ACT ONE

The Glasgow based Beggars Opera is almost an unknown band. Which is a shame because they will appeal to all The Nice and ELP fans out there. I am one myself so I should know.

This album, their debut album, is a heady mix of the first incarnation of Deep Purple, Captain Beyond and The Nice. Add some of the '60s sound into the mix and you get the picture. Although they do some pieces of music later done by ELP, I would not compare them to ELP. The Beggars Opera sound is too much based on heavy prog to be included in the ELP universe.

The quality of the music is pretty good. It is not original due to be too much copycats of the above mentioned bands. I get the feeling of been there before, got the T-shirt to be overawed by this band. The guitars and the keyboards are clearly very inspired by Blackmore and Emerson. So much that this album does not have it's own identity, other than being the distilled version of 'Purple and The Nice. Songs like Raymons Road and Light Cavalery is good. The rest is OK.

This is not a bad album. But I still prefer the barley and the water on their own to this distilled product.

3 stars.