Bournemouth
This week myself and Tim were honoured to be in the presence of progressive royalty, two members of a band from Bournemouth who have been around since 1985. They have brought out 8 studio albums and still continue to push musical boundaries with each new release. Galahad have quietly been producing music and gone slightly under the radar of the local music scene as many of the live performances are at large festivals in Germany and Sweden with the occasional low key performance locally.
The band perform with various formats, with recently Stu and Dean getting together for “Galahad-Stripped” to perform at a couple of local record stores on Record Store Day, as well as performances at the Thomas Tripp and Mr Kyps. The band’s last album “Beyond The Realms Of Euphoria” was released in October 2012 and features quite a departure from the typical progressive style; with the band embracing technology using syths and keyboards, to create a really big epic sound. The recent single “Seize The Day” has been reworked adding some influential, groundbreaking styles from bands like Muse and Faithless to the mix; making for one really interesting sound. The band are to release another EP in the middle part of 2014, again from the album. This time it is a remixed version of “Guardian Angel”, featuring 4 radically different versions of the track; along with a stripped version of “Beyond The Barbed Wire”.
Stu and Dean were happy during the course of the interview to talk about their past and the countless number of gigs that they have played around the venues of Bournemouth. They also, with a very heavy heart discussed the sad passing of the long term bassist Neil Pepper who at just 44 years old died from cancer in September 2011. Neil’s presence and influence still remains in the band and much of his work is featured on the band’s recent albums. Stu also told a story of when he was lucky enough to audition for Marillion when Fish left-it is understood that his audition went well but Steve Hogarth got the nod over Stu thankfully for Galahad fans.
An authorised biography of the band called “One For The record” has been written by Andrew Wild, which gives the complete discography and geography of the band; along with plenty of delightful stories from all the years they have been together. Stu and Dean performed three beautiful tracks in the studio-“Guardian Angel”, “Beyond The Barbed Wire” and “This Life Could Be My Last”; and exclusive videos of these can be found below. In 2015 Galahad celebrate their 30th Anniversary and for certain there will be celebrations; with celebratory, full band gigs currently at the planning stage. Keep an eye on the official Galahad website for details.
Videos
Links
http://www.galahadonline.com
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Galahad/216667625064912
Words, Picture and Video By Dave Chinery (Chinners)
