The Enid at The Globe

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The Enid at The Globe, Cardiff, Wales.
31 March 2011

Waiting at the front of a small queue on an overcast slightly chilly Thursday evening. The doors open at 7:30. A Chinese couple appear and look through he door and stay there causing dissention and mild rascist jokes in the ranks. We are informed that the doors will open at 7:45 to 8:00 because the band are still doing a sound check. We hear evidence of this.
 After a short while the doors swing open and we spy the band inside. Well the band and some youngsters. (Who in fact were in the band but i didn't know at the time.) They come out and Robert Godfrey greets the Chinese with...
"Hello again, how are you"?
She proffers a plastic bag.
"Do you like Carrot cake?" she asks (or was it callot cake?)
"Oh, yes i love carrot cake" The Enid leader replied, resplendent in bow tie, bushy beard, jacket and waistcoat..
"I bake you carrot cake" she said, handing over the bag.
I was agog. deliighted to be witnessing this vignette. Obviously they had all met the night before in a bar or restaurant and got chatting. During this my friend said something about a woman in an upsatirs window opposite.
"I'm listening to the carrot cake situation" I told him.
The band went off somewhere after this an we were allowed in.
The Globe was an old local cinema. It is small, dark, has tables to sit and watch and a balcony upsatirs. We went upstairs clutching our beers.
The performance started with what I think was a complete rendition of their current album Journey's End. Stage right was original drummer Dave Storey, who's sharp attacking style of drumming was a delight....actually I really loved his drumming. To the left of the drum kit stood two Tympani with some percussion above, and to the side a floor tom, a big bass drum and a xylophone forming a square for bassist/ percussionist Nick Willes to stand. I must say, for me he wa the star of the show. He was certainly the busiest all night.
 To the left of Nick sat Rob Godfrey behind his Roland/ Yaamaha combo and in front of him on the far left stood keyboardist/ guitarist/ singer Max Read. Centre front was occupied by lead guitarist jason Ducker who played a cream Strat for most of the evening and gave it plenty of tremeloe bar.
I had heard Journey's End only the week previous but I recognised the opening tom tom beat immediately. For the next 40 minutes I was enthralled. This album is now on my "to pay attention to" list. It was superb.
They followed this with....I think...Justice, which segued into In The Region Of Summer Stars. All excellent. This new Enid band are really good. Very talented. I cannot be precise on what eilse was played  ut it was all good. I do know that Dark Hydraulic was played as a finale and it was stunning. Corking! Brilliant! Godfrey announced during the show that he wanted this band to rerecord The Spell. We mingled with the band later and the night was over.

Edited by Snow Dog - April 02 2011 at 06:29