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Pentangle (band)
Encyclopedia
Pentangle are a British
folk rock
band with some folk jazz
influences. The original band were active in the late 1960s and early 1970s and a later version has been active since the early 1980s. The original line-up, which was unchanged throughout the band's first incarnation (1967–1973), was: Jacqui McShee
, vocals; John Renbourn
, guitar; Bert Jansch
, guitar; Danny Thompson
, double bass; and Terry Cox
, drums.
The name Pentangle was chosen to represent the five members of the band, and is also the device on Sir Gawain's shield in the Middle English
poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
which held a fascination for Renbourn.
In 2007, the original members of the band were reunited to receive a Lifetime Achievement award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards
and to record a short concert that was broadcast on BBC
radio. In June 2008, the band, comprising all five original members, embarked on a twelve date UK tour.
scene, with several solo albums each and a duet LP, Bert and John
. Their use of complex inter-dependent, guitar parts, referred to as "folk baroque
", had become a distinctive characteristic of their music and was featured on Bert and John and in some of the duet tracks on Jansch's Jack Orion
album. They also shared a house in St John's Wood
, London.
Jacqui McShee had begun as an (unpaid) "floor singer" in several of the London folk clubs, and then, by 1965, ran a folk club at the Red Lion in Sutton, Surrey, establishing a friendship with Jansch and Renbourn when they played there. She sang on Renbourn's Another Monday album and performed with him as a duo, debuting at Les Cousins
club in August 1966.
Thompson and Cox were already well-known as jazz musicians and had played together in Alexis Korner
's band. By 1966, they were both part of Duffy Power
's Nucleus (a band which also included John McLaughlin
on electric guitar). Thompson was well known to Renbourn through appearances at Les Cousins and working with him on a project for television.
In 1967, the Scottish entrepreneur, Bruce Dunnett, who had recently organised a tour for Jansch, set up a Sunday night club for him and Renbourn at the (now defunct) Horseshoe Hotel in Tottenham Court Road. McShee began to join them as a vocalist and, by March of that year, Thompson and Cox were being billed as part of the band. Renbourn claims to be the "catalyst" that brought the band together but credits Jansch with the idea "to get the band to play in a regular place, to knock it into shape".
Although nominally a 'folk' group, the members each shared catholic tastes and influences. McShee had a grounding in traditional music, Cox and Thompson a love of jazz
, Renbourn a growing interest in early music
and Jansch a taste for blues
and contemporaries such as Bob Dylan
.
The first public concert by Pentangle was a sell-out performance at the Royal Festival Hall
, on 27 May 1967. Later that year, they undertook a short tour of Denmark — in which they were disastrously billed as a rock'n'roll band — and a short UK tour, organised by Nathan Joseph
of Transatlantic Records
. By this stage, their association with Bruce Dunnett had ended and, early in 1968, they acquired Jo Lustig
as a manager. With his influence, they graduated from clubs to concert halls and from then on, as Colin Harper puts it, "the ramshackle, happy-go-lucky progress of the Pentangle was going to be a streamlined machine of purpose and efficiency".
Pentangle signed up with Transatlantic Records
and their eponymous debut LP
was released in May 1968. This all-acoustic album was produced by Shel Talmy
who has claimed to have employed an innovative approach to recording acoustic guitars to deliver a very bright "bell-like" sound. On 29 June of that year they performed at London
's Royal Festival Hall
. Recordings from that concert formed part of their second album, Sweet Child (released in November 1968), a double LP comprising live and studio recordings. Showcasing the group's eclectic approach (and Jansch's growing songwriting ability), it is generally regarded as their creative high point.
Basket of Light
, which followed in mid 1969, was their greatest commercial success, thanks to a surprise hit single, Light Flight which became popular through its use as theme music for a TV drama series Take Three Girls
(the BBC's first drama series to be broadcast in colour) for which the band also provided incidental music. By 1970, they were at the peak of their popularity, recording a soundtrack for the film Tam Lin, making at least 12 television appearances, and undertaking tours of the UK (including the Isle of Wight Festival) and America (including a concert at the Carnegie Hall). However, their fourth album, Cruel Sister
, released in October 1970, was a commercial disaster. This was an album of traditional songs that included a 20-minute long version of Jack Orion, a song that Jansch and Renbourn had recorded previously as a duo.
The band returned to a mix of traditional and original material on Reflection, recorded in March 1971. This was received positively, but without great enthusiasm, by the music press. By this time, the strains of touring and of working together as a band were readily apparent. Bill Leader
, who produced the album is quoted as saying "It seems to me, in retrospect, that each day a different member of the group had decided that this was it: 'Sod this for a game of soldiers, I'm leaving the group!'" Pentangle withdrew from Transatlantic, in a bitter dispute with Joseph, regarding royalties. Transatlantic had apparently concluded that they were within their contractual rights to withhold royalty payments from the Pentangle albums. Joseph pointed out that his company had covered all the costs, such as recording costs, entailed in making the albums. Jo Lustig, their manager, who had agreed to the Transatlantic contract, made it clear that their contract with him included a clause that they could not sue him "for anything under any circumstances." Hence, in order to make some money out of the work they were doing, Pentangle established their own music publishing company, Swiggeroux Music in 1971.
The final album of the original Pentangle was Solomon's Seal released by Warner Brothers/Reprise in 1972. Colin Harper describes it as "a record of people's weariness, but also the product of a unit that whose members were still among the best players, writers and musical interpreters of their day". Its release was accompanied by a UK tour, in which Pentangle were supported by Wizz Jones
and Clive Palmer
's band COB. The last few dates of the tour had to be cancelled owing to Thompson becoming ill.
