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lemonade kid
Old Love
USA
9880 Posts |
 Posted - 13/10/2012 : 16:36:24
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PRELUDE
Recording in Wales on the DAWN label...always a favorite for brilliant cover art (e.g.-HMS Donovan).
I know what your thinking. “Is this some christian rock band?
No, not really, but I was as mistaken as you at first. Christian imagery is all over the first release by the British vocal folk-pop trio, Prelude. From songs titled, simply, God, to vague and odd christian-esque sounding ideas like the opening to the song Beauty Of The World which talks of Ceasar running through fields like the wind blowing the lace on a young girls breasts. (?)
More akin to Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, (had Young the soft voice of a blonde Californian girl) then the other famous folk trio of the day, Peter, Paul and Mary, their records were released on the Dawn label in the UK. A label that was trying to compete with the likes of Vertigo for all things slightly prog and folky. There’s no prog here at all. In fact everytime I put on this album I’m transported right to the sunny beach at sunset in southern California.
-lineout.thestranger.com
After The Goldrush...a capella brilliance...live
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2Taxuott5s
From the LP...After The Goldrush
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TBUH-9I_xA&feature=fvwberel
It was my friend Sinead who first started me blogging and told me about sites that I had never heard of before called Wikipedia and Youtube. Back in 2006 I remember spending hours looking up songs on Youtube and this site is now the result of that day. Of the many songs that I posted over the past few years there was one song that I have looked up many times on Youtube and could never find it. Today, I thought of asking David in Brighton if he knew it and I said well , before I ask him I'll search once more and I found the song just like that. The song was called Platinum Blonde and I remember hearing it in the office of my dad's radio station back in Kilkenny. The year was 1980 or 1981. I was 10 or 11 years old. I remember the song being one of the most adult things I had ever heard but I was just intrigued by it. It was because of Platinum Blonde that I have always loved 'story' songs. So many 70's songs almost had a beginning, middle and end in relation to a song's lyric narrative. The band who sang the song, I discovered just today, were called Prelude. Platinum Blonde doesn't appear to have been a hit but I leave that open to doubt. Looking back now so many songs that weren't hits were played on KCR, the radio station that my Dad Michael Minogue co-founded. I know that the song was probably played on Mike Breen or Tomm Dowling's show. I have written about the importance of that radio station in my life before and those dj's formed the background story to many of the songs I celebrate on this site. As children we, my sisters Jane and Emma and brother Mike, had every toy you would have wanted in the 70's and 80's but the radio station was a present that I will have all my life, thanks to my darling Dad. Here is Prelude and a live version of Platinum Blonde, a song that haunted me as only music can as a child and that I re-discovered this evening, 30 years later. The strangest thing about hearing the song again was that the other day I was in a restaurant in Dublin called Juice on George's Street and if anyone from Dublin knows it they always play a great mix of music. That afternoon I heard the most gorgeous version of Neil Young's classic After The Goldrush, I thought it sounded a bit like Linda Ronstadt who had recorded the song with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris for their album Trio. It wasn't. Without realising who it was it was by Prelude. I swear I got chills when I read that today as well! -music blogspot
Here Comes The Sun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epxG_zd6Btw&feature=related
Prelude are an English based vocal folk group, who in their most famous line-up consisted of Brian Hume (vocals, guitar), his wife Irene Hume (vocals) and Ian Vardy (guitars, vocals). They formed in their native Gateshead in 1970.
They began to write their own material and built a following on the folk circuit and in 1973 they recorded their first album, How Long Is Forever?, on Dawn Records at Rockfield recording studios in Wales.[1][2] From it came their best known recording, an a cappella version of the Neil Young song "After the Gold Rush", on Dawn. In the UK, it entered the Top 50 on 26 January 1974, had a nine-week stay, peaking at Number 21.[3] In America, it entered the Billboard Hot 100 on 11 February 1974, and had a five-week stay, peaking at #22.
