Live - COLOSSEUM***

Rope Ladder To The Moon/Walking In The Park/Skelington/Tanglewood 63/ Encore Stormy Monday Blues/Lost Angeles

Live double album from the British progressive jazz-rock group Colosseum recorded at Manchester University and the Big Apple, Brighton in March 1971. Within a few months of these gigs the band would break up. (US:192 UK:17)

“There's just too much standard blues here. These long bluesy jams that end in monotony don't work for me. By this time you would've expected the band to move on from these ideas and expand on their symphonic approach, but here they are plodding in guitar riddled bluesy solos that leave me cold.”

“Hard-rock/fusion madness, wild guitar/organ/vocal overdrive for over seventy minutes. Just what I'm looking for, or so it seems.”

“As most live albums go, this one is good, featuring fairly hard semi-commercial prog. I feel their sound on this is somewhat marred by a little too much sax for my taste, but the album is salvaged with truly excellent guitar.”

“The tracks tend to be long and rambling (and possibly ad-lib) as they often were those days, containing a number of smoking instrumental solos. I would describe this music as a kind of jazz/blues/prog-rock. Vocals are delivered in a rather theatrical style on occasions where the sound is more important than the words, but with good harmonies. There is good use of brass instruments (especially sax). As a whole the album is jazzy and upbeat and the musicianship is outstanding.”

“What genre is the music? I suppose you have to label it progressive rock, but that doesn't really do it justice. The blues and jazz influences are obvious, but to find such superb and diverse musicianship right across a band is rare.”

“Surprisingly well recorded for a live album in those far off days of cassettes, this showcases the stunning musicianship of a well rehearsed band playing incredibly well together.”

“While I really enjoy most of the instrumental parts on this album, the vocals make me cringe with embarrassment with the deep timbered soulful screams. Luckily there's lots of improvisation and solos that remedy this issue slightly.”