The Enid

The Enid are a British progressive rock band founded in 1973 by former Barclay James Harvest collaborator Robert John Godfrey, who is the sole founding member still present in the band's lineup. Other core members have included founding guitarists Steve Stewart and Francis Lickerish, and longstanding drummer Dave Storey. The current lineup consists of guitarist Jason Ducker, drummer and bassist Dominic Tofield, and keyboardist Zach Bullock.

The Enid's membership has since undergone several changes, always with Godfrey at the helm. Godfrey has described bouts of depression associated with periods of writer's block.^[1] In addition to this, Godfrey suffers from diabetes; and revealed in 2014 that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease.^[2]

The band are currently recording and touring regularly.

History

The Enid at a live show in 1979 on the Touch Me tour (L-R: Dave Storey, Terry Pack, Steve Stewart, Tony Freer, Willie Gilmour, Francis Lickerish, Robert John Godfrey)

The Enid began recording at about the same time as punk rock burst upon the music scene. Godfrey has said that he always regarded The Enid's ironic takes on classical music as being just as anarchic as anything by the Sex Pistols, but this did not translate into either musical or commercial recognition, despite their work being played frequently by Tommy Vance on BBC Radio One's Friday Rock Show.^[3][4] In 1981, the band played most of the music for Kim Wilde's self-titled debut album.

The band's fifth album, Something Wicked This Way Comes, released in 1983, was the first Enid album to feature lyrics, which were written by then-drummer Chris North and sung in a mock-operatic style by Godfrey. The release was a concept album dealing with the threat of nuclear warfare and the various ways in which people respond to it.

The Enid released no full-length albums between 1997 and 2010, when Journey's End was released, although 2009's Arise and Shine featured newly remixed and partly re-recorded tracks from previous albums plus one preview of a Journey's End track.

In June 2013, it was revealed that the band's sole-remaining founding member Robert John Godfrey had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease, and that as a result he will retire from the band in the near future. However, the band intends to continue, with Godfrey's consent, following his departure.^[5]

Keyboardist William Gilmour founded a new band, Craft, after leaving The Enid, along with Grant McKay Gilmour and Martin Russell of Afro Celt Sound System. The band produced a self-titled mini-album in 1984 featuring Enid-style instrumentals based on six signs of the zodiac: "Aries", "Taurus", "Gemini", "Cancer", "Leo", and "Virgo". The album was released on CD on the American label Kinetic Discs in 1992. The CD added two short bonus tracks, "Branislana" and "And So to Sleep", which were, if anything, even more heavily influenced by The Enid.

In March 2016 Godfrey revealed that he would be retiring from touring, with keyboardist Zach Bullock and vocalist Joe Payne covering all aspects of Godfrey's performance;^[6] with the line-up for the following tour consisting of Bullock, Payne, guitarists Jason Ducker and Max Read, drummer Dave Storey, and new bassist Josh Judd.^[7] It was revealed the following month that Godfrey was in fact permanently retiring from the band in an official capacity.^[8]

On 5 September 2016 it was announced that Payne had departed the band after five years as frontman;^[9] and three days later it was revealed that guitarist Read and Storey had also decided to leave The Enid, and that the band now consisted of Bullock, Ducker, and returning drummer Dominic Tofield.^[10]

Marketing innovations

In addition to traditional vinyl and CD releases, in the late 1990s the band also pioneered the production of "Bespoke CDs" - mail-order custom compilation CD-Rs containing rare tracks chosen by listeners from a catalogue. This service was discontinued after a couple of years.

In the 2001 the band formed a marketing agreement with Inner Sanctum that saw most of the band's back-catalogue being reissued on that label. However, in 2009 they announced that Inner Sanctum was illegally attempting to take control of the band's name and copyrights.^[11] As a result of the ensuing legal action the Journey's End album was released on the band's own Enidiworks/Operation Seraphim label.

