SKY 5 LIVE

I'm reviewing the double-vinyl set originally released in 1983. Its track listing is similar to the double CD listed above.

This release was a serious mistake. What SKY needed to do was to produce a quality set of original music, to win back their many fans lost after 'Forthcoming'. So what did they do but issue a double live set! Expensive (certainly for me in 1983), unnecessary (some groups gain from being recorded live, but SKY is not one of them) and gratuitous, this was the band's death knell.

Yes, the music is played competently, and yes, the new selections add more competency to a distinguished repertoire, but 'Sky5 Live' is ultimately a failed exercise because one gets no sense of rapport between group and audience. On occasion the audience can be heard reacting, but for what reason? The distance by which they miss the dynamism and immediacy of a live show is breathtaking. I know they can do much better than this; I've seen it.

If it was going to come anywhere, the obligatory supergroup live album ought to have followed their first two releases. By the time this album arrived, most people had moved on.