Principal Edwards Magic Theatre


 * Principal Edwards Magic Theatre was a 14-member communal performance art collective in the United Kingdom made up of musicians, poets, dancers, and sound and lighting technicians.(read more at Wikipedia)

Links to Peel
""''By way of being a sort of afterthought. There is a Principal Edward's Magic Theatre. Uncertain in composition and varied in achievement are they and you will hear a great deal more of them. Be prepared..." (John Peel, International Times 35, 12 July 1968, p.6) "" Principal Edwards Magic Theatre were discovered by John Peel while they were a student group at the University of Exeter, and for a time in 1968-69 ranked alongside Captain Beefheart, Tyrannosaurus Rex and The Misunderstood, as artists he rated very highly. Peel mentioned them on his shows, wrote about them in his columns in International Times and Disc and Music Echo and signed them to his Dandelion label, for whom they recorded an album, Soundtrack, in 1969. At a time when Peel was at the height of his popularity and influence, all this might have been expected to lead to success, and they contributed a centre-page feature to issue 40 of International Times ("Thank you, John Peel, for everything"'') - yet Principal Edwards never gained much acclaim, either critically or commercially. This was in part due to their anti-commercial ethos - they lived communally in typical hippie style - but also because, minus the trappings which enhanced their live performances, their music was an uneasy mixture of Elizabethan-influenced folk and mediocre psychedelic rock, with few memorable songs. Peel found it hard to convince others of their quality. His Top Gear producer John Walters was unimpressed, as he told John Tobler in Zigzag 24 (1972):

"" "We even used Principal Edwards twice, although I would never use them again as things stand. I used them the first time because I could see why John had taken an interest, in that they were unusual; it was a mixed media group, and at that time it seemed a good idea to explore it as an avenue that might happen...a big group, incorporating all kinds of arty-farty nonsense. I was pretty disappointed by the session - I didn't feel it really had anything, so it was a good eighteen months or more before I booked them again, on the grounds that they had supposedly got themselves together. I found that the instrumental side had improved, but the pretentious side had become, if anything, worse, to my mind - although it's obviously a personal thing"""

In Margrave Of The Marshes, Sheila Ravenscroft mentioned that she and Peel had had Principal Edwards stay with them at their London Peel Acres, but had been annoyed at the large group's taking advantage of their hospitality and offering little in return [ref]. Later he regarded his involvement with the group as an error of judgement and never returned to their records, which - unlike much of the material of the Top Gear era - have not worn well, and only seem to be valued by a few collectors.

Sessions

 * Number of sessions? Any commercial release of sessions?

1. Recorded: YYYY-MM-DD. First broadcast: DD Month YYYY. Repeated: DD Month YYY 2. Recorded: YYYY-MM-DD. First broadcast: DD Month YYYY. Repeated: DD Month YYY etc
 * Song title / Song Title / Song Title / Song Title
 * Song title / Song Title / Song Title / Song Title

(Please correct mistakes and add any missing info)

Other Shows Played
(Please add any missing info)
 * DD Month YYYY: Song (single/album) Label