LIVING IN FEAR

2.5 stars really!!

Colosseum's break up came a bit as a surprise to everyone involved at the end of a tour with Clempson announcing he'd received an offer to join Humble Pie, the group just suddenly broke up without anyone trying to stop it, including leader John Hiseman. He didn't stay inactive though, and keeping bassist Clarke as within a few months Tempest was up and fighting, with two multi-instrumentalists coming in, Paul Winter on guitars and keyboards, but singing as well (his vocals resembles a bit Farlowe's) and Alan Holdsworth (ex Igginbottom and Nucleus) on guitar and violin. This debut was released in early 73 (recorded in October 72) on the same Bronze label that had seen the last Colosseum album released and it featured a splendid abstract artwork below their snake lady logo.

Opening on the second-longest track Gorgon (that's a Celtic/Gallic sorceress that used snakes during the Roman empire and is part of the band's imagery, on both their albums), past an intro, we are plunged into a harder rocking music than anything we'd seen with Colosseum, including huge riffs, loud slow singing and a pedestrian bass, Hiseman's drumming being the most impressive. Clearly Hiseman had decided to bring up the rock part of his music even more up front than the jazz part and al of the tracks on this side are written by Clarke & Holdsworth, Hiseman writing the lyrics. The following Foyers Of Fun has a bit of a Cream or Mountain feel, Dark Horse keeping the same path, while the start of Brothers sounds slightly more Colosseum-esque, but soon the hard riffs and pedestrian bass are back, but it's the highlight on this side.

The second side is less focused, the songwriting better shared and even outside interference allowed. A strong Holdsworth-penned Up And On starts impressively, retaining a Colosseum edge via the solid drumming and Winter's voice, much reminiscent of Farlowe. The weakest track must Clarke's Grey & Black, where he sings too (a tame Queen's Mercury comes to mind), but it's also the shortest. Strangeher is a strong hard rocker, reminiscent of the Powell-era of Jeff Beck Group. Clearly the album's apex is the closing Upon Tomorrow where Holdsworth's violin gets a good (and all too rare) chance to shine and the track gets a long crescendo with plenty of interplay (something cruelly lacking on this album) before, between and after the verses.

It's probably safe to say that Temp2.0est was one of those groups where their individual members' credentials exceeded the actual resulting music, fruit of their collaboration. With a line up of Hiseman, Holdsworth (who still had much to prove back then, though), Clarke and Winter, the usual 70's would expect a more interesting album than this debut. Funnily enough, this is Holdsworth's least jazzy album he played on, and it was (partly) his doing for he wrote 5 songs (shared credits, but still), and what really lacks here is more instrumental interplay space, for the song format is simply too mainstream chorus-verse thing. Tons of albums like this cluttered the middle and lower ranks of the charts for Tempest to get a glimpse of sun with their chosen hard rock. While this debut deserves to be heard, just t see what Hiseman wanted to achieve, there is little doubt that it'll probably rarely spin on your turntable.

Holdsworth and Winter would quit the band, but they stayed long enough to meet and play with their replacement Olie Halsall (ex-Patto) for a BBC broadcast, which was finally released with the remastered version of the two albums.

Eager to please

With the major changes in the band between their first album and this one, their style also changed radically from a jazz rock orientated band to straight forward rock. Although Hiseman and Clarke remain from the first album, it's the late Ollie Halsall who dominates things.

"Dance to my tune" is the most prog track here, with some good guitar and fine synthesiser. The Beatles "Paperback writer" gets a real dusting down, becoming a heavy rock track, while "Stargazer" is a highly melodic Mark Clarke piece. Incidentally "Stargazer" was covered superbly by Clarke's brief Uriah Heep band-mate Ken Hensley on his "Eager to please" album, with a wonderful brass section ending.

There are at times hints of Free/Bad Company on the album, but little to link back to Colosseum. "Living in fear" benefits greatly from the multi-talented Halsall's instrumental work. Had they persisted, Tempest may well have gone on to find success. The market was however rather saturated with the style of music they chose to adopt for this album, hence such success would not by any means have been guaranteed.

Had the songs been generally a bit stronger, this could have been a much better album.

