PRINCIPAL EDWARDS MAGIC THEATRE

Edit to add that if you really would like to own "Autumn Lady Dancing Song" on CD, Grapefruit have included it on their latest underground folk anthology, Sumer Is Icumen In.

'Weekdaze' starts as a nice melodic rock song slightly resembling The Who or Hudson Ford (of Strawbs). The instrumentation is less folky than on 'Captain Lifeboy' single, more emphasized on the electric guitar. Vocal harmonies work well behind Nick Pallet's lead vocals. At the 1/3 spot of the 3-minute song there's a lovely "bommm bomm bomm bomm bo-oo-oo-oomm" section in which Belinda Bourquin's vocals shine. As a whole this song is not quite as great as 'Captain Lifeboy' or its B-sider 'Nothing', but it has a nice, catchy rock energy in it, and the production is pretty good.

'The Whizzmore Kid' was the only 7" song that ended up on the album. It's a good example of the album's cheerful and playful nature that here and there gets a bit irritating, in my opinion. Sadly the folk element decreased after the "first" single, as well as the vocal contribution from Belinda Bourquis, and Nick Pallet's vocals get a bit over-theatrical. This is fast-paced, mildly psychedelic rock between 10cc and The Who. [Strange if 'The Whizzmore Kid' is as long (5:10) on the single as it is on the album - at least there's no separate single edition on the re-issue, nor information on the liner notes. A little editing would have improved it anyway.]

I haven't heard Magic Theatre's albums, but compared to Round One, I actually prefer the music on this single. 'Captain Lifeboy' features lots of recorders and mandolin, and the female member Belinda Bourquin adds her vocals to a greater degree than on the album. The song is lively but not silly like some album songs. Basically their combination of rock and folk is not very far from e.g. Steeleye Span, only with a notable role on the mentioned recorder and mandolin. A slight reminiscense to the folkiest Jethro Tull can also be sensed in the overall atmosphere.

On the B-side is another delightful non-album song, which simply makes this single easily worth at least four stars. The first bars of 'Nothing' reminds me of the beginning of Jethro Tull's 'Too Old to Rock'n'Roll, Too Young to Die', but only briefly. The pretty progressive instrumental intro ends with a nice recorder solo just before Nick Pallet starts singing. The composition shifts dynamically between relaxed, dreamy sections (a bit like a Caravan or Hatfield & the North ballad) and more energetic moments. And again, the recoder makes its magic on the sound.

If you're willing to get the Round One album, make sure it contains the 7" songs too, they really are a great bonus.

The album starts outstandingly enough on a couple of fairly-lengthy McAlpine tracks (both making together roughly 12 minutes), which tends to show the band's enhanced musical capacities, but the effort is cut after Asmoto wins over McAlpine. Indeed the songs get much shorter, but also sometimes much weirder (the cringe-inducing Kettering Song or the Further Celebrations), and the strange Asmato feud with McAlpine is quite incomprehensible, unless being initiated by the Edwardian gods.

While Bourquin's multi-instrumentalist virtues (Kb, flute, violin) were already a strength on the previous Soundtrack release, his violin playing is much more prominent on Asmato (sometimes taking on unwanted fiddle sonorities, like in Glycerol Esther), also reminiscent of Curved Air's Daryl Way. Another difference is the replacement of Edwards' percussions with swallow's drumming, giving the band a generally heavier sound. McAuliffe's vocal presence is also reduced and often embedded in the production. Of the second half of the album, only the gentle Freefall is bringing you back to the band's earlier folk, and thankfully, it's the longer track (by a margin) of the flipside - well I haven't heard the missing Autumn Lady Dancing Song, which ios absent on the 2on1 reissue from the See For Miles label.

The group would then implode soon afterwards (their University sabbatical was over), although three members would go on for a couple years and a third album (on the Deram label) under the reduced Principal Edwards moniker. Only the superb Vivienne McAuliffe would pursue with a long studio session career, even singing with Patrick Moraz. ARB is a fairly different album than the debut, and dare I say it, much less successful, despite an even greater musical madness.

The group's soundscapes are indeed very folk, but a demented psych prog folk one, one that can stretch from Incredible String Band to early Floyd (they toured with both and many more) and many other difficult to discern influences in between, but they have their own sound. Indeed the band's singing duet comprises of the astounding Vivienne McAuliffe (who would be around for a long time afterwards) and the more restrained but haunting Martin Stellman, but there is so much more than the singing to this band, including theatrical songwriting that has to do much with their stage act.

