BJH FEATURING LES HOLROYD: LIVE IN BONN

For the first time I cannot recommend you buying a BJH-Album if you're not a big fan who's got to have every little bit... why ? First of all Les Holroyd's voice is in a bad condition, and the "new band" doesn't really get the feel for the old songs... perhaps if you like the new, then the starting of the disc with "It's my life" and "Revolution Day" may suit you well, me I'm missing almost everything I ever got to love about BJH-music and, sadly because of this disc being a "final legacy", you can't hear much of Mel Pritchard's drumming ! Anyway, there are people who even like it better than "Revival", hard to believe but true... Rupert

This live album from Barclay James Harvest Featuring Les Holroyd was recorded in Bad Godesburg [not Bonn despite the title!] late in 2002, and is most of the audio [less a few tracks] used for the poor DVD 'On The Road'. It's actually not too bad, but expect little connection with the sound of the mother band. In theory, it represents the last recording of late BJH drummer Mel Pritchard but his contribution is inexplicably inaudible.

Recording quality is excellent and the rockier songs from studio album 'Revolution Days' come across very well indeed, with Mike Sad-Café in great form on lead guitar, suitably supported by a punchy powerful production. It's My Life is a great rock song and gets things started nicely, but the momentum gradually fades. Revolution Day and Yesterday's Heroes are good enough, but Prelude / January Morning are too slow before anything happens and Les's voice isn't strong enough to carry the day. It tends to fall apart after that and interest has waned long before the climax in the coda of Marlene.

The big let-down is the group of old songs before Marlene - Rock N Roll Star, The Song (They Love To Sing) and Life Is For Living - which serve to remind us that this band bears little relation to the real BJH, added to which Les does not sing at all well on a couple of them. Aside from the Prog Related Prelude / Yesterdays Heroes pairing, most of this material is strictly straight down the line AOR, harder and more raunchy than other BJH offerings, but there is not much here to entice a Prog fan.