As Galahad return with their first studio album in almost five years, The Last Great Adventurer, vocalist Stu Nicholson and keyboard player Dean Baker discuss the triumph of persistence over adversity.

Words: Nick Shilton Images: Donna Nicholson

The band are enjoying an era in which ‘prog’ isn’t a dirty word.

“We’re comfortable in our own shoes. We’re not trying to be something we’re not or do what other people think we should do.”

Stu Nicholson

An autumn mid-afternoon finds Galahad vocalist Stu Nicholson and keyboardist Dean Baker in a reflective mood. Nicholson is the Dorset-based band’s sole ever-present. While the singer has toiled away in the Galahad trenches since 1985, Baker is comparatively a mere stripling, having served only since 1997.

Galahad are not far shy of their 40th anniversary and their new album, The Last Great Adventurer, is their 11th studio release (not including the scores of tapes they issued earlier in their career). It’s a record that largely belies not only their longevity but also their early 1980s roots.

Following in the wake of early 80s prog bands such as Marillion, IQ, Pendragon and Twelfth Night – utter ‘neo-prog’ within Nicholson’s earshot at your peril – Galahad have certainly never attained anything remotely approaching the commercial success of Marillion nor the prog cognoscenti kudos enjoyed by Twelfth Night. However, for the band to have survived the slings and arrows of often outrageous misfortune over the last five decades is itself an extraordinary achievement. That’s testament to their collective resilience and in particular Nicholson’s determination to battle on. So in Galahad’s formative days, did the frontman ever envisage the band having such a lengthy musical career?