Pallas

Pallas is a progressive rock band based in the UK. They were one of the bands at the vanguard of what was termed neo-progressive during progressive rock's second-wave revival in the early 1980s (other major acts included Marillion, IQ, Twelfth Night, Pendragon and Quasar).

Career

Beginning life as 'Rainbow', they dropped the name after Richie Blackmore left Deep Purple and called his new band Rainbow. Pallas began hitting the club circuit at the beginning of a grassroots revival of full-blown progressive rock; which, at the time, was extremely unfashionable due to the overwhelming influence of pop and New Wave. They eventually secured a successful headlining run at London's Marquee Club (a hotbed for the neo-progressive revival). A highlight of their set at that time and also a highlight of the early Marquee shows (until the Marquee threatened to ban the band if they did not stop playing it) was a track called "The Ripper". A fifteen-minute epic about child abuse, insanity, rape and murder, the climax of "The Ripper" featured lead singer Euan Lowson dressed half as an old man, half as a woman, acting out a chilling rape on stage (the Yorkshire Ripper case was still, at the time, a fresh news item).

After releasing a self-produced LP entitled Arrive Alive (recorded in Scotland in 1981), Pallas was courted by EMI records (who had just signed contemporaries Marillion) and went into the recording studio with Yes/Emerson, Lake & Palmer engineer Eddie Offord to record the album that would become The Sentinel. The plan was that The Sentinel would be a recorded version of The Atlantis Suite, an epic centrepiece of the band's live performances at the time based around a futuristic version of the story of Atlantis, with plenty of references to the Cold War.

All this boded well for Pallas, but EMI's initial interest in the band waned, as did Offord's enthusiasm for producing the album properly. In order to increase the commercial potential of the group's major label debut the running order was changed, adding more commercial songs and removing much of the Atlantis Suite material. As a result of all these factors, when The Sentinel was released in 1984 it was regarded as a compromised affair by all involved (despite sporting what was regarded as one of the genre's most beautiful covers ever, illustrated by Patrick Woodroffe). The excised Atlantis Suite tracks were issued as B-sides on singles at the time of the album's release, and in 2004 a remastered version of the album was released with the Atlantis Suite finally intact and as the band intended it.

Some elaborately staged shows in the UK (using The Sentinel concept as the theme, and featuring props by the special effects team from Doctor Who) failed to generate the needed interest, and by the time the band was ready to record their second album for EMI, Lowson decided to leave the band (and the music industry). In the wake of Lowson's departure the band recorded the Knightmoves EP with new singer Alan Reed. The centre-piece of the EP was the epic Sanctuary, and early editions of the EP also included a bonus 7" featuring two tracks recorded as demos. The band went on to record a second EMI album, The Wedge.

The band fell into a semi-dormant state for a number of years, but CD reissues of the back catalogue, with extra tracks and re-engineered versions of The Sentinel, kept interest alive. Pallas persevered on and off for several years, and in 1998 released a comeback album, Beat the Drum. This featured a harder sound, returning to the band's classic rock roots but still retained a progressive sound with glimpses of the epic on tracks such as album closer, "Fragments of The Sun". This was enough to revive interest in the band, and saw the internet become an important component in their career. By now the band was a spare time activity for its members, but still they managed regular studio output and occasional short tours of Europe and North America. The Cross & the Crucible, a loosely concept album exploring the historical tension between religion and science was released in 2001. The Dreams of Men was released in 2005, supplemented by Paul Anderson on violin, and the classical singer, Pandy Arthur.

In common with a number of others from the 1980s neo-prog scene, notably IQ, the band continued to pursue their musical interests. In spite of being largely ignored by major record labels and the mainstream music press, with the support of the German independent record label InsideOut, the band continue to record and play regular live dates, particularly in Northern Europe. Recent years have also seen a number of supplementary releases, such as two from the Radio Clyde River Sessions series, a double live collection, several official bootleg recordings and Mythopoeia, an archive CD-Rom of audio and video material from the band's history.

Discography

Cover art from The Sentinel, painted by Patrick Woodroffe

Studio albums

• The Sentinel (1984)UK #41^[1]
• The Wedge (1986) UK #70^[1]
• Knight Moves to Wedge (1986)
• Beat the Drum (1998)
• The Cross & the Crucible (2001)
• Mythopeia (2002) Compilation
• The Dreams of Men (2005)

Live albums

• Arrive Alive (1981)
• Live our Lives - 2000 (2000)
• The Blinding Darkness (2003)
• The River Sessions 1 (2005)
• The River Sessions 2 (2005)
• Official Bootleg 27/01/06 (2006)

References