The Enid Live at Hammersmith Odeon 1979

[@rhythman69uk]

Real musicians, honesty and integrity. Living in the 70's was an honour, the last decade before we embraced fake. Fake tits, fake tans, fake eyelashes, fake hair colour, fake music made by computers, plastic cars, plastic microballs in the food chain etc. etc. Seeing them here reminds me of the other great bands around during that decade, Rainbow, Skynyrd, Priest, Journey, making music, touring and working damn hard. But not enough people appreciate class, which is why McDonalds is so popular. It takes effort and a higher IQ to understand what is not instant gratification.

[@alexhamilton4084]

I have seen The Enid more than any other band and in many different places. I saw them in; Reading festival, Glastonbury, Stonehenge, Halifax where I got Robert and Stephen and the current drummer at the time called Chris North to sign my albums. Happy days. Many thanks.

[@schragemusik]

A note to any youngster who might stumble across this - this was all PLAYED live. No tapes, no records, no computers, no choreographers, no miming - it was being PLAYED as it was being filmed.

[@halodust1304]

This isn't strictly true. There are a fair few keyboard overdubs here and throughout the Live at Hammersmith tracks as far as I can tell. Lots of Minimoog brass but more significantly the RMI pipe organ chords that add so much weight to the music - and which for me is the defining sound of the Enid of this album and Six Pieces. (Especially when used in unison with the Logan they actually had on stage here...)

[@stoogemaniac]

I am stunned I never heard of this band until I read about the band on the Nearfest website. This performance was incredible, especially for 1979!

[@dogleeds]

I feel anscient.... I was at Victoria Palace theatre (helping visitors to their seats) in 1977, I had never heard of these people, and was "blown away"..... I have six original albums, but still come back to the fand. A few years ago i checked their website, more of an honour to RJG, then today found the updated website (earlier this week they were in Gloucester).... My my, how times change, but they are still awesome....

[@maydaygalliard]

For the 'gearheads' out there: forget the gear! It's the composition, orchestration, and musicality that makes this incredible! :) But OK - I saw them several times in the 70s and here's what they used then: Keys: 2 x Solina string ensembles, Fender Rhodes piano, Minimoog (x2?), ARP Pro Soloist, Crumar Brassman, + an electric organ of some kind. Francis: Gibson 335 originally, later the Peavey guitar seen here Steve: Gibson SG with tremolo Terry: usually used a Rickenbacker, but not in this vid

[@stewartmccracken3189]

Thanks for posting. Stunning tack and fantastic performance from the band

[@hectorsmith6680]

...simply THANK U indeed for the unforgettable musical experience that The Enid have offered us almost 40 years ago...and I was there singing "God Save the Queen" despite the fact that I wasn't an Englishman in London but a young lad study in England...

[@marianocuevas363]

Rock-Sinfonico al alcance de unos pocos privilegiados, entre los cuales solo puede que mostras mi admiración!!!

[@stephennorris2524]

One of the first bands I saw Live 1983

[@qusnakaal]

I think I was there too and I think I remember them playing God Save the Queen too. I'd never listened to their albums before and was hooked straight away!

[@niacom8]

I was dragged by a girlfriend to an Enid gig at The Marquee in the summer of '79. I was right at the front, squashed against an amp with no escape, and it was probably the most unpleasant two hours of my entire life.

[@G0UDG]

I saw the enid back in the 80's the year the roland g707 guitar synthe was released he was and still is the only guitarist ive seen use that to its full potenial absolutley amazing

[@DaleWrecker]

I remember when I discovered this group. It was early eighties, and I found "Six Pieces" in a music shop around here. I looked everywhere, and for years I wasn't able to find anything else except an LP with "Fand". Now I am buying all their CD's.

[@jebodiah20]

I recall e-mailing Francis Lickerish in 2002 and complimenting his guitar playing. He responded thinking I was Christine who is my wife. I told him I wasn't, yet he continued to converse. He mailed me the supposedly sole copy of the Hammersmith concert on a VHS tape. He said that I could make a copy but I must promise to mail it back. I got it in the mail and realized then that it would not work on an American VCR. I ran to the post office and mailed it back. Now, I see he donated it?

