I first recall Julian McAllister from the early 60s’ when we were part of the emerging artistic community in the St Albans area which also covered Hemel Hempstead and Hatfield; and included people such as Mick Softley, Maddy Prior and Donovan. 　　The favoured meeting place was a run down room with a wood burning stove at the back of the Cock Inn in St Albans. Every Wednesday would find the local in-crowd gathered and an impromptu musical evening was always guaranteed. 　　 　　In 1965 after a stint playing second guitar with Donovan on his first national tour and then doing the folk circuit with Maddy Prior, as ‘Mac and Maddy’, an opportunity to work in Scandinavia came up, which I decided to go for. After playing solo and then with several bands, including ‘The Other Side’, ‘Exploding Mushroom’ and ‘Hurdy Gurdy’ (the band that inspired Don’s number one), I returned to England in 1968. 　　 　　Julian meanwhile had also gone travelling and after a spell in Turkey returned to England about the same time. We met up again at the 'Stones In The Park' gig of July '69 where he was in the company of Donovan, and it was there that together we arranged to spend time at Don’s newly acquired retreat on the Isle of Skye. I was to rehearse with Don for his next American tour as he had ideas to expand the sound on stage, and along with another friend of ours, the percussionist Candy Carr, we went into rehearsals at the old schoolhouse in Waternish. Alas, because of visa problems, the subsequent tour wasn’t to be and Don once again ended up going solo. 　　 　　Another musician who had joined us on Skye was the street singer from Hemel Hempstead, Mick Softley. With his powerful voice and distinct finger pickin’ on his Gibson Kalamazoo he was one of my early influences, and as he was also looking to be with a band, Candy and I decided to give it a whirl. Back in St Albans Candy brought in his mate, Mike Thompson (whom he’d played with in ‘Dada Lives’) to play bass. After a promising start Candy and Mike couldn’t take Mick’s increasing erratic behaviour and so they jumped ship, leaving Softley and me without a rhythm section. Mick and I then decided to give it a go as an acoustic duo, ‘Soft Cloud’. We had a fair degree of success playing pubs and the local folk circuit, as well as the legendary ZigZag benefit gig in Aylesbury, but in end the inevitable happened which led to the birth of Amber! 　　 　　A fusion of folk and world music was the basic premise, with Julian playing Guitar and Turkish Saz (a sort of middle eastern Lute, with 6 strings arranged in pairs), and myself playing Guitar, Sitar and Tabla. We brought in Ray Cooper (the one from Hemel Hempstead, not Watford) to play percussion at a later date. Julian was the main vocalist, with me on harmonies, and the whole shebang spiced with a dash of psychedelia. 　　 　　London in the early 70s’ was just right for the style of music that Amber represented and there was no shortage of gigs. The only trouble was the popular belief that music should be free, which made heavy weather for working musicians. Benefit followed benefit (never for the musicians of course), in fact our best paying gig was the Conservative Club in St Albans no less, with busking in the Portobello Road coming a close second. We did have some interesting and varied venues, mind; a residency at the Troubadour in Old Brompton Road, the London College of Fashion and in between films on a Saturday night at the Electric Cinema in Portobello Road. Our most prestigious gig was at the Roundhouse when a high flying agent came down to see us. Unfortunately, after mixing up the band names, he left before we played and therefore missed out on our standing ovation! This did seem to be the lot with Amber; a combination of misguided management along with our holding out for a fair deal, which isn’t always the best policy if you want to make a go of it in the music business. 　　 　　Two promising prospects that regrettably didn’t happen were with Witchseason and Keith Relf. Keith showed great interest and went as far as recording us at Olympic Studios (the first three tracks on 'Pearls'), but he went cool on the project, which was either a clash of personalities or him finding us too difficult to control. Either way, he went on to work with Medicine Head instead. 　　 　　Another failure on our part (yes, I know...what a catalogue!) was the lack of self-promotion and publicity photos. In fact, for the time that we were together, February 1970 to April 1971, you could count the band photos on one hand, and it’s only down to the talent of Phil Smee that we managed to get any sort of band shot for the album sleeve. The other lucky break was tape copies of the masters languishing in my attic, which were salvaged with the help of Nigel Cross of Shagrat Records, otherwise there wouldn't have been an album, or indeed a record of a little known, but happening part of the London psychedelic scene of the early 70s’. 　　Mac MacLeod 　　 　　Olympic Studios 14th February 1971 　　Produced by Keith Relf. 　　Track 1: Sea Shell Rock Me 　　Track 2: White Angel 　　Track 3: Swan in the evening 　　 　　Denmark Street 10th May 1970 　　Track 4: Sing on the Sunlight 　　Track 5: Sea Shell Rock Me (alternate version) 　　Track 6: Earlie in the Morning