BJH THROUGH THE EYES OF JOHN LEES: REVIVAL - LIVE 1999

BJH have built up something of a tradition of live albums during their thirty-plus-year career. Revival is the band's fifth over the years, although it's not strictly a true BJH album. The band have had a far steadier line- up over the years than many of their contemporaries, but the last few years have seen John Lees part company (hopefully temporarily) with Les Holroyd and Mel Pritchard and team up once again with prodigal keyboard player Woolly Wolstenholme, hence the elongated band name. Revival is a whistle-stop tour through some of the band's highlights, combined with a few more contemporary outings from the Nexus album (by this line-up). Fans of their early works will be pleased to see the inclusion of classics like 'Mockingbird', 'She Said', 'Poor Man's Moody Blues' and 'For No One'. Indeed, there's a lot of similarity between 'Revival' and the band's first live album from 1974. The new boys in the band gel together neatly with John and Woolly and the set sweeps from the contemplative side of the band with 'Galadriel' through to the no-nonsense rock of 'Loving Is Easy'. Sadly though I do miss Les and Mel and there are moments where their input is noticeably absent. The most obvious of these comes with the new arrangement of 'Mockingbird' here given a much more orchestral feel, I really wanted to hear Les's simple but effective bass line come sweeping through in the second half. Still you can't have everything and I'm pleased to see that albums are still being made under the BJH banner. Looking forward now to the promised Les Holroyd solo album.