What It Feels Like...to be rediscovered after 40 years

IT was in about 1971 that the four people who became the classic line-up of our band, White Light, came together. Before then, we had all play rock music with different bands in the Glasgow area. We were all part of Christian outreach movements - the Scripture Union, in particular. I played lead guitar; my younger brother Dave was on bass; Alex Smith was on drums - he's one of the best drummers in the world, in my opinion. David Murdoch, who played keyboards, was the driving influence behind us getting together.

We started playing gigs, including a number of outreach cafes and music venues around Scotland and northern England. We also played Aberdeen's Music Hall a couple of times. The idea of making a record came in early 1974 I can't remember who suggested we should make an LP - the idea just seemed to grow. Someone who played a key role was Peter May, who these days is a well-known thriller writer and was a journalist at that time. He had a contact with Scotia Records; he produced the LP in its original form, wrote the sleeve-notes and even shot the cover photograph. The album, Parable, was a small-scale affair. I think 4,000 copies were pressed but only 2,000 were released, because nobody knew what the market would be. I recall the second track was played on Radio Clyde a couple of times. It was on sale in Christian outlets and also at McCormack's Music in Glasgow. We would sell two or three copies at gigs. We were Melody Maker national finalists in 1972.

A few years ago this whole thing took off again, when some guy realised it was one of the world's rare records. It's in the top 10, apparently. People were selling copies for stupid money; we tracked one sale, in California, for $950. I started getting emails from people asking if I had any copies. But before then, back in 2005, there was a re-awakening of interest in the band anyway; it was kind of coincidental. I was a parish minister in Keith, in Moray, and we were invited to play in a local charity rock festival. We were tickled pink with the idea and after three rehearsals we realised that, yes, we can still do this. At the same time, a rock-radio station in the American Midwest got a copy of the original vinyl LP and started to play it. This provoked a lot of interest in America. Some guy who runs a Christian rock blog put the LP in a downloadable form in his blog. My brother and I were amused to read a disclaimer on the blog to the effect that if these guys are still alive, we hope they don't mind us playing their music. I emailed to say we were all still alive and to keep the music online.

We privately arranged some 350 CD copies of the album, which we started selling at the Keith show. They've all since been sold. They went all over the world - I got requests from Russia, Australia, Iceland and the US Midwest. In 2014 I got an email out from a Spanish company, Guerssen Records, who eventually re-issued the LP. They essentially said, 'We found your music and think it's good. We want it in our back-catalogue, and could you give us exclusive use for three years?' The guys in the band were all happy. You can also get the album on Amazon - they have already sold out three times, which is something that never happened back in the day. The music is out there again. For myself, I still play my guitars. It's nice that we’ve been rediscovered after all these years. We’d probably think about playing a few gigs if we got the right offer. In fact, we nearly ended up playing a big Church of Scotland event in Princes Street Gardens last week, but sadly they didn’t ask us early enough – two of the guys weren’t available. Maybe next year!

* https://guerssenrecords.bandcamp.com/album/parable