THE EUROPEAN TOUR 2011 - LIVE AT SHEPHERDS BUSH EMPIRE

This Caravan live release sees Mark Walker take over as the band's live drummer - though co-founder Richard Coughlan was still officially a member of the band, he was suffering from ill health at the time and would pass away shortly before the release of the next album, Paradise Filter. By and large it draws its track list from the band's classic years, with only a small proportion of recent picks - as has largely been the case for Caravan live shows for the past few decades - but with material this good and performed this well it's hard to go wrong.

That said, the set comes perilously close to going wrong. The original issue of this was through Concert Live, who also were responsible for the recording. Concert Live's schtick is "instant live recording" - they take the soundboard feed and use it to knock out a live album right there on the spot, burning the first few CDs in time for punters at the concert to buy on their way out. This is a fun gimmick in theory, but in practice it means that there really isn't any time for any care and attention to be given to adjusting the mix or performing any of the other functions which can make a live recording sound better. In addition, it seems like their technology didn't work perfectly this time - other reviewers have reported glitches on the original CD issue of this live set, including one of the songs (Why? Why? Why?/And I Wish I Were Stoned) cutting out at 1:16.

As far as tracks being cut off, the latest rerelease of this live set as part of the Who Do You Think We Are? box corrects this, so perhaps a corrected standalone release is on the cards. Still, there's the odd bit of feedback and other technical glitches which are still here, and which largely seem to be artifacts of the way Concert Live's recording practices don't really leave much room for later corrections.

Interesting though it is to have Mark Walker playing on some of these tracks, the fact is that as far as the vast majority of this set goes, there's already plenty of better live recordings of the songs - and the newer material isn't enough to make this one a keeper. Perhaps a more polished presentation would help, but the speed-over-quality approach of Concert Live dooms this one.