The opening Enigmatic Insomnia Machine (with a psych-rock second half) and its follow-up Sacrifice (reminiscent of ISB, despite some demented power chords opening it) are both setting the boundaries and yet blowing apart the rules set inside the psych-folk genre, but things go even madder (while staying very folk) with the epic ISB-esque 13-mins Death Of Don Quixote. One would fear this long track overstays its welcome but, surprisingly, it is relatively quickly over. One of the group's main asset is the multi-instrumentalist Bindy Bourquin, who plays flutes, keyboards and violin, and therefore brings on much colour in the band's soundscapes.

On the flipside, the opening Third Sonnet starts out much like the first part of the opus, but a sudden surge of guitar slides the album, giving it a heavy blues tinge, before returning to semi-medieval liturgics chants and both the blues and the folk will alternate some more. Cool stuff and an epic electric ending. The only short track (by far) To Be A Broken Guitar is rather self-explanatory and sung by Stellman alone. The album closes on the 10-mins Pinky, an excellent psych-folk as if early Floyd had fooled around with Fairport Convention. Definitely the album's highlight, the madness seems to approach Jan Dukes De Grey with some outstanding guitar picking and terminating on a great soliloquy, punctuated by a final guitar bravado.

Maybe not as outstanding as First Utterances, Asylum for The Musically Insane, St Radiguns, Rats &And Mice In The Loft, but Soundtrack s certainly another gem n that genre; but then again it might have been interesting to have witnessed the full dimension of their craft, including the visual aspects, which are absent on the albums. While some will classify PEMT as ISB-esque, I tend to think of this Exeter combo as quite superior, because it doesn't have the weird sonic particularities of the Scot duo/quartet.

Principal Edwards seemed to be a bit more talented and ambitious than most of their peers however, and while they never achieved the fame or recognition they probably deserved they did manage to leave behind a small body of work that looking back on today seems surprisingly groundbreaking. These guys are classified as progressive folk, but there’s more than a little glam as well as what was known in the seventies as ‘art rock’ in their music. When considering them in light of other acts like Tyrannosaurus Rex and the Move, the connection between psych folk of the sixties and glam rock of the seventies becomes quite clear. Principal Edwards were among the pioneers of glam even if neither they nor their fans realized it at the time.

‘The Devon Tapes’ come from the band’s last days in 1974, when they interrupted their summer tour to hole up in a Devon cottage at the direction of then-manager Miles Copeland in hopes of putting together material that could garner some commercial attention. The group (which varied at times in size from eight to more than fifteen members) had been picked up by Copeland after the band’s label Dandelion folded in 1972 and core members Root Cartwright, Belinda Bourquin and David Jones dropped the ‘Magic Theatre’ portion of their name and hit the road with a more rock-oriented focus, a smaller lineup of six members and new material, in search of a full-time music career. One album was released (‘Round One’) to virtually no acclaim, but the band remained a colorful live act with multimedia presentations, dance, theatrical displays and often grandiose costumes depicting a fanciful lineup of characters known by such names as the Whizzmore Kid, Stoneage Sam and the Beast. Copeland had picked them up in early 1974 in hopes of transforming the group into a commercially viable act, but while mostly college audiences responded to their live shows a major label contract eluded them. Hence, the Devon Tapes.

These original songs were recorded in that cottage as demos for Copeland, with the band expecting to eventually record them properly in a studio setting. This was not to be though, as Copeland rejected the final product with the band dissolving shortly after. Bassist Richard Jones would move on to another Copeland act, the Climax Blues Band, and keyboardist Peter White joined Al Stewart’s touring group before eventually establishing himself as a notable jazz artist. The rest of the members went on to other ventures, although all of them continue to play or at least teach music in some capacity even today. Copeland of course would achieve commercial success with his IRS Records label and its flagship act the Police whose drummer Stewart also happened to be Miles’ brother.

