Pentangle

Pentangle biography

Pentangle (or The Pentangle) are a British folk rock band with some folk jazz influences. The original band were active in the late 1960s and early 1970s and a later version has been active since the early 1980s. The original line-up, which was unchanged throughout the band's first incarnation (1967-1973), was: Jacqui McShee, vocals; John Renbourn, guitar; Bert Jansch, guitar; Danny Thompson, double bass; and Terry Cox, drums.

The name Pentangle was chosen to represent the five members of the band, and is also the device on Sir Gawain's shield in the Middle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight which held a fascination for Renbourn.

In 2007, the original members of the band were reunited to receive a Lifetime Achievement award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards and to record a short concert that was broadcast on BBC radio. In June 2008, the band, comprising all five original members, embarked on a twelve date UK tour.

History

Formation of the original line-up

The original group formed in 1967. Renbourn and Jansch were already popular musicians on the British folk scene, with several solo albums each and a duet LP, Bert and John. Their use of complex inter-dependent, guitar parts, referred to as "folk baroque", had become a distinctive characteristic of their music and was featured on Bert and John and in some of the duet tracks on Jansch's Jack Orion album. They also shared a house in St John's Wood, London.

Jacqui McShee had begun as an (unpaid) "floor singer" in several of the London folk clubs, and then, by 1965, ran a folk club at the Red Lion in Sutton, Surrey, establishing a friendship with Jansch and Renbourn when they played there. She sang on Renbourn's Another Monday album and performed with him as a duo, debuting at Les Cousins club in August 1966.

Thompson and Cox were already well-known as jazz musicians and had played together in Alexis Korner's band. By 1966, they were both part of Duffy Power's Nucleus (a band which also included John McLaughlin on electric guitar). Thompson was well known to Renbourn through appearances at Les Cousins and working with him on a project for television.

In 1967, the Scottish entrepreneur, Bruce Dunnett, who had recently organised a tour for Jansch, set up a Sunday night club for him and Renbourn at the (now defunct) Horseshoe Hotel in Tottenham Court Road. McShee began to join them as a vocalist and, by March of that year, Thompson and Cox were being billed as part of the band. Renbourn claims to be the "catalyst" that brought the band together but credits Jansch with the idea "to get the band to play in a regular place, to knock it into shape".

Although nominally a 'folk' group, the members each shared catholic tastes and influences. McShee had a grounding in traditional music, Cox and Thompson a love of jazz, Renbourn a growing interest in early music and Jansch a taste for blues and contemporaries such as Bob Dylan.

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