LIVE 2001 - THE FULL EDITION

Having released four studio albums in the 1970's, it went quiet from Greenslade. Dave Greenslade released some solo albums in the meantime, but not until the year 2000 did Greenslade (the band) return with a new studio album: Large Afternoon. After that, they went on tour and recorded this live album, subtitled The Full Edition. It is a disc packed with music, featuring songs from all of the Greenslade albums. In my view, it is the best Greenslade release full stop.

It is sometimes remarked that the vocals were a weak aspect of Greenslade's earlier albums. Here the lead vocalist is John Young, who also doubles on keyboards. Young is a much more "conventional" vocalist and I think that he really lifts some of these songs, even though I would say that the originals had a certain charm as well. Young sings songs like Feathered Friends and the title track from Bedside Manners Are Extra very well, even if they were never big favourites of mine. The rest of the band here consists of John Trotter on drums and Tony Reeves on bass, both also doing an excellent job.

While the presence of so many songs from the comeback album Large Afternoon may put some fans of classic Greenslade off, in my opition Cakewalk, On Suite, and the title track are in the style of, and up to par with, the better of classic Greenslade material. No Room - But A View and In The Night, however, are more towards soft Rock and the lyrics are rather prosaic. The song Wherever I Go is in a similar, ballad style, but I don't know where this song is taken from. Taken on their own these songs are nothing to get too excited about, but within the context of the others they bring diversity to the proceedings and don't bring the album down.

Nobody can deny that it is great to have some of the band's best numbers on one and the same album. Catalan from Time And Tide, Spirit Of The Dance and Joie De Vivre from Spyglass Guest, and Sundance (from the self-titled debut) are great. Catalan in particular is here improved over the studio version.

The set may not be exactly what you want, but it is an excellent representation and I have returned to this live album again and again whenever I want to hear some Greenslade. Fans of keyboard-dominated progressive Rock everywhere (even by those who were not too impressed by the group's 70's albums) should check this excellent release out.

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