Profilprog (PP): Hello Stu thank you for giving us time to answer our questions. GALAHAD (SN): Always a pleasure. PP: Galahad has now existed for 38 years (since 1985), so how do you recall the early years of the band? GALAHAD (SN): Yes, it’s been a long time now! The early years were great fun, we didn’t take it too seriously, there was a lot of camaraderie and we were some great, fun times and great gigs. We were young and just going for it. 😊 PP: Why the name Galahad? GALAHAD (SN): Roy’s idea, not mine, he formed the band which was already called Galahad when I joined. Roy like the named that he saw on an invoice from a fruit and veg wholesale business and used the name. Amazingly, he had no idea who Sir Galahad was, I had to explain to him that Sir Galahad was an Arthurian character which most people think that’s why the band is called Galahad, but alas not. PP: Like many bands of the time, you started by playing a good number of cover songs. Do you still enjoy doing these kinds of songs? GALAHAD (SN): We played a few covers out of duress because otherwise it would have been very difficult getting gigs in local pubs and clubs playing original material, let alone Prog rock which was not cool at all back in the 80s. Don’t forget it wasn’t that long after the whole punk/new wave thing so Prog was a bit of a dirty word back in the mid 80s. I enjoyed playing the covers though and we chose mainly ‘prog’ based songs by the likes of Genesis, Rush, Marillion, Sky, Focus, Pink Floyd and even U2 and Dire Straits!! PP: Do you still listen to classical musicians? Any favorites? (Bizet, Prokofiev?) GALAHAD (SN): Occasionally but not often, it was Roy’s idea to play the Faradole by Bizet and Toccata (the Sky version). We even threw in a bit of Beethoven at times. PP: Still no direct news from Roy Keyworth since he left GALAHAD? GALAHAD (SN): Nothing I’m afraid, he just disappeared on to the aether. It’s a shame but we’ve moved on. I prefer to look forwards than backwards when it comes to the band. PP: Your original bassist Tim Ashton returned in 2014 but only stayed for a short time. Any reasons why? As you know he plays today with the formation Grace and Fire. GALAHAD (SN): Let’s just say we had different ideas on how the band should operate plus he spent a lot of time abroad which wasn’t very conducive to being in Galahad as it made rehearsing and shows a little tricky to organise. Good luck to him though, he seems to have found a band that he’s happy with and probably more to his liking musically. PP: Why did you call your label Avalon? Any relation to the Arthurian legend? GALAHAD (SN): Yes indeed, it fitted and tied in well with the Galahad name being related to all things Arthurian. PP: You recently participated in the Ryszard Kramarski Project album. Was it out of affinity or curiosity? GALAHAD (SN): I’ve known Ryszard for a while, mainly through Artur Chachlowski in Poland, who is a very good friend and has been a massive supporter of Galahad since the early days. In fact, I met both Artur and Ryszard recently in Krakow and we had a good catch up and realised we were both big fans of Barclay James Harvest and when he sent me the final TRK album he included a BJJ T-shirt which was a cool and lovely touch. As far as the album was concerned Ryszard called me up, sent me the backing tracks and lyrics which I liked and then recorded the vocals in my home studio and then sent them back to Ryszard along with a few additional backing vocals and melodies which he then incorporated into the album. I think the album turned out very well and sounds excellent. PP: Looking back through your discography, what are your three favorite Galahad records and the three you like least? GALAHAD (SN): That’s a difficult question as I’m always proudest of the latest, the newest album but I’m proud of everything we’ve done to be honest. Everything we have done has been ‘of it’s time’ so I’d rather not be negative and talk about our ‘least liked’ albums. However, I’m very proud of the last couple of albums i.e. ‘The Last Great Adventurer’ and ‘The Long Goodbye’ as they are very personal from a lyrical perspective, and I suppose ‘Empires Never Last’ as that album using Karl Groom for the first time really did re-vitalise the band in its own eyes and also in the eyes of the audience and helped to raise our profile within the ‘Prog’ world. PP: Galahad has become one of the flagship groups of progressive music. Are you proud of that accomplishment? GALAHAD (SN): I think that is a matter of opinion and I’m sure many people would disagree. But to be quite honest I’m just proud of the fact we are still going and are still coming up with new ideas and writing strong material after all these years although it does get harder the older you get and the more you write and release as there is always a danger of repetition, sometimes inadvertently! PP: You and Dean compose most of the current repertoire. Do the other membe