Beggars Opera was a Scottish progressive rock band founded in Glasgow in 1969 by guitarist Ricky Gardiner, vocalist Martin Griffiths and bassist Marshall Erskine. After evolving from The System, the founders recruited keyboardist Alan Park and drummer Raymond Wilson, and the lineup later added bassist Gordon Sellar and mellotron player Virginia Aurora Scott. Their debut single “Sarabande” was recorded in 1970 alongside their first Vertigo album, Act One, which featured the extended instrumental “Raymonds Road”. Waters of Change followed in 1971, opening with “Time Machine”, a single that found success in Germany, where the band toured extensively. Subsequent releases Pathfinder(1972) and Get Your Dog Off Me! (1973) arrived amid lineup changes, and a new version of the band issued Sagittary(1974) and Beggars Can’t Be Choosers (1975). Gardiner later went on to play on David Bowie’s Low and Iggy Pop’s Lust for Life, and in 2000 he revived the band name for a run of new albums, keeping its progressive rock catalogue in circulation.
