LIVE AT READING '83

Although recorded at the Reading festival in 1983 it wasn't until 10 years later that this live recording was officially released, perhaps due to the fact that it only differed by three tracks from the 1983 live album Friday 13th. This album is therefore recorded shortly after their 1983 reformation, having split up in 1976. The newly reformed Man with no new studio album to their name yet stuck to a set consisting of old favourites though in a leaner form than their seventies live versions. Always a well received live band who were not adverse to extending their studio tracks to twenty minutes or more in a live setting, here their Psychedelic Rock workouts never manage to get any longer than eight minutes. Personally I prefer to hear the band with their more extended workouts but there's still much to enjoy here.

The album kicks off with a lively version of Spunk Rock, a favourite from their late sixties album, 2 Oz of Plastic with a Hole in the Middle. C'mon, always a fan favourite gets another airing here and it's a testament to the popularity of the track that there can't be that many Live Man albums that it doesn't appear on though at just over seven minutes this is one of the shorter versions but still enjoyable. The set also consists of streamlined versions of The Ride and the View (Deke Leonard's slide guitar showcase), the blues rock shuffle of Romain and perennial favourite Bananas. There's also one new track, an up tempo rocker called Asylum which sounds weak against their seventies classics. The only other song is a cover of American singer-songwriter, Buzzy Linhart's Talk about a Morning.

So another interesting live album from the Welsh Psychedelic Rockers though I have to admit a preference to their more overblown live workouts which fortunately they would get back to in the following years.