The Enid's official website later carried further details of the dispute as it concerned some of the band's earlier recordings. The site states that in 2010 Inner Sanctum released illegal bootlegs of the original EMI versions of In the Region of the Summer Stars and Aerie Faerie Nonsense. As a result of this EMI took action against Gerald Palmer to stop the bootlegs and agreed to grant a Worldwide License to Operation Seraphim, (the band's own record label) for the three albums they own (In The Region, Aerie Faerie Nonsense, and Godfrey's 1974 solo album The Fall Of Hyperion). The dispute between the band and Inner Sanctum is still ongoing.^[1]

In March 2006 Godfrey announced on the band's website that he would shortly be making its entire back catalogue available for free download as high-quality mp3s.Godfrey wrote: "The purpose of this is to make sure that The Enid's music reaches as many people as possible and does not entirely disappear when I am dead. The Enid represents my life's work and I want it and what it contains to live on in those who warm to it. Having taken this decision it may well influence the way I think about The Enid and may drive me to do some more."^[12]

In 2012 The Enid released their thirteenth studio album Invicta, which appeared in the top 10 of reader's poll in The Guardian.

Personnel

Members

Current members

• Jason Ducker - guitars (2007–present)
• Dominic Tofield - drums, percussion, bass (2014-15, 2016-present)
• Zach Bullock - keyboards (2015–present)

Former members

^[13]

Lineups

Discography

Studio

• In the Region of the Summer Stars (1976)
• Aerie Faerie Nonsense (1977)
• Touch Me (1979)
• Six Pieces (1980)
• Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)
• The Spell (1985)
• The Seed and the Sower (1986)
• Salome (1986)
• Joined By The Heart (1987)
• Tripping the Light Fantastic (1994)
• Sundialer (1995)
• White Goddess (1997)
• Journey's End (2010)
• Invicta (2012)
• First Light (2014)
• The Bridge (2015)
• Dust (2016)

Live

• Live at Hammersmith (Vol. 1) (recorded 1979) (1984)
• Live at Hammersmith (Vol. 2) (recorded 1979) (1984)
• The Stand (live) (1984)
• The Enid at Hammersmith 17 October 1986 (official bootleg) (1986)
• The Enid at Hammersmith 30 October 1987 (official bootleg) (1987)
• Final Noise (1988)
• Live at Town Hall, Birmingham (2010)
• Live with The CBSO at Symphony Hall (2012)
• The Bridge Show - Live at Union Chapel (2015)

Compilations

• The Stand 2 (rarities compilation) (1985)
• Lovers And Fools (retrospective compilation) (1986)
• Liverpool (compilation) (1986)
• Inner Pieces (1987)
• Inner Visions (1988)
• The Story of The Enid (told in words and music by Robert John Godfrey) (1991)
• Anarchy on 45 (singles compilation) (1996)
• Members one of Another (fanclub compilation) (1996)
• Healing Hearts (1996)
• Tears of the Sun (1999)

Other albums

• Arise and Shine (2009)
• Arise and Shine Volume 2 - Risen (2011)
• Arise and Shine Volume 3 - Shining (2012)

Singles

• "The Lovers"/"In The Region Of Summer Stars" (1976) (Buk BUK 3002)
• "Jubilee"/"Omega" (1977) (EMI International INT 534) release cancelled
• "Golden Earrings"/"Omega" (1977) EMI (BUK) INT 540
• "Dambusters March"/"Land Of Hope & Glory"/"The Skyeboat Song" (1979) (Pye 7P 106)(PS, Blue vinyl with RAF roundel design)
• "Fool" (with Malcolm Le Maistre)/"Tito" (1980) Pye 7P 187 (PS)
• "Golden Earrings"/"665 The Great Bean" (1980) EMI 5109 (PS)^[14]
• "When You Wish Upon A Star"/"Jessica" (1981) (Bronze BRO 127)(PS)
• "Heigh Ho"/"Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" (1980)(Bronze BRO 134)
• "Then There Were None"/"Letter From America" (1982) RAK 349 (PS)
• "Then There Were None"/"Letter From America"/"Raindown" (1984) (PS, 12")
• "Itchycoo Park"/"Sheets Of Blue" (1986) (7": Sedition EDIT 3314)(PS) - (12" - Sedition EDITL 3314, blue vinyl)
• "Salome"/"Salomee" (1990) (7" - Enid ENID 7999)(PS) (12"- Enid ENID 6999)(PS)

References

External links

• The official Enid website
• The official Enid Myspace
• The Enid at AllMusic
• The Lodge Recording Studio website
• The Enid: A Brief History - part 1
• The Enid: A Brief History - part 2
• Talking Elephant The Enid Page
• Secret Green - Francis Lickerish's band
• BBC feature about The Enidi and Robert John Godfrey