Robert John Godfrey

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Robert John Godfrey (1998)

Robert John Godfrey (born July 30, 1947 at Leeds Abbey Farm in Leeds Village, Kent , England ) is a British composer, pianist and founding member of the progressive rock band The Enid .

Life

Robert John Godfrey was born on the Leeds Castle estates which were farmed by his maternal grandfather. He attended Finchden Manor, an institution for difficult but gifted boys. Other well-known students in Finchden were for example Alexis Korner and Tom Robinson .

Although he did not begin to play the piano until he was twelve, he studied at the Royal College of Music from 1965 , then at the Royal Academy of Music . During his student days he came into contact with the colorful scene of Swinging London and the Summer of Love .

In 1969 he gave up his career as a concert pianist to make rock music. At Abbey Road Studios he worked with Norman Smith , who was the producer for the bands Pink Floyd and Barclay James Harvest (BJH). A collaboration between Godfrey and BJH developed, which lasted until 1971. As musical director, he let the group make recordings with an orchestra and also brought them live on stage.

Godfrey got a recording deal with Charisma Records and recorded the solo album Fall of Hyperion , which was released in 1974. In the same year he formed the band The Enid with Stephen Stewart and Francis Lickerish, two students from Finchden Manor . Godfrey recruited Peter Roberts, whom he knew from the Royal College of Music, as singer. On New Years Day 1975, Roberts committed suicide, after which the group recorded their debut album In the Region of the Summer Stars instrumental. The album came out in 1976. The following Enid albums also got by without vocals.

After the fourth album, the band temporarily ended in 1980 when their record company, Pye Records, went bankrupt. Godfrey and Stewart opened the Lodge Recording Studio in Suffolk . Her clients included Kim Wilde , who recorded her first album and hit Kids in America with The Enid as a band in 1981 . From 1983 there were also albums from The Enid again, now with vocals. Despite further interruptions, The Enid still exists today (2013).

In mid-2013, Robert John Godfrey announced that he had Alzheimer's disease.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Autobiography on the website of Robert John Godfrey, see web links
  2. ↑ Robert John Godfrey biography on the website of Barclay James Harvest (English)
  3. ↑ a b "Chronology 1959-1999" on the website of The Enid, see web links
  4. ↑ "Who Are The Enid" on the website of The Enid, see web links
  5. ↑ Robert John Godfrey with Alzheimer's disease . Report on Progrock-dt.de, June 25, 2013
personal data
SURNAME Godfrey, Robert John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English composer, pianist and founding member of the band The Enid
DATE OF BIRTH July 30, 1947
PLACE OF BIRTH Leeds Abbey Farm , Leeds Village, Kent, England, United Kingdom