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 One of my favourite albums was released in 2008, Empires never last by
Galahad, here comes an interview with the guys behind the release.
Many a member has come and gone since the start. Why?
The band started in 1985. Roy, myself and Spence have actually been
together since 1987 (22 years)which is a long time by any bands standards.
The main reason for having several keyboard players is that they literally
moved away, or in the case of Karl he moved to Australia. Dean has been with us 13 years which is a long time. Tim our bass player in the late eighties/early nineties moved to Japan. Our next Bass player had a few personal problems and left as he wasn't motivated anymore but he had been with us 10 years! The next couple just didn't have the commitment we wanted. But Lee has now been with us for around 3 years or so.
You have played in several countries, but it seems Poland is a favourite,
or am I wrong?
Poland is good for us, it is where we had a lot of publicity in the early
days as there were a few radio shows, presenters and magazines who gave us a lot of support, plus a few distribution companies were also very supportive and to this day we seem to go down well in Poland.
What is prog?
That is such a loaded question which could take eons to answer, but briefly; In my humble opinion what is 'Prog' or 'Progressive Rock' is purely in the eye of the beholder, in other words there is no one definition of what 'Prog' is, it can be what or who you want it to be as there will always be arguements over which bands are or are not 'Prog'. In general I would say 'Prog' is anything vaguely 'rock' based that is a little different or slightly more adventurous than mainstream pop/rock music. For example songs that do not follow the traditional verse/chorus/verse/chorus/middle 8/ chorus etc format or include time signatures other than 4/4 or include a melting plot of differing musical influences. But it could also be argued that 'Prog' is also just a type of music which
is used as a label to stick certain bands to! And then of courses you have
all the sub'genres including Neo-Prog, a term that I detest!
You have done covers from several artists, among them several from Twelfth
Night and Genesis, what is the great thing about them?
We just happened to like the particular songs that we covered, however, that was a long time ago and Galahad as a rule does not do cover versions these days. We tend to get told off if we do as we have enough of our own material to choose from these days.
Back when Zeppelin, Sabbath and Purple rose to fame much was labelled
prog, was Purple into prog in your opinion?
I would say Purple were very progressive as when they started they were
doing something a bit different, heavy like Zeppelin but with more emphasis on keyboards which gave them a 'proggy' edge. I used to love John Lords distorted Hammond playing..awesome! Child in Time is total Prog!
What about Ritchie Blackmore – any prog moments in Rainbow or Blackmore`s
Night?
Rainbow had their prog moments too, more so in the early days I'd say when
Ronnie James Dio was singing with them. Songs like Catch the Rainbow, lots
of lovely Mellotron! Oh and Stargazer, Gates of Babylon and of the later
stuff Vielleicht Das Nächste Mal!
Empires Never Last" has been your most successful album to date, winning 2
awards - Best Album and Best Artwork. To me much of the prior work seems
to have been a journey towards that album – is that a stupid assumption?
No it's not stupid, everyone is entitled to their opinion. Though I wouldn't say that our prior work was a journey towards ENL but rather that apart from the first two albums, we have always tried to make each new album different from the last, with a slightly different feel. I think ENL is our most accomplished and complete album so far. Everything from the music, songs, lyrics, artwork etc all seems to tie up well as a package. We also wanted ENL to be heavier and harder than previous albums and working with Karl Groom (Threshold) was worth it's weight in gold as he is probably the best engineer we have worked with bar none. He was particularly good with guitars. Karl just seemed to understand what we wanted and we had a lot of empathy with him. I think the next album will be a progression from ENL.
What about the next step, the next album – where do you move, musically
and lyrically?
As I said it will be a progression from ENL, maybe even heavier and slightly more raw with some harder vocals perhaps.
Arthurian legend, Sir Galahad is an exiting name, but you talk about
fruit, another prog act Pendragon also draws back to legends – is it
typical of prog bands to connect in some way to myths, legends and
history?
Roy named the band Galahad after a fruit and produce company, he didn't know of Sir Galahad and the round table etc, so it was a complete coincidence that we ended up with an Arthurian name the same as Pendragon or Mordred for example. I cannot speak for other bands but with us it was purely because Roy liked the named which he first saw on an invoice for potatoes!
Will you tour Scandinavia and Norway in particular?
We would love to tour Scandinavia or Norway, it's just that nobody has ever
asked us and we don't have any contacts in your neck of the woods! So if you want to organise and/or know someone who wants to organise something we
would be more than happy to play...perhaps with Blackmore's Night! I've
never met Ritchie, I'm sure he would be an interesting character to talk to. We once met Ian Gillan at the BBC studios in London, he was very friendly and listened to 'Nothing Is Written' our first album!
Do you know any Norwegian prog acts?
Er, no not really..I 've heard of Lucifer Was but I don't know any of their music I'm afraid. Perhaps you could tell me about any Norwegian bands out there that might be worth checking out.
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