1303. Black Sabbath / Live at Last. 1980. 5/5

Black Sabbath the band had been stuck in murky waters for a couple of years by the time that this album came to light. Everyone knows the story of the eventual dismissal of Ozzy Osbourne from the band, the health problems being faced by Bill Ward, and the difficulty in the band really knowing what they were going to do from that point. Then there was the entrance of Ronnie James Dio, whose wonderful vocals and writing appeared to revitalise the band with the release of their ninth album “Heaven and Hell” in April of 1980. Prior to this though, the band had parted ways with their previous management led by Patrick Meehan, and had been embroiled in a long running dispute. The culmination of this saw Meehan through a different record label re-release all of the Black Sabbath back catalogue without the band’s consent. As well as this, he also owned the rights to live recordings that had been made of the band in 1973 on the tour to support the album “Volume 4”. These recordings were made with the view to releasing a live album following the tour, but this idea was abandoned when the band felt they were unhappy with the way they had come out. Six years later however, a disgruntled Meehan decided that as he had the rights to the recordings, and on the back of not only the split in the band’s fanbase in regards to Ozzy Osbourne or Ronnie James Dio being the lead singer of the band, and the fact that the new album “Heaven and Hell” had already sold very well, that he would release an album consisting of those live recordings. And so, once again, without the permission of the band, Black Sabbath had its first live album publicly released under the name of “Live at Last”.

If you are looking for a stunningly incisive review of this album, one that is full of interesting insights and dramatic revelations, then I’m afraid you are in the wrong place. That’s the difficulty with live albums, because the majority of them are very good. And this is no exception. Because the songs selected to be played on this tour that appear on this album are all very good. And the musician's performance of the band on these recorded songs is very very good. So there isn’t anything particularly enlightening that I can offer.
The songs here off “Volume 4” sound as fresh as they were on this tour. “Tomorrow’s Dream” opens up the album in a great way, even though I would love to have heard “Wheels of Confusion” as that opening. “Sweet Leaf” follows, and is particularly crushing through the middle of the song and into Tony Iommi’s guitar solo, backed by that ridiculous bass line underneath and Bill Ward’s hammering drums. Fabulous stuff, oh yeah baby! “Killing Yourself to Live” is one of the great classic Black Sabbath songs that still seems so underrated despite its obvious brilliance. It again is highlighted by Tony’s guitar with Geezer’s booming bassline running underneath, and Ozzy’s wonderful vocal lines over the top. What a great song this is, and this is a great version of it.
The “Volume 4” double up comes next though in reverse order from how they appear on that album, with the barnstorming “Cornucopia” charging through the middle of the album, and flowing into the utter brilliance of “Snowblind”, that opening solo show into the main riff – just magnificence. And Ozzy proclaiming ‘my eyes are blind but I can see’... Geezer’s lyrics are just so amazing in this song and Ozzy sings them so well. Then we have the heavy hitters from the big early albums, “Children of the Grave” and “War Pigs” either side of the album turnover. Both sound as huge, heavy and magnificent as they always have.
The medley of various pieces thrown together as a part of the wild and winding version of “Wicked World” here is surprisingly good. “Wicked World” sounds so much better here in the live environment than it does on the debut album, and the middle of the track has lots of great surprises thrown in such as “Into the Void” and “Supernaut”, and a drum solo from Bill Ward in the mix. At almost 19 minutes this alone is worth listening to the album for. Perhaps the only slightly disappointing ting about the album is that “Paranoid” is the closing track. It sounds so... simple and ineffective... compared to the wonderful and brilliant things the band has played before this. Yes, I get that they have to play it, even back then in 1973, but surely something else would have been a better set closer.

You’ve heard me say it before, and no doubt you will hear me say it again. Live albums should almost always be automatic 5/5 albums, because they contain the bands best songs in their best environment. Now, whether this is the case here given the complexities of how this release occurred is open to question. And I will once again raise another point about live albums, where I would prefer to hear the setlist as it was performed, and not chopped and changed. And that is not the case here. This album is a slightly rearranged selection of the songs performed over those two nights in 1973. Whatever the reason is for that, it doesn’t actually harm the flow of the album. Though, I guess this is mostly because I didn’t KNOW the order had been changed until four years ago, when the band released the Super Deluxe version of “Volume 4”, which contain the entire concert remastered for release. And it sounds fantastic.
None of that actually takes away from this release. As a snapshot of the band in this era it is fantastic. The band sounds terrific. Ozzy’s vocals are surprisingly good throughout, the fabulous basslines of Geezer Butler hold everything together, Tony Iommi's guitar breezes through the speakers and Bill Ward’s drumming is brutally proficient. The song selection is top shelf, and with just songs from the first four albums to choose from it just works.
I’ve had a couple of copies of this over the years, but in the last 12 months I managed to find a second-hand vinyl copy at my local record store Music Farmers in Wollongong, and that has been the version I have revisited over the last couple of days. And it is still as good as the first time I heard it. Prior to the Super Deluxe editions of albums coming out with the bonus live material, this was all we had of the original foursome recorded live, so it was always a special release. And, to be fair, it still is. If you want to hear Sabbath with Ozzy, this is still your best bet. “Reunion” is okay. The live albums from the last tour are okay. This has the lifeblood still running through it.

1300. Scorpions / World Wide Live. 1985. 5/5

By the time the Scorpions had reached the middle of the 1980’s decade, their popularity had reached a peak that they could only have ever imagined that they would ever achieve. While they had had big selling albums through the 1970’s, their surge on the back of their 1980’s album such as “Animal Magnetism”, “Blackout” and “Love at First Sting” had been on another level entirely, and their tour around the world on the back of “Love at First Sting” had seen record crowds and sales especially from the singles “Rock You Like a Hurricane” and “Still Loving You”.
In 1978, with the news that guitarist Uli Jon Roth had decided to leave the band, Scorpions released their first double live album titled “Tokyo Tapes”, one that highlighted the very best songs the band had recorded over the first five albums of their career. It acted as a nice way to conclude that era of the band. The arrival of Matthias Jabs as his replacement brought about a change in style for the band, one that saw a slightly heavier direction taken, one that not only reflected the changing tide of music early in the 1980’s decade but also to suit the arrival of the new guitarist and his style.
With the band riding the crest of that wave, the decision was made to record several shows on their tour to release their second live album. At some point, the decision was made that the album would include only songs from the albums since “Tokyo Tapes” had been released, that being the three albums released in the 1980’s, along with Jabs’ first album with the band, 1979’s “Lovedrive”. In hindsight this was a savvy move. It meant that, when listening to both of the live albums back to back, it not only gives a wonderful anthology of the band’s great songs from their first release right through to their ninth studio album, there are no repeat tracks. It gives more of the 1980’s hits a chance to get their live rendition recorded for posterity, and though at the time there was some blowback from older fans saying that the band had abandoned their earlier material, the way it was been constructed has indeed turned out to be the best format the band could have achieved.
This the band released their second live album “World Wide Live”, an album that not only showcased the greatness of the band in the live setting, but proved to be my introduction to their amazing music.

