Happy to meet you – again – sorry to part!

I couldn’t resist it – “Horslips – the road to the O₂” or on DVD – 17.99 (a bit pricey). This was a talking heads documentary that involved the celtic glam rockers chit chatting about their much hyped comeback gigs in 2009 at the Odyssey, Belfast, and the O₂, Dublin. I wasn’t in Belfast, but one comes away with the impression that the gig wasn’t great, or at least the atmosphere was muted (apparently the fiftysomething audience were so busy crying that they weren’t cheering). Whatever! I was at the Dublin gig – a bit of an anticlimax, until they unleashed the rockers at the end. Curious that a band that could hardly fill the National Stadium at their peak, can fill a mega-arena like the O₂ as a nostalgia act. As such, they have a great range of material to draw on, from the glam rock early 70s stuff, to the folkie mid 70s to the rocking late 70s and the americanised AOR of 1980. This includes two great concept albums – “the Tain” and “the Book of Invasions”. 

I first “discovered” Horslips just after they broke up in 1980; I was given a cassette copy of “The Belfast Gigs”. How could a young punk resist the rapid riffing of Dearg Doom, Trouble, Shakin all over and King of the Fairies. I was hooked. K-tel released a compilation in 1981. It was fantastic: of course we knew most of the trad tunes – such as Daybreak (the theme from “Youngline”) and  “Flowers among them all” (theme of the radio show on RTR “Highways and By-ways”). How cool was celtic rock in the face of synth pop, the manufactured bubblegum of Stock, Aiken and Waterman and of course – Hair Metal. Yeah U2 were a great Irish band, although in the 80s we all thought that Bono was a plonker, still do – but respect him now, but Horslips – they played real Irish rock.

Now they’re back – of course I am going to see them again in the O₂, Dublin, on December 4^th.  From the video you see your musical heroes as middle aged dads that know that they are middle aged, at ease in each other’s’ company, not drug addled washed out has-beens that are only doing it for the money. They have all had successful post-Horslips careers; they are proud of their heritage and dammit – having a lot of fun doing it all over again. So, yes, I am going to drop 18.99 on the live CD.

If you are new to Horslips, I can strongly recommend the compilations “Treasury:the best of Horslips”. If you are an album lover, one cannot beat “The Book of Invasions.” I love “Tracks from the Vault” an odds and sods compilation, and, of course “The Tain”. The Belfast Gigs would be ripe for an expanded deluxe edition re-release. If you want to concentrate on the mid 70s celtic rock era – try “Live”.

Frampton is Still Alive

After many years of ignoring it, knowing it to be one of the biggest selling records of all time, I finally caved and bought a copy of “Frampton Comes Alive” – the 1976 double live tour-de-force by the previously unknown and rapidly forgotten Humble Pie graduate.  My chauvinism to this particular artist derives from viewing the awful movie – Sgt Pepper, in which he starred with the Bee Gees, at a matinee some-time in the late 70s. Too good looking, too much perm (big hair), too not punk rock: the LP was cheaply available in every bargain bin in the world in the 1980s.

So into the CD player it went – the album starts with applause and cheers – nice crisp remastering (1999 remaster, pre- loudness wars, the optimal era), then the music. Stop the lights this is good, slick 70s AOR – but exciting. A tight band, a little noodling, and a vocoder that doesn’t sound naff (please save me the torture of Neil Youngs 1983 album Trans). Man I’m rocking and toe tapping like its ’75 all over  again, shoulder length hair and bell bottoms wearing a sweatshirt with 76 emblazoned on it. I’m hardly thru the first 3 songs and I have decided to buy “Thank you, Mr Churchill” – Frampton’s latest CD (3.5 stars on allmusic; 3-4 in most publications). Crikey – Sgt Pepper sountrack has 4 stars from 80 plus reviews on Amazon! Still not buying it.

