CONCERTO

This live album recorded in Denver is not well known, even for Roxy fans (like me). When I discovered that I could listen to a live version of "Manifesto" (the track, since the album was rather average), I was thrilled to hear it. This song belongs to my top ten preferred one of this great band.

It took me while to find out that I have this double album onto a CD under another name : "Concert Classic" released in 1998. The last two numbers (which do not come from Denver) are replaced with "Jealous Guys" (but I'm not 100% sure it is from the Denver Show).

The thrill actually stops as soon as this live song starts : it is a poor rendition of this great track. All the power of the wonderful introduction is edulcorated here. The fantastic and hypnotic bass play is gone. I was expecting a flamboyant version but I won't get it. The vocals are very poor; gone the emotion. It is really disappointing, because it was almost the only song in which I was interested on this double album fot the reasons I will mention below...

This live album clearly consists of two separate entities. Since it was the "Manifesto" supporting tour, it was normal that the band played several songs out of this album. So, out of eight songs form the first disc, six are coming from this album but bizarrely "My Little Girl" and "Dance Away" are not featured. Not that I like those songs a lot, but they were rather successful and popular songs amongst Roxy fans (second generation, meaning from "Manifesto onwards).

Fortunately, to save this first disc from total chaos, two Roxy anthems will raise the level : "Out Of The Blue" ("Country Life") and "A Song For Europe" ("Stranded").

The second disc holds only classic Roxy songs. Sort of "best of". But not greatly played. "Do The Strand" sounds rather weak (especially the middle part). When you look at the track list, you could have expected something better.

As usual, "In Every Dream Home A Heartache" will be uselessly extended to over nine minutes. All songs of the second CD will be featured on "Live In Concert" released in 2003 and which is waaaaaaay better than this one (the only problem is that "Manifesto" is not featured). This was the reason why I mentioned that I was only interested in the track "Manifesto" since it is almost the third time that we could get most of the other songs in a live version.

This album is for die-hard fans only. Two stars.