Arthur Pendragon

Born on April 23, 1951, Earl Theodore "Ted" Pearson formed his first band, the Revolvers, 1968, with his long-time bassist, Harold Beardsley. The Revolvers played many shows at Detroit's famed Limberlost club alongside SRC, who came to sign with Capitol Records. The Revolvers gave way to Madrigal, which featured drummer Jim Roland. Madrigal then transformed into Walpergis/Walpurgis with Harold Beardsley and Jim Roland, along with a variety of keyboardists, mainly Ray Campbell. More line-ups ensued, but once signed with Ed "Punch" Andrews, the band became known as Phantom (Pearson, Beardsley, Roland, and Russ Klatt) for their lone album, 1974's "Phantom's Divine Comedy," issued on Capitol Records. After an early '70s stint with Mitch Ryder's touring band, Ted Pearson legally changed his name to his stage name, Arthur Pendragon. Under his new name he formed Pendragon, which existed from 1976 to 1983. They released two, official vanity press 45-rpms in the early '80s. The oft-pirated "Phantom: The Lost Album" are demo recordings cut by the Pendragon band (Ted Pearson with studio musicians at Fiddlers Music) in 1977 and 1978. The 45-rpm of "Queen of Air" became a Detroit local radio hit in 1982. Arthur Pendragon died by suicide on March 28, 1999 -- the 25th anniversary of the release of "Phantom's Divine Comedy: Part 1," which was reissued in 1993 to CD on JIm Morrison's 50th birthday. Oft confused with "Tom Carson" as either being his real name or alias, Tom Carson was, in fact, the owner/operator of Fiddlers Music in Detroit -- and was the founder of the early Detroit band, the Lazy Eggs.