In The Region Of The Summer Stars

Led by Robert John Godfrey, The Enid was a uniquely progressive act that, despite having first appeared in the mid-70s, had staying power on through the late 80s. Godfrey first appeared on the timeline in 1969, overseeing orchestral duties for Barclay James Harvest. In 1974, he recorded a solo album for Charisma Records titled The Fall Of Hyperion. Godfrey met longtime guitarists Francis Lickerish and Stephen Stewart at Finchden Manor, a public school for troubled adolescents. The Enid's debut album, In The Region Of Summer Stars, is based on a Tarot sequence, and had the same provisional title as Steve Hackett's first solo album (also for Charisma). While the dueling guitars on "The Fool... ...The Falling Tower" and the heavy arrangement of "The Last Judgment" reveal a progressive sound, the instrumental album presents a more symphonic and playful approach, as the title track suggests. In fact, The Enid's second album, Aerie Faerie Nonsense, was nothing short of full-blown classical music, played—quite surprisingly—without an orchestra! Epic and cinematic, it's more like a movie soundtrack. The band then switched to Pye Records and released two more albums, with personnel changes on each: Touch Me came out in 1979, and Six Pieces the following year, before the band was dropped from the label and subsequently dissolved. After releasing a string of singles in the early 80s, Godfrey and Stewart reunited, releasing further albums under their own label, Enid Records.