Hume explained (in 1974) how the song came about: “We were standing at a bus stop in Stocksfield and we just started singing it. There was no particular reason, it was just a nice song. The way we do it now is really no different from the way we did it at the bus stop. We included it in our act and it went down really well – even the rowdier clubs listened to it. We certainly never thought of it as a possible single. In any case we always thought of ourselves as an album group rather than making singles and included the song on the album How Long Is Forever as an afterthought”.[citation needed]
The group subsequently toured the U.S., but "After the Gold Rush" proved their only U.S. chart success. They then toured the UK, supporting Ralph McTell and Joan Armatrading. In 1981 they toured the UK with Don McLean. Also in 1974, they recorded backing vocals for the Ralph McTell's hit single, "Streets of London".
The group signed with EMI, and in 1980 scored their second UK hit with "Platinum Blonde".[4] The group appeared on Top Of The Pops to promote the single. The follow-up "Trick Of The Light" failed to chart, but was noted in one review[who?] of its similarity to Fleetwood Mac. Further success was achieved in 1982 when a re-recorded version of "After the Gold Rush" made the UK Top 30.[4] The group released three further singles in the same year, namely, "Only The Lonely" (a cover of the Roy Orbison song), "City Tonight" and "Silent Night". However, no album was released around this time.[5]
Vardy left the band in 1985. Irene and Brian Hume continued as a duo until 1987, when they were joined by Jim Hornsby (guitar and dobro). By 1993, Hornsby had left and Prelude continued as a duo once more. They still write and perform on the folk circuit, along with Chris Ringer (bass/vocals).[6]
As a three-piece band (Hume/Hume/Ringer) they performed as a trio but in 2008 they were rejoined by original member Ian Vardy and performed as a four-piece. Rediscovering much of their back catalogue with Ian Vardy back on board, the group are going from strength to strength and have added a percussionist to the line-up where stage space allows. A new album, with the line up Hume / Hume / Vardy with support from Steve Cunningham and Paul Hooper was released in February 2011
UK discography
Singles
* 1973 "Out There" (Dawn)
* 1974 "After the Gold Rush" (Dawn) UK #21
* 1974 '"Here Comes the Sun" (Dawn)
* 1974 '"Dear Jesus" (Dawn)
* 1975 "Fly" (Dawn)
* 1975 "A Love Song" (Dawn)
* 1980 "Platinum Blonde" (EMI) UK #45
* 1980 "Trick of the Light" (EMI)
* 1981 "When Two Worlds Collide" (EMI)
* 1982 "After the Gold Rush" (new recording) (After Hours) UK #28
* 1982 "Only The Lonely" (After Hours) UK #55
* 1982 "City Tonight" (After Hours)
* 1982 "Silent Night" (After Hours)
Albums
* 1973 How Long Is Forever? (Dawn)
* 1974 Dutch Courage (Dawn) (titled After the Gold Rush in the USA)US #94[7]
* 1975 Owlcreek Incident (Dawn) US #111
* 1976 Back Into the Light (Pye)
* 1984 Prelude (CMP)
* 1997 Archive (Rialto) (Compilation)
* 2000 Floating on the Breeze: The Dawn (Castle) (Compilation of 1970s material)
* 2011 The Belle Vue Sessions
To Hell With War
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUv_NRsVrlA
Rufus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4HFlwAla-s&feature=relmfu
God
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAOrnwvpnDc
Adventures On The Way
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=905-CVYljKs&feature=related
Follow Me Down
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2uAbvlJfac&feature=relmfu
Freedom
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IfAmmL1_UQ&feature=related
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Only after the last tree has been cut down,
Only after the last river has been poisoned,
Only after the last fish has been caught,
Only then will you find money cannot be eaten.
~ Cree Prophecy |
Edited by - lemonade kid on 13/10/2012 16:41:53 |
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PRELUDE-70's UK folk psych-brilliant mixed harmony
