JOHN LEES BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST: LEGACY - LIVE AT THE SHEPHERDS BUSH EMPIRE (DVD)

A few months ago my good friend Paul Rijkens (electronic prog specialist and reviewer for Dutch progrock magazine iO Pages) pointed me at the existence of this Mellotron drenched DVD and said that to him the sound evoked the great Seventies BJH, I didn't hesitate a single second and ordered it immediately!

Well, my friend was absolutely right, the exciting tracklist and the lush Mellotron M400 sound carried me away to the Progheaven of albums like Live and Live Tapes, goose bumps and shivers down my spine, what a wonderful musical experience: warm and compelling with abundant violin-Mellotron in For No One, beautiful piano work in the excellent performed Child Of The Universe, majestic Mellotron and sensitive guitar in The Great 1974 Mining Disaster, dreamy Mellotron and intense guitar runs in Poor Man's Moody Blues, a great blend of twanging guitar, Mellotron and warm vocals in Galadriel, a moving and dramatic rendition of Suicide (with wonderful organ and guitar), my highlight Medicine Man featuring propulsive guitar riffs, lush Mellotron, a spectacular synthesizer solo and howling guitar, a captivating rendition of the 'classic' Mockingbird (again delivering majestic Mellotron waves, a sumptuous church-organ sound and John Lees his son on the cornet), exciting keyboards and guitar in After The Day and a compelling version of the final composition Hymn (without acoustic guitar and again John Lees his son on cornet). I was also delighted about the songs The Iron Maiden and Poor Wages (dreamy with beatiful vocals by Woolly) and the dry, typically British humour in the intro of The Poet/After The Day in which we hear a black and old fashioned telephone ringing and then Woolly starts to introduce the band before making a cynical joke about a former band member.

THIS IS A COMPELLING MELLOTRON DRENCHED PROGROCK DOCUMENT, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

Barclay James Harvest featuring Wolly Wolstenholme

This is a very good live DVD featuring John Lees and the original keyboard player Wolly Wolstenholme. The set list is very interesting and features many songs from the early years of Barclay James Harvest's career. Indeed, there is only one song here that was recorded later than 1978, Cheap the Bullet from 1990. The rest of the set is taken from the bands 70's albums plus one non-album single from the late 60's called Poor Wages.

The so called Harvest years (the bands first four albums) are well represented with The Iron Maiden from Barclay James Harvest, Galadriel and Mockingbird from Once Again and Medicine Man and The Poet/After the Day from Barclay James Harvest and Other Short Stories.

The Polydor years are also represented with several songs from the Everyone Is Everybody Else album plus a couple of great selections from Octoberon and XII. The obligatory hits Hymn and Poor Man's Moody Blues are also played, of course. I could hardly have chosen a better set list myself! The only song I don't like very much is Poor Man's Moody Blues, I have never understood what is supposed to be so good about that utterly boring composition!

This DVD is highly recommended for the fans of the early years of Barclay James Harvest. In many respects this betters the studio versions of most of the songs. This is even up to par with the Barclay James Harvest Live album from the mid 70's!