Sunday 23 September 2012

From the Top Drawer XLIII - Trilogy


  Before exploring the delights offered by the free festival/underground gig circuit of the 1980s and looking around for fresh musical experiences, I dabbled in the burgeoning so-called New Wave of Progressive Rock that was hitting the clubs of the UK. Some of those bands went on to fame and fortune, such as Marillion, and to some degree IQ and Pendragon, all of whom are still functioning today. My particular tastes at the time ran to bands like Twelfth Night (RIP Geoff Mann - a great frontman who left the band and later became a priest!), Pallas and Trilogy.


  Trilogy were a three-piece act from Essex (?) who I saw a few times playing in London at venues such as the Marquee in Wardour St which was a regular gig for many of the bands mentioned here. Very much influenced by Rush circa 'Permanent Waves' and 'Moving Pictures', they were excellent musicians who recorded a session broadcast on the BBC Friday Rock Show and shopped around for a major record deal but unfortunately never received one, folding sometime around 1985.


  This 1983 four track cassette EP 'Arctic Life' (the only one I have, alas) is a good representation of what they were capable of live. Highly recommended to those who like late 70s and early 80s Rush, give it a miss if you don't ;-)

 The line-up for this tape was: 
Paul Dennis - Guitar, Keyboards, Bass Pedals, Vocals
Mark Bloxsidge - Bass Guitar
Nik Szymanek - Drums, Percussion

*** Seems like the copyright warriors are on my ass again so before I lose my MediaFire file-hosting account, I'm gonna have to take this one down - sorry folks! ***


Trilogy have a website HERE
 (from where these pictures come)
and there is a good review of their career on THIS page

6 comments:

  1. Cool blog you have here.

    Any chance you could post some Cheapsuit Oroonies? Or Mandragora (Somethink Missing, Over the Moon)?

    Thanks a bunch.

    Dave

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  2. Hi Dave, thanks for the feedback.
    Sorry, I don't have any Cheapsuit Oroonies or Mandragora to share :(
    They must be lurking out there somewhere online, maybe on P2P...

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  3. Thanks for this Trilogy recording, I have been seeking it for yonks-upon-ages. I have a decent sounding Trilogy bootleg recorded in Edinburgh on the Brave New World tour of 1983 where they shared stages with Solstice & Pallas. Anyone interested?

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    Replies
    1. Hi dlz1965 and thanks for your comment/offer. Is the Trilogy boot a soundboard or an audience recording?, I prefer SBDs personally, but if it's good quality I wouldn't mind hearing it whatever the source.
      I can be reached at headduster(at)gmx.com

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  4. Great to hear this one again after so many years so thank you very much. Do you have tapes from other eighties prog bands such as Haze/Liason/Quasar/Here & Now etc?

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  5. Hi stevo25, you're very welcome. I'm afraid that apart from IQ's cassette version of 'Seven Stories Into Eight' (which has been officially released on CD, I believe) I don't have any more 'Neo-Prog' tapes to share.

    Here And Now recordings can be readily found online at various music blogs, including some at Devotional Hooligan's blog - http://devotionalhooligan.blogspot.co.uk/
    (just use his search box)

    ReplyDelete