Bread, Love And Dreams” Amaryllis”1971 Very Rare UK Decca LP £900 `Acid Folk`
Very Rare `Amaryllis` (Decca SKL 5081) by UK Acid Folkies `Bread Love & Dreams` suffered the same fate as Leafhound’s sole album in receiving a tiny pressing/distributed by major label Decca! Making it incredibly hard to find today, thus the LP is now reaching figures of £900 when coming up for sale.
Decca retained copyright of all the band`s songs but lost interest by the third album (Amaryllis) in spite of it being performed at Edinburgh’s Royal Court Theatre. Few copies had been pressed & only in the UK despite strong European interest due to touring plus with botched marketing, the album went unnoticed in spite of its eye-catching cover (Deram would have been a far more suitable home for them). It’s now suggested that Amaryllis was probably a tax scam by the label. Huge batches were dispatched to Ceylon from where they returned unsold (few inhabitants of pre-Sri Lanka had record players or even electricity of course) with the band expected to reimburse the label £19,999, 19s 11pence, against their first royalty statement of £20,000!!
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Side 1
1. Amaryllis: part 1 – Out of the Darkness Into the Night, part 2 – Zoroaster`s Prophecy, part 3 – Light
Side 2
1. Times the Thief
2. My Stair- Cupboard at 3 a.m
3. Brother John
4. Circles of Night
• Bass – Danny Thompson
• Bass Guitar – Dave Richmond
• Drums – Terry Cox
• Engineer – Derek Varnals
• Organ, Piano – Alan Trajan
• Producer – Ray Horricks
• Vocals, Guitar – David McNiven
• Vocals, Guitar, Percussion – Angie Rew
The mouthful named Bread Love and Dreams was a relatively short-lived two woman/one man folk trio hailing from the fair township of Edinburgh, Scotland. The self-titled debut in 1969 failed to ruffle any feathers. Their producer, Ray Horricks (Davy Graham, The Human Beast), had taken the original four-track recordings made by David McNiven, Angie Rew, and Carolyn Davis without their knowledge, threw them on an eight-track, and tacked on a bunch of strings. Horrick’s idea was to turn it into a concept album, but sales figures indicate that no one got it. Davis walked half way out the door after that, to unsuccessfully embark on a solo career. Somehow, by an act of uncertain mercy, McNiven and Rew were granted an extension to their Decca contract and headed back into the studio with Mr. Horricks.
