Robert John Godfrey (born 30 July 1947) is a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

and a founding member of

The Enid The Enid are a British progressive rock band founded by keyboardist and composer Robert John Godfrey. Godfrey received his main musical education from The Royal College of Music. He is previously known for his work with Barclay James Harvest ...

Early career

Born on the

Leeds Castle Leeds Castle is a castle in Kent, England, southeast of Maidstone. It is built on islands in a lake formed by the River Len to the east of the village of Leeds and is a historic Grade I listed estate. A castle has existed on the site s ...

estate in

Kent, England Kent is a ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Greater London to the north-west. ...

, Godfrey was privately educated in various prep schools prior to going to Finchden Manor in

Tenterden Tenterden is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Ashford in Kent, England. The 2021 census published the population of the parish to be 8,186. Geography Tenterden is connected to Kent's county town of Maidstone by the A262 road an ...

, which was described by its founder

George Lyward George Aubrey Lyward (13 January 189422 June 1973) was a British educationalist and psychotherapist who founded and led Finchden Manor, a "community for delinquent, disturbed or disturbing boys" in Tenterden, Kent, UK. Early life and education ...

as a "therapeutic community for adolescents", other alumni of which included

Alexis Korner Alexis Andrew Nicholas Koerner (19 April 1928 – 1 January 1984), known professionally as Alexis Korner, was a British blues musician and radio broadcaster, who has sometimes been referred to as "a founding father of British blues". A major i ...

and

Tom Robinson Living people Thomas Giles Robinson (born 1 June 1950) is a British singer, bassist, radio presenter and long-time LGBT rights activist, best known for the hits " Glad to Be Gay", " 2-4-6-8 Motorway", and "Don't Take No for an Answer", with hi ...

. Although he didn't start to play the piano until the age of twelve, Godfrey's talent was prodigious enough to gain him admission to the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music (RCM) is a conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the undergraduate to the doctoral level in all aspects of Western Music including pe ...

, then the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is one of the oldest music schools in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the firs ...

. He studied under concert pianist

Malcolm Binns Malcolm Binns (born 29 January 1936) is a British classical pianist. Biography Malcolm Binns was born in Nottingham, England, in 1936. He studied music at the Royal College of Music in London from 1952 to 1956, including piano with Arthur Alexan ...

, and those around him included

Sir Michael Tippett Sir Michael Kemp Tippett (2 January 1905 – 8 January 1998) was an English composer who rose to prominence during and immediately after the Second World War. In his lifetime he was sometimes ranked with his contemporary Benjamin Britten as o ...

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten of Aldeburgh (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, o ...

and

Hans Werner Henze Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer. His large List of compositions by Hans Werner Henze, oeuvre is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Igor Stravinsky, Stravinsky, Mu ...

Career

From 1968 to 1971 Godfrey became resident musical director with

Barclay James Harvest Barclay James Harvest are an English progressive rock band, which following a split in 1998 now exists as two successor bands. They were founded in Oldham, in September 1966 by bassist/vocalist Les Holroyd (born 1948), guitarist/vocalist John ...

, making musical contributions to early recordings which established their full,

orchestral An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, a ...

style of rock music. The relationship fell apart and accounts differ as to why. Godfrey is gay, and claimed this was one reason he was fired from BJH. "It was the band’s girlfriends who forced the issue," he told ''

Classic Rock Classic rock is a radio format that developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, it comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the early-1990s, primarily focusing on comm ...

'' magazine. "They were from the Lancashire/Yorkshire area and couldn’t handle the idea of a gay man like me with a plummy accent." Years later Godfrey filed a lawsuit alleging he was owed composing credits and corresponding royalties on several of Barclay James Harvest's songs. He established that he had made a significant and original contribution to the creation of the works and must be regarded as a joint author. But as he had waited 14 years before asserting his rights, he was estopped from revoking the implied license granted to Lees for the exploitation of the works. Before ''Fall of Hyperion'', Godfrey was involved in the embryonic prog rock band Siddhartha who played the university and club circuit before being seen by Tony Stratton Smith (Charisma Records) at the Marquee Club, where they were supporting Mike Patto. The Band consisted of Godfrey on Steinway grand piano, Tony Ball bass guitar, Chris Lewis vocals, Nigel King lead guitar, Colin Green Hammond C3 organ and Nigel Culpepper drums. Various other members drifted in and out but these were the main members. The band fell apart through personal and musical differences before they could produce their first album (although somewhere there exists a three track demo recorded at Joe Browns Studio in Chigwell). In 1974 the

Charisma Records Charisma Records (also known as The Famous Charisma Label) was a British record label founded in 1969 by former journalist Tony Stratton Smith. He had previously acted as manager for rock bands such as The Nice, the Bonzo Dog Band and Van d ...

label released his first solo album, ''Fall of Hyperion''. It had abysmal sales and Godfrey himself has since described it as "stupid". He then went on to form

. Godfrey was the winner of the Visionary award at the 2014 Progressive Music Awards. He has been diagnosed with

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease and the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As the disease advances, symptoms can include problems wit ...

. In 2016, he retired from playing with The Enid due to his illness. His last regular performance with the band took place on 2 April 2016. However, in June 2017, it was announced that Godfrey would be joining The Enid in August of that year to celebrate his 70th birthday with a one-off performance at the Union Chapel in London, that took place on 5 August.

Discography

*''Fall of Hyperion'' (1974) (CAS 1084) *''The Music of William Arkle'' (1986) *''Reverberations'' (1987) *''The Seed and the Sower'' (with Steve Stewart) (1988) (later reissued as by The Enid) *''The Story of The Enid'' (1989) *''The Art of Melody'' (2013)

"Fall of Hyperion" track listing

# "The Raven" (8:46) # "Mountains" (6:56) # "Water Song" (5:57) # "End of Side 1" (0:04) # "Isault" (5:10) # "The Daemon Of The World" (14:44) ## "The Arrival Of The Phoenix" ## "Across The Abyss" ## "'The Daemon" ## "The Wanderer" ## "IHS" ## "Tuba Mirum" Personnel * Robert John Godfrey - keyboards * Christopher Lewis - vocals * Neil Tetlow - bass * Jim Scott - guitars *

Tristan Fry Tristan Frederick Allan Fry (born 25 October 1946, London) is a British drummer and percussionist. Career Fry began his career by joining the London Philharmonic Orchestra as a timpanist at the age of 17. He was a founding member of a number of e ...

- percussion * Ronnie McCrea - percussion * Nigel Morton - Hammond organ

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Godfrey, Robert John 1947 births Living people People from Leeds, Kent Alumni of the Royal College of Music Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music Musicians from Kent English gay musicians The Enid members 20th-century English LGBTQ people 21st-century English LGBTQ people