‘The strange tale of Captain Shannon and the hunchback from Gigha’ (you’ve got to love that title) was the 2nd album by Scottish duo Bread, Love And Dreams, which included singer David McNiven, who also wrote most of the material, and female singer Angie Rew. The group started originally as a trio with another female singer Carolyn Davis and they recorded their debut album a year earlier. After Carolyn left to pursue a solo career, the duo engaged in an extensive recording project, which produced enough material for a double album. The record label (Decca) refused to issue a double album (originally intended to be called “Mother Earth”) and as a result the first of the two was released under this title (great news), taken from the title of the epic song included on the album, and the second a few month later as “Amaryllis”. The duo was lucky to have some great musicians taking part in the recording sessions, namely Pentangle’s rhythm section of Danny Thompson on bass and Terry Cox on drums, as well as saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith from Colosseum. Some of the songs were also beautifully arranged and orchestrated. The resulting music is a prime example of British Folk-Rock with some Psychedelic influences as well. Although the original albums sold poorly at the time they were released, in time they achieved a legendary status among British Folk-Rock enthusiast and became rare collectors’ items.
