WATER INTO WINE BAND – HARVEST TIME: EX+ - Folk Prog Monster Mega rare

	£		339
	$		449

Water into Wine Band

Harvest Time

This is a reluctant sale from my progressive rock and folk collection due to financial constraints.

OVERVIEW

• Water into Wine Band
• Harvest Time
• 1976 (actually released 1977)
• Private Press: 500 copies (manufactured by Pye)
• CJT 002-A A1 / CJT 002-B B1
• Single sleeve manufactured by Garrod & Lofthouse Ltd.
• Sleeve: EX (unlaminated, very minor ring discolouration and slight edge creasing here and there. Small title lettering on spine still readable. Will be supplied in clear plastic sleeve for protection)
• Labels: EX+ (no spindle marks)
• Vinyl: EX+ (clean and glossy on both sides with no visible marks)
• Audio: EX+ (plays through very quietly on both sides)
• Insert: EX This is a typed note signed Water Into Wine Band and addressed from 69 Glisson Road, Cambridge (where they formed at the University in 1971) referring to a 10 month delay which was down to concerns over the quality of the pressing. It is stated that a replacement would be sourced if any problem was found with the pressing purchased. This copy plays through very quietly with only the very occasional pop and static crackle, so perhaps the concerns were unfounded.
• Inner sleeve: EX poly-lined
• Note on description: I notice that some previous examples of this record have been sold on eBay as ‘unplayed’. I find this an odd claim, because unless you have owned the record from new it is impossible to make this assumption. This looks to all intents and purposes ‘unplayed’, but obviously it has a few times. I have tried to create a realistic listing based on Record Collector grading.

CONTEXT

‘Gone farmers and soldiers to castles and barnyard homes;

Weary the plovers cry, lazy the last bee drones,

Aryons once tall sink in dark forest caves like gnomes;

Dust covered answers all lie forgotten in tomes.’

Harvest Time is one of the rarest lost folk-prog classics of the 1970s, in the same category and period as Caedmon. Many such uber-rarities fail to impress musically (Tudor Lodge springs to mind), but this is a true treasure. An utterly English progressive folk classic dominated by the epic 18+-minute title track which takes up the whole of side 2. This has classical baroque passages (with flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon) interspersed with a haunting folk song sequence which evokes a lost pastoral idyll. Bill Thorp’s violin and viola playing are superb as are the subtle voices of the whole band. The piece is reminiscent of some of The Strawbs most epic work, or perhaps the legendary soundtrack to The Wickerman film, or COB. Side 1 contains a series of shorter, but delightful, songs (such as the excellent Waiting for Another Day) arranged around an 8-minute Scottish Suite of traditional Celtic tunes.

Harvest Time was Water Into Wine Band’s swansong, and their definitive statement, a deliberately more progressive offering than the previous Hillclimbing for Beginners and containing very few Christian references. The album was recorded at London’s Freerange Studio in June 1976, but by this time the band was close to calling it a day. There is an account that they took the pressed copies to the 1976 Greenbelt Arts Festival to sell at their farewell concert, but it is clear that it was orders that were taken, both at this and other final gigs. The actual record was finally released in May 1977, as the insert confirms, following delays due to the quality of the initial pressings.

Obviously, very few original copies of this album appear on the market. Take this rare opportunity to purchase a lovely example of a fantastic period piece of English musical heritage.

‘Come sunrise the plough in the furrow lies all forlorn;

Rusting the dagger to dust in the light of the dawn;

Haggard and motionless faces where love once shone,

Stumble in places forsaken of wine and corn.’

PROVENANCE

I must have bought Harvest Time sometime in the 1980s (can’t remember exactly when). It has since been in my collection (in a smoke free home) and has probably been played no more than 4-5 times, the title track more than side 1. It has been stored in a protective clear plastic sleeve for some years.

POSTAGE

As this is a rare and valuable record so all postage will be by recorded delivery. The album will be mailed in an extra-strengthened LP cardboard sleeve.

UK: £4.50 (First Class Recorded)