THE RUNNING MAN

A friend of mine told me about this obscure one shot project led by english guitarrist Ray Russel (more well known for his other, Cantenbury/fusion styled, works) . A long time collector´s item , the original LP was reissued in CD by WorldWide Records in 1993 and then by Angel Air Records in 2005 with an excellent remastering (plus a bonus track). However I did not share my pal´s enthusiasm. Basically what you have on this record is the very common hard rock/blues style that was so popular in the late 60´s, early 70´s, plus some gospel and jazz influences here and there.

The Running Man sounds like a mix of Traffic, Ten Years After, Cactus, Robin Trower, Taste and the like, only without their class and creativity. The playing is quite good, specially the guitar and bass parts. Vocalist Alan Greed has also a fine voice for the style. Unfortunately the songwriting is not very outstanding, nor are the arrangements: most tracks are way too short (around the two minute mark) and the long ones fall in the typical 70´s excess traps, like the opener Another which wastes about the whole second half of its 10 minute duration with a pointless bass riffing (I can´t call that a solo) that just drags on and on.

Best track is the powerful Look & Turn which, in its 3 minute format, is neither too short nor too long for this kind of music (good guitar solo and fine bass runs). Some maniac sax solos on Hope Place and the bonus Spirit are also of notice but can´t really say they saved the day. Production on the other hand is quite good for the time.

Conclusion: The Running Man is for fans of blues rock only. And even then, I don´t think they were that good at that, which makes their quickly disappearance from the music scene hardly surprising. There were dozens of better bands doing similar (and superior) stuff at the time. But if you like the aforementioned bands it may worth it to check this album out. Just don´t expect too much. Good, but not enough to reach a 3 star rating. Two stars: fans and collectors only.