KING ALFRED'S COLLEGE WINCHESTER

In 1969 three Shulman brothers and drummer Martin Smith from Simon Dupree and the Big Sound slowly evolved to Gentle Giant when they were joined by Gary Green and Kerry Minnear. According to the liner notes of this cd, their first efforts sounded more like Simon Dupree and the Giant Sound, but still it was the birth of a giant. While listening to Frank Zappa and King Crimson they were trying to make some of their own music. This led to their debut album released in 1970.

One of their first gigs was at King Alfred's Teacher Training College in Winchester in 1971. This concert is now available on cd, produced by Ray Shulman. The concert consists of almost the entire first album, except for "Nothing at all" and one from the second: "Plain truth". It is played as you know the tracks from these albums, perhaps a bit more soloing here and there. They also play two tracks that only surfaced later on compilation records: "City hermit" and "Hometown special". It's interesting that they still played these tracks live at this time, but apparently didn't consider to release them on an album. The most interesting track on this cd, for Gentle Giant fans at least, is the last track "Peel off the paint". This is something of a lost track, since it has the same lyrics as "Peel the paint", released on the third album, but with different music. Compared to the version that made it to the album, it is mainly the heavy second part of the song.

Considering it's a live recording from 1971, by a not so well known band, the sound quality is reasonable. The main attraction of this disk is of course the wonderful music of Gentle Giant, and "Peel of the paint" as a bonus. The live recordings thus far of this band, are mainly from 1974 and onwards, but not as early as this one. This cd will be a treat for giant GG fans, and probably only for this category of music lovers. So in honor of the rating system I should give this release 2 stars. This time, however, I cheat and give it 4. Who would ever thought we could be listening to the early steps of such progressive giants?