My usual spiel about live albums remains the same as I talk you through this album – that a live album should be an automatic 5/5 album, because you get the band’s best material in its best environment, the stage that it has been written to be performed on. And I can say that without question that this is the case for “World Wide Live”. It has the band’s best tracks from their previous four albums all represented, and they all sound brilliant here, in some cases maybe even better than their studio versions.
“Coming Home” is the perfect opening track for the album, with lyrics that relate the band’s feelings about its fan base, while also doubling as an allternative story as well. But simply saying that “I know for me it is like... coming home”, that brings the crowd into the show from the outset, and sets up what is to come. It’s a great song, jumping and jivy, one that brings the crowd to its feet. This crashes straight into the brilliant “Blackout”, one of the band’s best, a song that should never be out of its setlist. Klaus Meine’s vocals here set the scene along with Rudolph Schenker’s excellent rhythm guitar riff. This then enters the crawling guitar riff that opens “Bad Boys Running Wild”, another great anthemic track with a super guitar riff and singalong lyrics that offers the best of the band. These opening three tracks on the album find a great chord from the outset.
The version here of “Loving You Sunday Morning” is one of the best proof in points of live tracks that can make studio versions pop. This song, that opens the “Lovedrive” album is a terrific track in its own right, but perhaps is a slight plodder on the album itself. Here, it sparkles, with all of the great spots on the song brought to life and made all sparkly. The riff is a bit heavier, the pace is a bit faster, and it all seems to fit better in the live setting. A great track. The same can be said for the next two tracks as well. Both songs are good on their particular studio albums, but they sound better in this environment. “Make it Real” from “Animal Magnetism” and “Big City Nights” from “Love at First Sting” have more potency and a better feel all round on this album, and make the middle of the first album worthy of its content. It is topped off by the always brilliant instrumental track “Coast to Coast”, with Rudolph’s riffing throughout backed by the excellent rhythm section of Herman Rarebell’s titanic drum beat and Francis Buchholz’s metronomic bass line setting the base that makes this song so special.
The band then puts together their two enormous power ballads back to back, something that would always seem to be a dangerous thing in the live setting, chancing bringing the nights momentum to a standstill. But these are no ordinary power ballads, and Scorpions are no ordinary band. They pull this off perfectly, playing just the first half of “Holiday”, which then segues perfectly into “Still Loving You”. The way the band emotes during these tracks, musically and vocally, not only makes these a highlight, but showcases the side of the band that actually attracted a lot of fans to the band in the first place.
Not me though, because what attracted me to the band was their hard rock classics, and that is where the album heads now. “Rock You Like a Hurricane” crashes in to restore heavy loud order to the album, as anthemic as ever and a great live version. Following up is the brilliant “Can’t Live Without You”, perfectly introduced through the beginning of the song, and that bursts with energy throughout. Even when just listening to this section of the album, you can see the fun the band is having on stage while playing these songs, it is infectious. From here the drive through the back half of the album continues with Lovedrive’s “Another Piece of Meat” and on to the closing track of the gig, “Dynamite”, another song with such power and energy it takes you along for the ride. Everything the band had kept in reserve while performing their power ballad duo has been expended by the conclusion of these four tracks.
The encore starts with the quite magnificent “The Zoo”, one of the band’s best, and another where Rudolph’s rhythm riff dominates the track with its groove and perfect setting. They then bust into “No One Like You”, another song that has its highlights from the dual guitars, the delightful squeals from Matthias’s guitar complemented by Schenker pure riffing underneath holding the song together. The album and gig then conclude with “Can’t Get Enough”, including a solo spot from Matthias Jabs to remind everyone that he is still the gunslinger in the band alongside the band leader Schenker. All in all, 16 songs that remain almost unmatched in the band’s career, collected here to sit in posterity forever.

Back in the first half of 1986, I was beginning my heavy metal journey, one that mostly involved my heavy metal music dealer being asked to record me albums that he had brought up in conversation that he thought were excellent. I would find a blank cassette at home that had something on it that I didn’t want (or on rare occasions when I had some cash, I would buy new ones), and would bring them to school, and he would take them home overnight and bring them back the next day with new offerings for me to dine out on. On occasions when I had requested an album and he asked ‘what do you want on the other side of the cassette?’ I would suggest that he could put on something that he thought I might like. This occurred for me sometime during the first half of 1986, when on the back side of an album he recorded for me was the album “World Wide Live” by Scorpions – or at least, however much would fit on the space available. It was my first real meeting with the band, and I was immediately smitten. The great songs keep rolling into each other, they are upbeat and pacey with great riffs and those amazing unique vocals. Everything came together, and I caught the bug.
It would be a couple of years before I started to get the studio albums of the band, not until I began university and sought out a particular second hand record shop in Wollongong, but this album was enough in the meantime. The riffs from Rudolph Schenker, that became the mainstay of each song, were just superb. Matthias Jabs soloing and squeals and intricate pieces he kept throwing in – case in point the opening scrawling guitar to “Bad Boys Running Wild” - are wonderful, and his trademark to the band on those four albums to that point in time he had played on. And Klaus Meine’s vocals are out of this world.
For the past week my CD copy of this album has been back in my stereo, and I have relived it over and over, and it has brought back so many great memories of those school days when I was first introduced to it. It will always do that, because it is very much tied to that time of my life. And now having done that, I just want to go back and listen to the four albums that these songs were taken from and relive them as well. It is a difficult thing to rank live albums in the scheme of things. My heart tells me this is one of the best lives albums I own of any band. I am more certain that it is the best live album that the Scorpions have released. But as a vehicle to discovering the band, for me it was the perfect introduction.

