Key Members:
Jacqui McShee - vocals (1968-1973, 1981–present)
Bert Jansch - guitar, vocals (1968-1973, 1981-1995; reunions - 2008, 2011
Danny Thompson - double bass (1968-1973, 1981-1986; reunions - 2008, 2011)
Terry Cox - drums (1968-1973, 1981-1987; reunions - 2008, 2011)
John Renbourn - guitar, vocals (1968-1973, 1981-1982; reunions - 2008, 2011
Gerry Conway - drums (1987–present)
Spencer Cozens - keyboards (1995–present)
Alan Thomson - bass, guitars (1995–present)
Gary Foote - flute, saxophone (2002–present)
Mike Piggott - violin, guitar (1982-1989)
Nigel Portman Smith - keyboards, bass (1986-1995)
Rod Clements - mandolin, guitar (1989-1990)
Peter Kirtley - guitars, vocals (1990-1995)
Jerry Underwood - saxophone (1995-2002
Short bio
The original group formed in 1967. Renbourn and Jansch, who shared a house in St John's Wood, 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.
Jacqui McShee had begun as a singer in several London folk clubs, when, by 1965, she established a friendship with Jansch and Renbourn. 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 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. 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 Dunnet, who had recently organised a tour for Jansch, set up a Sunday night club for him and Renbourn at the 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 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.
The first public concert by Pentangle was a sell-out performance at the Royal Festival Hall, on 27 May 1967. Later that year, they undertook a short tour of Denmark — in which they were disastrously billed as a rock'n'roll band — and a short UK tour, organised by Nathan Joseph of Transatlantic Records. By this stage, their association with Bruce Dunnett had ended and, early in 1968, they acquired Jo Lustig as a manager. With his influence, they graduated from clubs to concert halls and from then on, as Colin Harper puts it, "the ramshackle, happy-go-lucky progress of the Pentangle was going to be a streamlined machine of purpose and efficiency".
Pentangle signed up with Transatlantic Records and their eponymous debut LP was released in May 1968. This all-acoustic album was produced by Shel Talmy, who has claimed to have employed an innovative approach to recording acoustic guitars to deliver a very bright "bell-like" sound. On 29 June of that year they performed at London's Royal Festival Hall. Recordings from that concert formed part of their second album, Sweet Child released in November 1968, a double LP comprising live and studio recordings.
Basket of Light, which followed in mid-1969, was their greatest commercial success, thanks to a surprise hit single, "Light Flight" which became popular through its use as theme music for the television series Take Three Girls for which the band also provided incidental music. The album went all the way to number five in the charts.
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By 1970, they were at the peak of their popularity, recording a soundtrack for the film Tam Lin, making at least 12 television appearances, and undertaking tours of the UK (including the Isle of Wight Festival) and America. However, their fourth album, Cruel Sister, released in October 1970, was a commercial disaster. This was an album of traditional songs that included a 18 1/2-minute-long version of "Jack Orion", a song that Jansch and Renbourn had recorded previously as a duo. It failed to go higher than number 51 in the charts.
The band returned to a mix of traditional and original material on Reflection, recorded in March 1971. This was received without enthusiasm by the music press. By this time, the strains of touring and of working together as a band were readily apparent.
The final album of the original lineup was Solomon's Seal, released by Warner Brothers/Reprise in 1972. Its release was accompanied by a UK tour, in which Pentangle were supported by Wizz Jones and Clive Palmer's band COB. The last few dates of the tour had to be cancelled owing to Thompson becoming ill.
On New Year's Day, 1973, Jansch decided to leave the band. "Pentangle Split" was the front-page headline of the first issue of Melody Maker of the year.
A re-formed Pentangle debuted at the 1982 Cambridge Folk Festival, and since then various incarnations of the band has toured and recorded.
Source: Wikipedia