On New Year's Day, 1973, Jansch decided to leave the band: "Pentangle Split" was the front page headline of the first issue of Melody Maker
in 1973.
, but lacking a drummer, as Cox had broken his leg in a road accident. They completed a tour of Italy, Australia and some venues in Germany, with Cox initially playing in a wheelchair.
Renbourn left the band to pursue a long-term ambition of studying classical music, taking up a place at Dartington College of Arts
. There then followed a series of personnel changes, including Mike Piggott on violin and guitar, Nigel Portman Smith on keyboards and bass, and Peter Kirtley on guitars and vocals, with McShee and Jansch finally remaining as the only members from the original line-up. Gerry Conway
(who had worked with Fotheringay
, Cat Stevens
, Jethro Tull
, Richard Thompson and John Martyn) took over on drums and percussion in 1987. The incarnation consisting of Jansch, McShee, Portman Smith, Kirtley and Conway survived almost as long as the original Pentangle and recorded three albums: Think of Tomorrow, One More Road and Live 1994. This line-up completed their final tour in March–April 1995, after which Jansch left to pursue his solo work: particularly his residency at the 12 Bar Club in London's Denmark Street
.
on keyboards. The trio's first album, About Thyme, featured guests Ralph McTell
, Albert Lee
, Mike Mainieri, and John Martyn. The album reached the top of fRoots magazine's British folk chart. The album was released on their own label - GJS (Gerry Jacqui Spencer). With the addition of saxophonist Jerry Underwood and bassist/guitarist Alan Thomson, the band was renamed (with the agreement of the original Pentangle members) Jacqui McShee's Pentangle. The new five-piece band's first album Passe Avant was released on the Park Records
label. In 2005, they released Feoffees' Lands, (a feoffee
is a medieval term for a trustee) on GJS.
The new line-up played regularly on the live circuit. Their concert at Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, was recorded and released by Park Records under the title At the Little Theatre. The album highlights the improvisational virtuosity of the band and its melding of jazz and folk influences.
In August 2002, saxophonist Jerry Underwood died after an illness. His place was taken by flautist/saxophonist Gary Foote
in 2004. Jacqui McShee's Pentangle was still touring regularly in 2006.
Whilst the new Pentangle incarnations and personnel changes took the band in various musical directions, interest in the original Pentangle line-up and its distinct fusion of musical styles continued, with at least a dozen compilation albums being released between 1972 and 2001.
In 2004, the 1968-1972 Lost Broadcasts album was released. Jo Lustig's influence had secured numerous radio appearances for the band—at least eleven broadcasts by the BBC in 1968, for example. The album was a 2-CD compilation of recordings from these sessions. It includes a full-band version of Terry Cox's solo song "Moondog" and a recording of "The Name of the Game" which had been used by the BBC as a theme song for some of the Pentangle broadcasts but had never appeared on record.
In 2007 The Time Has Come 1967 - 1973 was issued. It was a 4-CD collection of rarities, out-takes and live performances. The liner notes were by Colin Harper
and Pete Paphides.
The original band formally reformed in 2008. They appeared on the BBC TV music programme Later..with Jools Holland on 29 April 2008, with 'Let No Man Steal Your Thyme
', and on 2 May 2008, performing 'Light Flight' and 'I've Got a Feeling'. They went on to undertake a UK tour, including a return to the Royal Festival Hall, where they recorded the Sweet Child album forty years earlier. They went on to headline at the Green Man Festival
in August 2008.
In 2011 the original Pentangle played some limited concerts (including RFH, Glastonbury and Cambridge) generally to great acclaim. There were delays in playing again due to Jansch's throat cancer. The band are to release a live album of their 2008 tour, and recorded new material in 2011. Reviews of the band were generally very positive in 2011 for all members, especially the excellent playing of John Renbourn.
Bert Jansch died of cancer on 5 October 2011, aged 67.
s: "Market Song" from Sweet Child moves from 7/4 to 11/4 and 4/4 time and "Light Flight" from Basket of Light includes sections in 5/8, 7/8 and 6/4. However, the changes appear natural, in the context of the songs and not forced for effect.
Henry Raynor
, writing in The Times
struggled to characterise their music: "It is not a pop group, not a folk group and not a jazz group, but what it attempts is music which is a synthesis of all these and other styles as well as interesting experiments in each of them individually." Even Pentangle's earliest work is characterised by that synthesis of styles: songs such as "Bruton Town" and "Let No Man Steal Your Thyme" from the 1968 The Pentangle album include elements of folk, jazz, blues and early music. At the time that the album was released, apart from Davey Graham
's pioneering work, there was almost nothing comparable to Pentangle's fusion of styles with, for example, Pete Townshend
describing it as "fresh and innovative". However, by the release of their fourth album, Cruel Sister
, in 1970, Pentangle had moved more towards traditional folk music, and towards the use of the electric guitar as an instrument. By this time, folk music had itself moved towards rock and the use of electric instruments, so Cruel Sister invited comparison with, for example, Fairport Convention
's Liege and Lief and Steeleye Span
's Hark! The Village Wait
. Pentangle is thus often credited as one of the progenitors of the electric folk
style, even though their most well-known album is recorded entirely with acoustic instruments.
