Prelude (band)

Prelude
Origin	United Kingdom
Genres	Folk, pop, MOR
Years active	1970–present
Labels	Dawn, EMI, After Hours
Website	Official website
Members	Brian Hume Irene Hume Ian Vardy
Past members	Chris Ringer Jim Hornsby

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. In the UK, it entered the Top 50 on 26 January 1974, had a nine-week stay, peaking at Number 21. In America, it entered the Billboard Hot 100 on 5 October 1974, and had a 13-week stay, peaking at #22.

Hume explained (in 1974) how the song came about: “We were standing at a bus stop in 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. 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".

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