[@CalRichards]

Received the DVD of this concert a couple of days ago. A magnificent record of a truly unique band in one of its finest incarnations. Robert Godfrey is hugely underrated as a pioneer of synthesizer orchestration and as a composer.

[@digitaldogs233]

I have lots of the Enid...saw them when I was 13 at Bedford corn exchange...with a band called STOP THE WORLD it was epic every one had to sit down...jeaze i got stoned that night..at 13 though 😷

[@GeorgVoros]

Wonderful! Everything I like about music - pompous (yes manmaas) and grand. Epic piece of music. A bygone era when every musician had to be able to play and deliver!

[@neilxt]

Man. IIRC I was there. Those were the days.

[@schragemusik]

Best band ever.

[@janea57]

So many wonderful memories! I am getting SO excited about the Birmingham gig now!

[@judith69plyr]

I remember hearing this particular track live in about 1986, absolutely amazing, Robert still composing some brilliant music. Looking forward to seeing them again at least twice this year.

[@2012DHT]

The Enid played at Leicester University in the early 80's - one of my flat-mates insisted we went to see them. My friend interviewed them for the student newspaper - he wanted some questions so I suggested asking "why are you so pretentious?" The singer answered "what are we pretending to be?". Fair enough! They are a high point of rock pretentiousness though - quite funny in retrospect.

[@1956gooner]

Unfortunately I missed the Enid first time round, now getting into them. What a great band, also loved the RJG work for Barclay James Harvest, there was only one way for them to go after he stopped working with the. Thanks for the posting, hope to catch you live soon.

[@hawklord60]

ahhhh wonderful memories !! cheers RJ

[@manmaas]

@yaybestos I appreciate your concern! Contentment? I never sought it. I'm as angry now as I became back then. I grew up with the politics of my age, I think if I'd continued to follow Enid I would have ended up pursuing an engineering degree rather than one in the Arts. Enid fitted a rather pastoral and nostalgic view of england and left out all the awkward politics of the time. Fair enough, its what they were about and I was initially attracted to it. However, poetry is not always enough.

[@MrSpacepig]

Brilliant, and the quality appears to be much better than previous official releases. Put me down for a copy too! Thanks for posting this one.

[@podinspace]

Saw the gig last last night at Leeds.... it was a pleasure....keep going!!

[@kjrossblackmore]

willy gilmour. HERO!

[@GraveFireflys]

Aah , real music

[@theloner6063]

The new album 'U' is a masterpiece

[@ianwilkinson4602]

So this is where you hang out :-)

[@neilbrowning7089]

Just listened to it this morning for the first time! I've realised that I'm really not fond of tremolo-arm vibrato, but there's lots there to love. Another listen soon!

[@MrDrummerpony]

wonderful post.saw them a couple of times at reading at around this period.hugely entertaining.

[@Razamabaz]

Prog Rock at it's best.

[@yaybestos]

@manmaas I am so happy for you, I hope you are now content

[@astralgary.]

this is real good,even though my dad likes it!

[@JulieMidsTV]

Sh*t, I was there too!

[@Knightarea]

Dear Mister Godfrey, This is really awesome, thanks for posting this incredible and good sounding piece of music! While watching; I discovered a Solina/Arp stringensemble, a Minimoog and I know you also use a very rare type of RMI organ? Please can you tell us what keys you worked with in the period 1974-1985? The brass sounds are amazing. Loads of fun and succes at NEARfest 2010!!! Kind Greetings, Gerben and Joop Klazinga

[@mikeplusplus]

That's brilliant! Can you still jump around like that Francis?

[@micknotfromleitrim]

Isn't this ripped from Mahler- Resurrection Symphony? The first bit is almost identical to the last movement of the Mahler, just an observation. I like some of The Enid's stuff, saw them at Stonehenge in the mid 80's, this is just how I remember them, very hairy and dynamic.

[@frankmurphyburr3598]

yes, he was found out in the mid 90's (before the internet) he's a prolific plaigiarist.

