Pegasus were basically an instrumental band, held together largely by Duncan Lewis and featuring the (at times) unpredictable John Bleasedale. John was a classical pianist and guitarist who greatly admired groups like "Yes" and had his own mind as to what the group "Pegasus' should be. Duncan and 'Ade' (as John always called him) took the band somewhat less seriously!

They seemed to have a succession of different drummers (something of a Spinal Tap phenomena) and occasionally other folk would come along and play clarinets or other such instruments.  Their two roadies, Pete Jones and Ian Moffett were far more organized than the band ever were.

One of their popular songs was a ditty titled "Tin-Tin in Tibet" (Or 'Tin-Tin takes his shirt off' as Duncan preferred to call it)…. 3 minutes of an annoyingly memorable tune. Other pieces were considerably longer such as the epic 15 minutes long "Mount Kanchenjunga" (also known as 'Captain Junger') which started with weird synthesizer noises, went into a slow rock ballad, turned into a boogie before ending as a jig. How do we know these things? Because John before a concert would map everything out… click here or the echo unit at the top of the page  to see John's "Gig Order".. complete with all the correct titles for the songs.

One Thursday evening, during a practice, they decided they would go to Paris the next day. This they did, despite having no transport, no passports and very little money. Armed with a suitcase that had little but six cans of peaches in it, they hitched rides down to London, got a train to France, and made it to the Eiffel Tower. There Ade had what little cash he had stolen, Duncan nearly got abducted by  an effeminate Parisian, and they received an invitation to stay in Brixton by a guy who claimed he could make his guitar sound like Jimi Hendrix if he played it with a matchstick.

Returning to England one of their rides left them stranded on the hard shoulder of the motorway, they were searched by the Police (who were rather bemused that they had nothing but unopened peach cans in their possession) and slept the night on a village green nearby an asylum where a lunatic had just escaped with a shotgun. Ah… those helicon days.

Another day they decided to follow John to work on the rush hour train - an experiment to test Johns powers of observation. In spite of sitting opposite him on the train, John never noticed them until they shouted, "Good Morning John" to him at the gates of the plant in Bidston where he was working. Strange Days!

Duncan, John and Ade all contributed songs to the group. A lot of the pieces were a bit of one persons idea, then a bit of someone else's.  The midi file playing in the background is one of Ade's called "Astral Plane".  When John sang some lyrics to it he had made up some words about the solar system and converging planets.  Ade's original words were about 'looking inside each others bodies" or something totally nonsensical.  Anyone would think he didn't take it seriously!

They had a lot of fun at their gigs, part of it being the way the audience would participate. At a mention of the word 'hassle' the place would erupt in laughter.  One time there was a pantomime horse on stage.. "Just in case…". (You never know when you might need a pantomime horse).  Another time, when it was announced John was about to sing, the audience started to put on crash helmets and ear mufflers.

They once entered a talent competition, alongside little girl ballerinas, magicians, and cover bands.  They started off with Ade playing the Steinway in a classical vein, then launched into "Journey to the Stars". As he moved from Steinway to synthesizer, Ade threw his hat into the air.   It landed on the head of Duncan's bass, way over the other side of the stage.  If they'd planned it, it wouldn't haven't happened!

In the competition they came second to last, only beating the comedian at whose act nobody laughed. Predictably the little girls dance troupe (whose leader just happened to be sitting with the judges) won and the Show Band came second. The crowd were not amused and much 'booing' resulted. 

A month or so later Ade met one of the Show Band members on the top deck of a bus in Liverpool.  The guy had been well impressed with 'Pegasus's' performance and couldn't get over how strange the judges marking had been. 'There's us' he said, "Cranking out cover versions of somebody else's songs - and not even doing a very good job of it, you guys come along, do something totally original… we come second and you come second to last and we both get beaten by a group of little girls dancing?" Ade suggested that next time they should bring some ballerinas to do something completely predictable. (Or maybe a pantomime horse).

After Ade left, Pegasus were joined by Andy McKluskey (who went on to form OMD). They tried to get a record deal and all kinds of stuff, but it wasn't to be. Ade went to see them play one time, at the Moonstone Pub in Liverpool. They were still playing a few of his songs  and it felt kind of weird to be watching rather than participating.

Last Ade saw of Duncan he was working with a band called the "Reverb Brothers", whilst John had sold his guitar, purchased a Roland SH1000 and was playing in a spaced out band called "Body".

All that was a long time ago! Who knows where they all are now? But some great memories survive in Ade's head of the days spent playing with the band named after a 'WING - ED - 'ORSE'.

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