1281. Deep Purple / In Concert with The London Symphony Orchestra. 2000. 4/5

Back in 1969, at the time that the Mark I lineup of Deep Purple had given way to the Mark II era of the band, keyboardist and founding member of the band Jon Lord had completed his pet project “Concerto for Group and Orchestra”, the music composed by Lord with lyrics written by new lead singer Ian Gillan. It was recorded and released in December 1969, and while it did not have much success in the US, it gave the band’s reputation a huge boost in their native UK, just as they were about to release the legendary first album of the Mark II lineup, “Deep Purple in Rock”. However, the original score for the concerto was lost in 1970, and it was feared that it would never be performed again, as the band began ascending the hard rock and metal path that took them to stardom.
Fast forward to 1999, and Jon Lord was piqued into action by a meeting with a Dutch fan of the band named Marco de Goeij, who was also a musicologist and composer. In the mid-1990s, while writing an article about the original “Concerto for Group and Orchestra”, De Goeij learned that the musical score for the concerto had been missing since it was last performed in 1970. He then actually set about the painstaking task of reconstructing the score by listening to CD recordings and watching videos of live performances. When Deep Purple were performing in the Netherlands in 1998, de Goeij presented his work to Jon Lord. From here the two of them continued to refine and finish the score until it was completed.
From here, Lord decided that the band had to once again perform this live, and he elected to have the band perform it once more at the Royal Albert Hall, but this time with the London Symphony Orchestra rather than the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and with Paul Mann as conductor rather than Malcolm Arnold. He and the band then also decided to make it a true performance, with featured songs from each member's solo careers played during the performance, as well as a short Deep Purple set, and including special guests to help out with the solo pieces, with guest musicians such as Ronnie James Dio, the Steve Morse Band, and Sam Brown. The performance took place and was recorded on 25–26 September 1999 at the Royal Albert Hall in London with the London Symphony Orchestra and released on 8 February 2000 on DVD and CD.

The first two songs of the album are Jon Lord compositions from his 1998 solo album “Pictured Within”. The first song, also titled “Pictured Within” is beautifully performed and sung by Miller Anderson. Lord’s piano work on this track is amazing, and it is just a beautiful song, so distant from what Deep Purple do, and yet so synonymous with his work on the keyboards. It is just magnificent. Then comes “Wait a While” featuring Sam Brown on vocals, which is just as poignant and beautifully performed. Even as I listened to this album over the last week, I found myself wondering why I haven’t sought out this album – Lord’s album – to listen to. I will be rectifying that in the coming days. Both of these tracks, and their vocalists, are truly wonderful. Beautiful.
The next two songs I have been well familiar with. For Roger Glover’s section, he decided to perform two songs from his own project from 1974, “The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper’s Feast”, something he hoped to turn into a musical and full blown event that never quite came to pass. However, here, he invited Ronnie James Dio to come and perform the two songs he sang on for the album in the role of Froggy – “Sitting in a Dream” and the wonderful “Love is All”. And they are both just sensational here with the symphony backing the band as well. Dio, as always, delivers in style, and both songs are as joyous as they are on the original album.
Then comes two tracks from Ian Gillan and his solo expeditions. The first track is “Via Miami” off the “Accidently on Purpose” album that he and Roger Glover released in 1988. Glover actually played all instruments on the original album while Gillan sang vocals and played his favourite harmonica. The version here is a more upbeat bluesy version with the horns from the symphony dominating in the foreground. His other song is “That’s Why God is Singing the Blues” from his third solo album “Dreamcatcher” in 1997. It was written by Dave Corbett, and as the title suggests is based in the real blues of the 40’s and 50’s.
Three more songs finish off the first CD of this two disc album. The first of those is Steve Morse’s contribution, a song from his days with his previous band the Dixie Dregs called “Take it Off the Top” from their second album “What If” from 1978. It is an instrumental that utilises the talents of then-current members Dave LaRue on bass and Rod Morganstein on drums. The last two songs are classic Deep Purple tracks that get a great backing from the symphony. First is the wonderful instrumental “Wring That Neck” from 1968’s “The Book of Taliesyn” which gets a great round of applause from the crowd in attendance, and then a stirring version of the “Machine Head” classic “Pictures of Home” another awesome version, and the first CD closes out in style.
The ”Concerto for Group and Orchestra” itself opens up CD 2. I think it is fabulous. Combining the Orchestra and the band in different points of view, at different moments throughout the three movements of the performance, is fantastic. There are moments where it is just the orchestra, moments where the band takes the lead, and then the moments where it all combines into a wonderful cacophony of instruments. Trying to describe it would be futile. Suffice to say that it is something worth sitting down and listening to. And it does need to be done in the home, through the stereo, and taking in the magnificence of it all. And while it may be sacrilegious to suggest this, I really believe Steve Morse’s performance on guitar outstrips that of Ritchie Blackmore on the original recording of 1969. Of course, the technology is better now but I really believe Morse’s guitar here is a standout. I haven’t added any of those three movements to this episode, because they are all lengthy. But I do recommend you get out there and listen to it, because it is well worth your time doing so.
Once this is completed, the band and their partners then bring forth three songs from their most recent albums – the terrific “Ted the Mechanic” from the “Purpendicular” album, the haunting “Watching the Sky” from the “Abandon” album, and the brilliant “Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming” from the “Purpendicular” album as well. All three are fabulous, sound wonderful and are a joy to hear in this environment.
The final song, as ever, is “Smoke on the Water”, one where they invite Ronnie James Dio on stage to help sing. The CD version has no problems, but it is interesting on the DVD version where Dio obviously forgets the lyrics to Deep Purple’s most famous song, and one he must have experienced many times when he was in Elf when they supported Deep Purple on many tours. Embarrassing? Not really, but a little funny all the same. And when Gillan lets the crowd sing the chorus on their own, it makes it all worthwhile.

