#1: After The Goldrush by Prelude
City: Kelowna, BC
Radio Station: CKOV
Peak Month: December 1974
Peak Position in Kelowna ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #10
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #22
YouTube: “After The Goldrush”
Lyrics: “After The Goldrush”
Prelude are an English-based vocal harmony group, who in their most famous line-up consisted of singer and guitarist Brian Hume, his wife Irene Hume – on vocals, and guitarist and singer Ian Vardy. Vardy and Brian Hume had covered Simon & Garfunkel’s song “The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine” in 1967, billed as The Carnival. They formed Trilogy in their native Gateshead in northeast England in 1970, adding Irene Hume. They changed their name soon after to Prelude. They backed Ralph McTell on his recording of “Streets Of London”, which was released as a single in the UK in 1974. Prelude released a non-charting single titled “Edge of the Sea” in 1972. The following year Prelude signed with the Dawn Record label. They went to the recording studio to work on their debut album, How Long is Forever? One of the tracks was “After The Goldrush”.