Pendragon….from the cradle The story begins in the quiet, sleepy town of Stroud, Gloucestershire, England in 1978. Four like minded, young musicians got together and decided to form a rock band. Zeus Pendragon consisting of Nick Barrett [guitar/vocals], Julian Baker [guitar/vocals], Nigel Harris [drums] and Stan Cox [bass] was born. Full of ambition and joie de vive, Zeus Pendragon started out playing cover versions of classic rock tunes by Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac and Santana and their first gig at the sleazy Marshall Rooms in Stroud was ironically the very same day that Nick Barrett left school forever, burning his maths books and picking up his guitar on the way… the future had been determined. The Zeus part of their name was dropped when the foresighted Julian decided it was far too long to fit across a t-shirt, and this ridiculous cross pollination of Arthurian and Greek mythology just seemed silly beyond belief. Pendragon were approached by local promoter and manager Greg Lines, who took them under his wing. Greg had promoted many concerts in the area (including U2, who actually slept on Greg’s lounge floor following their Stroud gig) Julian and Nick spent many days and some all nighters writing the first Pendragon material and dreaming of stardom, but Pendragon’s ambitious schedule soon meant that Stan decided to leave, as it became clear he preferred to listen to music rather than play it. Robert Dalby from the band Cygnus replaced him on bass and whilst, ‘in for a penny in for a pound’, Nick Barrett pilfered John “Barney” Barnfield also from Cygnus, to fulfil his desire to take the band in a more keyboard and progressive rock orientated direction. Line up hassles plagued the band in the early days and it wasn’t long before the imaginative but fiery Julian decided to quit as keyboard based music became more prominent in Pendragon, which more or less negated the need for a 2nd guitarist. Nick and Barney were soon writing together and the distinctive Barrett/Barnfield sound was forged [eg : Excalibur, Oh Divineo]. A friend of Nick’s brother, guitarist Peter Gee was drafted in originally to fill Julian’s boots… but when Robert Dalby was kindly asked to leave, following his utter aversion to rehearsals, Peter took over bass duties instead. It was musical chairs from Hell! The line up stayed stable ….for a while with Nick, Barney, Peter and Nigel. The next step was one of the most welcome and life changing for Pendragon. In 2010 Pendragon reached out to new audiences from across the globe, with fantastic reactions in USA at RoSFest, London’s incredible new High Voltage festival and Sweden Rock Festival. Spring 2011 saw Pendragon reach further heights with the release of Passion – an album that covers barrier pushing elements, but never moving too far away from their trademark melodies and emotive lyrics. The album reached 29 in the official UK Indie chart and received astonishing reviews in the press, even from some of the most hardened Pendragon-haters! The album was voted 4th best album of the year in Prog Magazine [only beaten by big household name bands like Yes and Rush.] At the Classic Rock Society Awards Pendragon scooped Best Album, Best Song, Best Live show, Best Keyboard player and Best drummer. A new DVD from the Passion tour was released in 2012 along with the band’s first Blu Ray, Out of Order Comes Chaos completes much of the band’s DVD/Video repertoire with much material from Pure and Passion. The question now is – where on earth will Pendragon go next? Musically they have become unpredictable and welcome the world of change, it’s an anything can happen day out there!

• published: 25 Jan 2023
• views: 75