LIVE IN STOCKHOLM '75

It's been a year since I saw the reunion of Three Friends, featuring Gary Green, Kerry Minnear and Malcolm Mortimore, at Musikens hus in Gothenburg and I still have very strong memories of that wonderful gig. While there, chatting before the show, I met quite a few people who attended the '75 Stockholm show and spoke very fondly of the whole experience telling me that it would be a great honor to revisit a Gentle Giant performance almost 35 years later!

Unlike many of the British acts of their time, Gentle Giants live performances were just as notorious as their studio releases. Listening to this 2009 release of the 1975 live recording from Stockholm University's Kårhuset I can clearly see why. Not only do the band members manage to recreate the compositions in the live setting but they also elevate them to a whole new level. This was, after all, the band's golden era period where they could pretty much do no wrong and it shows on each one of these performances.

The set-list features an unexpected range of tracks mainly from the three consecutive masterpiece released by the band after the departure of Phil Shulman in 1972. These are: The Runaway/Experience from In A Glass House, Proclamation, Cogs In Cogs and So Sincere from The Power And The Glory, a loose instrumental adaptation of Plain Truth from Acquiring The Taste followed by two new tracks from the 1975 release Free Hand.

First off, let me put your worries to rest about the sound quality since this release has an excellent sound for its time. Each instrument is distinguishable from the mix and the audience participation, although present, doesn't distract from the performance even in such quiet moments like the first part of Experience. This is definitely a major improvement for us who hated the live sound featured on the bonus tracks on the remastered edition of In A Glass House. I definitely think that everyone who attended the concert will be able to fully relive the memories and nostalgia that they have for the performance by listening to this album!

The first few tracks do deviate from their studio counterparts on a few occasions but it's towards the album's second part, starting with So Sincere, that the band begins to loosen up the material and we get some truly extraordinary results. First off the 4 minute So Sincere has been expanded to an 11 minute mark by a jamming middle section followed by drum & vibraphone solo spot outro. Plus we get a vocal duet between Derek and Kerry! Plain Truth isn't really the straight forward composition that we all rememberer so well from the band's second album. Instead we get a very loose instrumental version of the track that doesn't feature a single uttered vocal line. Finally, the two Free Hand tracks have also been slightly expanded by added jam moments that definitely leave the crowd screaming for more!

Overall this is an excellent Gentle Giant live release that should have a place in every prog rock collection right next to Playing The Fool and Giant On The Box!

***** star songs: So Sincere (11:03)

**** star songs: Cogs In Cogs (3:16) Proclamation (5:33) The Runaway/Experience (10:07) Plain Truth (8:21) Free Hand (7:09) Just The Same (6:07)

Review Nº 758

According to Progarchives, "Live In Stockholm' 75" is the twenty-first live album of Gentle Giant and was released in 2009. The music was recorded by the Swedish Radio Ltd on 12th November 1975, and was taken from a live performance of Gentle Giant which took place in the Students Union, at Club Karen, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.

1975 was a great year for Gentle Giant. It was the year of the release of their seventh studio album "Free Hand", an album considered by some their greatest masterpiece. It was also the culmination of a brilliant and meteoric musical career and that would be relatively short for a band as brilliant as they were. We may say that "Free Hand" was also their last masterpiece and which was from here that began their musical decline, although their next studio album "Interview" still is a great album. Anyway, their first seven studio albums are so great that is difficult to choose the best.

But, besides be a great year for them, it was also a very busy year for Gentle Giant. On January and February they were touring in U.S.A. On March, April and May they were writing and recording "Free Hand". On June they were busy on a couple of festivals and filming a T.V. special in Brussels, Belgium. On August they were back in America, on September in Europe, and they were also back and touring again in the U.S A. On November they started another European tour which took them 'till Christmas. So, it was in that context that appeared the recordings of "Live In Stockholm' 75".

"Live In Stockholm' 75" has seven tracks. The first track "Cogs In Cogs" was a track originally released on their sixth studio album "The Power And The Glory". The second track "Proclamation" was also a track originally released on their album "The Power And The Glory". The third track "The Runway/Experience" is a live performance of two songs "The Runway" and "Experience". Both tracks were originally released on their fifth studio album "In A Glass House". The fourth track "So Sincere" was a track originally released on their album "The Power And The Glory". The fifth track "Plain Truth" was a track originally released on their second studio album "Acquiring The Taste". The sixth track "Free Hand" was a track originally released on their seventh studio album "Free Hand". The seventh track "Just The Same" was also a track originally released on their album "Free Hand".

In this well recorded live concert, originally recorded for the Swedish Radio, Gentle Giant is in a great shape. Derek Shulman's live vocals are a revelation, losing none of their power and sincerity. Gary Green and Kerry Minnear are amazing as is usual and the bass playing of Ray Shulman was simply awesome, one of the best ever. Finally, strings by Ray and Kerry and percussion "madness" involve the whole band all over the show. The set list is quite good, though very similar to many of the other shows that most Gentle Giant's fans have heard from that period. The sound quality is surprisingly solid, easily better than many of the other recordings that have floated out over the years, and gives a great representation of the power of this band during that time period. This gig featured some songs from the then new album "Free Hand" like the title track and "Just The Same", plus older staples such as the complex "Cogs In Cogs", the mighty "Proclamation", the "In A Glass House" medley of "The Runaway/Experience" and the extended versions of "So Sincere" and "Plain Truth". "Proclamation" and "Cogs In Cogs" kick off a storming gig, the streamlined latter number being a particular highlight. Deep into the two lengthy numbers, "The Runway/Experience" and "So Sincere", the band break wildly free of their own loose conventions and hone jams that show why they remained aloof from the prog pack. In "So Sincere" and "Plain Truth", both feature some long percussion jams and a terrific violin solo from Ray Shulman.

Conclusion: "Live In Stockholm' 75" is, in reality, a great live album. However, in my humble opinion, it's a bit far away from the quality level of "Playing The Full", given the extremely high level of the live performance on that album. The reference for this band's live recordings remains "Playing The Fool". Who is familiarized with my reviews knows that I'm a great fan of that Gentle Giant's live album, and that I consider "Playing The Full", "Yessongs" and "Welcome Back My Friends To The Show That Never Ends", probably the three best live albums released in the 70's. But, Gentle Giant's live is simply an amazing experience. And "Live In Stockholm' 75" isn't an exception. It's a very good live album for several reasons. In the first place, the choice of the songs is very good and belong to some of the best studio albums of them, particularly "In A Glass House", "The Power And The Glory" and "Free Hand". In the second place, the songs are in general performed live, substantially different from their studio versions, including even a drum solo, so typical of the live albums from the 70's. In the third place, the live performance of the band, without being brilliant, is very good and inspired enough to provide a great live show. So, "Live In Stockholm' 75" is, without any doubt, a great addition for any progressive collection and once more shows us the Gentle Giant's complex music, especially when performed live.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)