LIVE 1973-75

Interesting, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers turned out to be the foundation of the formation Collosseum with the ex- members Jon Hiseman, Tony Reeves and Dick Heckstall-Smith. Their eclectic sound was wonderfully coloured by keyboard player Dave Greenslade who had collaborated with Jon Hiseman and Tony Reeves in his early years as a musician. Although Colosseum delivered an awesome progressive rock magnum opus with the titletrack on the album The Valentyne Suite the band was overshadowed by highly acclaimed prog bands like The Nice, King Crimson, Pink Floyd and The Moody Blues in the late 60s and early 70s. After Collosseum disbanded in 1971 their keyboardplayer Dave Greenslade founded his own band Greenslade, featuring Tony Reeves (bass), Dave Lawson (keyboards, clarinet, flute) and drummer Andrew McCulloch (who had left King Crimson). In 1973 Greenslade released their well praised eponymous debut album, followed by Bedside Manners Are Extra (1973), Spyless Guest (1974) and finally Time And Tide (1975). Then the band call it a day and Dave Greenslade went solo, but in 1994 he re-joined Colosseum with their acclaimed reunion tour.

An excellent introduction to Greenslade their captivating blend of classic, jazz, rock, blues and symphonic rock is this live- album simply entitled Live, it contains tracks between 1973 and 1975. The 9 compositions are tastefully arranged, like Sundance, Feathered Friends, Bedside Manners Are Extra and Joie De Vivre and feature lots of inventive and exciting dual-keyboard play by Greenslade and Lawson. The omnipresent Mellotron delivers majestic waves of Mellotron violins (like early King Crimson) and glorious Mellotron choir eruptions, really a strong bonus for the Tron-maniacs! This live-CD also contains some spectacular play on the Minimoog synthesizer, with use of the spectacular pitch bend wheel.

Listening to the keyboard work the music has hints from Rick Wakeman, Manfred Mann's Earth Band and Supertramp but in general Greenslade have succeeded to create an own musical identity by incorporating many different styles, along Dave Watson his distinctive vocals. Especially on this live CD the band rises to the occasion, a kind of Best Of Greenslade, performed on stage, and with a more lush keyboard sound than on the studio-albums.

Greenslade is a band to discover, especially for the vintage keyboard aficionados, but in my opinion on their live albums Greenslade deliver more of their huge potential than on the studio-albums, just look at the higher ratings of the live- albums here on PA.