The Enid, the British cult symphonic rock band founded in 1974 by Robert John Godfrey, Stephen Stewart and Francis Lickerish are renowned for their large-scale, myth and fantasy-inspired instrumental pieces.
In the early 80s The Enid became the first band ever to self-fund their recordings with contributions from fans in advance; a revolutionary concept that has since led to bands as diverse as Marillion and Radiohead taking lead from their approach.
In 2009, after a ten year break, founder members Robert John Godfrey and Dave Storey put together a new version of the band. Since then The Enid has had fantastic receptions in gigs all over the UK, in Europe and the USA. The 21st century line-up, spanning three generations, released Invicta, their latest album in 2012 which reached the top 10 in the Guardian Readers’ Poll that year.
The first two releases in the Madfish label Enid reissue series are the band’s first two records, ‘In The Region Of The Summer Stars’ (released in 1976) and ‘Aerie Faerie Nonsense’ (released in 1977).
Biography
The Enid began recording at about the same time as punk rock burst upon the scene. Godfrey has said that he always regarded The Enid’s ironic takes on classical music as being just as anarchic as anything by the Sex Pistols, but this did not translate into either musical or commercial recognition, despite their work being played frequently by Tommy Vance on BBC Radio One’s Friday Rock Show. In 1981, the band played most of the music for Kim Wilde’s self-titled debut album.
In addition to traditional vinyl and CD releases, in the late 1990s the band also pioneered the production of “Bespoke CDs” – mail-order custom compilation CD-Rs containing rare tracks chosen by listeners from a catalogue. This service was discontinued after a couple of years.
