Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Venue: Thunder Road / Codevilla (Pavia) / Italy
Concert date: 15.10.2008
Attendance: 200
Ticket price: €20.00
I used to wonder, more than once, why long-established, cult prog rock bands like Pendragon never come anywhere near our home turf (at least close to our borders), instead of making us drive several hundred kilometers to some hard-to-reach corner just to catch one of their rare shows in the “southern” part of Europe. Add the low public profile that comes from the dismal distribution of their albums, and the total lack of any commercial success that goes with it, and it quickly becomes clear why they aren’t exactly keen on places where the roosters crow while the Sunday beef soup and roast potatoes are being served. None of this would be a big deal if the trek to their show, held at the Thunder Road club (where we last caught their neo prog rock buddies Arena, in which Pendragon keyboardist Clive Nolan also plays), somewhere halfway to the Italian village of Codevilla, hadn’t turned into a proper adventure in traffic navigation and Italian road survival skills.
Despite nerves already pretty frayed from hunting for the scene of the crime, the evening was richly rewarded in the end with a superb set from the indestructible heavyweights of the new wave of British progressive rock (along with Marillion, IQ and Pallas one of the four most important bands of the movement, which after the end of the 80s turned, with the help of the media, into a new subgenre of progressive rock). With their excellent new album, “Pure”, Pendragon had already proven they’re far from written off and are, so to speak, enjoying a new spring. Led by the ever good-humored guitarist and singer Nick Barrett, who, along with bassist (and occasional keyboardist) Peter Gee, is the only original member of the four-piece lineup, Pendragon are celebrating their thirtieth anniversary this year.
For that reason it was fair to expect a varied setlist drawn from all their eras, plus a more than welcome helping of this year’s wonderful surprise, “Pure”, which restored my pretty battered faith in the creative and imaginative powers of the cult band after the previous record, “Believe” (2005), turned out to be a considerable letdown.
Well, before Nick and the gang strode onto the stage, we had to sit through a seriously boring set by a local Italian symphonic prog rock revivalist hopeful called Conqueror, who will have to eat a lot more polenta before they outgrow the local scene. They’re no greenhorns, with three studio albums behind them, yet they delivered a rather sterile and out-of-tune stage show. Even though they proved they can handle their instruments, especially the guitarist, obsessed with Gilmour-style slide passages, and the keyboardist, who among her keyboards could boast a genuine mini moog, their compositions sound rather sterile and without any depth. Pure technical-academic knowledge is nowhere near enough for quality progressive rock. If you have no sense for writing good compositions, the whole thing can turn into its opposite, regression, and with that into one of the most boring things on earth.
That’s exactly how Conqueror’s set sounded, with no trace of any kinship to the Italian school of symphonic prog rock, let alone its characteristic Mediterranean warmth. In my opinion, adding the keyboardist’s vocals between the individual motifs is absolutely misguided and makes their sonic collage of thrown-together, expressively empty motifs sound even more out of tune. A few kind words can at least go to the flutist, who mostly just made sure they occasionally came off as a poor copy of Focus. Interaction between stage and crowd was also at a woeful level the whole time, not to mention that the overly muddy sound system, especially the guitar, was a constant annoyance. No wonder we could hardly wait for them to leave the stage.
There was no fear of similar sound problems during Pendragon’s set, since they’ve long been known as sonic perfectionists of a sort. Their sound was at a phenomenal level for the entire show, the kind I haven’t heard from a progressive rock band in a long time. Like their neo prog rock “brothers” Arena and IQ, they too keep up the good old prog rock tradition of interesting stage projections, which ran between the songs and symbolized their lyrical message. So until they came on stage we could watch assorted footage from the band’s history, from the formation in the late 70s and the early studio days with the debut “The Jewel” (1985), through the creative peak “The Masquerade Overture” (1996), all the way to the present. They opened with the epic symphonic prog rock starter “Walls Of Babylon”, originally from the album “Window Of Life” (1993), which with its subtle slide guitar arrangements and rich orchestral keyboard swells carried us off into a pleasant mystical ecstasy, something that happened quite a few more times in the middle of the evening.
