ONE LIVE BADGER

This album was recorded in December 1972 at the Rainbow Theatre, London, during a concert on which BADGER supported YES, in one of the concerts which YES recorded for their "Yessongs" album and for their film of the same name. It was also co-produced by BADGER, Jon Anderson, and Geoff Haslam, who also was the recording engineer of the "Yessongs" album. But, curiously, for my ears this live album by BADGER sounds better recorded and mixed than "Yessongs". Particularly the sound of the drums is more clear and better than in "Yessongs". Maybe it also had to be with the different tunings of the drum kits. Roy Dyke`s drum kit sounds better than Alan White`s , particularly in the sound of the snare drum.

BADGER was a band that Tony Kaye, as he has explained in several interviews, formed after he left YES. He was writing songs with David Foster, a former member of THE WARRIORS with Jon Anderson in the mid sixties. Anderson and Foster also wrote some songs, two of which appeared on YES`s second album titled "Time and a Word" in 1970. Apparently Foster also participated uncredited in that album playing a bit of acoustic guitar and singing some backing vocals on the title track (a thing which Peter Banks, YES`s then guitarist, said in one interview that he did not like it very much). Anyway, Kaye and Foster became friends and started writing songs together. By late July 1971, Kaye left YES and formed BADGER with Foster. Kaye was invited by Banks to become FLASH`s keyboard player (a thing which also their record label and producer wanted), but as Kaye was working with BADGER Kaye only appeared on FLASH`s self-titled album as guest (with his name appearing on the credits in that album with "appears by courtesy of Atlantic Records" a thing that maybe indicated that he was signed with that record label with BADGER for a planned album).

BADGER recorded this debut album in a very atypical way, because this is a live album. They maybe had the support from Jon Anderson, who co-produced the album, and maybe from other sections of YES related personnel, because the cover was designed by Roger Dean.

The album has very good songs, which now unfortuately sound a bit dated. The musical style of the songs are a mixture of Hard Rock, Progressive Rock, Soul Music and Rhythm and Blues. The musical style of the band sounds to me with some similarities with NEKTAR, PALADIN and URIAH HEEP. There are even some Christian Rock influences in the lyrics for the last song titled "On the Way Home". The vocals are good, but it is clear that none of the singers (Foster and Parrish) were more musicians than full time lead singers. As a whole the band sounds very well rehearsed, giving a very good performance as a band and as individual musicians. Tony Kaye shines on keyboards with the use of organ, piano, mellotron and synthesiser, even playing very good solos (a thing which now seems to me that in YES he never had full freedom to do ).His keyboards interact very well with the guitar arrangements.

In my opinion, the best songs in this album are "River", "The Preacher" and "On The Way Home", with the first two that I mentioned having very good Prog Rock arrangements. All the songs in this album were credited as written by BADGER, except "The Preacher" which was only credited to Parrish. As a whole the band sounds as a more balanced band, with all the musicians having a more equal role than in other bands like YES. In my opinion, on which the guitar has a more prominent role. Kaye sounds in this album like playing with more enthusiasm, more confidence and maybe feeling more happy than with YES. It was more his own project, after all.