In their final two albums, the original Pentangle returned closer to their folk-jazz origins but by then, the predominant musical taste had moved to electric folk-rock. Colin Harper sums things up by saying that Pentangle's "increasingly fragile music was on borrowed time and everyone knew it".
by David Attenborough
. Producer John Leonard said "Pentangle were one of the most influential groups of the late 20th century and it would be wrong for the awards not to recognise what an impact they had on the music scene." Pentangle played together for the event, for the first time in over 20 years. Their performance was broadcast on BBC Radio 2
on Wednesday 7 February 2007.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
folk rock
Folk rock
Folk rock is a musical genre combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...
band with some folk jazz
Folk jazz
Folk jazz is a broad term for music that pairs traditional folk music with elements of jazz music, featuring richly elaborated songs whose textures are rooted in both styles....
influences. The original band were active in the late 1960s and early 1970s and a later version has been active since the early 1980s. The original line-up, which was unchanged throughout the band's first incarnation (1967–1973), was: Jacqui McShee
Jacqui McShee
thumb|300px|right|Jacqui McShee performing with [[Pentangle]] at the 2007 [[BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards]]Jacqueline 'Jacqui' McShee is an English singer. Since 1966 she has performed with Pentangle, a jazz influenced folk rock band.-Biography:McShee's musical career began as a soloist in British folk...
, vocals; John Renbourn
John Renbourn
John Renbourn is an English guitarist and songwriter. He is possibly best known for his collaboration with guitarist Bert Jansch as well as his work with the folk group Pentangle, although he maintained a solo career before, during and after that band's existence .While most commonly labelled a...
, guitar; Bert Jansch
Bert Jansch
Herbert "Bert" Jansch was a Scottish folk musician and founding member of the band Pentangle. He was born in Glasgow and came to prominence in London in the 1960s, as an acoustic guitarist, as well as a singer-songwriter...
, guitar; Danny Thompson
Danny Thompson
Daniel Henry Edward 'Danny' Thompson is an English multi-instrumentalist best known as a double bassist and businessman...
, double bass; and Terry Cox
Terry Cox
Terence William Harvey 'Terry' Cox played drums in the British folk rock bands The Pentangle, Duffy's Nucleus and Humblebums....
, drums.
The name Pentangle was chosen to represent the five members of the band, and is also the device on Sir Gawain's shield in the Middle English
Middle English
Middle English is the stage in the history of the English language during the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century....
poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late 14th-century Middle English alliterative romance outlining an adventure of Sir Gawain, a knight of King Arthur's Round Table. In the poem, Sir Gawain accepts a challenge from a mysterious warrior who is completely green, from his clothes and hair to his...
which held a fascination for Renbourn.
In 2007, the original members of the band were reunited to receive a Lifetime Achievement award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards
BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards
The BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards celebrate outstanding achievement during the previous year within the field of folk music. The awards have been given annually since 2000 by British radio station BBC Radio 2....
and to record a short concert that was broadcast on BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
radio. In June 2008, the band, comprising all five original members, embarked on a twelve date UK tour.
Formation of the original line-up
The original group formed in 1967. Renbourn and Jansch were already popular musicians on the British folkFolk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
scene, with several solo albums each and a duet LP, Bert and John
Bert And John
Bert And John is the fourth album by Scottish folk musician Bert Jansch, released in 1966. A number of songs are performed with friend and fellow guitarist John Renbourn, who would later join him in the group Pentangle. An expanded version of the album was later released in America in 1969 by...
. Their use of complex inter-dependent, guitar parts, referred to as "folk baroque
Folk baroque
Folk baroque or baroque guitar is the name given to a distinctive and influential guitar fingerstyle developed in Britain in the 1960s, which combined elements of American folk, blues, jazz and ragtime with British traditional music to produce a new and elaborate form of accompaniment...
", had become a distinctive characteristic of their music and was featured on Bert and John and in some of the duet tracks on Jansch's Jack Orion
Jack Orion
Jack Orion is the third album by Scottish folk musician Bert Jansch, released in 1966. It contains a number of traditional songs, including the epic "Jack Orion": a ten-minute adaptation of the Child ballad "Glasgerion" which tells of a court fiddler’s attempt to seduce a countess and his servant's...
album. They also shared a house in St John's Wood
St John's Wood
St John's Wood is a district of north-west London, England, in the City of Westminster, and at the north-west end of Regent's Park. It is approximately 2.5 miles north-west of Charing Cross. Once part of the Great Middlesex Forest, it was later owned by the Knights of St John of Jerusalem...
, London.
Jacqui McShee had begun as an (unpaid) "floor singer" in several of the London folk clubs, and then, by 1965, ran a folk club at the Red Lion in Sutton, Surrey, establishing a friendship with Jansch and Renbourn when they played there. She sang on Renbourn's Another Monday album and performed with him as a duo, debuting at Les Cousins
Les Cousins (music club)
Les Cousins was a folk and blues club in the basement of a restaurant in Greek Street, in the Soho district of London. It had its heyday during the British folk music revival of the mid-1960s and was notable as a venue in which musicians of that period met and learnt from each other...
club in August 1966.
Thompson and Cox were already well-known as jazz musicians and had played together in Alexis Korner
Alexis Korner
Alexis Korner was a blues musician and radio broadcaster, who has sometimes been referred to as "a Founding Father of British Blues"...
's band. By 1966, they were both part of Duffy Power
Duffy Power
Duffy Power is an English blues and rock and roll singer, who achieved some success in the 1960s and has performed and recorded intermittently since then.-Career:...
's Nucleus (a band which also included John McLaughlin
John McLaughlin (musician)
John McLaughlin , also known as Mahavishnu John McLaughlin, is an English guitarist, bandleader and composer...
on electric guitar). Thompson was well known to Renbourn through appearances at Les Cousins and working with him on a project for television.
