Prelude - After The Gold Rush (1974) - Lp

Prelude are an English based vocal harmony 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.
Prelude 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.
From it came their best known recording, an a cappella version of the Neil Young song "After the Gold Rush", on Dawn.
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”.
The group subsequently toured the United States, but "After the Gold Rush" proved their only US chart success.

Add another notch up on this rating if gorgeous harmonies and really nice-sounding covers of Neil Young songs count a lot for the listener. Prelude's second album is a beautiful folk-rock-cum-country work, with radiant singing and some beautiful melodies among the original songs -- some of the lyrical content may seem a bit simplistic, but the record is pretty enough to overcome that minor drawback.
It's just great listening, and the originals are as hauntingly lovely as the ravishingly sung cover of Neil Young's song that gave this album its title. In many ways, this album is a successor to that brief resurgence of acoustic Anglo-American folk-rock represented by the first Crosby, Stills & Nash album, before everybody got all heavy and angry -- say, a sequel to the "Suite: Judy Blues Eyes"/"Lady of the Island" side of that record. Even more astonishing is the fact that it was produced by Ian Samwell, a founding member of Cliff Richard's group the Shadows and author of the rock & roll standards "Move It" and "Whatcha Gonna Do About It."

Side A
A1. After The Gold Rush – 2:07
A2. Dear Jesus – 3:50
A3. To Hell With The War – 2:58
A4. Lady From A Small Town – 3:06
A5. Rufus – 1:03
A6. Open Book – 3:06

Side B
B1. Hotel Room – 4:31
B2. Rock Dreams – 1:48
B3. Fly – 3:34
B4. Adventures On The Way – 5:22
B5. Follow Me Down – 3:36

Companies, etc.

• Phonographic Copyright (p) – Island Records Ltd.
• Licensed From – Pye Records Ltd.
• Recorded At – Scorpio Sound
• Mastered At – Artisan Sound Recorders
• Manufactured By – Island Records Inc.
• Distributed By – Island Records Inc.
• Published By – Ackee Music, Inc.
• Published By – Cotillion Music, Inc.
• Published By – Broken Arrow Music

Credits

• Artwork By – B. Bennett
• Bass Guitar – Isaac Guillory
• Design [Sleeve] – P. Straugham
• Directed By – George Carr
• Drums – Mike Driscoll
• Engineer – Dennis Weinreich
• Guitar [6 + 12 String], Vocals – Ian Vardy
• Lead Guitar, Vocals – Brian Hume
• Pedal Steel Guitar – B. J. Cole
• Photography – A.S. MacDonald
• Producer – Ian Samwell (tracks: A2 to B5)
• Synthesizer – Ken Freeman
• Vocals – Irene Hume
• Written-By – Hume (tracks: A2 to B5), Vardy (tracks: A2 to B5)

Notes

Release: 1974

Recorded at Scorpio Sound, London 

Genre: Folk Rock

Format: LP

Label: Island Records

Catalog# ILPS 9282 

Prijs: €7,95

Vinyl: Goed

Cover: Goed

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