As for the music on this album, it is surprising looking back a quarter-century later that Copeland couldn’t see its commercial potential. The most striking aspect is the dominating presence of Peter White’s keyboards. Songs like the opening track ‘the Beast’ and “Assassin Senorita” are thick with dumbed-down Wakeman-like arrangements that should have appealed greatly to neophyte proggers, not to mention fans of glam rock like T. Rex, the Tubes and Gary Glitter. Guitarist Cartwright displays a penchant for catchy riffs throughout, and with a few songs (“Yes, She Said Yes”, “The Alamo” and “Helix” especially) he exudes the kind of ‘juke box hero’ power that should have propelled the group well up on the Billboard Top-100 charts. At times the band even seems to have the makings of a new wave band, particularly on the funky “Double Jointed” and closing “Over and Out”.

My personal favorite is the mildly psych-flavored “Shipwreck”, a slower and folk-influenced number that is not unlike a lot of Klaatu’s more memorable music but enhanced, as is most of the album, by Nick Pallett’s slightly tense but rich vocals. “The Alamo” starts off similarly, but ends up wandering off into a jaunty jam session of stilting keyboards, heavy prog bass and the occasional violin flourish (her violin work on “Over and Out” is also top- notch). This song in particular would have benefited greatly from some studio discipline, although the sound quality here is surprisingly good considering it was remastered from a cassette tape, the only surviving copy from those long-ago sessions. Cherry Red Records and Richard Jones did a masterful job of reconstructing this music for the CD release.

The more I delve into seventies music the more I’m amazed at the number of truly fascinating bands and albums there were back then that were simply overlooked, lost and forgotten. This band and this album are among the best in that category. This is a four-star affair in my book, and highly recommended to art rock, glam and even the more adventurous prog folk fans. Kudos to Jones for his great skill in bringing these demos back to life, and shame on Miles Copeland for not having a greater vision in 1974. One can only wonder what might have been had he taken a little more time to work through these delightful songs and apply himself in gilding their rough energy with a little commercial sheen so that a broader audience could have enjoyed them. I can only imagine what the group might have gone on to accomplish had that been the case.

peace

Principal Edward Magic Theatre (PEMT) may have been born in an uprising of love and peace, but they only actually managed to record two studio albums together. With so many fingers in the communal pie (no less than 140 assuming each band member was fully endowed) it is perhaps not surprising that they decided the project had run its course a mere 2 years after it began.

"The Asmoto Running band" is the second and final album released in the band name. Pink Floyd's Nick Mason steps in as producer, PEMT having supported the Floyd on numerous occasions. It is even suggested in the sleeve notes for the See for Miles reissue (but not substantiated), that Mason was involved with lead singer Vivienne McAuliffe at the time. The legendary Alexis Korner also appears to be around, taking credit for the overall production and as the publisher of the music. His precise roll beyond that though (if any) is less clear.

Inevitably for a band whose line up reads more like a class register, there are a few line up changes here, but most of those involved on "Soundtrack", including thankfully the gifted lead vocalist Vivienne McAuliffe, are still at their desks.

The tracks are generally a bit briefer and more focused this time, than on the "Soundtrack" debut, the superior production being immediately apparent. "McAlpine's dream", which opens the album, is a sort of blending of Pentangle, The Incredible String Band and Curved Air. As with the songs on the first album, the arrangement is complex and ambitious. From here, we merge straight into "McAlpine versus the Asmoto", the two tracks combined forming a 12+minute suite. The latter part is a pounding instrumental, at times sounding rather Genesis like, but featuring violin as the lead instrument.

The "Asmoto" theme runs through much of the album, although what that theme is actually about is not something I can shed any light on. It is likely that the accompanying live show (and bearing in mind that several group members do not actually play or sing on the album) brought the story to life, but even then this would probably have been in abstract format. As the album progresses, the tracks get noticeably shorter and more frivolous. The music remains pleasant, but the indications are that the inspiration is drying up rapidly. The final three tracks are somewhat less inspired than anything which has gone before, reaching a low point on "The Kettering song" which appears to be little more than an improvisation around that town's name.

The version I have of the album is included in a 2 on 1 single CD release by See for Miles Records (1994, SEECD412) which contains both the albums recorded by PEMT. In order to fit the albums onto a single disc, "Autumn dancing lady" is dropped altogether. We are helpfully reassured in the sleeve notes that "we are sure this will not detract from your listening enjoyment".

In all, another enjoyable album by PEMT. The group's ambitious may have been over-challenging for their combined talents, but there is a refreshing naivety here which endears us to the music.