In 1967, the Scottish entrepreneur, Bruce Dunnett, who had recently organised a tour for Jansch, set up a Sunday night club for him and Renbourn at the (now defunct) Horseshoe Hotel in Tottenham Court Road. McShee began to join them as a vocalist and, by March of that year, Thompson and Cox were being billed as part of the band. Renbourn claims to be the "catalyst" that brought the band together but credits Jansch with the idea "to get the band to play in a regular place, to knock it into shape".
Although nominally a 'folk' group, the members each shared catholic tastes and influences. McShee had a grounding in traditional music, Cox and Thompson a love of jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, Renbourn a growing interest in early music
Early music
Early music is generally understood as comprising all music from the earliest times up to the Renaissance. However, today this term has come to include "any music for which a historically appropriate style of performance must be reconstructed on the basis of surviving scores, treatises,...
and Jansch a taste for blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
and contemporaries such as Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
.
Commercial success
Royal Festival Hall
The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,900-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge. It is a Grade I listed building - the first post-war building to become so protected...
, on 27 May 1967. Later that year, they undertook a short tour of Denmark — in which they were disastrously billed as a rock'n'roll band — and a short UK tour, organised by Nathan Joseph
Nathan Joseph
Nathan "Nat" Joseph was a noted force in the British music industry, a theatrical producer and talent agent. He was a pioneer in the development of independent record companies in the 1960s and 1970s....
of Transatlantic Records
Transatlantic Records
Transatlantic Records was a British independent record label. It was established in 1961. It started began primarily as an importer of American folk, blues and jazz records - by many of the artists who influenced the burgeoning British folk and blues boom. Within a couple of years, the company had...
. By this stage, their association with Bruce Dunnett had ended and, early in 1968, they acquired Jo Lustig
Jo Lustig
-Early career:Jo was born on October 21, 1925 in Brooklyn, New York. At the age of 12 he saw Billie Holiday singing in a club and fell in love with music. He became an apprentice music journalist, meeting up with Gloria Swanson and Mel Brooks. Having gone solo, he handled publicity for Miles...
as a manager. With his influence, they graduated from clubs to concert halls and from then on, as Colin Harper puts it, "the ramshackle, happy-go-lucky progress of the Pentangle was going to be a streamlined machine of purpose and efficiency".
Pentangle signed up with Transatlantic Records
Transatlantic Records
Transatlantic Records was a British independent record label. It was established in 1961. It started began primarily as an importer of American folk, blues and jazz records - by many of the artists who influenced the burgeoning British folk and blues boom. Within a couple of years, the company had...
and their eponymous debut LP
The Pentangle
The Pentangle was the 1968 debut album of the band Pentangle: Terry Cox, Bert Jansch, Jacqui McShee, John Renbourn and Danny Thompson. It brought together their separate influences of folk, jazz, blues, early music and contemporary song-writing into a unique sound...
was released in May 1968. This all-acoustic album was produced by Shel Talmy
Shel Talmy
Shel Talmy is an American record producer, songwriter, arranger best known for his work in London with The Who and The Kinks in the 1960s, with a role in many other English bands including Cat Stevens and Pentangle...
who has claimed to have employed an innovative approach to recording acoustic guitars to deliver a very bright "bell-like" sound. On 29 June of that year they performed at London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
's Royal Festival Hall
Royal Festival Hall
The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,900-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge. It is a Grade I listed building - the first post-war building to become so protected...
. Recordings from that concert formed part of their second album, Sweet Child (released in November 1968), a double LP comprising live and studio recordings. Showcasing the group's eclectic approach (and Jansch's growing songwriting ability), it is generally regarded as their creative high point.
Basket of Light
Basket of Light
Basket of Light is a 1969 album by the folk rock group Pentangle. It reached #5 on the UK charts largely on the basis of the single "Light Flight" , the theme from BBC1's first colour drama series Take Three Girls.-A side:-B side:...
, which followed in mid 1969, was their greatest commercial success, thanks to a surprise hit single, Light Flight which became popular through its use as theme music for a TV drama series Take Three Girls
Take Three Girls
Take Three Girls is a drama series on BBC1 which ran between 1969 and 1971 about the lives of three girls sharing a flat in 'Swinging' London....
(the BBC's first drama series to be broadcast in colour) for which the band also provided incidental music. By 1970, they were at the peak of their popularity, recording a soundtrack for the film Tam Lin, making at least 12 television appearances, and undertaking tours of the UK (including the Isle of Wight Festival) and America (including a concert at the Carnegie Hall). However, their fourth album, Cruel Sister
Cruel Sister
Cruel Sister was an album recorded in 1970 by folk-rock band Pentangle. It was the most folk-based of the albums recorded by the band, with all the tracks being versions of traditional songs...
, released in October 1970, was a commercial disaster. This was an album of traditional songs that included a 20-minute long version of Jack Orion, a song that Jansch and Renbourn had recorded previously as a duo.
Decline
Bill Leader
Bill Leader is an English recording engineer and record producer. He is particularly associated with the British folk music revival of the 1960s and 1970s, producing records by Davey Graham, Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Frank Harte and others....
