Water Into Wine Band

WATER INTO WINE were a seventies British band known for their acid folk music and overtly Christian lyrics. The band is generally considered part of the loosely-formed 'Jesus Movement' of musicians who proselytized through popular music. Contemporaries included CAEDMON and MALCOM AND ALWYN in the UK, and groups such as PETRA and CHILDREN OF THE DAY in the United States. The band was formed while the four members were students at Cambridge University in 1971, and became a full-time venture in 1974.

The band was formed while the four members were students at Cambridge University in 1971, and became a full-time venture in 1974. The band's first album 'Hill Climbing for Beginners' was released in the UK that year, but Myrrh (a Love Records label) was concerned the music would not be well-received by fundamentalists in the U.S. so remixed the album before releasing it the following year. The band went on to produce a second album, but by then the Jesus movement had already largely faded amid both scandals and changing lifestyles. The band released 'Harvest Time' as a small-run private pressing in 1976, shortly before the group disbanded. Most of the members left the music business, but multi-instrumentalist William Thorp went on to play violin for the Welsh National Opera and later the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

WATER INTO WINE BAND is regularly mentioned even today as a seminal gospel beat band of that era, and their songs often appear in Christian music compilations and on alternative and Christian radio.