Comus (band)
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Comus are a British progressive folk band which had a brief career in the early 1970s; their first album, First Utterance, gave them a cult following which persists. They reunited in 2009 and have played several festivals and released a new album.
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History
Comus was formed in 1969 by fellow art students Roger Wootton and Glenn Goring, who developed their musical style performing in folk clubs in and around Bromley in Kent. The band was named after Comus (a masque by John Milton), and also after the name of the Greek god Comus. The band grew from an early folk duo to a six-piece ensemble; in that later form, David Bowie came to appreciate them. They appeared regularly at his Arts Lab project in Beckenham, Kent. He also invited them to be his support act in a 1969 concert at London's Purcell Rooms.
Their first album, First Utterance, with cover art by Wootton and Goring, appeared in 1971. The music is largely acoustic art rock (also described as acoustic metal and acid folk) that blends elements of Eastern percussion, early folk and animal-like vocals. The lyrics involve violence, murder, mental disorder and the mystical. Tiny Mix Tapes rated First Utterance five stars out of five.
After the album, woodwind player Rob Young was replaced by Lindsay Cooper, and the new lineup developed material for a never-released second album. No recording by this lineup would see the light of day for another 40 years. The group disbanded for a time, but Wootton, Andy Hellaby and Bobbie Watson reformed the band with new members for their second album, To Keep from Crying, in 1974.
A complete box set was released in 2005; this features both studio albums, their only single, "Diana", and a previously unreleased track called "All the Colours of Darkness". The liner notes feature an exclusive interview with some members of the band. They reformed for the Mellotronen Festival in Sweden in March 2008. They have continued to perform occasional gigs, including some new material.
On 13 June 2009, Comus performed for the first time in the UK in 37 years, at the Equinox Festival at Conway Hall.
A reunion album, Out of the Coma, was released in June 2012. It contains three new tracks: "Out of the Coma", "The Sacrifice" (both written by Wootton) and "The Return" (written by Goring), plus a 1972 live recording of unfinished material from their abandoned follow-up to First Utterance, "The Malgaard Suite". Louder Sound rated it four stars out of five.
The members were active outside Comus. Wootton also appears on some recordings by Slapp Happy. Cooper went on to join Henry Cow. Reed player Jon Seagroatt is also a member of free-improvising trio Red Square. Colin Pearson went on to produce hits for other artists, including "Forever Young" for Alphaville. Seagroatt and singer Bobbie Watson married in 2003.
Influence
In 1998, Opeth singer and songwriter Mikael Åkerfeldt used part of a sentence from "Drip Drip" for the title of the album My Arms, Your Hearse. The full line was "As I carry you to your grave, my arms your hearse".
Another nod to Comus was given on the 2005 Opeth album Ghost Reveries. The second track, "The Baying of the Hounds", was derived from a line in the song "Diana" which reads, "And she knows by the sound of the baying, by the baying of the hounds".
English experimental band Current 93 covered the song "Diana" from First Utterance on their studio album Horsey. Musically, this version differs considerably from the original, with David Tibet singing the lyrics in an agonized fashion and constructing most of the song from a loop based around a vertiginous violin arrangement from the original.
Personnel
- Current members
- Roger Wootton – acoustic guitar, lead vocals (1969–1972, 1974, 2008–present)
- Glenn Goring – 6–12 acoustic guitar, electric guitar, slide, hand drums, backing vocals (1969–72, 2008–present)
- Andy Hellaby – Fender bass, slide bass, backing vocals (1969–1972, 1974, 2008–present)
- Colin Pearson – violin, viola (1969–72, 2008–present)
- Bobbie Watson – lead and backing vocals, percussion (1969–1972, 1974, 2008–present)
- Jon Seagroatt – flute, oboe, hand drums (2008–present)
- Former members
- Rob Young – flute, oboe, hand drums (1969–71)
- Gordon Coxon – drums (1974)
- Keith Hale – keyboards (1974)
- Lindsay Cooper – bassoon (1972, 1974)
Discography
- Studio albums
- First Utterance (1971)
- To Keep from Crying (1974)
- Out of the Coma (2012)
- Live albums
- East of Sweden: Live at Melloboat Festival 2008 (2011)
- Out of the Coma (2012) recorded 1972
- Box sets
- Song to Comus: The Complete Collection (2005)
- EPs
- "Diana / In the Lost Queen's Eyes / Winter is a Coloured Bird" (1971)
- Roger Wootton solo single
- "Fiesta Fandango" / "New Tide"
Pages linking in as of Aug 2021
British folk revival, British folk rock, Comus, Dawn Records, Deaths in September 2013, Didier Malherbe, English folk music, First Utterance, Folk rock, Fuchsia (band), Ghost Reveries, Gravy Train (Gravy Train album), Heron (band), Jan Dukes de Grey, Joshua Strachan, Keith Hale, Lindsay Cooper, List of folk rock artists, List of psychedelic folk artists, List of psychedelic rock artists, Music of the United Kingdom (1960s), My Arms, Your Hearse, Neofolk, New Weird America, Nurse with Wound list, Permissive (film), Progressive folk, Purson (band), Pye Records, Red Square (band), Roadburn Festival, Slapp Happy (album), Slapp Happy, Spires That in the Sunset Rise, Storm Corrosion, Timeline of progressive rock (1970–1979), Timeline of progressive rock (2010–2019), To Keep from Crying
See also
