Narnia
narnia
Future ATF guitarist John Russell, had 10 years of piano tuition, and recorder lessons, before progressing to being a self taught guitarist. In 1970, he met Pauline Filby for the first time at a musical week on the Isle of Wight, a few days before the first festival there. Together they formed the People Band, with others, touring London and Holland (notably Palaver, the Pop Market, Utrecht in front of 25,000), then in 1972, they formed Agape with musicians from McGuiness Flint and Brian Poole's Seychelles, touring Germany (notably the Beat Club).
Agape lasted about a year, and finished in Germany, then Filby and Russell returned to the UK and formed a new band to do a series of concerts at St. Paul's Cathedral during January and February 1973 (sharing the stage with amongst others, the new Spencer Davies Band, Cliff Richard, Magna Carta, and Doris Troy), joined by Tim Hatwell on Bass.
With the original After The Fire gone, Banks was at a musical loose-end, so at John Russell's invitation, Banks auditioned for and joined the band in July 1973, along with drummer Ginger Dixon. The expanded group needed a new name, and reflecting Filby's love of C.S. Lewis's classic children's story chronicles, the new band was called Narnia.
Narnia
As with Agape, Narnia was essentially a vehicle for the vocal and writing talents of Pauline Filby, an established folk singer in her own right, but inevitably, with such a back-up of musicians, the sound was superbly reinforced.
Narnia during the Royal Albert Hall telecast
Their first public outing together was on the BBC's Sound Out in August 73, followed by an Anglo-Dutch TV concert from the Royal Albert Hall on 21st September, backed by a full orchestra. Also during the Autumn, they performed the theme song on BBC2's See You Sunday for each of it's 8 week run.
For a year they toured extensively, the equipment going by transit van, while the band travelled in the relative luxury of a Ford Zephyr Zodiac. They appeared at the very first Greenbelt Festival at Charfield in Suffolk. They recorded one album, self-titled Narnia released by Word in 1974. But even before the album had been released the line-up fell apart, and Banks left within a year. Narnia morphed into Arnion, and appeared at the second greenbelt festival at it's new home at Lord Luke's Castle Estate, in Odell, Bedfordshire.
Banks meanwhile was contemplating reviving an old project - and at the beginning of 1974, set about re-forming After The Fire.
