GALLLAGHER & LYLE
Breakaway
The songs of Gallagher & Lyle have stood the test of time because they
combine strong melodies with lyrics based on relationships and events with
which so many people identify This album contains songs of a structure and
simplicity deceptively difficult to achieve. Their story starts when they
left Largs, near Glasgow in 1967 for London. They emerged after a year their
dreams slightly the worse for wear - but not for long. The break came when
they encountered Terry Doran and the embryonic Apple Music, the Beatles
publishing Co. "On joining the ranks of Apple, we wrote from nine to
five like any other job . . . . . . It was hard work but a great time to
be around. Paul McCartney asked us to submit songs for Mary Hopkin and thus
"Sparrow" became our first cover. Looking back, the decline of
Apple was a tragedy but, the experience gained there gave us an invaluable
"grounding" in the art of songwriting."
In 1960 Tom McGuinness and Hughie Flint were forming a new band and, on
meeting Benny and Graham, it was obvious there was a chemistry between them.
The success of the two singles "When I'm Dead And Gone" and "Malt
And Barley Blues", brought pressure to capitalize on that success at
the expense of the music, something they all felt they were not prepared
to do. So, the band split-up in 1971. "We stepped back, took stock
of our lives, recorded our first album, as a duo, for Capitol and took to
the "road" working the college and club circuit . . . . And by
1973 we had enough material to record another album." The rights to that album, "Gallagher & Lyle" were bought
by A&M Records, who had signed them in 1972. This was followed by "Willie
And The Lapdog" and "Seeds" in 1973. The band on tour continued
to grow, both in size and popularity. In 1974, having just recorded "How
Come" and the ensuing album with Ronnie Lane and The Slim Chance Band,
Gallagher & Lyle released "The Last Cowboy". The resulting
tour saw the line-up increase yet again to include a fourteen piece string
section .... But echoes of the McGuinness-Flint situation re-emerged so
it was back to writing through most of 1975. "We virtually gave up "the road" at that time, with no regrets,
we believed in melody regardless of fashion and it paid off. The luck was
that we were prolific in our writing during the seventies; a very "open"
decade in musical taste." The result was the classic "Breakaway"
album with the hits "I Wanna Stay With You", "Heart On My
Sleeve" and "Breakaway". "We consider that "Breakaway"
contained some of our best songs and it was gratifying to have this confirmed
by the success of the album. It established us not only as performers, but
as songwriters - our original dream back in Largs in 1967". This is an original 1976 pressing on A&M Records (SP-4566) and is
STILL FACTORY SEALED!
