Galahad

Galahad formed in 1985, just for fun, playing roughly half covers (Genesis, Zeppelin, Rush, Sabbath, Focus, Marillion, etc.) and half original material. Galahad supported a few fairly well known 'Progressive' bands that were coming up at the time including IQ, Pendragon, Haze, Pallas and Magnum. Then, after mixing it with the slightly 'bigger boys', Galahad decided take it more seriously and began playing only original material, resulting in the release of their first proper album in 1991. Nothing Is Written was purely self-financed and released independently, but went on to sell several thousand copies.

The success of Nothing Is Written was also helped by the fact that the band received substantial air play on BBC Radio One, especially on the Radio One Rock Show hosted by the late, great Tommy Vance. The band then landed themselves with deals in the UK, Japan, and Germany.

Since then, the band has released fifteen albums, including several by main band offshoots such as Galahad Electric Company and the Galahad Acoustic Quintet. The band has played hundreds of gigs in the UK, Europe, and America over the last few years, at times in some very unusual venues!

In 2002, Galahad released Year Zero, which featured John Wetton (Asia, King Crimson, Family etc.) on guest vocals. In 2006, Galahad released their debut DVD, Resonance, which was recorded live in Katowice, Poland in May 2006. 

Empires Never Last, which features Karl Groom (Threshold) on engineering duties, was released in 2007 and took the band in a heavier, more muscular, guitar orientated direction. This more contemporary, metallic approach seems to have worked as the album was a great success, both commercially and critically, and resulted in them winning album of the year at the 2007 Classic Rock Society awards. Empires Never Last was also included in many top 10 album listings  for 2007.

In the interim and whilst recording TWO new studio albums, Galahad released a couple of live albums, Sleepless in Phoenixville – Rosfest Live 2007 and Whitchurch 92/93 - Live Archives -Vol.2 (CD/DVD) plus a re-issue of their 1992 Year Zero album, which also contained a bonus CD.

Battle Scars, again recorded at Thin Ice by Karl Groom was released in 2012 and took the band further in to a heavy/rockier direction, but mixed it up with a few more overtly modern dance/trance and classical influences. Beyond the Realms of Euphoria, a second album recorded at the same time, was released later in 2012.

A comprehensive biography entitled One For the Record - The Official Biography of Galahad, written by Andrew Wild, was published in 2013 and documented the history of the band from 1985 to 2012. The book came with a companion Video Archive DVD that includes many rare and previously unreleased live performances, some dating as far back as 1986.

2014 saw the band release a clutch of EPs, Seize the Day, Guardian Angel and Mein Hertz Brennt with the latter containing several differing versions of the Rammstein classic. 2014 also saw Tim Ashton re-join the band on bass guitar after an absence of 22 years!

2015 was the 30th anniversary of the band forming and they celebrated throughout the year with various releases and a special anniversary show at Mr Kyps in Poole in July. To start the ball rolling in this anniversary year, a re-mixed version of Empires Never Last was released in January. It included a couple of extra tracks on the CD version and a companion album Empires: A Curious Companion (download only from the band's web site) containing demo tracks, some of which were and some of which were not used on the resulting album.

Also in 2015, the EP 30 was released as a limited edition containing four tracks that would later appear on the When Worlds Collide 30th anniversary release. The band released a 2CD live set Solidarity - Live in Konin, which was recorded in 2013 during the Battle Scars/Euphoria tour. A 20th anniversary re-mastered digipack edition of  Sleepers containing an extra track was also released.

To finish off 2015, the band released a double CD retrospective compilation album When Worlds Collide with ten new recordings of old songs, some that date back to 1985 and one track that has never been recorded before, as well as a selection of tracks from their last three studio albums and recent EPs. This epic release, which also includes a 12-page booklet, clocks in at a mammoth 2 hours and 36 minutes and thus is great value for money!

2016 was spent mainly writing new material for the next Galahad studio album. 2017 saw the release of Quiet Storms showing a more introspective, mellow side to the band.

2018 saw the release of a full-on Prog/rock album Seas of Change which, in true 'Prog' tradition, contains just one long form 42-minute piece of music which was performed in its (almost) entirety at all live shows in 2018. Galahad were nominated for the 2018 UK Progressive Rock awards in the 'UK Band/Artist of the year' category. That award was eventually won, not surprisingly, by Steven Wilson!

2019 saw the band concentrating mainly on writing and recording a new studio album, as well as working on another re-issue project. Dean released Constellations, an electronic album influenced by the likes of Jean-Michel Jarre, Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, etc. featuring Stu on vocals on three tracks and Lee on guitar on one track.

2020 was a very busy year in spite of (or maybe because of) the Covid emergency. Sleepers was released on vinyl LP for the first time. A re-vamped Following Ghosts was re-released as a 3CD set including new remixes, alternative versions, new artwork, and new photos. Stu and Dean re-generated the 'Galahad Electric Company' by releasing an album full of songs recorded during lockdown. When The Battle Is Over is the first GEC album in 21 years and contains a very eclectic mix of material, including the poem My Orcha'd in Linden Lea written by Dorset dialect poet William Barnes in 1856, as well as a song featuring Stu's cat Sammy Gorgeous on meows! Lee Abraham also released an EP Western Skies under the name 'Echo Rain' in addition to a new solo album Harmony/Synchronicity featuring several vocalists, including Stu Nicholson and Mark Spencer. Dean also released a couple of digital singles Unorthodox and In Isolation as well as the Outer Limits EP. 

2021 saw the release of the re-mixed 1998 album Following Ghosts on a limited double vinyl. 'Galahad Electric Company' featuring Dean and Stu also released a second lock down album Soul Therapy on CD. 

Galahad's long awaited 11th studio album, The Last Great Adventurer, which features Mark Spencer on bass guitar on a brand-new Galahad album for the first time ever, was released in October 2022. Their 12th studio album, The Long Goodbye, came just a year later in November 2023.