[@diesirae7583]

Snippet of Dies Irae as well.

[@schragemusik]

@@frankmurphyburr3598 what do you mean 'found out'? It's not as if he's ever made any attempt to hide his influences.

[@schragemusik]

The band you would have seen in the mid-80s would have been Robert Godfrey and Steve Stewart - probably with Chris North on drums. This version was a very different beast to the one on this video.

[@micknotfromleitrim]

@@schragemusik True, I'd have liked to see them in '79 with Francis L on guitar, with the big band and everything being live, a lot of what they did in the 80's was pre-rec which was weird. I do remember RJG throwing his arms around rather a lot for someone playing such complicated keyboard parts! Spent a few week humping gear for them around then and a bit of time up at the farm in Suffolk, Twas a laugh anyway, good times.

[@JJ62]

Some fantastic white lionels worn by the guitarist there...

[@todmick]

I remember going to see the Enid @ squires in preston 1982 and they where fookin shite, 2 weeks later they did Glastonbury and they where fookin shite.

[@wburchell]

lol, saw them at Stone Henge, boy was that a mistake for them. The Cardiacs played too, and fookin' blew them away :) Halcyon days!!!

[@stevescott8334]

I love You tube

[@Gigamacdaddy]

@schragemusik WOW REALLY MUSIC WAS PLAYED LIVE? HURR I NEVER KNEW THAT. THANKS I JUST ASSUMED THIS VIDEO WAS PERFECTLY IMPOSED OVER THE AUDIO HURRRRR

[@schragemusik]

Oh! Aren't you a one. HURRRRR.

[@mikeplusplus]

Does anyone know what guitar Steve used? Was it hand-made?

[@cliffordmarsh8953]

i agree andrew call me old fashion but i liked the old style Enid the music seemed less complicated back then

[@DpHsHd]

clifford marsh More complex, but so artful and natural that the sophistication is invisible under the musical tsunami.

[@高比良務-d3o]

プログレの名曲

[@howe1955]

I have this on tape somewhere and im sure they ended the night by playing god save the queen.

[@hectorsmith6680]

...Yes...correct...

[@neilbrowning7089]

They *started* by playing 'God Save the Queen', surely? The end was usually a 'Last Night of the Proms' extravaganza with the Dambusters March. Followed by the Troggs 'Wild Thing', of course...

[@tintomara6209]

Isn't this based on Deus Irae?

[@todmick]

Just saw a video of them from last year Will.....was being curious.....there still shite!!

[@wburchell]

Aye, I remember them as being self indulgent twaddle. Nothing new then?

[@helstontvx]

sounds like dr who incidental

[@schragemusik]

Have your ears been painted on? Or have you grown up now?

[@manmaas]

Thank god I saw through this pompous nonsense and embraced punk.

[@schragemusik]

It's only 'pompus nonsence' if you're too stupid to appreciate it. And, as punk was invented for the stupid, you appear to have gone in exactly the right direction.

[@manmaas]

@@schragemusik Ouch!

[@neilbrowning7089]

"Good taste is what you like." Nobody is 'right' when it comes to musical choices. I must admit that it puzzles me if somebody 'stops liking' a kind of music they were once very keen on. I still listen to all the stuff I grew up with - and new things have been added to the (very) long list of stuff I like.

[@snuppssynthchannel]

The more the merrier, There is something to be said on the energy found in punk music, but it is a barren wasteland when it comes to harmony, orchestration, good melodic writing and composition. Post punk/post rock is another story though. Give Me Swans and Godspeed you black emperor any day of the week over any of the boring garbage they called punk rock in the seventies, bands like The Ramones where hyper commercial, unoriginal hot nonsense.

[@manmaas]

@@snuppssynthchannel The criticism is fair. Punk opened the floodgates for creativity. It shook the industry to it's roots but wasn't in itself very original. I was deep into the postpunk scene, though we wouldn't have called it a 'scene' that back then.

[@schragemusik]

I wonder why it is that a sarcastic response to sarcasm always looks so utterly naff and childish?