I’ve never owned a copy of the original 1969 “Concerto for Group and Orchestra”. I’ve heard it plenty of times and generally have concentrated on the other songs that are done as a part of it. The concerto for me was never something I was particularly interested in having. I mean, in this day and age, if I find it on vinyl for a reasonable price, I will certainly buy it, but I don’t have the urge to go out there and find it.
When this album was released, I was back home in Kiama after five years living in Sydney, living with my parents and not earning a whole lot of money, so I didn’t get this when it was released. It wasn’t until closer to the end of the year that I decided to pick it up when I was far more financially viable, and it wasn’t so much for the concerto itself, it was for the additional pieces that came as a part of the album. And yes, those major parts included Ronnie James Dio. I enjoy the two songs from the Butterfly Ball and laugh during his attempt to sing “Smoke on the Water”. But Gillan’s solo songs are also great, and then you have those Deep Purple classics, firstly “Wring That Neck” and the wonderful “Pictures of Home”, and then the newer songs “Watching the Sky”, “Ted the Mechanic” and the marvellous “Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming”. All are terrific and are well performed with the symphony orchestra filling the gaps behind them. And the concerto itself? Yeah, it’s fine. If you put it on the stereo and have it going in the background while you are doing something else, you will find it is a well performed piece. It’s just that if you want to listen to Deep Purple you are going to go for the real stuff.
The concerto was performed a few more times over the next 12-18 months, and not long after this in February 2002, Jon Lord left the band he helped to create, in order to prioritise other musical avenues that he wanted to pursue. He said subsequently, "Leaving Deep Purple was just as traumatic as I had always suspected it would be and more so – if you see what I mean". That direction was the classical and orchestral direction, one that he followed with renew passion until his passing in 2012. And this album provides a lasting memory and tribute to not only the combined work of the members of Deep Purple, but of Jon Lord’s genius in being able to compose such a concerto, and yet be intimately involved in the writing and playing of some of the most memorable hard rock and heavy tracks of the 1970’s, both sides of which are still influenced by this today.

1276. Slayer / Live Undead. 1984. 4/5

In December 1983, Slayer had released their debut album “Show No Mercy”, the episode on which you can find on this podcast in Season 5. On the back of this the band began a short tour to promote the album and begin to expand their audience with the album in tow. Then in February of 1994, guitarist Kerry King joined Dave Mustaine’s new band Megadeth. No one really knew what was going on, not even King himself. The other three members of Slayer, bassist and vocalist Tom Araya, guitarist Jeff Hanneman and drummer Dave Lombardo were somewhat in a state of limbo, not knowing whether or not King was going to return to the band or whether they were going to have to go out and find another guitarist. As it turns out, King lasted five gigs in Megadeth before quitting, saying that it was taken up too much of his time. This created some tension between King and Mustaine for years afterwards.
By mid-1984 Slayer had recorded and released the three track EP “Haunting the Chapel”, with the sound increasing the thrash style that the band was moving towards. More turning followed, and in playing club venues across the US while travelling around in Araya’s Camaro and towing their gear in a rented U-Haul trailer.
On this tour, WBAB Fingers Metal Shop, a radio station, held a contest to meet and hang out with Slayer during a live recording. The album was recorded at Tiki Recording Studios in Glen Cove, NY in front of around a dozen people. The recording was originally intended to be done in front of a live audience, but things didn’t work out as planned. It has been questioned in many areas over the years as to whether the live noise heard on thw album actually took place on the night of the performance. The album’s producer Bill Metoyer was quoted in Joel McIver’s excellent book, “The Bloody Reign of Slayer” when asked about this that, “I don't know if I should tell you [if the crowd noises were faked]! Isn't that one of those great industry secrets? Let's just say that when you're doing a live record, you want live sound — even if perhaps the microphones didn't pick up the audience properly."
In the long run, it is a question that bears little meaning if you enjoy the performance. And given the band had only released one album at this point of their career, it was a perfect way to showcase what the band produced in the live environment, with their first live release “Live Undead”.

“Live Undead” is basically just an EP, with seven tracks in total with the running time a little over 23 minutes, and most of the material comes from the band’s debut album. The exceptions are the excellent “Captor of Sin” which came on the previously mentioned “Haunting the Chapel” EP a few months earlier, and “Aggressive Perfector” which had been on the “Metal Massacre Vol 3” compilation album and was then given a re-release on the future “Reign in Blood” album. Both versions here are absolutely stomping, especially “Captor of Sin” which is a truly fabulous song in the band’s discography.
The album begins with an extended introduction of "Black Magic", which sounds marvellous here as the opener. As with all of the tracks on this album, it is heavier and faster than its studio version, resulting in a much better showing for the song. This segues into the awesome “Die by the Sword” via Tom’s engagement, stating “They say the pen is mightier than the sword. Well, I say fuck the pen, cos you can die by the sword!", and away we go. Another excellent version of a great song. “Captor of Sin” follows, and then into “The Antichrist” which is given its best life by increased tempo. One small thing though – I guess I prefer Tom’s vocals on this track on recordings following this, where he doesn’t go for the high screams in the middle of the chorus, but sticks to the same register throughout. They’re both good but I think it sounds better when he doesn’t overextend the high-pitched screaming. That’s just a personal preference. From here the album moves swiftly through terrific versions of “Evil Has No Boundaries”, “Show No Mercy” and the aforementioned “Aggressive Perfector”, and tops off 23 minutes of velocity and aggression that perfectly encapsulates where Slayer the band was at this stage of their development.

My memory is usually pretty good when it comes to where and when I first heard an album or purchased an album, but I’m not 100% sure of the case with this album. My best guess is that I got this sometime after I first purchased the band’s defining live album “Decade of Aggression” in 1991, because that really blew me away. And I know when I did hear this album, I was trying not to compare versions of songs that appear on both. So that fits with that scenario.
I do know I’ve always enjoyed this album, short as it is. It isn’t as fast and thrashy as “Decade of Aggression” is, and I always thought that that is a great point between 1984 and 1991 with the band, especially considering what the released with “Reign in Blood” in 1986 and how fast the band had progressed in such a short time then. And it only doesn’t get played as often as it could because of its length, that I can go to other lengthened live recordings of the band and get the same experience.
In listening to this again in preparation for this review, I’ve actually listened to it a LOT, because I have been getting to the end of it and thinking “Wow, that’s just too short, I need to listen to that again!” and so I do. And it still holds up to this day, these four kids as they were at the time, still really just starting out, and showing the world (or apparently 12 people in a room) just what they had.
If you are a fan of the band you already own this and know it. If you have not heard it, it is an interesting listen worth 23 minutes of your time. About how long this podcast episode has gone for.

