Esperanto (progressive rock band)
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- This article is about the progressive rock band. For other uses of the word Esperanto, see Esperanto (disambiguation).
Esperanto was a Belgo-English rock band which had a short career at the beginning of the 70s.
[edit] Band members
- Glenn Shorrock, an Australian singer who was living in London at the time and had left his group, the Twilights.
- Joy Yates, Janice Slater and Bridget Dudoit, who had released a record under the name of Bones.
- Brian Holloway, an Australian guitar player.
- Godfrey Salmon, second violin
- Tony Harris, viola
- Timothy Kraemer, cello.
[edit] Albums
The first album Esperanto Rock Orchestra was released in 1973.
The band always had to meet in farms and castles because of the large number of musicians and of the logistic difficulties of gathering the whole crowd in London. The Welsh castle was of course haunted and its strange atmosphere permeated the music of what would become the band’s second album (featuring a track called “The Castle”). After several weeks of rehearsals, the group recorded the first tapes and made an acetate which they presented to A&M, but the project was rejected by the record company.
Glenn Shorrock, hit by home sickness, returned to Australia, where he later became very successful, notably in the United States, with the Little River Band. A&M then asked Peter Sinfield (poet and song writer for King Crimson and ELP, and translator of Premiata Forniera Marconi’s work – PFM) to produce the new album. Peter accepted and brought with him a new singer: Keith Christmas. Keith Christmas, who had a career as a solo singer afterwards, had a very different style and was more folk music oriented but he did take over from Glenn Shorrock as the frontman. A new demo was then presented to A&M with different or rearranged pieces sang by Keith Christmas (on the acetate it was Glenn Shorrock – there are also unpublished pieces on this re-release). This time, A&M endorsed it. The three singers were still in the band but they were soon to leave, as would Brian Holloway, which explains why these four members of Esperanto are not (even though they play on the album) in the picture on the backsleeve of “Danse Macabre”.
The second Esperanto record, Danse Macabre, was released in 1974. If, on the first album, the band was obviously in search of its style, with pop, rock, classical and progressive influences, this new opus was much more homogenous, progressive, with a quite brooding atmosphere… The Welsh climate and the haunted castle had a great influence on the musicians and permeated Esperanto’s music. It is worth noting that the album was released in France without the piece “Danse Macabre” as the Saint-Saëns copyright-owners refused to agree to its publication in that country. Peter Sinfield put so much energy into the making of this album that he later declared in an interview that he declined an offer to produce the first Supertramp album after the Esperanto experience.
The line-up of Esperanto changed considerably for the third album. Keith Christmas had left for musical reasons and the band was looking for a more energetic frontman. They met this time in London and published some ads in the music press, including in the Melody Maker (Genesis had recruited Steve Hackett through that channel). Esperanto auditioned and took on board their next singer Roger Meakin. His special vocal timbre made him an ideal partner for Kim Moore, female singer recruited in the same way, as their voices blended perfectly. The recording of the third album took place partly in London and partly at the famous chateau of Herouville near Paris where Jethro Tull, Elton John and many others recorded in the seventies. The album Last Tango was produced by Robin Geoffrey Cable (engineer and producer, notably for Queen, Genesis, Van Der Graaf Generator, Elton John and Carly Simon). It was released in 1975.
[edit] The band's demise
Although the band seemed to have found its cruising speed and success was obviously on the horizon (they were still in complete ignorance of sales figures), A&M did not renew their contract. Esperanto band members were flabbergasted as they knew their music had real appeal, particularly given the growing success of their concerts. One of the negative factors was that situation in England in 1973-1974. Following the oil crises, the cost of vinyl manufacturing increased dramatically (note that the weight of records fell substantially) and labels were tending not to sign new artists or take any risks in this very unfavourable period.
Esperanto was probably also a victim of its formula as, even with a reduced line-up on the last album, it still had eight musicians and large technical staff who had to be housed, fed and watered. The cost of touring was very high and the technical problems linked to this sophisticated musical genre necessitated a lot of complex equipment for the era (difficulties of amplifying strings mixed with electronic instruments, etc.). The band was thus expensive to run and, as it is often the case, the law of immediate profits justified A&M’s decision and overruled artistic quality.
