Pendragon

Zeus Pendragon

Pendragon formed in 1978 in Stroud as Zeus Pendragon, founded by the guitarist and vocalist Nick Barrett; the Zeus was dropped before recording because it was too long for a T-shirt. The early line-up included John Barnfield on keyboards and Alan Gyorffy on drums, with Peter Gee on bass. They were part of the early-1980s neo-prog revival alongside Marillion, Pallas, Solstice and Twelfth Night, played the Reading Festival in 1983, signed to Elusive Records, and entered the Best Bands West battle of the bands at Goldiggers in Chippenham in the spring of 1984, televised by HTV. A BBC Radio One session was recorded in 1983.

The Jewel came out in 1985, followed by Kowtow (1988), The World (1991, on their own Toff Records), The Window of Life (1993), The Masquerade Overture (1996, 113 in the UK), Not of This World (2001), Believe (2005), Pure (2008, DPRP album of the year), Passion (2011), Men Who Climb Mountains (2014), Love Over Fear (2020) and Fallen Dreams and Angels and All the Loose Ends (2022). Clive Nolan joined on keyboards in 1986 and Fudge Smith on drums, who stayed until 2006; Joe Crabtree, Scott Higham and Craig Blundell followed before Jan-Vincent Velazco in 2015. Live albums include Live in Krakow (1997) and Concerto Maximo, filmed in Katowice on October 13, 2008, and a 40th anniversary box set came in September 2019. Toff Records is dated 1991 by Wikipedia and 1987 by a Madfish page.

Setlist.fm lists 525 setlists. On May 12, 2024 at the Key Theatre in Peterborough, an afternoon set built around The Window of Life ran as part of Everyone's a VIP Weekend.