Frampton  may be one of those unusual artists who produces fairly decent studio albums but really shakes his stuff in concert. Hence I decided to compile a list of artists whose defining work or best album(s) is live (accepting that many live albums are overdubbed). So here’s my list:

1.     Motorhead: No sleep till Hammersmith.

2.     Thin Lizzy: Live and Dangerous.

3.     Deep Purple Mk II: Made in Japan (+ the Japan Concerts)

4.     Deep Purple Mk III: Live in London/Paris/Made in Europe/The final concerts.

5.     Peter Frampton: Frampton comes alive.

6.     Muddy Waters: live at Newport 1963.

7.     BB King: Live at the Regal.

8.     James Brown: Live at the Apollo.

9.     Elvis Presley: In Person at the International Hotel Las Vegas.

10.   Allman Brothers: Live at the Fillmore East/The Fillmore Concerts.

11.   Jimi Hendrix: Band of Gypsies/The Fillmore Concerts (yes I know that this is controversial)

12.   Johnny Cash: Live at Fulsom Prison

13.   The Who: Live at Leeds (the deluxe edition including Tommy)

14.   Talking Heads: Stop Making Sense

15.   Keith Jarrett: The Koln Concert

16.   Cheap trick: At Budokan

17.   Stevie Ray Vaughan – live at Montreau 1982 and 1985

18.   Bill Evans - Sunday at the Village Vanguard

19.   Little Feat - Waiting for Columbus

20.   Eric Clapton – Unplugged

21.   Bob Segar – Live Bullet

22.   Erroll Garner – Concert by the sea

23.   Hot August Night – Neil Diamond

24.   MC5 - Kick Out The Jams

25.   Rory Gallagher - Irish Tour 74

26.   Tom Robinson – Living in a Boom Time

Worst Live Albums:

1.       Dylan and the Dead – a stinking piece of shit.

2.       Rolling stones – Still life

3.       The Who – Who’s last?

4.       Neil Young – Arc/Time Fades Away/Year of the horse [all brutal]

5.       Lauren Hill – MTV unplugged 2.0

6.       Grateful Dead – Steal your face

Terrific live albums by bands that have made better studio albums:

1.       Leonard Cohen – Live in London

2.       Horslips - The Belfast Gigs

3.       Too Late to Stop Now – Van Morrisson

4.       The Clash – Live at Shea Stadium

5.       Jimi Hendrix – Stages (4 CD box set currently unavailable, released circa 1990)

6.       Steve Miller Band – Live! (1992)

7.       Neil Young – Live Rust & Massey Hall

8.       Phish – A live one

9.       Bob Dylan – Albert Hall (Manchester Free Trade Hall) 1966

10.   Various - Monterray Pop Festival Box Set (includes Jimi Hendrix and Otis Redding)

11.   Rolling Stones – Get Your Ya Ya’s Out

12.   Paul McCartney – Good Evening NYC

13.   Pink Floyd – Is there anybody out there?

Looking at this list there is something striking – it’s like a who’s who of classic rock. Why no recent bands? The principle reason for this is that few artists continue to release live recordings on CD – the majority of live music is now released on DVD & Blu-Ray. This is understandable as live music is as much visual as it is audio.
Hence – U2 have released a series of “videos” – Zoo TV, Mexico City, Boston, Go Home, Chicago, California that are phenomenal audio recordings, but released only as VHS/DVD/Blu-Ray. Leonard Cohen’s recent output has been released in multi-format with excellent sound quality – notably 24/96 audio on DVDs – bravo.
Most concerts these days are 2+ hours – necessitating double CD releases, or more vinyl sides than you are able to carry: a single DVD is more portable at least, if not difficult to listen to while jogging, driving the car, making love etc.

The recently released “Ladies and Gentlemen” on DVD/Blu-Ray by the Rolling Stones is superior to anything they have released ever live, in terms of music, but not a great spectacle: all focused on Jagger, you wouldn’t mind seeing Mick Taylor playing guitar for a few seconds at least.  Moreover, with a few exceptions, I have better bootlegs by virtually every one of these artists than their officially released (usually overdubbed and fished from multiple performances) fodder.

It’s amazing that, aside from Wolfgang’s Vault, BBC recordings  and the Deluxe Edition sets, artists and record companies have not tapped the vaults of radio stations and soundboards for “legal bootlegs” to satisfy the demands of the fans. Certainly Pearl Jam’s strategy of selling CDs of every concert on one of their tours was a great idea: I’m surprised that U2 don’t sell flac downloads of their concerts as a “I was there” keepsake.