THE JEWEL

I will never forget that memorable night in 1987. First Pendragon played a wonderful and very inspired gig with many 'encores', the band was very pleased with the warm response from the Dutch progheads. And then, soon after the concert, we met Nick Barrett and Peter Gee, they were obvious on cloud number nine: not only because of their acclaimed performance but also the 'pot' started to work. Nick told us that Holland was such a tolerant country, they were so glad to smoke their marihuana without getting in trouble! But back to the music because Pendragon was in those days, along with Marillion, IQ and Twelfth Night, the hope and pride for the progheads. I still like their enthousiastic neo-prog sound, not very elaborate (is this an understament?) but so pleasant featuring powerful and moving electric guitarwork from Nick Barrett and bombastic keyboardplay from Clive Nolan. The highlight on this CD is the compelling track "Alaska" (with obvious hints from mid- Genesis) that starts with twanging guitars, soaring keyboards and a bit melancholical vocals. Gradually the climate becomes more bombastic delivering emotional vocals that match perfect to the atmosphere. Then a sensational break delivering spectacular synthesizer flights and howling electric guitar runs. This is Pendragon at their best: simple but moving in the 24-carat symphonic rock tradition. That's why so many progheads embraced this band and still follow them. To me they were repeating themselves on their following albums but almost every time Pendragon visits Holland I'm their in the crowd!