LIVE AT LAST

While I discover PA some three years and a half ago, I thought that my first prog concert took place in May '74 during the "Welcome Back My Friends" tour (ELP of course). But PA explained to me that my first prog concert was a little earlier : it was my first "Deep Purple" live experience. March 20, 1973 (at forest National).

Since this week-end I know that my first prog live experience took place an inch earlier. By a week or so, I went to see "Sabbath" as well at Forest National (Brussels). Since it is my first concert ever, I konw by now that this is it ! Finally. I had to wait for almost thirty-five years to knwo this. Shame on me...

This only to tell you that I have a special feeling with the first part of this CD since it was recorded in March 1973 (in the UK) and reflects what I had seen at the time in Brussels. My souvenirs of the concert are very vague (Alzeimher you know...) but I remember the comments of one of the most respected Belgian rock critics Piero (who organized the first "Genesis" concert away from England BTW) : "It would be the same to sit outisde and listening for an hour and a half to B-52's taking off". He was right. The Brussels concert was not good (maybe because the band was P.O. since only half of the concert hall was filled).

This album, although charting in the UK (number five) was released against the band will in 1980. Maybe therefore, it took so long to put it on the market (the two UK gigs involved in this live album are from 1973). I guess that the hords of fans would have rushed on this in these early middle seventies, but never late than never right ?. Anyway, it is a very good picture of the "Sabbath" concerts in those days.

Good tracklist and very good sound. It is also the opportunity for the band to show that they too can jam. The version of "Wicked World" lasts for about nineteen minutes and this is maybe not really necessary.

The text for this review is almost the same than the one covering the first CD from "Past Lives" which is a double live CD set released in 2002 which, by definition, is far much more complete or less reductive and therefore is a better buy than this one.

Three stars.