By 1979 Giant gave it one more try, surely they could do better than the near-total disaster that was Giant For A Day. The band picked up their entire act, moved it to LA and hooked up with the famed Geoff Emerick, and recorded what turned out to be their final album, Civilian
(I think the way the band name and album title are melded as one in this album cover is very clever, a MAJOR improvement over the STUPID cover for the previous album)
The idea behind the move was Derek Shulman's, who by this time had effectively become the band's manager, and who saw the US as the last, best hope at commercial viability. Many of the band members didn't like the move, most notably Kerry Minnear and Derek's brother Ray. This discomfort led to a general dissatisfaction with the album (Kerry Minnear was pleased with it) and eventually the band.s dissolution shortly after the album's release.
Like the two albums that preceded it, Civilian is nearly unrecognizable as the trademark Giant form that I had so fallen in love with 8 years earlier. Unlike those two albums, at least to my ears, this time they pulled the stripped-down straight-ahead style off. Don't get me wrong here, Civilian is not even CLOSE to any album between the eponymous debut and the great live double-album, at all, but it *is* IMO the one successful attempt at Pop-Giant, and I do enjoy the album on that level. I hadn't listened to a MINUTE of The Missing Piece or Giant For A Day for YEARS before posting the above reviews, but I've spun the songs from Civilian the entire time. The members of the band may not like it but I do.
Some consider Civilian a concept album, but I don't. I think the "concept" (some kind of futuristic Brave-New-World society) was cooked up after the fact, I don't believe they went to the studio with this plan.
The album opens with "Convenience (Clean And Easy)", pretty clearly a comment on American culture.This is a very good rocker IMO
Another good rock song follows, "All Through The Night"
The next song is the GORGEOUS ballad, "Shadows On The Street". This would definitely be a strong candidate for one of my ATF songs to sing, due almost entirely to the bridge/chorus (hard to say which) that starts at 1:55, just beautiful
Giant has always proclaimed that the decision to attempt to record simpler, more potentially commercially viable songs was a mutual band decision. I've personally believed that was a half-truth, that they were under pressure from the record execs to sell some damn records. My evidence for this is the next track, "Number One" which ends side one.
Side two opens with a KILLER rocker, "Underground"
Yet another fine rock song, "I Am A Camera"
As much as I enjoy every single song on Civilian, my absolute no-doubt-about-it favorite follows, "Inside Out"
The vinyl record concluded with "It's Not Imagination"
...which, as the final note fades, leads into a few samples much in the same way that In A Glass House did, saying the prophetic words "That's All There Is". Thus ends the great career of the mighty Gentle Giant, with a couple missteps near the end that in NO WAY tarnish all the magnificent music they made. (If you got a reissued CD there was a bonus track , but I don't really like it, plus I think it's revisionism anyway and will not include it in this review).
As for what became of them after the 1980 breakup, I will quote Wikipedia
"Following the dissolution of the band, Derek Shulman went on to a highly successful career in the organisational side of the music business (initially promotion and artist development for PolyGram, followed by A&R at Mercury, becoming president of Atco Records, after which he became President of Roadrunner Records. He now is the owner of new music company 2Plus Music & Entertainment). Ray Shulman moved into soundtrack work for television and advertising before becoming a record producer (working with, amongst others, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Sundays, and The Sugarcubes). He has written soundtracks for computer games, as well as producing DVDs for artists such as Genesis and Queen.
John Weathers went on to drum for Man (an association that lasted until 1996) and most recently was spotted playing drums for Glenn Cornick's Wild Turkey again (2006). Gary Green (having settled in America, near Chicago) went on to play with various Illinois bands (including Blind Dates, The Elvis Brothers, Big Hello, and Mother Tongue) and guest on recordings and at concerts by Eddie Jobson and Divae. Kerry Minnear returned to the UK and settled in Cornwall, spending many years working in gospel music. He now runs Alucard Music, the organization supervising the legal and royalty issues regarding Gentle Giant's music.
Phil Shulman retired entirely from the music business following his time in Gentle Giant. He subsequently worked as a teacher, in retail, and ran a gift shop in Gosport, Hampshire, UK before his retirement. He was briefly in a band with his son Damon Shulman and recorded several pieces with him. Several of these (under the collective title of Then) were spoken-word pieces in which he reminisced about his upbringing in the Glasgow slums. One of these pieces - Rats - appeared on Damon Shulman's solo album In Pieces and can be heard as an audio stream on Damon Shulman's homepage and MySpace page (made available in April 2008).
Original Gentle Giant drummer Martin Smith settled in Southampton and drummed with various bands there - he died on March 2, 1997. Second Gentle Giant drummer Malcolm Mortimore has continued to work as a successful sessions drummer in the rock, jazz, and theatre fields."
As for reunions:
"Despite having seen many of their progressive rock contemporaries reunite for moneyspinning tours, Gentle Giant are notable for having consistently refused to reunite as a full band. In 1997, the Gentle Giant fanbase unsuccessfully attempted to persuade the members to perform a reunion concert. Reasons cited by members for their rejection include busy schedules, health problems, lack of practice on instruments, and other personal reasons. Asked about a possible reunion in 1995, Phil Shulman replied "we lead such disparate lives now and different lifestyles, different attitudes... I think it's impossible."[18] In 1998, Ray Shulman asserted "For me and Derek, the disruption to our lives now, I can't see how it would be worth it. It would be very difficult. The whole process would take such a long time and you would have to give up what ever you are doing. We both have careers independent of GG.
There have been two partial reunions, both featuring between two and four of the band members and with neither event being identified as a formal reunion of Gentle Giant. The first of these took place in 2004 and the second in 2008 (developing further in 2009).
The 2004 partial reunion featured four former Gentle Giant members - Kerry Minnear, John Weathers, Gary Green, and Phil Shulman (who only participated as a lyricist). This quartet reunited as a studio-only project solely in order to record three new compositions for the Scraping The Barrel box set ("Home Again", "Moog Fugue", and "Move Over"). There was no live activity and the quartet disbanded immediately after the recordings.
A 2008 partial reunion involved the creation of a new band called Rentle Giant in order to play Gentle Giant material. This band featured two other former members of Gentle Giant (guitarist Gary Green and drummer Malcolm Mortimore) who recruited three noted jazz-fusion musicians to complete the band - Roger Carey (bass and vocals, from Liane Carroll's band), Andy Williams (guitar, collaborator with Carey in the Engine Clutch And Gearbox trio), and John Donaldson (piano and keyboards). Green also contributed lead vocals to some of the songs. In March 2009, Green and Mortimore were joined by a third Gentle Giant member - Kerry Minnear - and Rentle Giant consequently changed its name to Three Friends. At the same time, the band expanded to a seven-piece by adding current 10cc vocalist Mick Wilson as dedicated lead singer. About six months later, it was announced that Minnear was leaving the band for personal reasons, and that Three Friends planned to continue as a six-piece. Minnear later revealed that the split was amicable and that he had left for reasons of respect (as the Shulman brothers had "not been particularly enthusiastic" about the existence of Three Friends). [24] Carey, Williams and Donaldson have subsequently left the band and been replaced by Lee Pomeroy (bass), Gary Sanctuary (keyboards) and Charlotte Glasson (violin, sax).
Minnear has also recently announced plans for him to collaborate with Ray Shulman on a new writing project."