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The Enidi
Sort: 40-35-04
AccNo: 92750899


If you need help in making a payment please go to CONTACT and get in touch with either Jason Ducker or Robert John Godfrey

NOT SHOWING UP

  • Making the remaining shows with RJG as good as possible
  • Giving the band the financial breathing space to create new music.
  • Working out a plan to keep the music of The Enid alive when Robert is gone.

I am nearly eighty and in poor health. Sooner or later, I will be gone, leaving a lifetime of work in the hands of my successors.

I thank all of you who continue to give regular small sums via The Enidi. 

I thank all those who have occasionally given the band larger sums for specific purposes.

As I face my mortality, I give thanks for the memory of the band's fans who have already made that journey.


As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.

In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire,

POTTED HISTORY

The Enid was founded in 1973 by British composer and pianist Robert John Godfrey, John Francis Lickerish, and Stephen Stewart to explore progressive possibilities in music.

While The Enid's creation and communication methods have evolved over the last 50 years, the band's philosophy, the steady introduction of new blood, and the underlying ethos have endured.

VISIONARY AWARD

In 2014, Robert John Godfrey won the coveted Visionary Award at the Progressive Music Awards, while The Enid won Best Band and Best Keyboard Player awards.

Watch Robert with Jerry Ewing and Gavin Esler accepting his award.


THE MUSIC

Defining the music of The Enid is never easy. The Guardian described the band as “Pink Floyd meets The Orb meets the Berlin Philharmonic”. Alan Freeman of the BBC said, “The Enid is the only band on the planet to have successfully fused rock-based music with the power, dynamics, and scale of symphonic classical music”.


RECORDINGS

The band released their debut album, In The Region Of The Summer Stars, the following year.

Full details of the band's official (and un-official) recordings at Discography


MEMORABLE GIGS

The band's early years were personified by two lead guitarists, fighting it out on stage in front of large crowds at the famous London Marquee Club. The band went on to appear five times at the Reading Festival and three times at Hammersmith Apollo (formerly Hammersmith Odeon)

Since the 1980s, the band has toured all around Europe, Japan and the USA.

In 2011, with the help of the fans, The Enid staged a concert at Birmingham's prestigious Symphony Hall, backed by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

LIVE WITH THE CBSO AT SYMPHONY HALL


THE BIRTH OF CROWDFUNDING FOR BANDS
IN THE PRE-INTERNET ERA

In 1980, after the collapse of PYE Records, the band broke with the music business completely and has operated as an "indie band" in partnership with its fans ever since.

In 1983, needing a survival plan, they turned to their fan club, “The Stand,” to provide the capital funding to tour, produce new recordings, and support all the costs of running a professional band. The concept of crowdfunding for bands had arrived.

The Enid is proud to have been a pioneer and an inspiration for all those bands (notably Marillion) who have since followed suit.

"If a small cult band like The Enid could do it, so could anyone. Now, thanks to the Internet, we are all doing it. Wunderbar!" said Robert John Godfrey in 1988.