, who produced the album is quoted as saying "It seems to me, in retrospect, that each day a different member of the group had decided that this was it: 'Sod this for a game of soldiers, I'm leaving the group!'" Pentangle withdrew from Transatlantic, in a bitter dispute with Joseph, regarding royalties. Transatlantic had apparently concluded that they were within their contractual rights to withhold royalty payments from the Pentangle albums. Joseph pointed out that his company had covered all the costs, such as recording costs, entailed in making the albums. Jo Lustig, their manager, who had agreed to the Transatlantic contract, made it clear that their contract with him included a clause that they could not sue him "for anything under any circumstances." Hence, in order to make some money out of the work they were doing, Pentangle established their own music publishing company, Swiggeroux Music in 1971.
The final album of the original Pentangle was Solomon's Seal released by Warner Brothers/Reprise in 1972. Colin Harper describes it as "a record of people's weariness, but also the product of a unit that whose members were still among the best players, writers and musical interpreters of their day". Its release was accompanied by a UK tour, in which Pentangle were supported by Wizz Jones
Wizz Jones
Raymond Ronald Jones better-known as Wizz Jones is an English acoustic guitarist, singer and songwriter. He has been performing since the late 1950s and recording from 1965 to the present...
and Clive Palmer
Clive Palmer
Clive Palmer is a British folk musician and banjoist best known as a founding member of the Incredible String Band.Born in Edmonton, North London, he first went on stage at the age of 8, and took banjo lessons from the age of 10. Around 1957 he began playing with jazz bands in Soho...
's band COB. The last few dates of the tour had to be cancelled owing to Thompson becoming ill.
On New Year's Day, 1973, Jansch decided to leave the band: "Pentangle Split" was the front page headline of the first issue of Melody Maker
Melody Maker
Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...
in 1973.
Subsequent incarnations
In the early 1980s, a reunion of the band was planned. By this time, Jansch and Renbourn had re-established their solo careers, McShee had a young family, Thompson was mainly doing session work and Cox was running a restaurant in Minorca. The re-formed Pentangle debuted at the 1982 Cambridge Folk FestivalCambridge Folk Festival
The Cambridge Folk Festival is an annual music festival held on the site of Cherry Hinton Hall in Cherry Hinton, one of the villages subsumed by the city of Cambridge, England. The festival is renowned for its eclectic mix of music and a wide definition of what might be considered folk. It occurs...
, but lacking a drummer, as Cox had broken his leg in a road accident. They completed a tour of Italy, Australia and some venues in Germany, with Cox initially playing in a wheelchair.
Renbourn left the band to pursue a long-term ambition of studying classical music, taking up a place at Dartington College of Arts
Dartington College of Arts
Dartington College of Arts was a specialist arts institution near Totnes, Devon, South West England, it specialized in post-dramatic theatre, music, choreography, Performance Writing and visual performance, focusing on a performative and multi-disciplinary approach to the arts. In addition to this,...
. There then followed a series of personnel changes, including Mike Piggott on violin and guitar, Nigel Portman Smith on keyboards and bass, and Peter Kirtley on guitars and vocals, with McShee and Jansch finally remaining as the only members from the original line-up. Gerry Conway
Gerry Conway (musician)
Gerald Conway is an English folk and rock drummer/percussionist, best known for having performed with the backing band for Cat Stevens in the 1970s, Jethro Tull during the 1980s, and currently a member of Fairport Convention as well as his side projects...
(who had worked with Fotheringay
Fotheringay
Fotheringay was a short-lived British folk rock group, formed in 1970 by singer Sandy Denny on her departure from Fairport Convention. The band drew its name from her 1968 composition "Fotheringay" about Fotheringhay Castle, in which Mary, Queen of Scots had been imprisoned...
, Cat Stevens
Cat Stevens
Yusuf Islam , commonly known by his former stage name Cat Stevens, is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, educator, philanthropist, and prominent convert to Islam....
, Jethro Tull
Jethro Tull (band)
Jethro Tull are a British rock group formed in 1967. Their music is characterised by the vocals, acoustic guitar, and flute playing of Ian Anderson, who has led the band since its founding, and the guitar work of Martin Barre, who has been with the band since 1969.Initially playing blues rock with...
, Richard Thompson and John Martyn) took over on drums and percussion in 1987. The incarnation consisting of Jansch, McShee, Portman Smith, Kirtley and Conway survived almost as long as the original Pentangle and recorded three albums: Think of Tomorrow, One More Road and Live 1994. This line-up completed their final tour in March–April 1995, after which Jansch left to pursue his solo work: particularly his residency at the 12 Bar Club in London's Denmark Street
Denmark Street
Denmark Street is a short narrow road in central London, notable for its connections with British popular music, and is known as the British Tin Pan Alley. The road connects Charing Cross Road at its western end with St Giles High Street at its eastern end. Denmark Street is in the London Borough...
.
Jacqui McShee's Pentangle
In 1995, McShee formed a trio with Conway on percussion and Spencer CozensSpencer Cozens
Spencer James Cozens and brought up mainly in Bingham, Nottinghamshire, England is a musician, writer and producer.Spencer has written music and toured with John Martyn. He has also toured with Joan Armatrading....
on keyboards. The trio's first album, About Thyme, featured guests Ralph McTell
Ralph McTell
Ralph McTell is an English singer-songwriter and acoustic guitar player who has been an influential figure on the UK folk music scene since the 1960s....
, Albert Lee
Albert Lee
Albert William Lee, born 21 December 1943 in Leominster, Herefordshire, England, is an English guitarist known for his fingerstyle and hybrid picking technique. Lee has worked both in the studio and on tour with some of the most famous musicians which stretch through a very wide of genres...