Replacing Allan Holdsworth was a major problem to Tempest. Ollie Halsall was a great guitar player, but Holdsworth is brilliant. So Tempest lost a bit of technique, feeling and creative power when Holdsworth left the band, which makes this album inferior to the first. However, on vocals, Halsall is a better choice than Paul Williams, which also left the band after the first release. Although reduced to a power trio, Tempest was still a fine band and this album, although less adventurous, still has enough good moments to recommend it, like "Funeral Empire", "Dance to my Tune" (the most ambitious track), the simple and funny "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah" and "Stargazer" (later rerecorded by Ken Hensley at his solo album, "Eager to Please" - Mark Clarke played bass). To prog-rock fans, the first album will sound better, but this is also a worthy addition to hard rock fans's collections.

Second album of TEMPEST released in 1974 "Living In Fear". Allan Holdsworth and Paul Williams left the band. However, expert Ollie Halsall who equals Allan Holdsworth joins and it becomes a trio organization. The sound is hard rock including a kooky rhythm and technical play. It is a performance which is frightening it is so good. It is a work that the speed and the heavy feeling have been very enhanced in the whole volume.

Tempest is a 70's power rock trio.I know very little about them except for the fact that famous guitar player Alan Holdsworth played on their self-titled debut album. Living In Fear is their amazing second album.

SIDE ONE starts of with the hard rocking "Funeral Empire" which sounds pretty much like Scandinavian 90's band The Hellacopters. The beauty of this song can't be said in plain words and the track is rather original. "Paperback Writer" is a herd-edged and faster version of the famous Beatles single.It's very similar to the original.The imitation of the vocal intro is well-done. Tempest added some heavy guitar solos. "Stargazer"'s got some soulful vocals on it, again written and sung very originally.The wonderful leading riff reminds me of the mood of Led Zeppelins "Trampled Under Foot" ( Physical Graffiti,1975).This track's got a nicely haunting bridge and a series of bluesy solos. "Dance To My Tune" closes the first side.It's a hardrock song with a very interesting middle section which becomes quite quiet and builds up majestically and eruptively up towards the end. This is the longest song of the album (nearly 8 minutes). SIDE TWO: "Living In Fear" is a blues song of a melodic masterclass.The chorus is fantastic and beautifully piano-driven. "Yeah Yeah Yeah" begins with a short smashing drum intro and is again melodically a verys trong song with Beatle-like vocal harmonies.The use of the double bass drum is highly effective. "Waiting For A Miracle" has got a magical multiple acoustic guitar solo.The verses sound like 60's psychedelic rock with some keyboard parts between the lines and in the closing section.Incredible stuff! "Turn Around" begins with lots of odd (cello-like) guitar effects and turns out to be a pretty complex and heavy song.Between the vocal parts we can hear a couple of unbelievable guitar fillings.

Tempest consists of three highly skilled musicians. Living In Fear is a supreme selection of catchy songs. Tempest knows what good entertaining rock is. Structure,melody and style fusions are their fields of excellence.It's difficult to put this band in a certain category as they combine blues, a bit of jazz, (hard)rock, 60's pop and psychedelic rock with progrock. 'Turn Around' are the final words of the record and that's exactly what you'll do.You will turn the LP around (back to side one) and you'll listen to it over and over again.

After a promising yet unspectacular debut, Living In Fear, the second album from Tempest saw major changes in the line-up leaving only drummer Jon Hiseman and bassist Mark Clarke from that incarnation. Allan Holdsworth had jumped ship for Soft Machine, who he would also only stay with for one album and Vocalist Paul William's fear of flying had cost him his place in the band. One man was to replace them both, Ollie Halsall, formerly of sixties psych pop band Timebox who were to transform into the more progressive Patto.

Living In Fear was a further step away from Hiseman and Clarke's former band Colosseum than even the debut was, ditching any traces of jazz and opting for a more streamlined rock direction. Halsall was an absurdly talented guitarist and he gets his moments to shine but fails to live up to William's rich tones in the vocal department. Despite the occasional inspired moment like Dance To My Tune featuring some cracking guitar work from Halsall the album smacks of the ordinary including a limp version of The Beatles Paperback Writer which suffers big time in the vocal department in particular.

It's certainly not a bad album, just lacking the song writing spark to lift it above the mere ordinary. Worth hearing though on the strength of the fine musicians involved but if you want to hear Halsall at his most inspired I'd recommend you go and check out the first two Patto albums. 2 ½ stars.