Remember the Sutherland Brothers & Quiver?
by Best Classic Bands Staff
Iain Sutherland is second from R
Iain Sutherland and Gavin Sutherland were brothers, who hailed from Aberdeenshire, Scotland. In 1972, while in their twenties, they earned a recording contract as a folk group, the Sutherland Brothers Band, with Iain on vocals, guitar and keyboards. After only modest success, including the release of a Gavin Sutherland composition, “Sailing,” they combined with a local rock band, Quiver, and billed themselves as the Sutherland Brothers & Quiver.
The group immediately earned minor success with the Iain Sutherland composition, “(I Don’t Want to Love You But) You Got Me Anyway,” which reached #48 on the Hot 100 in 1973.
Related: The biggest radio hits of 1973
In 1975, Rod Stewart recorded their song, “Sailing,” to enormous international success, including four weeks at #1 in the U.K.
The Sutherland Brothers & Quiver continued to record, and earned acclaim with such songs as 1976’s “Arms of Mary,” a #5 U.K. hit, but true success evaded them.
Several of Quiver’s members went on to bigger things: Tim Renwick became Al Stewart’s lead guitarist, and Bruce Thomas became Elvis Costello’s bass guitarist in the Attractions. Willie Wilson drummed on David Gilmour’s first solo album and worked briefly with Pink Floyd.
After the group disbanded, Iain Sutherland, born on November 17, 1948, released several solo albums. Many of his songs have been recorded by other artists. He died at age 71 on November 25, 2019. His death, following an undisclosed illness, was revealed on his Facebook page.
Many of the Sutherland Brothers’ recordings are available in the U.K. here and in the U.S. here.
9 Comments so far
Jump into a conversationCanadian rock band Chilliwack reached no67 on billboard in 1978 with Arms of Mary
Damn right! For my own part, I’ve never been able to pick one as being a favorite!
Thank you for including this item about Sutherland Bros and Quiver. They deserve to be remembered.
I sure do remember
The SUTHERLAND
BROTHERS and
QUIVER
Their wonderful
back to back releases
Lifeboat & Dream Kid
in the early 1970’s on
the Island record label
were magical sounding
to this listener’s young ears,and I still own them
and play them,
as well as know the lyrics still to this day.
Yes, agreed on your comments for those albums, as well as the rest of them, really. Here in the US, I had to buy them all as imports. It’s a shame they never truly made it to be more widely recognized as the true talents they were. RIP Iain, and carry on Gavin, you still sound good!
Saw Quiver at Selwyn College in 1972. And a fine evening it was too.
Sutherland Brothers and Quiver toured in 1974 with Elton John in support of “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” They played Dayton, Ohio at the University of Dayton arena
Quiver guitarist Cal Batchelor moved back to B.C. and released several very good discs. Sadly he passed away in Dec. 2015
I caught them live in Charlotte NC…but I still don’t remember their music. That kinda sums up the impression they made.