Principal Edwards

An album from history, magical and imaginative and one I couldn’t imagine being made today.

It was made at a time when bands were allowed to write music that wasn’t formulaic, that came from many directions and that was unique to the band making it. A time when audiences determined which bands labels should sign and when bands created music to intrigue and capture their audiences: music about average chaps and remarkable ladies, mixed with quite abstract and hallucinatory themes.

All very pretentious I know but this is truly music that obeys its internal rules. Influences from jazz and rock and folk and classical and all quite delightful.

The origins of the band were Principal Edwards Magical Theatre – a 16 piece commune and collective who were signed by John Peel for his Dandelion label in around ’69. After they broke up the remains of the band created the 6 piece Principal Edwards. They signed to Deram, Decca’s Progressive label, and this was their first for the label, produced by Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason.

From my own recollection only three of the original musicians were part of the band that made ‘Round One’ – Root Cartwright (guitar, mandolin & recorder), Belinda Bourquin (fiddle, piano & recorder) and David Jones (percussion) and the tighter set of musicians avoided some of the rambling playing of the Magic Theatre but they still made music that had more changes than a London tube train.

There is little of the heavy side of Prog, rather this is folksy and jazzy at its core, touched with a sense of whimsy and a very British charm.

As I said at the start, an album out of time but a delight and far more than just a curio.