IN CONCERT (BBC RADIO 1)

I have mixed feelings about this one. On the one hand, the band seemed to be really clicking for this concert. The performance is tight, and the mix is nearly perfect. On the other hand, six of the ten songs on the disk are from The Missing Piece, the first truly disappointing album in this great band's catalog. I suppose it could be worse, it could have featured songs from the last two (ugh!) studio albums.

It's something of a giveaway to the band's direction that midway through the concert, Derek Shulman whines about the group's lack of popularity. Maybe that's why he turned to the dark side after GG.

Still, the older material, three songs from Free Hand plus Playing The Game are spectacular. And For Nobody the best song from The Missing Piece sounds pretty good here. The rest of the songs have some spark, certainly better than anything from the final two studio albums, but nowhere near as good as the classic material.

Review Nº 774

Gentle Giant was a British progressive rock band formed in 1970. It was one of the greatest progressive rock bands during the 70's and was also one of the legends created by this style, as there are now legions of fans of the band around the world. The band was formed by the three Shulman brothers (Phil, Derek and Ray) all former members of the British pop/soul/psychedelic band Simon Dupree And The Big Sound formed in 1966, after the band broke up in 1969.

The intents of the band were to expand the boundaries of contemporary popular music, at the risk of becoming too unpopular. In the beginning, they played all over England for four years, being well received by radio and television. During those ten years, which means between 1970 and 1980, Gentle Giant recorded eleven studio albums. Those studio albums are their eponymous debut "Gentle Giant" from 1970, "Acquiring The Taste" from 1971, "Three Friends" and "Octopus" both from 1972, "In A Glass House" from 1973, "The Power And The Glory" from 1974, "Free Hand" from 1975, "Interview" from 1976, "The Missing Piece" from 1977, "Giant For A Day" from 1978 and "Civilian" from 1980.

"In Concert (BBC Radio 1)" is one of the many live albums released by Gentle Giant after the split of the band. It was released in 1994 from recording tapes taken from a radio concert recorded to the BBC on May 1, 1978. It has the same song selection and song order that Gentle Giant used throughout "The Missing Piece" live tour, although on some dates more songs could be added to it. This is a live concert tour with a high quality sound available, but they all sound nearly the same because by this time, Gentle Giant was no longer jamming or stretching out songs like they used to. "In Concert (BBC Radio 1)" is a live album with forty-eight minutes long. We can say that the sound quality is fairly good.

"In Concert (BBC Radio 1)" has ten tracks. The tracks are essentially focused on two of their studio albums. So, and this isn't really a surprise, we have six tracks that were taken from their last studio album released at the time "The Missing Piece": "Two Weeks In Spain", "Memories Of Old Days", "Betcha Thought We Couldn't Do It", "I'm Turning Around", "For Nobody" and "Mountain Time". From "Free Hand" we have three tracks, the title track "Free Hand", "On Reflection" and "Just The Same". We have also a track from "The Power And The Glory", "Playing The Game".

About the individual tracks, "Two Weeks In Spain" is the track that opens "The Missing Piece" and that it's also a great opener for this album. It's a charming and energetic song with nice changes, very fun and enjoyable to hear. While lyrically and musically it's a pretty light pop fare, it really works performed in studio and live. After the opener we have a bit more complex music with the three tracks from "Free Hand". "Free Hand" is a more elaborate and complex track, a traditional Gentle Giant's track with dissonant parts and with constant changes of rhythm and tempo. "On Reflection" is one of Gentle Giant's trademarks with the polyphonic vocals inspired by renaissance and the cappella music. This is essentially an acoustic song. Here we can see the high skills of all band's members where they change from their usual electric instruments to acoustics. "Just The Same" sees the return of all band's members to their electric instruments. It's a slow rock song with good keyboard work that has also some great jazz influences. "Playing The Game" is the track that revisits their album "The Power And The Glory". It's a dynamic and a relatively complex theme. It's a multi-faceted pure prog track in the Gentle Giant's most pure musical style. And now we have the other five tracks from "The Missing Piece". "Memories Of Old Days" is a stunning piece where Derek pulls out one of his most heartfelt vocal performances and the dual acoustic guitar textures from Ray and Gary are just magical, complemented by Minnear's sumptuous keyboards. "Betcha Thought We Couldn't Do It" is clearly influenced by the punk. It's a rock song but that doesn't sound too Gentle Giant. "I'm Turning Around" is a calm and beautiful track. This is a soft romantic track that reminds me the good old Gentle Giant. "For Nobody" is a driving rocker led by Minnear's raging Hammond riffs and Green intricate guitar lines. It's full of energy and a really delightful for the ears of fans. "Mountain Time" closes this live concert in a rock nice way. This energetic piece has some fine organ work and some great vocal arrangements too.

Conclusion: Who are used to the band knows that many of Gentle Giant's live albums have a very poor sound because of many of them were taken from official bootleg performances in a very cheap way. But, fortunately, and this isn't a strange thing since it was recorded by the BBC, "In Concert (BBC Radio 1)" has a very good quality sound. So, all in all, this is a very nice live concert recording. It's true that it isn't very well representative of all band's career, but it remains for me as a very nice live work of Gentle Giant. It's also true that it was performed when the band became in decline, the time after where their last great album was released, "Interview". However, it was performed in the time of "The Missing Piece" which is a very nice work. But, above all, the live performance and sound are irreproachable. So, 4 stars to it.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)