Galahad and the last piece of the jigsaw.....

Yes indeed, the rumours are true! Galahad would like to confirm that Neil Pepper is our new/old bass guitarist. We are extremely pleased that Neil has rejoined the band.

He was an integral part of the Galahad set up for ten years between 1992 and 2002 and played on three of our studio albums ‘Sleepers’, ‘Following Ghosts’ and ‘Year Zero’. He is also the bass player on our first live album ‘Classic Rock Live’ as well as appearing on the Galahad Acoustic Quintet album ‘Not All There’.

He has also already made a significant contribution to the new songs that will form our next album. Therefore, even in our 25th year of existence we are very excited about the future for what we regard as the definitive Galahad line up.

As someone once said……..It’s only a matter of going!

Work in progress(ive rock)

The new material for the next album is coming along nicely. It looks like the band have got to the stage of working on the finer details of each of the songs. Also, we have a big surprise for Galahad fans as one of the plans for next years release is to re-record a song that will be very farmiliar to most of you. Over the next few months the first songs will be recorded at Thin Ice Studios with Karl Groom at the helm. Karl did such a good job working with us on Empires Never Last that we didn't really even think about using another studio or producer/engineer.

Keep checking back for the next update....................

Poland 2009 (part 2)

The 6th June was 4TH OSKAR ART-ROCK FESTIVAL in Konin. The largest venue of our tour with Riverside headlining. Riverside had some last minute changes and were not able to make the event. Still, with a good crowd lined up waiting for the doors to open, we felt that this was going to be a good night for us. First up were a Polish band called Lilith, a heavy goth/prog/rock band with a huge sound and a singer with a wonderful angelic sounding voice. Next, our good friends Grendel performed and this time they had bass player Cezary join them for a full band sound with a few songs that were not played on the previous 2 nights. We took to the stage at last and to our surprise, at least half the audience rushed to the front of the stage making it a very noisy and memerable concert for us. After we had finished it was time to pack away and move on to our hotel for the night. Witek, our promoter, had decided on hiring a few chalets out in the countryside for all the bands to stay in. From, at first sight, looked like the set from the movie 'Friday the 13th' became another lovely night as the members from each band all met up for a bit of a party into the small hours.





Next morning, after what felt like about 30 minutes sleep, we headed to Poznan for the final gig of the short tour. The 'Blue Note' club seemed an odd choice for a progressive rock band to play but as it turned out, it was probably our highlight of the tour. A very intimate venue, a world apart from the previous night, was full to the rafters and the audience were buzzing. A major concern earlier in the day was that because of the never ending amounts of dry ice being pumped on stage throughout the previous night, Stuart had a severe sore throat that meant he could hardly talk, let alone sing!!! It was when the band took to the stage that the 'spirit of performance' that has done the band so proud over the last few years, REALLY shone through. Although Stuart was really struggling to get enough out of his voice, his total commitment to putting on a good show paid off with what was probably the 'performance' of the tour.





Packing up the gear for the last time was probably as slow as it could ever be and then we headed back at the hotel. The Grendel members set about organising one last party for us. Although there were only a few hours left before leaving for the airport, Stu, Roy, Spencer and Dean spent the last couple of hours with our wonderful support band.

Next year, if all goes according to plan, we will again be touring Poland and hopefully, Grendel will be coming along for the duration with us again. With next year being Galahad's 25th anniversary, alot has to be planned for a very very busy year........

Poland Tour (part one)

After a 2am start to travel to the airport, we finally arrived in Katowice around 10.30am on Thursday 4th June. A quick checkin at the hotel and we were on our way to the 1st venue - CZERWIEC - PIEKARY SLASKIE, ANDALUZJA.
This was the opening slot for last years tour and it was a tremendous success so we were really looking forward to playing the same venue again. Sure enough, the audience didn't disappoint and it turned out to be a very lively night. Galahad are a band that enjoy to entertain and a lively audience goes a long way in bringing out the best from the guys. A set with a good mixture of old and new led to a good solid first show. Starting with the title track from the Sleepers album and including some 'golden oldies' like Room 801, Lady Messiah and Bugeye, a good portion of the award winning album Empires Never Last finished off the set.
After the gig it was back to the hotel to relax (with vodka) and meet up with the guys -and lady- from Grendel. It turned out to be a perfect match to be touring with Grendel. Their style contrasted Galahads perfectly and to top it off, within a few hours, both bands had become best of friends. This was the way it stayed throughout the tour and we are all still in regular contact with each other.

After a very late night we all hit the road to travel to OSTRÓW. We arrived to find ourselves in a wonderful, picturesque town square to check into a lovely hotel which was only a few minutes walk from the venue. Today was the first chance to relax a little before making our way to the venue for the soundcheck. Modest ticket sales didn't stop the venus from being full by the time the bands came onto the stage. Polish band Grendel, for the 2nd gig, were working without their bass player Cezary (he was due to join for the 3rd and 4th concerts) played another faultless set. Galahad again had a very good response from the audience and the wheels were fully in motion for another very successful tour. A great after show party in a local nightclub with all the guys from both bands further cemented the bond between the Polish/English tour members. Things were certainly looking good.

