Yorkshire Evening Post
1969 September 23rd.
SILENCE! for The Pentangle

Pentangle means magical symbol - a five pointed-star. Five talented and quietly creative musicians together form The Pentangle, who appear at Leeds Town Hall on October 14. The complete harmony, musical feeling and ability of The Pentangle results in an effect produced by no other group of musicians. When they play at the Town Hall the audience will sit in silence, as they will at the Royal Hall in Harrogate on Saturday October 25. The stage will not be groaning under a ton of amplification, although microphones will litter the place like fragments of steel web, for The Pentangle are a rarity. They amplify a sound produced by acoustic instruments - played well. Line-up of Talent.

Two fine guitarists, Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, who have each made successful solo and duo albums in the past, singer Jaqui McShee, Danny Thompson, double bass, and Terry Cox, drums, make up the group. They came together over a period of time in the world of London’s folk clubs, began pulling capacity audiences in the Tottenham Court Road, and soon reached the ears of John Peel of “Top Gear”. An album followed, then in June last year The Pentangle gave their first major concert at the Royal Festival Hall, which was a sell-out two weeks in advance. That summer, they appeared at the Woburn Abbey festival, the Cambridge Folk Festival and the Edinburgh Festival. This year brought a tour of America, which was such a success that they had to return for the legendary Newport Folk Festival. Fusion of Styles.

One minute racing in a near-jazz vein the next, soft and light, the music of The Pentangle is a fusion of many styles and periods - but with an identity all its own. The voice of Jaqui McShee is clear and cool shining on traditional songs. Often Jansch supplies a light rolling guitar riff while Renbourn inserts smatterings of notes above the rhythm of Thompson and Cox. Thompson often uses the bow and can produce inspired solos, as was demonstrated at the recent Isle of Wight Festival of Music. Perhaps a good way to get into the music of The Pentangle is to listen to earlier recordings by Jansch and Renbourn. Don’t try to classify all the music by The Pentangle. Just listen to it and you may find that it is a lot of things