, Mike Mainieri, and John Martyn. The album reached the top of fRoots magazine's British folk chart. The album was released on their own label - GJS (Gerry Jacqui Spencer). With the addition of saxophonist Jerry Underwood and bassist/guitarist Alan Thomson, the band was renamed (with the agreement of the original Pentangle members) Jacqui McShee's Pentangle. The new five-piece band's first album Passe Avant was released on the Park Records
Park Records
Park Records is a British record label, based in Oxford, specialising in folk rock and AOR music.The company began in 1990, with singles and albums by Maddy Prior but have grown to include Steeleye Span, Fairport Convention, Capercaillie, Moonshee and others....
label. In 2005, they released Feoffees' Lands, (a feoffee
Feoffee
A Feoffee is a trustee who holds a fief , that is to say an estate in land, for the use of a beneficial owner. The term is more fully stated as a feoffee to uses of the beneficial owner. The use of such trustees developed towards the end of the era of feudalism in the middle ages and became...
is a medieval term for a trustee) on GJS.
The new line-up played regularly on the live circuit. Their concert at Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, was recorded and released by Park Records under the title At the Little Theatre. The album highlights the improvisational virtuosity of the band and its melding of jazz and folk influences.
In August 2002, saxophonist Jerry Underwood died after an illness. His place was taken by flautist/saxophonist Gary Foote
Gary Foote
Gary Foote Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in February, 1962, to Jim and Rosetta Foote, Gary, the youngest of four boys, was first influenced by his older brother, Jymme Foote, drummer and piano player, beginning his music career at the age of 8, in a home that encouraged expression especially in the...
in 2004. Jacqui McShee's Pentangle was still touring regularly in 2006.
Continued interest in the original band
In 2004, the 1968-1972 Lost Broadcasts album was released. Jo Lustig's influence had secured numerous radio appearances for the band—at least eleven broadcasts by the BBC in 1968, for example. The album was a 2-CD compilation of recordings from these sessions. It includes a full-band version of Terry Cox's solo song "Moondog" and a recording of "The Name of the Game" which had been used by the BBC as a theme song for some of the Pentangle broadcasts but had never appeared on record.
In 2007 The Time Has Come 1967 - 1973 was issued. It was a 4-CD collection of rarities, out-takes and live performances. The liner notes were by Colin Harper
Colin Harper
Colin Harper is an Irish music journalist. He was born in Belfast and graduated in 1989 from Queen's University, Belfast. As a writer for the Belfast "Irish News" he wrote unsiged features on local bands and famous bands on tour...
and Pete Paphides.
The original band formally reformed in 2008. They appeared on the BBC TV music programme Later..with Jools Holland on 29 April 2008, with 'Let No Man Steal Your Thyme
The Sprig of Thyme (song)
Sprig of Thyme, The Seeds of Love, Maiden’s Lament, Garners Gay, Let No Man Steal Your Thyme or Rue is a traditional British and Irish folk Ballad that uses fairly obvious botanical and other symbolism to warn young people of the dangers in taking false lovers...
', and on 2 May 2008, performing 'Light Flight' and 'I've Got a Feeling'. They went on to undertake a UK tour, including a return to the Royal Festival Hall, where they recorded the Sweet Child album forty years earlier. They went on to headline at the Green Man Festival
Green Man Festival
The Green Man Festival is an independent music festival held annually in the Brecon Beacons, Wales. It has evolved from a one-day, 300 capacity event in 2003, to a three-day festival with live music including psych, folk, indie, dance and Americana across five stages, as well as DJs playing...
in August 2008.
In 2011 the original Pentangle played some limited concerts (including RFH, Glastonbury and Cambridge) generally to great acclaim. There were delays in playing again due to Jansch's throat cancer. The band are to release a live album of their 2008 tour, and recorded new material in 2011. Reviews of the band were generally very positive in 2011 for all members, especially the excellent playing of John Renbourn.
Bert Jansch died of cancer on 5 October 2011, aged 67.
Style
Pentangle are usually characterised as a folk-rock band: however, this designation is misleading. Danny Thompson preferred to describe the group as a "folk-jazz band". John Renbourn rejected the "folk-rock" categorisation, saying "one of the worst things you can do to a folk song is inflict a rock beat on it...Most of the old songs that I have heard have their own internal rhythm. When we worked on those in the group, Terry Cox worked out his percussion patterns to match the patterns in the songs exactly. In that respect he was the opposite of a folk-rock drummer." The practice of following the internal rhythms of a song is very characteristic of the sound of the original Pentangle and is apparent throughout their work: for instance, it is equally apparent in "Let No Man Steal Your Thyme" (the first track of their first album) and "Jump Baby Jump" (the penultimate track from the final album). This approach to songs led to the use of unusual time signatureTime signature
The time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes one beat....
s: "Market Song" from Sweet Child moves from 7/4 to 11/4 and 4/4 time and "Light Flight" from Basket of Light includes sections in 5/8, 7/8 and 6/4. However, the changes appear natural, in the context of the songs and not forced for effect.
Henry Raynor
Henry Raynor
-Music Biography:He has written several books, mainly relating to Classical Music. His opus magnum, The Social History of Music, ranges from ancient to 20th century music, placing composers and their work in cultural and economic contexts....
, writing in The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
struggled to characterise their music: "It is not a pop group, not a folk group and not a jazz group, but what it attempts is music which is a synthesis of all these and other styles as well as interesting experiments in each of them individually." Even Pentangle's earliest work is characterised by that synthesis of styles: songs such as "Bruton Town" and "Let No Man Steal Your Thyme" from the 1968 The Pentangle album include elements of folk, jazz, blues and early music. At the time that the album was released, apart from Davey Graham
Davey Graham
David Michael Gordon "Davey" Graham, originally spelled Davy Graham, , was a British guitarist and one of the most influential figures in the 1960s British folk revival...