1271. Bruce Dickinson / Scream for Me Brazil. 1999. 5/5

By the time this album came to be released, the world of Bruce Dickinson had come full circle, and the hard work that he and his various band mates had put in over the previous six years was about to come to a conclusion that perhaps in many ways always felt inevitable.
Since his split with Iron Maiden in 1993, Bruce had experienced the ups and downs of life after the biggest ride of his career. Playing smaller venues, with less promotion and hype, hoping to build something away from the spotlight that he had been a part of for that previous decade, and on the back of albums such as “Balls to Picasso” and “Skunkworks”, discovering the pitfalls of putting your heart and soul into a project, and not getting back the unadulterated adulation you may have felt it deserved. He has commented in interviews since that he was at his lowest moment at this time, and felt perhaps he needed to start looking at another profession. Then through the help of partner in crime Roy Z and former partner in crime Adrian Smith, the rise began in earnest, with albums such as “Accident of Birth” and “The Chemical Wedding” which were lauded by critics and fans alike, and the quality of both of those albums meant Dickinson and his band were making inroads and beginning to become a force in the world of music. This, and the falling album and concert sales of Iron Maiden in that time frame, and the real possibility that that band would shrink in popularity considerably should something not be done about it, led to the announcement on February 10, 1999, that both Bruce and Adrian were returning to Iron Maiden as full time members, something that the world greeting with ecstasy and excitement. Of course, this meant that Bruce’s solo career would have to be put on hold, perhaps permanently, although he publicly stated that was not something he wanted to occur.
What it did mean was that his tour following this date could be celebrated on all fronts. A tour to promote “The Chemical Wedding” album with its amazing material, as well as celebrating the fact that soon fans would be able to hear new material and the live the reformed Iron Maiden, and the excitement that would bring. With this in mind, and as a way to give this period of his career the proper ending and send off, it was decided to release a live album from this tour, to properly give the end of this moment in time with a true reflection of the band at its peak, and of songs that may never again have been played in the live environment. And so, the show played on 25th April 1999 in Sao Paulo, Brazil was recorded for this purpose and released in the sunset of the band but the sunrise of the new dawn of Iron Maiden, and appropriately titled “Scream for Me Brazil!”.

The release of this live album had to be well conceived in order to make the most of the moment in time, and it appears there was also some discussion about what to include on the final release. Given that there were two former members of Iron Maiden in the Bruce Dickinson band, it was obvious that they would cover some of those songs in their live set list. On this tour, there were three Maiden songs each night, those being “Powerslave”, “2 Minutes to Midnight” and “Flight of Icarus”. All three songs were excluded from the final album release. Whatever decision process may have been invloved in that decision, whether it was just the fact that Bruce only wanted the bands songs on the album (which would be a reasonable action) or whether they decided against having songs from the band he and Adrian were about to rejoin so close to the reunion (quite possible) or whether it was just the time constraints on only having a single CD release rather than a double CD of the entire gig (also a reasonable action), they missed the final cut. And while it would have been great to hear those versions of those songs, it was not to be. Two other songs were also cut, those being “Tattooed Millionaire” and “Taking the Queen”.
Instead, we have 12 of the 17 songs played on that night, the first 11 songs, and then the penultimate song of the night “Road to Hell” closing out the album. And the first half of the setlist is all off the album they were touring to promote “The Chemical Wedding”. Indeed seven songs in total come from that album, a rare event when bands play live. But that was the best example of just how popular Bruce’s solo work was becoming with both “The Chemical Wedding” and “Accident of Birth”, that he and his band could play more than half of that album live and be feted for it rather than criticised. And the live versions hold up spectacularly well, being at least as good as the studio versions, and in places providing even more in the live environment than those studio versions could offer. And while those seven songs they play, “Trumpets of Jericho”, “King in Crimson”, “Chemical Wedding”, “Gates of Urizen”, “Killing Floor”, “Book of Thel” and “The Tower”, are spectacular, I can’t believe they didn’t play “Machine Men”. That for me is a missed opportunity.
Beyond that, we also getting excellent live versions of “Laughing in the Hiding Bush” and “Tears of the Dragon” from “Balls to Picasso”, and “Accident of Birth”, “Darkside of Aquarius” and “Road to Hell” from the “Accident of Birth” album, rounding out a fabulous live album.
The performances here are amazing. Eddie Casillas on bass and David Ingraham on drums excel again as they have on previous albums, while the dual guitars of Roy Z and Adrian Smith are superb. And of course, the voice him, who on this album proves he could still sing every song the same way as he does on the studio versions – and more! - the incomparable Bruce Dickinson.

Here’s my usual spiel about live albums, to get it out of the way. Live albums should be automatic 5/5 albums, because they should contain the bands best songs performed in their best environment. That is certainly the case here with “Scream for me Brazil”. It is a top shelf, top rated live album that everyone should check out.
Even more than that, this album proves that Rod Smallwood had to be very canny to protect his number one priority when it came to this situation. Because there is no doubt Bruce was in the ascendancy at this time, and this lie album is the final proof of that. Neither “The Chemical Wedding” nor “Accident of Birth” could have been written of recorded in Iron Maiden. It isn’t their style and has a different set of writers and people in charge that would not have occurred in the other group. “The Chemical Wedding” is a superior album in every respect over Maiden’s “The X Factor”. And if the status quo had remained onto another album cycle... would Maiden have survived? Would Bruce and band have gained further success? This live album asserts that the band was firing on the stage, and that this scenario was more than possible. And while Rod was probably just looking to save his longest investment by insisting that Steve and Bruce meet up and see if their differences could be resolved, he probably also saw the future and knew that the true longevity lay in Bruce, and Adrian, returning to Maiden and getting that ship righted and sailing true once again.
I bought this pretty much on its release, and it has been a gem from the first day I had it. And all of those thoughts ran through my head at the time... as excited as I was to see those two return to Maiden, and hear what the reunited band would produce, I also wondered if another Bruce Dickinson album would be just as worthwhile. We did of course eventually get another album, the Bruce and Roy written-by-correspondence effort of “Tyranny of Souls” which showed that even in that environment they could produce another great album, and of course more recently the excellent “The Mandrake Project”. In essence, we have had the best of both worlds. But this album does capture a moment in time, where this band was on a high, riding on the coattails in particular of two amazing studio albums, with the surge of momentum driving them to greater heights, and also of the butterflies of expectation of what the following year would bring with the return of Iron Maiden. All of that comes through on this album, and it is all the better for it.

