FIDDLING MEANLY

If the fantastic "Live 74" from BJH belongs to one of your favourite prog live albums, you will be absolutely stunned by this one. It is a marvelous voyage into ancient times. Not that you'll get the "Mockin Bird", "The Great Mining Disaster", "Negative Earth" etc. Nothing as such here (well almost not...).

The track list is rather bizarre since Woolly and his band "Maestoso" decided to play very old BJH songs featured on their first release, back to ...1970. And rather obscure ones since they will only be featured on the remastered version of this album as bonus tracks. It's the case for "Poor Wages" and "Early Morning". Only "The Iron Maiden" was featured on the original album.

Four songs come out "The black Box" which was a compilation effort combining the first "Maestoso" album and unreleased songs from what should have been "Maestoso" second album and that never saw the light. These are : "Deceivers All", "Has To Be A Reason", "Sunday Bells" and "The Will To Fly".

From their debut album only "A Prospect Of Whitby" is present.

Two songs come out the last album of Woolly with BJH. "In Search Of England" and "Harbour" come from "XII". Two weird interpretations are sitting here as well : a shortened version of "Abendrot" (from "Grim" which is "Maestoso" last studio release) and "The Bells, The Bells!" from "One Drop...".

I would have liked to get "Patriots", "American Excess", "Maestoso, "A Hymn In The Roof Of The World", "2 A.M.", "One Drop..." or the beautiful "Carpet". Instead, the listener will be very pleased with "The Poet - After The Day" from "Other Short Stories".

The extraordinary fact here, is that most of these songs will be marvelously played with lots of superb keyboards, some great mellotron of course and so much emotion. Woolly has lots of humour when talking to the audience (this is rather a big change when you compare this with the stifness of John Lees or Les Holroyd). These interpretations fully reminds me of these form their magnificent "BJH Live '74".

This album deserves three stars (I could maybe upgrade it to seven out of ten, but not to four stars). Do listen to it if, as I am, you are an orphan of the magical "Live '74".