801 LIVE

"801" was the name of Phil Manzanera's supergroup band that was created while Roxy Music was on hiatus in 1976. Originally, the other members involved were Lloyd Watson who was a session musician for Roxy Music's saxophonist's solo album provided vocals and slide guitar, Francis Monkman was the pianist/keyboardist for Curved Air and Sky, Brian Eno on keys and synths who was also with Roxy Music and of course well known for his involvement with U2 and his solo work, Bill MacCormick on bass and vocals who also worked with Manzanera in the past, and Simon Phillips on drums who had worked with 10cc, Jeff Beck, The Who and later with Toto among many others.

The bands first album would be titled "801 Live" and most of their albums would also be live recordings. For this performance, music would consist of songs from Manzanera's, Eno's and Quiet Sun's (of which Manzanera and MacCormick were members) albums. Rehearsals for the concerts would begin 3 weeks before the actual concerts, of which there were three all taking place at the Reading Festival in Norfolk on September 3. The final concert the band performed was the one that was used for the album.

The album begins with the arousing and introductory track "Lagrima" by Manzanera. This one is fairly short, but works effectively at getting the excitement going for the live crowd. This flows into a cover of The Beatles "Tomorrow Never Knows" called on this album simple "TNK". This is a decent cover that turns it quite effectively into a psychedelic jam and includes vocals which have been digitally enhanced, but not annoyingly so. Quiet Sun's "East of Asteroid" follows this and is a very good performance, again staying in a psychedelic style, but still quite accessible. Nothing on the album is really that far out in jazz or experimental territory, yet the album is still quite enjoyable. Charles Hayward's "Rongwrong" comes out of the previous jam and gives the album a more commercial aspect with vocals, and leaning more towards a pop sound. Then we get a selection from Brian Eno called "Sombre Reptiles", an instrumental with a mid-Easter flavor, but leaning more towards an experimental melody. The song fades at the end of side one.

Side two begins with a quick fade in with another Eno song "Baby's on Fire", a fast moving funky tune with some sarcastic sounding vocals (which fits the theme of the song). The sound is one of the main problems on this album with the sound not being well mixed and lacking depth, and that is most apparent on this track, but the guitar solos are pretty great which, in the original, were done by Robert Fripp. Manzanera's "Diamond Head", a melodic instrumental led by guitars and synths. There is a break at this point and one of the few places where you can hear the crowd. The heavy riff and cow bell from "Miss Shapiro" gets things going again on this rocking track with vocals. This leads into a familiar riff with a cover of The Kink's "You Really Got Me" where you can really hear the influence of Eno on the signature vocal harmonies added to the track. The whole thing ends with Eno's "Third Uncle" which seems to have been performed as a very rousing encore where the band really smokes on the instrumental ending.

The music on the album is pretty great, but the production is lacking on this album which brings it down a few notches. It would have been quite an amazing concert, however, from the sounds of it all. The interesting thing about the project is that it was currently activated again in 2020, and I'm not sure if that means a new album might be forthcoming. Missing from the original line-up is Watson, Phillips and Monkman. The new lineup consists of Phil Manzanera, Brian Eno, Paul Thompson (drums) and Andy Mackay (multi-instrumentalist), all four of which were part of Roxy Music. Bill MacCormick returns on bass and lead vocals. The most interesting addition is Mick Jones (from "Foreigner" and "Spooky Tooth") on rhythm guitar, keys and backing vocals.

"801 Live" was reissued in a collectors edition in 2009, which features two discs, the first being the September 3 performance with two more Eno songs added in, namely "Golden Hours" and "Fat Lady of Limbourg" inserted right where the break between album sides happens on the original release. The 2nd disc contains the same tracks, but this time is a rehearsal recording done in August 23, 1976. I haven't heard this edition, but would hope that the sound is much better. It is the sound of the album that brings it all down as the performances seem quite lively and exciting, but this is all mostly washed out on the original. The sound is bad enough to take the album from a 4 star down to 3 star rating. But, fortunately, the project would release further live albums for us to explore. This is an excellent project and performance that was unfortunately diminished by the lackluster recording.