1265. Deep Purple / Total Abandon: Australia '99. 1999. 5/5

Deep Purple’s relationship with Australia has waxed and waned over the years. In the early 1970’s they made some memorable trips down under, one resulting in wild crowd scenes on the stage and heated arguments with other bands, famously with a young brash AC/DC. There was then a long period where the band was on hiatus, before their highly publicised reformation in 1984 of the Mark II lineup, which resulted in the hit album “Perfect Strangers”. To kick off the world tour to promote their coming back together and their new album, the band started in Australia, where they met with the acclaim that the returning heroes would have wanted. And then... they disappeared again, once again forgoing the southern nation as they continued to fight amongst each other and tour the territories that were close to their residencies.
The band went through their changes, and eventually jettisoned Ritchie Blackmore as guitarist and chief instigator, completing the final sessions of the Mark II lineup. In his place came Steve Morse, and the more settled band then moved forward, rebuilding itself with the mid-1990's albums “Purpendicular” and “Abandon”. And as the decade and millennium began to wind down, the band decided to once again tour the shores of Australia for the first time in 15 years. And much excitement ensued, especially from those of us who had waited a lifetime to see the band live.
Now Deep Purple had not been reticent when it came to releasing live albums, something that continued well into the next decade. And now, for Australian audiences, they decided to record their show in Melbourne on April 20th, 1999, and then six months later they released a live DVD and a double live album of the entire show performed on that night. And what was even more amazing at that time was that it was ONLY released in Australia, so for a short space of time, only Australians were able to listen to and purchase this album. Eventually it was opened up to mail orders, and as with all things, it was eventually released worldwide. But if you are from Australia, and you bought the album when it was released, then like me you have one of the rare original release copies of this album. Which, I won’t deny, is a little special.

By the time Deep Purple came around to this tour, they had locked into their new style, one which they had been slowly morphing into even before Blackmore had left the band. They were no longer spring chickens, but they knew what their fans wanted to see. Ian Gillan had become the cool version of himself, Roger Glover continued to groove away on his bass guitar, Ian Paice could still play his way around his drumkit, Jon Lord didn’t almost tip his Hammond organ over anymore, but he was still playing it as hard as ever. And new boy Steve Morse showcased his wares without the over-the-top flair and pomposity that Blackmore had, but with a smile and a laugh and a whole lot of skill and talent. The overt energy and antics may have gone, but this band still knew how to give it all on stage to give the songs they played the majesty that they deserved.
And this meant no loss or lack of skill and expertise. Ian Gillan introduces every song in his inimitable style, and he could still hit those high notes at this stage, as is showcased here during the last verse of “Bloodsucker” in particular. The setlist contained a mix of the band’s newer tracks alongside the great old songs that they will always have to play. Showcasing their newer material in this setlist were songs such as “Ted the Mechanic”, “Almost Human”, “Watching the Sky” and “Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming”. Each of them sound terrific here, especially “Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming”, a modern day classic that provides the perfect example of where the band was heading with its newer music, a more contemporary sound but still with the ability to create a heavier sound when required but also be able to ride the emotions of the track. The live version here is superb.
Mixed in with this are the great songs of the band, the majority from that Mark II era, both pre and post reunion. “Bloodsucker”, “Strange Kind of Woman”, “Woman From Tokyo” and “Fireball”, alongside “Black Night” and “Speed King’ still all packed an enormous punch, and glow and sparkle in the live setting. “Perfect Strangers” with that wonderous Hammond organ opening from Jon Lord is still magnificent, and then the “Machine Head” specials such as “Pictures of Home”, one of the most underrated songs of their career, the awesome “Highway Star” which closes out the gig, and of course “Smoke on the Water”, which has an introduction guitar piece from Steve Morse where he also plays some of the great guitar riffs of all time as a part of his solo piece on stage. Overall, the set list and thus this album gives a great mixture of the old and the new from that time, and is a terrific snapshot of this line up and what they had to offer on stage.

My friends and I had waited pretty much from the time Deep Purple had toured Australia in 1984 for the time they would tour again. We missed that tour by a couple of years when it comes to listening to the band and also being old enough to find our way to a gig, so we patiently waited (well, not really) for their next tour. And waited. And waited. So when they finally made it to our shores, we were there lining up for tickets. We ended up seeing them in Sydney the night after this CD concert was recorded, so I can confirm that it is faithful to what the band played on that tour. And the best part of that was that the next day the band put up a secret show for sale, that was played at a much smaller and more intimate venue called Selina’s out at Bondi, for four days later on April 25th, Anzac Day in Australia. Fortunately, one of my best mates worked around the corner from a Ticketek office, and having sweet talked the girl at the front counter, he went in the following morning and was allowed in a couple of minutes early , and was able to purchase tickets for this gig precisely at 9.00am when they went on sale.
Perhaps the best part of that was that another of our best mates, my brother-in-law, had not been able to see Deep Purple at that first gig, and so we were able to get him the chance to see them. We DID make it a surprise, telling him that we were taking him to see the support band from Deep Purple, and not Deep Purple themselves. He finally clued in when we lined up to go in (after many schooners in the bar beforehand) and saw posters advertising Deep Purple playing there that night. And it was amazing, standing so close to these legendary musicians as they played all the hits all over again. The other memory of this concert and our best mates group was my heavy metal music dealer constantly asking when we were going to get some songs off “Burn” and “Stormbringer” and “Slaves and Masters”. Surprisingly enough, Ian Gillan was not forthcoming with any of them.
So yes, this double CD of the entire Melbourne concert of April 1999is a terrific listen. It mightn’t have the fire and power of “Made in Japan” for instance, but it has great tracks performed brilliantly by one of the great bands that has ever walked the earth. I’ve had it on again while composing this episode, and it brought back great memories again, as it always does. Whatever you may feel about the material the band produced in the second half of its career, I think you’ll find something worth listening to on this album.

1262. Gary Moore / We Want Moore! 1984. 4/5

Even though he had been a mainstay in several bands through the previous decade and longer, Gary Moore’s expansion into a solo career had arguably been his best move over that time. Having said that, there was a very haphazard way that he went about recording and releasing albums. Some albums were recorded and then shelved for several years, others were only released in Japan, and didn’t find a wider release until some years later. He would record an album, and then not release it and instead join another group and record and tour with them. He would juggle roles in bands such as G-Force and Thin Lizzy with his own work, and sometimes that could get confusing.
In 1984, Moore was touring on the back of his most recent album, “Victims of the Future”, and during this tour the decision was made to record some shows with an eye to releasing a live album. It was an interesting decision, because when this album was finally released, it was the third Gary Moore live album that had been released in an 18 month period, but again with that strange quirk of organisation. The first had been “Rockin’ Every Night – Live in Japan” in May 1983, but it was only released in Japan. It didn’t get that wider release in Europe until 1986, which was when I came across it. So although it was his first live release, the audience was very narrow until three years later. This was followed by “Live at the Marquee” which was released in September 1983, but this concert had been recorded in November 1980, and so was already three years old when it came to be released. And now we had a third live album being recorded and released, but in many ways it was his first live album, released on the back of the album he was touring on at the time, and with the best of the songs that he had recorded to that point of his career. And as a means of showing the world just how good he and his supporting band was at this time, “We Want Moore!” is a pretty good way of doing it.

