COLOSSEUM LIVE

This awesome live album must be listened carefully by all prog-rock fans. Featuring Colosseum's classic line-up of Jon Hiseman (drums), Dick Heckstall-Smith (saxophones), Dave Greenslade (keyboards, vocals), Dave "Clem" Clempson (guitar, vocals), Chris Farlowe (lead vocals) and Mark Clarke (bass, vocals), "Colosseum Live" shows why Colosseum was a seminal band in the beggining of the Seventies: amazing musicianship, long and well developed songs, great soloing and high levels of energy. Jon Hiseman always pointed that Colosseum was a live band, not a studio outfit, so it is perfectly natural that no less than five (of seven) songs were not released at their studio albums (only "Rope Lader to the Moon" and "Walking in the Park" were featured at earlier albums - the last one is far better than the original). It is a shame that Colosseum ceased to exist after this album; Clempson went to Humble Pie, Greenslade formed his own band, Hiseman and Clarke formed Tempest with Allan Holdsworth and Paul Williams. The original LP version featured only six songs ("I Can't Live Without You" is a bonus track of this CD version), and the highlights are: "Walking in the Park", "Skelington" (which features Clempson playing a fantastic guitar solo), "Tanglewood '63" (featuring Heckstall-Smith playing two saxophones simultaneously) and "Lost Angeles (with another marvellous guitar solo). My only complaint is: there is no drums solo! Jon Hiseman is one of the greatest drummers in the world, and "Colosseum Live" does not offers us a drums solo! You must buy "Daughter of Time" to listen to Hiseman soloing. Someday this album will be re-released as a 2-CD set, and I hope that justice will be done.