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Concept
Pallas (band)
Summary
Pallas are a Scottish progressive rock band from Aberdeen. They were one of the bands at the vanguard of what was termed neo-progressive during progressive rock's second-wave revival in the early 1980s. Other major UK acts included Marillion, IQ, Twelfth Night, Pendragon and Solstice.
Formed in 1974 as 'Rainbow', they dropped the name after Ritchie Blackmore left Deep Purple and called his new band Rainbow. Pallas began hitting the club circuit at the beginning of a grassroots revival of full-blown progressive rock, which, at the time, was extremely unfashionable due to the overwhelming influence of pop and new wave. Ignoring prevailing trends, the band even directly imitated older progressive rock bands, with vocalist Brian Wood mimicking the voice and hairstyle of Peter Gabriel, keyboardist Mike Stobbie donning a Rick Wakeman-style cape, and drummer Derek Forman constructing a helmet for himself out of sheet metal. The band temporarily changed their name to Pallas Athene during this time. However, their debut EP (featuring tracks such as "Reds Under the Beds") saw them attempting to fit in with the ongoing punk rock movement by emphasising harder rock and deliberately avoiding signature progressive rock elements such as Mellotron and twelve-string guitar.
An upheaval in the band's ranks during 1979 saw most of the original members leave, with only Forman and bassist Graeme Murray remaining alongside the new recruits. Murry contacted Marillion vocalist Fish through an advertisement in Melody Maker, establishing a relationship between the two progressive rock bands that led to a nationwide tour of small venues which enabled Pallas to establish a following in England, where they were previously unknown (and similarly enabled Marillion to break in to the Scotland market). They secured a successful headlining run at London's Marquee Club (a hotbed for the neo-progressive revival). A highlight of their set at that time and also a highlight of the early Marquee shows (until the Marquee threatened to ban the band if they did not stop playing it) was a track called "The Ripper", a fifteen-minute epic about child abuse, insanity, rape and murder.
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