To be continued..........

All ready to roll

Hi to everyone.

The band have rehearsed for the last time before the trip to Poland and will be leaving sunny Dorset on Wednesday night for the first show on Thursday 4th June (check earlier post for venues).

Stuart and Dean got together this week for a writing session and to fine tune some of the recent compositions. All went well and if the pace can be kept up, there'e no reason why the band won't be heading into the Studio towards the end of the year.

Dean's studio project, After The Storm, has been completed with the help of Lee (who has been asked to have more of an active role in the band so has now turned the duo into a trio). The project has been very rewarding for Dean and he is hugely excited about the months ahead with Galahad to work with the band on the new album.

With the CD release by Metal Mind of Galahad's live performance in Poland in 2006 (which incidentally, is the same that was used for the DVD) the Live CD release of the show at RosFest in 2007 is to be witheld a little longer than originally planned. What this space for details.....

Change to support for Poland

Just a very short entry to say that we have just heard from Witek of Oskar (promoters for the Polish tour) and our support band has been changed. The support will be another Polish group - not Believe, but GRENDEL

Only 2 weeks to go :-)

Rehearsals for mini-tour of Poland

Rehearsals for the mini-your of Poland are about to start. The set list has been decided on and the band are getting very excited about their 3rd trip to Poland.

The Polish audiences are very enthusiastic to see Galahad (after all, the band had to wait 20 years before getting the chance to play live in Poland).

The dates are:

GALAHAD + BELIEVE (elektrycznie): June 2009:

04.06, CZERWIEC - PIEKARY SLASKIE, ANDALUZJA,

05.06 - OSTRÓW WLKP - OCK,

06.06 - 4TH OSKAR ART-ROCK FESTIVAL -GRENDEL + BELIEVE + GALAHAD + RIVERSIDE -KONIN, OSKARD...

07.06. BELIEVE + GALAHAD - Poznan - BLUE NOTE

Lee Abrahams new CD available now

The Mirror, a track from Lee Abraham's new album Black and White can be heard here:

http://drop.io/silhobbit/asset/lee-abraham-the-mirror-from-the-album-black-white-mp3

You can visit Lee's site at http://www.leeabraham.co.uk/

Have a free listen

We've got a taster of two tracks from Empires Never Last, the most recent Galahad Cd for download here: http://cid-a1b43642e0803810.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/FB%20ENL%20Abridged.mp3 it's quite a large download (11mb) in mp3 format.
Its a taster version of the title track followed by a slimmed down version of Termination... enjoy

You can get a copy of the album direct from galahad http://www.galahadonline.com , email: band@galahadonline.com or through the usual internet shops (play.com , amazon etc). If you prefer, the album can be downloaded from itunes: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=263872772&s=143444

New album at the writing stage

It's been a rainy day on the south coast of England. A week's gone by since Galahad played at Mr Kyps with Threshold and the new facebook group has expanded nicely in its first 3 days. Some photos have been uploaded to the facebook group of the Mr kyps gig (photography by Donna- Stu's sister-in-law).

Dean has been putting the finishing touches to his new studio project (After The Storm) at Lee's studio. The mixdown starts this week and some pre-release copies should be available by the time the band head to Poland in early June.

The new galahad material is taking shape quite nicely. Stu has lots of very interesting lyrics needing to be shaped into songs. Working titles at the moment for some of the tracks the band have been working on are Crest of a Wave, Bitter and Twisted, Guardian Angel and Secret World. Of course, things change, adapt, switch around and progress in such ways that these tracks could take on very different shapes over the next few months.

The band were very happy with the way Empires Never Last turned out and the direction the band took for the album was justified in terms of the awards and sales it received. The new material will, in typical Galahad fashion, 'progress forward' but just this time, they also feel that they have found the right formula and enthusiasm to strive towards bringing an even better album out. Hopefully, we might be able to offer sneak previews to our diary readers in the future so keep checking back to keep updated with the news from 'Galahad Towers'.

Welcome to the first blog

Hi everyone



We thought we would keep you up to date on whats happening at Galahad Towers with this, our very own blog :-)

We now have a Facebook group http://www.facebook.com/wall.php?id=80564743662#/group.php?gid=80564743662

MySpace page http://www.myspace.com/galahaduk

and the official website http://www.galahadonline.com/

At the moment Dean is already on twitter http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fgalahadskeys&h=5bc8f74316afa50ab145844c47ce4405 and we will keep you informed if any of the other guys decide to twitter.

The band took a break from writing the follow up to Empires Never Last on 10th May 09 to play a gig at Mr kyps in Poole, Dorset with Threshold. A small tour of Poland is scheduled for the very begining of June 09 but hopefully the guys will be continuing to write material for the forthcoming Cd which will hopefully to be released next year (and also coincides with the band's 25th anniversary-yes, you DID read that correctly).

Empires Never Last has been the band's most successful album to date, winning 2 awards - Best Album and Best Artwork. The follow-up album is eagerly anticipated and the band are hoping to build on the firm foundations ENL rests on with, of course, Karl Groom at the sharp end of the recording process.


We will keep you updated on life with Galahad over the following months