SUNDAY NIGHT AT THE LONDON ROUNDHOUSE (1974)

This album was recorded during a concert at The London Roundhouse on Noverber 25th, 1973. It was first released in 1974 and this version almost covers the whole concert because at least "Oop's - Unindentified Flying Abstract" and "Mundetango"won't be featured.

This album starts with two great tracks. "King Of Twilight" and "Desolation Valley". They belong to my favorite of the bands (with several of their their debut one "Journey to the Centre of the Eye" from which no songs are featured here). These songs are played very well and are the highlights of course. It's always a magical moment to hear these two songs.

This live album is rather complete since "Remember The Future" is almost fully represented (only "Part II" will be seriously shortened). The original studio version did not impress me but this live one sounds far much better to my ears. Fully rocking. It is a great rendition and this song takes its full power while played live. "Part II" is a little weaker (but a lot shorter as well than originally).

A fave of their live "sessions" was "A Day In The Life...". Almost present on each of their live albums, it will be the occasion for a very long improvisation. Not always interesting. Again, this version is a good and hard-rocking one. But you have to be able to digest this almost twenty minutes song. And it's not always easy.

"Odyssey" is a true jam session with a very good drum solo. Not essential, but in those days it was an integrant part of rock concerts. It was a favourite of their live concerts (it is also featured in more or less the same format on "Sounds Like This". But I prefer this version : shorter by three minutes, it's sounds fresher (maybe due to the sound restoration on this remastered version).

When he introduces "1,2,3,4" Roye tells the audience that "It's time to get and move". This song is seriously hard-rock and fully jam oriented. Like "Purple" could do in 1970/1971. It is not my favourite moment of this live album but it rocks savagely.

The album closes on "Woman", a boogie in the style of "Canned Heat". Another rocking moments like there will be many here. But this how "Nektar" sounded like. In terms of live album, I prefer this one to "Sounds Like This or "Unidentified Flying Abstract".

If ever you have to decide to get one "Nektar" live album; I would recommend either this one or the remastered "Live In New-york" (two CD set). It gives a pretty good idea of how the band sounded live. Three stars.

A Tale of Two CDs and an LP.

The original LP of this album dates back to 1974. My first encounter with it was the first CD release in 1990 or shortly thereafter. At the time we were being (mis)treated regularly with CDs that were dirt cheap re releases of LPs where the original master for the vinyl disc was just copied without any a proper remastering for the CD format, much less any improvements on the master taking advantage of the latest of what technology has to offer. In this case the CD actually came with a booklet having no information on the album other than track names and times. I'd hope they did a better job with the LP, but I don't know, haven't seen it.

When the 2005 edition arrived I was initially a little disappointed that two of the tracks I really liked, partially due to them not being available otherwise (Oop's (Unidentified Flying Abstract), and Mundetango.) Summer Breeze was still there though. Then I started reading the CD booklet and found an interesting detail: Oop's, Mundetango, and Summer Breeze were actually live in the studio recordings several months later than the Roundhouse recordings.

What you get for what was taken, more than makes up for the tracks removed. An excellent assortment of tracks from their A Tab In The Ocean to the Return To The Future period. Nothing from Journey To The Center Of An Eye, though. Though there is good material there, they had moved on a bit to their next phase. As befitting a great live album, the tracks aren't clones of their studio counterparts. Nice integration of jamb band with progressive elements. Not sure if I'd still rank the studio albums as more essential than this, but most likely by a small margin. The band really worked magic together.