“We Want Moore!” contains ten tracks, recorded at four different concerts from around the world in 1984. The venues included Detroit, Tokyo, Glasgow and Hammersmith, and the songs are spread over four different Gary Moore albums, including their most recent one at the time, “Victims of the Future”, along with “Corridors of Power” and “Back on the Streets” and “G-Force”. All of the songs live versions here are superb, and are completely faithful to the studio versions. And not only is Gary’s guitar as brilliant to listen to as always, but his vocals are also sublime. And that’s one of the things that is sometimes looked over when it comes to Gary Moore’s career, the fact that his vocals are so terrific. It seems strange that on certain albums, in particular the “Run for Cover” album, that he utilised different vocalists on some tracks.
He is also joined on this live album by the talented and versality Neil Carter, who would be a mainstay in his band through his hard rock career in particular. As a musician who would switch from keyboards to rhythm guitar and back when necessary during live shows, as well as lending his excellent vocals to back up Moore’s own singing, Carter was a major contributor to Gary Moore’s live show and albums, and he is excellent here in every role. Craig Gruber, who was best known for being in Elf and playing on the first Rainbow album, contributes bass guitar here and is also excellent, while the incomparable Ian Paice is on drums.
The song selection overall is very good. Opening up with the terrific “Murder in the Skies”, the album is off to a great start. Written about the plane shot down by the USSR over South Korea in the early 1980’s the song still packs a punch lyrically and musically. This is followed by “Shapes of Things” which is a cover of The Yardbirds song that Gary covered on the “Victims of the Future” album. Gary has covered the odd song through his career, and generally performs his version better than the original, and that is certainly the case here. To complete the album trilogy, they then play the title track to that album, another classic from Moore’s career that sounds much bigger here in the live setting than the studio version. Then comes the duo of songs from “Corridors of Power”, “Cold Hearted” and “End of the World”, which then jumps into the excellent and faster pace of “Back on the Streets”, one of his breakthrough early hits that is still as good today as when it was first released. The middle of the album then brings out Gary’s power ballad tracks, firstly with the instrumental “So Far Away” which segues into “Empty Rooms”, performed as well as always. After this mellow break, the album concludes in a rollicking style, firstly with “Don’t Take Me for a Loser” and then finishing off with “Rocking and Rolling” in blistering style.

From the first time I saw and heard Gary Moore playing the song “Wishing Well” in a live clip on late night Rage on ABCTV back in 1986, I was a fan. Loved his guitar, loved his vocals, loved the song. From there it was get as much Gary Moore in my life as I could. Perhaps surprisingly then, this album was not one I got until many years later. I had the “Live in Japan” album very early on, and this was my go to live album for years, and this one didn’t seem to be widely available in any of the music shops that I frequented in the 1980’s, and once the 1990’s came and Moore headed off to the blues sunset, most of his rock albums became even more scarce. So it wasn’t until after his death that I actually discovered a copy of this album and began to listen to it. My heavy metal music dealer back in the late 1980’s had the VHS of a Gary Moore live concert that had several versions of these songs on it so I wasn’t completely unfamiliar with it, but it was nice to finally have my own copy. I do have a quirk with live albums, in that I do prefer to have a whole concert from one night at one venue, but if they are complied well then it doesn’t make any difference, and that is certainly the case here. All the songs merge together nicely and it sounds terrific all the way through. And so it should! A live album, as I have said many times before, should be almost always a 5/5 album, as it contains the best songs in their best environment. And for the most part this lives up to the bargain. Gary’s guitaring on this album is just superb. He shows off all his wares and holds the centre as always. The song choices are excellent... well, I’d have swapped “Empty Rooms” for something else, but you can’t have everything, can you.
This sadly was also the final live album Moore recorded, at least with his rock song era. There were several more to come that concentrated on his blues era from 1990 onwards, which showcased his skills and talent, but of music that I was generally not fond of. But this album does give us some great live versions of some great live songs, and that is worth the journey itself.

1250. Alcatrazz / Live Sentence. 1984. 3.5/5

Alcatrazz as a band came together not long after lead singer Graham Bonnet was dismissed from the Michael Schenker Group, which had come not long after his dismissal from Rainbow. The initial line up of the band, with Bonnet alongside guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen, bass guitarist Gary Shea, keyboardist Jimmy Waldo and drummer Jan Uvena, had released their debut album “No Parole from Rock and Roll” in October 1983, the episode of which you can hear in Season 5 of this podcast.
On the back of this album the band toured extensively through the US and Europe, along with Japan, where the band’s song "Hiroshima Mon Amour" had become popular. This had led to the band deciding to record the concerts that they performed at the Nakano Sun Plaza in Tokyo on January 28 of 1984, with the intention to release a live recording to showcase what the band could do in a live setting. When they listened to the tapes on playback, Yngwie Malmsteen was particularly unhappy with the quality of the recordings and fought hard to prevent them being released as an album. He failed in his efforts, which just added to the list of grievances that he had been having with the band and in particular Graham Bonnet himself. The resulting album was then released less than three months after the concert had been played, and as a play on words of the name of the band was titled “Live Sentence”

The original release of the live album had nine tracks, four of which came from the band’s debut studio album. The double A-side single “Island in the Sun” which gained the band popularity in Japan because of the song “Hiroshima Mon Amour” attached to it has both songs on this album, and both do sound better here in the live environment than on their studio versions. Bonnet’s vocals especially on “Hiroshima on Amour” are fantastic and showcase what a terrific voice he does have. The old man youth anthem of “Too Young to Die, Too Drunk to Live” (or perhaps it’s just a Bonnet autobiographical song) opens up the album here and gets the energy flowing from the outset. And the final of those four tracks is “Kree Nakoorie” which opens up side two of the album, and again translates well to the live environment.
This left more than half of the album filled with songs that weren’t by the band themselves, which seems strange even in an environment where with only one studio album having been released it would have necessitated bringing in songs from the outside. “Night Games” came from Bonnet’s third solo album, released after his short stint with Rainbow. This single had reached number six in the UK on its release, so acts as a track that some fans at least would have recognised. Speaking of Rainbow, two of the songs from Bonnet’s album with that band are also featured here, the two singles released from that band’s “Down to Earth” album “Since You Been Gone” and “All Night Long”. One assumes this would have appeased Malmsteen as well as he was such a Ritchie Blackmore fan, and listening to him playing guitar on both these tracks you can tell he is ecstatic at the prospect. The other two tracks are down to Malmsteen himself, soloing on a track simply called “Coming Bach” which has a popular and well known tune from the famous composer, and “Evil Eye”, an instrumental song written by Yngwie here, that eventually also showed up on his debut studio album “Rising Force” later that year, and became one of his signature pieces.
The 2016 remastered edition of the album contains the whole setlist and the track list is restored to the concert running order, and includes other tracks from the debut album in “Big Foot” and “Suffer Me”, along with the brilliant Michael Schenker Group song “Desert Song” and another Rainbow song in “Lost in Hollywood”. If you were indeed to wish to buy the album, this would be the version to hunt down, as it also contains a DVD of the performance.
Throughout the album, the band sounds fine, but the dominating factors are Graham Bonnet’s vocals and Yngwie Malmsteen’s guitaring. Both are just amazing on every song, and it is unfortunate that the two of them couldn’t find a way to work together longer, as their combination is truly something worth listening to.

