CLIVE NOLAN T HE CL A SSICA L , CHR ISTMA S V I K ING


Music artists are often caught between the endorphine-enducing frenetic life of touring and performing and the body and mind’s organic need to balance and recover. After all, you can’t be creative in a constantly taxing environment, and this is exactly why Progressive-Rock composer and musician Clive Nolan moved to Herefordshire.


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Born to piano and music teaching parents in Stroud, Clive’s childhood home was an inspiring environment. There were always people around learning, playing, singing. Compared to more conventional families, his was far less ordinary.


Like the time when, while playing the accordion for ENSA (Enter tainments National Service Association, a World War II Br itish organization that provided enter tainment


for


troops), his father was invited by Hohner, the renowned instrument makers, to test out their new chromatic accordion. Music created adventures and drew Clive with it.


MUSIC, MENACE AND MYSTERY In time, however, Clive learned the violin and took his composition diploma in none other than Cromwell Street in Gloucester (the street where infamous murderers Fred and Rose West lived). As a young boy he nurtured notions of becoming a vet or perhaps an architect, though when his beloved cat, Kim, died, the dark ness of this loss, inspired him to wr ite his f irst piece of music. Having been initially immer sed in listening to his parents’ radiogram and iconic musicals, like The Sound of Music and My Fair Lady, his imagination darkened even fur ther af ter watching the Hammer House of Horror f ilm production of She (based on the novel by H. Rider Haggard).


Going on to gain Music degrees at London University, where he studied orchestration, composition and conducting, it is no surpr ise that this combination of a


Classical upbringing, merged with a penchant for menace and mystery, and a desire to commune with people of a similar mind,


took Clive into per forming with several bands and collaboratives.


He has been the regular keyboard player in Pendragon (1986–present), Shadowland (1992–present), Strangers on a Train (1993–1994), Arena (1995–present), Caamora (2006– present) and Imaginaerium (2021-present), as well as wr iting music and ly r ics for several of those bands and numerous other projects. dedicated to his cats.


All his albums have been


OBSESSIONS AND EXPRESSIONS Nolan is also the founder member of The Caamora Theatre Company formed to produce and per form his musicals, one of those being of the aforementioned book and f ilm She. Per forming in Cheltenham, it so enamoured a group of attending Norwegians that they collaborated with him to develop a branch of the Caamora in Norway. It was here that Clive developed his next fascination – V ik ings.


The immer sion in this genus is evident when visiting his Herefordshire home. Yet what draws a rock star to this agr icultural border land? “Touring is exhausting and expensive, and living on a tour bus loses its appeal. Whilst living a life of rock ‘n’ roll can be fun for a while, Prog-Rock is more famous in other countries, which means being away a lot. Nowadays I like to spend more time at home,.” Clive concedes. Af ter for ty years in the


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