869. The Michael Schenker Group / Rock Will Never Die. 1984. 5/5

My original copy of this album was one that was taped on a dodgy overused cassette for me by one of my best mates. In those days, quality was less of an issue than obtaining a quantity of material, and that was certainly the case with this album. It got played to death both at home and in the car, and eventually it died as all cassette tapes did, being chewed up in one of those players. Though I was never able to find a copy of this album again in the intervening years, either on vinyl or CD or even cassette, I always remembered the album fondly, despite the crappy quality of the copy I had owned.

Fast forward to 2010, and while trawling the CD racks of my favourite music store, I came across this album. And not only had I finally found it, it was the fully remastered edition, and what's more had added six songs back into the set that I had never experienced before! This was exciting, and it made my purchases that day. Now all that had to happen was to ensure that my great memories of the album were not just nostalgia. Through my inability to find this album, I had some years ago invested in the One Night at Budokan album as an alternative, which while it is a reasonable album contains only songs from the first two albums, whereas this one covers all four albums in the initial foray of the Michael Schenker Group. As it urns out, I'll never really remember what the quality of that original release was like.
The original album was a really good collection of the live material this band did. It contained all of the highlights of the group's releases at that time, starting off with the brilliant instrumental "Captain Nemo" before leading into the awesome tracklist of "Rock My Nights Away", "Are You Ready to Rock", "Attack of the Mad Axeman" and the second brilliant instrumental "Into the Arena". The second side of the album started off with "Rock Will Never Die", the legendary "Desert Song", and "I'm Gonna Make You Mine", before finishing off with "Doctor Doctor" from Schenker's UFO days, which features his brother Rudolf and Klaus Meine from Scorpions to help bring it home in style. Just a brilliant set list and awesomely played. To be honest, it is difficult to top that off. If you are going to have an album that must fit within that 45 minute period, then this works perfectly. The expanded edition is great, adding songs such as "Cry For the Nations", "Rock You to the Ground", "Courvoisier Concerto", "Red Sky", "Looking for Love" and "Armed and Ready", but it doesn't improve on the original in any way. It's great to have those songs on there, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't make the album better because the original track list was so good in the first place.

What is evident is that it is better produced and probably even better played than what came on One Night at Budokan. Ted McKenna on drums and Chris Glenn on bass are a solid rhythm section, while the keyboards of Andy Nye, and the second guitar and great backing vocals of Derek St. Holmes give this album a much fuller sound and thus a more impressive sound. Gary Barden's vocals are well versed to suit the arrangement of the songs, while the star and head man Michael Schenker is just wonderful, showcasing his talent both within the framework of the song and through his own solo breaks.

This is an brilliant moment in time, capturing the very best that MSG did in this short four year period before the band and their leader moved on to other projects. The quality of the songs here is second to none, and is a must for anyone who likes guitar-based hard rock and heavy metal with all the trimmings.

Rating:  Sneaking 'round the back streets, don't stay out too late.  5/5