's pioneering work, there was almost nothing comparable to Pentangle's fusion of styles with, for example, Pete Townshend
Pete Townshend
Peter Dennis Blandford "Pete" Townshend is an English rock guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and author, known principally as the guitarist and songwriter for the rock group The Who, as well as for his own solo career...
describing it as "fresh and innovative". However, by the release of their fourth album, Cruel Sister
Cruel Sister
Cruel Sister was an album recorded in 1970 by folk-rock band Pentangle. It was the most folk-based of the albums recorded by the band, with all the tracks being versions of traditional songs...
, in 1970, Pentangle had moved more towards traditional folk music, and towards the use of the electric guitar as an instrument. By this time, folk music had itself moved towards rock and the use of electric instruments, so Cruel Sister invited comparison with, for example, Fairport Convention
Fairport Convention
Fairport Convention are an English folk rock and later electric folk band, formed in 1967 who are still recording and touring today. They are widely regarded as the most important single group in the English folk rock movement...
's Liege and Lief and Steeleye Span
Steeleye Span
Steeleye Span are an English folk-rock band, formed in 1969 and remaining active today. Along with Fairport Convention they are amongst the best known acts of the British folk revival, and were among the most commercially successful, thanks to their hit singles "Gaudete" and "All Around My Hat"....
's Hark! The Village Wait
Hark! The Village Wait
Hark! The Village Wait was the 1970 debut album by the electric folk band Steeleye Span. The album is the only one to feature the original lineup of the band, as they broke up and reformed with a slightly altered membership immediately after its release, without having ever performed live...
. Pentangle is thus often credited as one of the progenitors of the electric folk
Electric folk
Electric folk is the name given to the form of folk rock pioneered in England from the late 1960s, and most significant in the 1970s, which then was taken up and developed in the surrounding Celtic cultures of Brittany, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the Isle of Man, to produce Celtic rock and its...
style, even though their most well-known album is recorded entirely with acoustic instruments.
In their final two albums, the original Pentangle returned closer to their folk-jazz origins but by then, the predominant musical taste had moved to electric folk-rock. Colin Harper sums things up by saying that Pentangle's "increasingly fragile music was on borrowed time and everyone knew it".
Awards
In January 2007, the five original members of Pentangle were presented with a Lifetime Achievement award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk AwardsBBC Radio 2 Folk Awards
The BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards celebrate outstanding achievement during the previous year within the field of folk music. The awards have been given annually since 2000 by British radio station BBC Radio 2....
by David Attenborough
David Attenborough
Sir David Frederick Attenborough OM, CH, CVO, CBE, FRS, FZS, FSA is a British broadcaster and naturalist. His career as the face and voice of natural history programmes has endured for more than 50 years...
. Producer John Leonard said "Pentangle were one of the most influential groups of the late 20th century and it would be wrong for the awards not to recognise what an impact they had on the music scene." Pentangle played together for the event, for the first time in over 20 years. Their performance was broadcast on BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...
on Wednesday 7 February 2007.
Albums
- The PentangleThe PentangleThe Pentangle was the 1968 debut album of the band Pentangle: Terry Cox, Bert Jansch, Jacqui McShee, John Renbourn and Danny Thompson. It brought together their separate influences of folk, jazz, blues, early music and contemporary song-writing into a unique sound...
(1968) - Sweet ChildSweet ChildSweet Child was a 1968 double album by the British folk-rock band Pentangle: Terry Cox, Bert Jansch, Jacqui McShee, John Renbourn and Danny Thompson. One album was recorded at Pentangle's live concert in the Royal Festival Hall, which took place on 29 June 1968: the other was recorded in the studio...
(1968 ) - Basket of LightBasket of LightBasket of Light is a 1969 album by the folk rock group Pentangle. It reached #5 on the UK charts largely on the basis of the single "Light Flight" , the theme from BBC1's first colour drama series Take Three Girls.-A side:-B side:...
(1969) - Cruel SisterCruel SisterCruel Sister was an album recorded in 1970 by folk-rock band Pentangle. It was the most folk-based of the albums recorded by the band, with all the tracks being versions of traditional songs...
(1970 GB) - Reflection (1971)
- Solomon's SealSolomon's Seal (album)Solomon's Seal was an album recorded in 1972 by folk-rock band Pentangle: Terry Cox, Bert Jansch, Jacqui McShee, John Renbourn and Danny Thompson. It was the last album recorded by the original Pentangle line-up, before the band split in 1973. Jacqui McShee has stated that it is her favourite...
(1972) - Open the DoorOpen the Door (Pentangle album)Open the Door is an album by Pentangle. The band had split in 1973 and reformed in the early 1980s. By the time this album was recorded, John Renbourn had left the band to enroll in a music degree course and his place was taken by Mike Piggott...
(1985) - In the RoundIn the RoundIn the Round is an album by Pentangle. It was issued in 1986 on Spindrift SPIN 120 in 1986 and on Varrick CDVR026 VR026 and CVR026 in 1990. There is a typo on the sleeve, as it credits the licence to "Jackie" McShee, not Jacqui McShee. There is also a widespread use of the name "Vanick", a...
