A FOREIGN FIELD THAT IS FOREVER ENGLAND. LIVE ABROAD

This live album brings back the atmosphere of an early '70s 'folk(-rock) concert and shows what great entertainers Amazing Blondel were on stage. Although the instrumentations is reduced compared to the studio albums the obvious fun they had on stage makes this a great live album. Unfortunately they forgot to indicate where exactly those songs were recorded (from the announcements it becomes clear that a part of it was recorded in France).

This collection of live performances demonstrates that Amazing Blondel was fully capable of reproducing their studio sound in a live format, which should not be surprising given their level of perfectionism and professionalism. It also shows they had some charisma and a sense of humour in a concert setting. Beyond that, not much is added to our appreciation, as most tunes are simply reproduced fairly faithfully, with precious little improvisation and embellishment, and no material is presented that has been hitherto unavailable. In fact, the only place where they really deviate is in "Shepherd's Song". Of all the great songs in the AB canon, why they enlisted "Shepherd's Song" as a singalong is quite beyond me. It really doesn't give one much to work with, being dreadfully mundane as is, but extended to 10 minutes by half-baked audience participation it becomes a serious barrier to listening pleasure, especially if the skip button is far away. Moreover, the poor sound quality especially in the upper registers in many tracks completes the picture of a disk that is really only for those who want to....complete the picture. At least a DVD would have been interesting from the perspective of how odd the band must have looked with its instrumental smorgasbord, and given me cause to round this review up a half star, instead of down.

This live collection is my first experience with AMAZING BLONDEL. Considering myself a sort of fan of acid-folk, folk-rock and prog folk, I had high expectations from these English lads. Unfortunately, more than an hour duration of this album proved to be a tough material for my ears. Playing traditional medieval music with authentic instruments is always challenging and the Blondel does it nicely. And too safely in my opinion. There is no much progression during the play; all songs are nice and gentle but I could almost not hear where one ends and another begins - like it is a one long song without ending... The sound is too linear, too flat and at times quite boring. Perhaps being there in audience was more adventurous than listening to this record and maybe a DVD would have been a better solution than this audio-only live album. I do not know other Blondel albums but this one is far away from any rock approach. No improvisation, no subtlety, no experiments, no energy, no progressive touches... just a plain safe neo-trad folk with pop leanings. Not my cup of tea.

PERSONAL RATING: 1,5/5

P.A. RATING: 2/5