Anybody familiar with Beggars Opera?

I purchased an album titled PATHFINDER by a band called BEGGARS OPERA.

Actually, it was a blind purchase, which turned out to be pretty amazing.

This is an old british progressive rock band, with a very interesting sound.

Plus the cover art is cool.

Any fans?

This is interesting; I did the same thing last year. Found Pathfinder on ebay, loved the name and the cover art, bought it, then did the research. Fell in love with it, great production and catchy melodies. What would be grand is if someone would do a metal cover of The Witch. That's a groovy slice of proto-metal right there; I can almost hear Maiden doing it.

I think they did about 3-4 albums and I've heard two(?) of them. I'll have to look on in itunes to see what I have.

How much did you pay for your copy?

Got mine new at 12$

I like their cover of MacArthur Park, but that's all I've heard of them. They're a band who every now and then I think I should investigate further, but never seem to get around to doing so.

Gilbert wrote:

How much did you pay for your copy?

Got mine new at 12$

Around the same, 10 or 12, can't exactly remember.

The album "Waters Of Change" is worth checking out as well.

Interesting old band. They started off as a prog band with classical influences, then went to hard rock for the album "Get Your Dog Off Me". There is a song on that one called "Woman Of Hellfire" that sounds a lot like AC/DC, which is interesting because it's from 1973. The early prog stuff is probably better, anlong the lines of Caravan and Camel.

Always wanted to check these guys out, but never got around to actually doing it.
BTW, I'm pretty sure they aren't a metal or hard rock band.

TheGreatDuck wrote:

Always wanted to check these guys out, but never got around to actually doing it.
BTW, I'm pretty sure they aren't a metal or hard rock band.

I think of them as proto-metal because you can imagine a metal band pulling off covers of them perfectly. They also have some of the elements in their grooves, cadences, melodies, energy, overall tone, guitar and organ work--it almost feels like early DP mixed with Colosseum. Then again, I've only heard Pathfinder and am judging this based on the one album.

But really they were just prog rock.