(1986) - So Early in the Spring (1989)
- Think of TomorrowThink of TomorrowThink of Tomorrow is an album by Jacki McShee's Pentangle. It was released on Ariola/Hypertension 883 697/HYCD 200 112 in 1991. Green Linnet released it in the same year on GLCD-3057. Hypertension re-released it in 2005. A count of website downloads suggests that "Lark in the Clear Air" is the best...
(1991) - One More RoadOne More RoadOne More Road is an album by Pentangle. It was released in the UK on the Permanent label, PERM CD 11 in 1993. In Germany it was released in 1993 on SPV Records, SPV M29235...
(1993) - Live 1994Live 1994Live 1994 is a live album by Pentangle, released in 1994. It was reissued along with One More Road on CD in 2007.-Track listing:#"Bramble Briar"#"Sally Free and Easy"#"Kingfisher"#"Come Back Baby"#"When I Was in My Prime"#"Meet on the Bone"...
(1995)
Singles
- "Travellin' Song"/"Mirage" (1968) GB S BigT B1G109
- "Let No Man Steal Your Thyme"/"Way Behind The Sun" (1968) Reprise 0784
- "Once I Had a Sweetheart"/"I Saw an Angel" (1969) Transatlantic BIG124 UKUK Singles ChartThe UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
#46 - "Light Flight"/"Cold Mountain" (1970) Transatlantic BIG128 UK #43
- "Light Flight"/"Cold Mountain" (1970) UK #45—re-entry
- "Play the Game"/"Saturday Movie" (1986) UK Making Waves SURF 107
- "Set Me Free"/"Come to Me Easy" (1986) UK Making Waves SURF 121
Compilations
- This is Pentangle (1971)
- History BookHistory BookHistory Book is a compilation album by Pentangle, released in 1972. Like others of this vintage, it has a textured sleeve. It was never reissued.-Track listing:#"Courting blues"#"Lucky Thirteen" #"Can't Keep From Crying"...
(1972) - PentanglingPentanglingPentangling is a compilation album by Pentangle. It was released in 1973 on Transatlantic TRASAM29. It was issued on Pickwick SHM924 in about 1975. It was re-released in 1981 on Transansatlantic TRS106 and KTRS106...
(1973) - The Pentangle CollectionThe Pentangle CollectionThe Pentangle Collection is a compilation album by Pentangle. It was released in 1975 on Transatlantic. It was never reissued.-Track listing:#"I've Got A Feeling"#"Helping Hand"#"Pentangling"#"When I Get Home"#"Rain & Snow"#"Lyke Wake Dirge"...
(1975) - AnthologyAnthology (Pentangle album)Anthology is a compilation album by Pentangle. It was released in 1978 on Transatlantic MTRA201.-Track listing:#"I've Got A Feeling"#"Helping Hand"#"Pentangling"#"When I Get Home"#"Rain & Snow"#"Lyke Wake Dirge"#"The Trees They Do Grow High"...
(1978) - At Their Best (1983)
- Essential Vol 1Essential Vol 1Essential Vol 1 is a compilation album by Pentangle. It was issued in 1987 on Transatlantic TRACD 602, and reissued on German label Titan 4005946301125 in 1988.- Track listing :#"Pentangling" – 7:02#"Bruton Town" – 5:20...
(1987) - Essential Vol 2Essential Vol 2Essential Vol 2 is a compilation album by Pentangle. It was issued in 1987 on Transatlantic TRACD 606.- Track listing :#"Once I Had a Sweetheart" – 4:38#"Hear My Call" – 3:01#"Hole in the Coal" – 5:17#"Omie Wise" – 4:23#"Waltz" – 4:54...
(1987) - CollectionCollection (Pentangle album)Collection was a compilation album by Pentangle. It was released in 1988 on Castle, CCSLP184 , CCSMC18 and CCSCD18 . It was rereleased under the title "Heritage" in 1988 on EMI.-Track listing:#"Let No Man Steal Your Thyme"#"Bells"...
(1988) - A Maid That's Deep In LoveA Maid That's Deep in LoveA Maid That's Deep in Love is a compilation album by the British folk rock band Pentangle. It was released in 1989 by Shanachie Records under the reference: SHA-CD-79078.- Track listing :All songs Traditional unless otherwise noted....
(1989) - Early ClassicsEarly ClassicsEarly Classics is a compilation album by Pentangle. It was released in 1992 by Shanachie Records.- Track listing :#"Let No Man Steal Your Thyme"#"Mirage"#"Train Song"#"In Time"#"The Trees They Do Grow High"#"Lyke-Wake Dirge"#"A Woman Like You"...
(1992) - Anniversary (1992)
- People on the Highway, 1968–1971 (1992)
- Light FlightLight FlightLight Flight is a compilation album by Pentangle. It was released in 1997 on Snapper Music SMD CD 154. It was also issued on the Recall label in 1997...
(1997) - The Pentangle FamilyThe Pentangle FamilyThe Pentangle Family is a compilation album of tracks by Pentangle, John Renbourn and Bert Jansch. It was released on Transatlantic in 2000, Essential, ESACD931 in 2000 and on Sanctuary Records/Castle also in 2000.-CD one:...
(2000) - Light Flight: The AnthologyLight Flight: The AnthologyLight Flight: The Anthology is a compilation album by Pentangle. It was released in 2001 on the Japanese label Vivid 48. It was reissued in 2006 on Castle CMDDD1283...
(2001) - Pentangling: The Collection (2004)
- The Time Has Come (2007)
DVDs
- Pentangle: Captured Live (2003)
- Jacqui McShee: Pentangle in Concert (2007)
- Folk Rock Legends (Steeleye Span and Pentangle) (2003)