Nick proved he’s a born performer. Though he lacks the theatrical charisma of singers like Fish (ex-Marillion) or Peter Nichols (IQ), he successfully embodies what every decent guitarist who also handles vocals should have: a quiet feel for what his audience needs. With his witty quips and expressive gesturing, especially during the more energetic parts of songs, he kept the lively atmosphere between band and crowd going the whole time. Even though Nick is nowhere near as good a singer as he is a phenomenal guitarist, he handled his vocal duties perfectly well this evening, especially on all their classics, led by “Paintbox”. Helping him rile up the crowd was the seemingly serious-all-the-time Clive Nolan, undoubtedly one of the most respected keyboardists in British progressive rock, who on top of the usual Wakeman-style keyboard chops and backing vocals also keeps time on certain songs by whipping his mane around. At one point his performance was even so energetic that a stage tech had to step in mid-show and re-tighten the badly weakened frame of one of the synthesizers.
The new drummer Scott Higham (ex-Angel Witch, Shadow Keep), who recently replaced Joe Crabtree (now with Wishbone Ash), was also in the spotlight a lot. During the show Nick had plenty of encouraging words for the latter. The likable drummer doesn’t hide his metal pedigree, with lots of crushing swings around the kit, theatrical stick acrobatics and plenty of funny grimaces, so it won’t be a surprise if he soon becomes the main darling of the Pendragon crowd. The calm one, not to say the only static member of the band, is the ever-friendly bassist Peter Gee, with whom I managed to exchange a few words before the show began. He also handles occasional extra keyboard arrangements on his synthesizer, which is a real dwarf next to Nolan’s sprawling keyboard setup.
Pendragon remain one of the few idealists in (neo) progressive rock, which they proved again with an excellent performance of “A Man Of Nomadic Traits” (the original is on the album “Not Of This World”, 2001), which, in Nick’s words, is dedicated to the last tribal loners resisting the ruinous consequences of civilization. Most of the evening’s songs leaned on the three most beloved albums, “The World” (1991), “Window Of Life” and (according to most) their creative peak, “The Masquerade Overture”. For the guitar nerds, I’ll add that Nick switched between two electric guitars and one acoustic during the show. He also showed he’s very comfortable with a steel slide, the obligatory tool of every progressive rock guitarist who grew up listening to Pink Floyd. Between songs the crowd repeatedly voiced a burning wish to hear the “The Jewel” classic “Alaska”, but it didn’t make it onto the setlist this time. Those who consider “The Jewel” one of the classics of neo prog rock were surely at least a little disappointed, since nothing from that album was played, which didn’t bother the rest of us, who prefer their later work, one bit.
Some of us were far thirstier for as many songs as possible from the excellent new studio album “Pure”. Nick obliged with three tracks from it: the punchy “Eraserhead”, the anthemic “The Freak Show” and the melancholic “It’s Only Me”. Before that he explained that most of the lyrical themes on “Pure” deal with the problem of growing up and children’s lost innocence before our society corrupts them, which you can feel throughout the album in the darker, more rebellious nature of the individual compositions compared to what’s usual in their tradition.
The first encore brought an excellent rendition of another “The Masquerade Overture” classic, the highly atmospheric epic “Masters Of Illusion”, where Nick once again conjured up an ambient fairy tale with his delicate slide passages straight out of the best school of great teachers like David Gilmour (Pink Floyd) and Andy Latimer (Camel), two guitarists and musicians who, without a doubt, influenced his style the most. That wrapped up the regular part of the show. After thunderous applause they came back out for a second encore and rewarded the thrilled crowd with an outstanding performance of “Paintbox”, probably their best-known song, which simply couldn’t be left out. The final surprise came with a deeply felt performance of the jazz-tinged ballad “2 AM”, originally from the pop rock experiment “Kowtow” (1988), during which Nick put down his guitar, grabbed the mic and, like some cabaret singer, strolled off the stage into the crowd, taking the time to shake hands with each of the faithful fans one by one. Undoubtedly a gesture that goes a long way and says a lot about how much they value their loyal followers.
Pendragon put on an exceptional show this evening and exceeded all expectations with a practically flawless performance, a demonstration of everything the heart desires, not just of their fans but of any lover of the new wave of progressive rock. I can say that every minute of this nearly complete cross-section of their career up to that point was totally worth all the travel hassle. And after so much positive energy and such tasty spiritual food, with which Pendragon fed our tired brain cells this evening through first-rate performances of their best work, the hassle was forgotten pretty quickly.
Text: Peter Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Setlist
1. Walls Of Babylon
2. A Man Of Nomadic Traits
3. Wishing Well
4. Eraserhead
5. Nostradamus
6. Learning Curve
7. Breaking The Spell
8. The Freak Show
9. The Voyager
10. It’s Only Me
—Encore I—
11. Masters Of Illusion
—Encore II—
12. Paintbox
13. 2 AM
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