THE BEST OF BUDGIE

Perhaps in the belief that the band had peaked with their "Never turn your back on a friend" album, MCA records decided it was time to cash in on Budgie's success to date with this rather hastily compiled collection of songs. Strangely, the set completely overlooks the band's first two albums, while including no less than four of the seven songs which appeared on "Never turn..". Those four tracks run to almost 30 minutes in total, constituting about three quarters of the original album and a significant proportion of this one.

There is no doubt that these four songs are among the finest recorded by the band, with "Parents" being for me the pinnacle of their career. The absence of the acoustic interlude pieces though removes some of the overall atmosphere which made the original album what it was.

Only two other albums contribute tracks, with three being taken from the disappointing "Bandolier" and two from "In for the kill". Unfortunately, space is not found for "Bandolier's" best song, "Napoleon Bona part 1&2", which should perhaps have replaced the similarly long "Breaking all the house rules". The two tracks from "In for the kill" are probably the best selections from that album, "Zoom club" in particular offering a pulsating slice of pure guitar rock.

At over an hour long, this is an extraordinary find in its original LP format. For those interested in such things, there is virtually no run off area on either side.The loud nature of the music would normally restrict such a collection to around 20 minutes per side, so there is of necessity some compromise in terms of the sound quality. That compromise is not however nearly as apparent as might be expected, with tracks such as the 10 minute "Zoom club" still sounding pretty good. This was a case though where the cassette version offered the better alternative. Note that while there is significant overlap with the selections on the currently available CD "Best of Budgie" this collection is not identical to that compilation.