Sutherland Brothers - Sunbird (1978)

Written by Iain and Gavin. Single released March 1978. This was the 'B' side of 'One More Night With You'.
ONE MORE NIGHT WITH YOU video :-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o76_CusmkZo
Produced by Glen Spreen. This track now features as a bonus track on both 2005 and 2009 re-issue CD's of 'When The Night Comes Down' and 'Down To Earth'. Replaces the audio version now deleted along with the 'A' side. Photos courtesy of Stage Parades Trap Door Photograph Club. Also uploaded on myspace.

Sutherland Brothers and Quiver Revisited
The Sutherland Brothers Band debut album from 1971 was played over and over again in my Central London bed-sit on my Ultra record player. They played live at the Marquee in those days when I became a fan and at that time the band comprised of Iain and Gavin on vocals, steel, piano and harmonica with Kim Ludman on bass and Neil Hopwood on drums. Produced by the brilliant Muff Winwood, ten of the eleven tracks were written by Gavin and only one by Iain. That one track, however, was the lead off track, half vocal, half instrumental, 'The Pie' which featured so heavily on Radio Luxembourg (medium wave 208) at the time and should have been a much bigger hit than it ever was.

Originally on Island, this folk/rock album, had nearly all their albums re-released CD by Sony Rewind between 1998/2000, the Best of in 2002, When The Night Comes Down in 2005 with the final missing CD Down To Earth, released in 2009 by Lemon Records.

Their follow-up 'LIFEBOAT' album in 1972 was in my opinion overall a stronger set, originally did not include Gavin's most famous written song 'Sailing' which of course became a huge hit for Rod Stewart. In the USA the album was released later under the SBQ banner and had a different line up of tracks. So annoying to real fans like me.

In 1973 Tim Renwick's band Quiver joined forces and his brilliant guitar playing and Peter Wood's keyboards gave the band a welcome added dimension which is clearly heard on the 'DREAM KID' album which I bought in March 1974 (unsure of actual release date). Most of the songwriting was shared on future albums and 'BEAT OF THE STREET' the fourth and last and great album on Island released November 1974.

Dates for the SBQ albums on CBS are as follows :-

REACH FOR THE SKY 7/11/75 (included Arms Of Mary, their only top 10 hit)
SLIPSTREAM 17/9/76 (their weakest album in my opinion)
DOWN TO EARTH 2/9/77 (includes the brilliant Where Lies You Soul)
WHEN THE NIGHT COMES DOWN 25/5/79 (Suths only)

A couple of vinyl compilation budget LP's also were released during this time.

Iain Sutherland had 2 solo albums released on Avatar and Metronome and are both highly recommended. 'Mixed Emotions'was released in 1983 and Fandango (on cover) or Learning To Dance (on LP) released in 1985 with both Gavin and Tim featuring. Gavin also had a solo album 'Beat of My Heart' in 1982. As far as I am aware none of these 3 albums were re-issued from vinyl to CD. Gavin has also had a more recent album release on the Corazong label in 2000 with the acoustic 'Diamonds and Gold'and is still making music in 2008 with The Deal, check him out on myspace, along with mine below :-

http://www.myspace.com/gavsutherland

Category:

Music

Tags:

• 70's
• SutherlandBrothers
• Quiver
• GavinandIain
• Skerryrock
• StageParades
• Sunbirds
• DownToEarth
• Glen
• Spreen
• AOR
• WhenTheNightComesDown
• CBS
• Island
• LemonRecordings
• IceInTheFire
• WhereLiesYourSoul
• HarbourLight
• Somebody'sFool
• ArmsOfMary
• DreamKid
• YouGotMeAnyway
• music
• slideshow

[albainbridge1]

Where the hell have I been. I missed this first time round. Thanks for giving me (and I'll bet others) another chance Steve. Great video....of course! Love it!

Al

[kinavian74]

@albainbridge1 - Glad you found it Al, great song probably deserved a better video, but I did my best. Thanks my friend :-)

[MegaJimsy]

love to see them in concert

[mikeros48]

Nice job on the slides for this.

[pirupati]

love the song, love the pictures...adore the group!

[Jiffxx]

Excellent. The slide show is as beautiful as the song.

[dawnyb333]

Really lovely song and lyrics. And great pics to look at as we listen.

[Novali95]

How beautiful this song is, I loved the audio version very much and now so happy to see the beautiful video made to it, the photos are so well placed to the music. Thank you, Steve!

Ami x

[glamaura]

lovely video :)

you timed the pics with the words well..

kirsty x