| Sounds Like | Formed in 1971 by old schoolmates Dane Stevens and Cedric Sharpley, along with local bass player Neil Brewer, Druid spent years playing clubs as a trio before winning a competition by Melody Maker for the best unsigned band. At this point they added Andrew McCrorie-Shand, a recent London College of Music graduate.
The Melody Maker prize included new instruments and a recording contract, and their debut album appeared in July 1975 among envious whispers by rival bands and music publications. The album begins with their strongest composition: "Voices," whose multiple movements, chorus lyrics of "a million voices singing," broad washes of mellotron, and alternating guitar tones make it sound like an outtake from Yes's "The Ancient." The instrumental "Theme" has some fine jazz-prog sax soloing over a lush backing, and "Dawn of Evening" has a wonderfully taut bassline march pushed to the front of the mix.
The band had a difficult time shaking the charge of hype, and they were also charged in some quarters as being Yes soundalikes -- Starcastle in the U.S. was later to be tarred with the same brush. (In fact, Druid was an opening act at a number of Yes concerts.) The Yes comparison, though an obvious one, is not entirely accurate. While Dane's vocals are clearly styled after Jon Anderson, and Neil Brewer's bass has the classic pick-driven Rickenbacker growl associated with Chris Squire, the rest of the band departs from the formula; McCrorie-Shand's unadorned keyboard parts, for example, have little in common with the lavishly baroque flash of Rick Wakeman or the martial Hammond pounding of Tony Kaye.
With the release of their second album in the spring of 1976, the band distanced themselves from their production and Melody Maker connections. Druid Fluid contains the pleasant interpolation of a children's choir and carousel organ in "Crusade," the soaring guitar solos on "Painters Clouds," and the pensive woodwinds and piano in the long instrumental intro of the album's high point, "Left to Find."
Cedric Sharpley was to find success soon afterwards, though, by joining up with a new and unusual band led by an strange fellow named Gary Numan. ~ Paul Collins, All Music Guide |