As the band name implies, Principal Edwards Magic Theatre (PEMT) were as much a live event as they were a recording outfit. The band name was taken from that of a Welsh Evangelist distantly related to one of the members. Made up of a gang of no less than 14 students, they were the very epitome of the love and peace movement of the late 1960's. Their stage shows were as much about what you saw as what you heard, something which is inevitably lost when it comes to their two audio albums released in 1969 and 1971. The line up listed here shows only about 10 band members, the remainder not being involved in the audio aspects of the band.

"Soundtrack", PEMT's first album, was released on legendary British DJ John Peel's Dandelion label. The label was specifically intended as an outlet for bands such as PEMT, who Peel felt warranted exposure, but who were having difficulty in securing a recording contract. As such, the label was not actually profitable, any bands who showed commercial potential being subsequently snapped up by more commercially orientated record companies. The band's main claim to fame is perhaps the fact that they regularly supported artists such as Pink Floyd, in the days when the Floyd were still paying their dues.

The risk with ventures such as this is that the vision is somewhat different to the reality. Regardless of the number of people involved, there still needs to be a concerted effort made by the contributors in terms of both song-writing and performance. The group undoubtedly have a head start with the vocal talents of Vivienne McAuliffe. She has the singing pedigree of the likes of Sonja Kristina, Judy Dyble and Sandy Denny, with a purity of voice which can carry even the most mediocre of songs. I am also reminded of the music of the great Judy Collins, especially from around the time of her fine "Fires of Eden" album.

There are just 6 tracks here, ranging from the brief "To a broken guitar" to the 13½ minute "The death of Don Quixote". The opening "Enigmatic Insomniac machine" is one of the most accessible and indeed pleasant numbers here, being a Curved Air like soft folk excursion. This segues straight into the 7 minute "Sacrifice", a song which features a more complex arrangement and mixed male/female lead vocals. There are similarities with the barren landscapes of the Incredible String Band, the lead vocals of Martin Stellman being not unlike those of Robin Williamson.

The 13½ minute "The death of Don Quixote" sits at the core of the album. This rambling story jumps about from mood to mood and theme to theme, while always remaining folky and acoustic. It has to be said the song, and indeed the album, is something of an acquired taste. I mentioned Judy Collins album "Fires of Eden" album earlier, and this track is particularly reminiscent of the wonderful "The blizzard" from that release.

"Third Sonnet to sundry notes of music" opens side two of the album in very much the same way as side one closed. While the song as a whole remains light and folky, the sudden burst of lead guitar is as surprising as it is welcome. After the brief "To a broken guitar", the album closes with the 10 minute "Pinky, a mystery cycle". There's an element of the Spinal Taps here in the Stonehenge imagery and rather clumsy sound-scapes. The vocals are however as effective as ever, and the song does benefit from an ambitious arrangement including some decent lead guitar.

To enjoy this album, the listener would really need to be already converted to the music of bands such as the Incredible String band, The Strawbs, and Fairport Convention. There is no doubt that there is prog folk in abundance here, and that the album comes off surprisingly well. It will not however appeal to all tastes by any means.

This is a sort of theme album, telling the disjointed tale of a pseudo-mythical Asmoto Running Band and some dude named McAlpine’s interactions with them – sort of a poor man’s Sgt Pepper, I suppose. Kind of hard to follow – there’s a booklet with lyrics in the CD version but they aren’t all that illuminating without some sort of herbal inspiration.

The guitar work is more prevalent here, but nothing spectacular for sure, and many of the tracks seem to be nothing more than musical props for the troupe’s live theater sketches, most notably “Asmoto Celebration” (followed immediately by “Further Asmoto Celebration”); the pompously named “Total Glycerol Esther”; and the anti-climactic finale “Weirdsong of Breaking Through at Last”.

A remnant of the group would reform as simply “Principal Edwards” following the breakup and would continue on as a slightly more conventional art rock act for a couple of years before their bass player would marry pianist/violinist Belinda Bourquin and leave for the Climax Blues Band along with band manager Miles Copeland. The smaller group did manage to record a set of studio tracks known as “The Devon Tapes” that has been discovered and will supposedly be released some time soon, but beyond that there’s not much to report on the band after the mid-seventies.

This is a mildly interesting curio of history, but not a very serious piece of progressive folk music. I hesitate to give it only two stars because I think it suffers mostly from having not stood the test of time all that well, but it is what it is so two stars is the right call. Not particularly recommended but might provide a bit of amusement to nostalgic prog folk fans.

peace