GIDEON – Earp & Betts
Peter [Earp] wrote a fantasy novel called GIDEON. This inspired our first concept album written to be a stage or film rock musical.
Roger wrote the music and together with the help of guest musicians, the album GIDEON was born. The joy of writing a stage play is the freedom to write drama and have the singers be the characters they portray. This was an exciting project and spawned a sequel which is in the making (see Projects).
You can download the album booklet here
The Story
Gideon Slater is a sixteen year old adolescent who in spite of his cool, hard man image is really a quiet, shy and extremely insecure young man. He idolises and worships Lorraine but always from a distance. He fantasises about her all of the time while deep inside the loneliness slowly destroys him. One of his methods of escaping the real world is watching his collection of classic 1940’s and 50’s swashbuckling movies with knights in shining armour, damsels in distress and good versus evil. The other is to sleep and dream and as always Lorraine is the heroine while he is the hero that she rides off into the sunset with, but sadly when waking, the reality is harsh.
One cold, wet, rainy day, Gideon finds the courage to approach Lorraine and ask her out on a date. To his surprise she agrees. Happy now, he feels that life is finally starting to go right. That night he lays down to dream as usual.
Gideon wakes to find himself in a low lit damp cave sitting opposite a haggard old crone. He has no idea who he is, where he is or how he got there. The crone introduces herself as Hebeska and tells him his name is Gideon and that he is in a place called The Realm. She talks of destiny and prophecy and throws down seven challenges so he can prove his worth. Now he must be a hero but does not know how, for he has crossed a dimensional barrier into a strange dreamscape world.
At times we all escape into our dreams. The question is, are our dreams just pictures in our mind or are they a doorway into another world and while there can we come to harm? These were the questions that Gideon Slater was about to have answered.
The Characters
Lavania – high priestess of Shetraza
Hebeska – wise old crone
Zitar – dark lord of evil
Hedda – Layhos warrior woman (dead ringer for Lorraine)
Oywella – Varconian warrior who raised Hedda as his own
Spike the Drakva – Gideon’s ferocious travelling companion
The Musicians
Roger Betts – acoustic, keyboards, mandolin, banjo, bass, synths
Peter Earp – percussion
Oliver Kirtley – drums
Mark Porch – electric guitar
Eugene Debrowsky – bass
Special thanks to …
Adrian Haiselden – guitar on ‘Lonely Without Love’
Sarah Chakraborty – flute on ‘Try For Your Love’
Samit Chakraborty – bass on ‘Try For Your Love’, ‘Revolution of the Soul’
The Vocalists
Peter Earp
Eowyn Douglass
David Scholes
Roger Betts
Narrator
Sandie Earp
The Players
Gideon – Peter Earp
Hedda – Eowyn Douglass
Zitar – David Scholes
Oywella/Spike – Roger Betts
Hebeska – Monica Legover