencer on the drums, some very solid bass by Neil, plenty of 'not very prog' keyboards by Dean, a short piano concerto, shredding from Roy the 'axe-man, some fearsome vocals by Stuart and the album is going to clear any cobwebs out of your speaker cabs the first time it is played. Karl Groom is doing a superb job at the helm and his understanding of how the band want to sound is uncanny.

All is looking good for a release in the first half of 2011. Although the title of the album is still to be decided, we can let you know the working titles of the recorded songs that will be on the finished product. In no particular order, the tracks are: Battlescars, Seize the Day, Crest of a Wave, Salvation (parts 1 & 2), Bitter and Twisted, Guardian Angel, Secret Kingdoms, Reprise.

Also, a few extra tracks are being recorded which will celebrate the first 25 years of Galahad. The band are still deciding on the best way to distribute these extra tracks although they will be available around the same time as the official release next year.

Drum recording wrap

The drums have now been recorded for the next Galahad album. Battle Scars was the last track to be recorded and Karl Groom is doing a great job for us at Thin Ice.

Neil will be recording the bass at his studio whilst Roy will be traveling up to Thin Ice very soon to lay the guitars down. The synths/keyboards will be split between Dean's studio and Thin Ice over the next few months with Stuart laying vocals down by the end of the year - we're being optimistic but that's the plan!