Described by Radio 1 DJ Tommy Vance as "the biggest cult band in Europe", The Enid's experimental, grand, romantic symphonic rock stood starkly in the face of the punk scene when the band started taking off in the late 1970s. Band leader Robert John Godfrey studied as a concert pianist at the Royal Academy of Music before succumbing to the hippy revolution of the 1960s and working with psychedelic prog rockers Barclay James Harvest. Forming The Enid in 1974, the band's meandering, orchestral, instrumental pieces on concept albums In The Region Of The Summer Stars (1976), Aerie Faerie Nonsense (1978) and Touch Me (1979) drew a loyal following to what was dubbed "Edwardian Electro". Bogged down by record company problems, they created the music for Kim Wilde's debut album and were kept going by an £80,000 cash donation in a carrier bag from a fan, with which they recorded Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983) - the first time they had used vocals. The band split in 1999 after Godfrey fell ill, but reformed in 2007, continuing to carve out the weird and wonderful soundscapes that inspired the likes of Procol Harum, Hawkwind and Radiohead
