Twenty years ago in September 2005 Galahad released ‘Sleepers, their ‘very difficult’ third album. The album was recorded, engineered and mixed by Tony Arnold a cohort of Robert Fripp/King Crimson at the time and therein was the difficulty. Tony was recommended to the band in 1991 because of his work with Robert, however, unbeknown to Galahad and

Twenty years ago in September 2005 Galahad released ‘Sleepers, their ‘very difficult’ third album. The album was recorded, engineered and mixed by Tony Arnold a cohort of Robert Fripp/King Crimson at the time and therein was the difficulty. Tony was recommended to the band in 1991 because of his work with Robert, however, unbeknown to Galahad and because of Tony’s commitments to other projects including the King Crimson ‘Frame by Frame’ boxed set the whole ‘Sleepers’ project became an extremely long and arduous journey culminating in Wild West style stand off when the final ‘tranche’ of money was exchanged for the album master and master tapes in Spring 1995!

The album took over four years to come to fruition, which crippled the band’s momentum which had been built up following their BBC Radio One Rock War win and release of their ‘Nothing Is Written’ album in 1991. It also caused considerable stress amongst the members and even their respective partners and also became the most expensive album to this day that the band have ever recorded, which was difficult as the band had no record deal at this point and were totally self-funded. Funds were borrowed from family and friends to pay for the ongoing recording sessions with no product to sell until its eventual release, which seemed like an eternity at the time.

However, Galahad remained bloody minded and resolute as usual and despite all the problems associated with the album’s gestation it was released and all loans were repaid in less than twelve months after it hit shelves. Rob Ayling, head honcho at Voiceprint Records, helped the band massively by organising pressing and distribution resulting in Galahad achieving their best selling album to that point, one which still sells consistently to this day.

Fast forward to 2015, Galahad are still here, as bloody minded as ever, our good friends at Oskar have kindly agreed to release a 20th anniversary re-mastered version, including a couple of extra tracks. The band were never happy with the original production but there was little that could be done and the band were, frankly, mentally and emotionally worn out! However, after having tweaked various aspects of the original recording, courtesy of Karl Groom, listening back to it now it actually sounds fine, very different to Karl’s modern production of but then again the band were a very different beast in 1995, although there are certain trademarks which still and will always remain.

Track list:

1. Sleepers
2. Julie Anne
3. Live and Learn
4. Dentist Song
5. Pictures of Bliss
6. Before, After and Beyond
7. Exorcising Demons
8. Middleground
9. Amaranth
10. Suffering in Silence
11. Pictures of Bliss (alternative version)

The band:

Roy Keyworth – Acoustic and electric guitars Stu Nicholson – Lead and backing Vocals Spencer Luckman – Drums and percussion Karl Garrett – Keyboards Neil Pepper – Bass guitars

Special guests:

Paul Beavis – Percussion Kathy Smythe – Operatic vocals on Sleepers Dean Baker – Keyboards and orchestration on Pictures of Bliss (alternative version)