Having come across Alcatrazz at the end of the 1980’s, essentially through the names Graham Bonnet and Yngwie Malmsteen, I have always found them to be a band that has all the ability in the world, but for the most part their albums fell short of what I expected, or at least what I was hoping for. Let’s face it, both characters named here have been known for their volatile natures, and neither can seem to hold a place down in a band for longer than one or two albums at most. In this case Yngwie lasted one, before striking out on his own with his Rising Force solo project, where he still seems to be unable to retain a solid band around himself, but at least he is in charge of the hiring and firing. Bonnet’s previous history and litany of bands is well known, and would continue beyond this album and band.
And yet, as I always say when it comes to a live album, it should be a highly rated album, as it contains all of the band’s best songs, in their best environment. And that certainly occurs here. And even if you are a little ambivalent about the band’s debut album, what you do get here is those songs energetically performed live, surrounded by a host of other great tracks from Bonnet’s other bands, and some Malmsteen composed acoustic songs where he showcases all of his guitaring talents.
While I have listened to this album in the past, it has never really been with wholehearted interest. It comes up next in the rotation, and I have shrugged my shoulders and let it run. So when it came around to review for this podcast, I put it on and thought, ‘well, if it isn’t very good, perhaps I’ll just skip it’. Well, that didn’t happen. Instead, I’ve had it running for over two weeks, at least once a day in that time period, and have found it most enjoyable. And yes, it is for Bonnet’s amazing vocals, and every magical Malmsteen guitaring moment. Both are hard to ignore, and both have been terrific. If you are a fan of either, then I would suggest you grab this and have a listen, if only to experience this era of the two main conspirators. If you aren’t a fan of these two... then I’m sure you’ve already decided that this podcast episode will suffice for you ever having to track the album down.

1228. Iron Maiden / Live at Donington 1992. 1993. 5/5

As has been noted on a few recent episodes in regards to Iron Maiden albums, 1992 and 1993 were not easy years for the band. Bruce Dickinson had already made his decision and announced that he was quitting the band by the time the Fear of the Dark tour concluded late in 1992, and yet the band had already announced further dates for 1993, which Bruce somewhat reluctantly agreed to complete, which took up another 6 months of 1993. During this time, the band did not get on as they had done, and by its conclusion it is probably fair to say that everyone was relieved.
With Bruce leaving the band, they had decided to record and release two separate live albums in 1993, being “A Real Live One” - the episode of which you can find in Season 4 of this podcast - and “A Real Dead One” - the episode of which you can find just a few episodes back here in Season 5. While both sold well as you would expect, one of the main criticisms of the releases was that they were both a collection of live songs, taken from different concerts at different times during the tour. Having had the wonderful “Live After Death” album eight years beforehand, what most Maiden fans were after was another complete concert recording, which reflected how Maiden sounded at that time.
Now, whether this was taken on board by the management and record company, or whether they just saw another opportunity to make a great big pile of cash, something facilitated the release of this album, along with the concert footage in full on video as well, which is the complete set of Iron Maiden’s headlining gig at Castle Donington in August 1992, one where perhaps for the final time before the full reformation of the band seven years later showcased just how good this band was when they were at the peak of their powers. The fact that the gluttony of releasing three live albums in the space of eight months was possibly overlooked in the chase for sales didn’t stop the fans from rushing to their record retailers and buying all three albums up in huge numbers.

Initially this was a limited edition 2 CD release, with the plain white cover and not meant to be a full album release. As such, when it first went on sale 30 years ago it was highly sought. Eventually, with all things such as this, it was re-released to a wider audience worldwide and on various formats.
The gig contains the full setlist from the Fear of the Dark tour than the band was in the middle of at the time, this containing a large mix of recent release songs and then the well worn classics (not as well worn then as they are now!). The then current album had plenty of representation, with “Be Quick or Be Dead”, “From Here to Eternity”, “Wasting Love”, “Afraid to Shoot Strangers”, and “Fear of the Dark” all appearing in the first half of the setlist. All of the versions are great here, even the title track, which I admit I have tired of over the years. But the versions done on this tour, when the song was fresh and new, are all terrific, and is again here. Also, as I am sure was made obvious on previous episodes, I am not a fan in any way of the song “Wasting Love”. To me it was a mistake releasing it as a single, and in ever playing it live, as it is a momentum killer. On the other hand, “Afraid to Shoot Strangers” is a gem, mixed with both high velocity power and also emotion. A great song performed beautifully here. These songs on the first CD are all perfectly interspaced with old and new, with “The Number for the Beast” and “Wrathchild” coming at the top of the song list, and ten “Can I Play With Madness?”, “Tailgunner” ad “The Evil That Men Do” providing a great lift as soon as they come out of the speakers. The whole first CD – well, OK, apart from “Wasting Love” - is a real triumph.
The second CD starts with three fantastic songs from the then middle age of Iron Maiden’s great hits, the brilliant “Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter”, the magnificent “The Clairvoyant” and the fantastic “Heaven Can Wait”. What a truly awesome run of three songs to be able to watch live in concert. Action packed, fast paced and Bruce’s vocals at the top of their game.
This then leads us into the prehistoric era of the band, finishing off the night with those great songs that their earliest fans grew up with and still demand in the live setting. You know them all. “Run to the Hills”, “2 Minutes to Midnight”, “Hallowed Be Thy Name”, “The Trooper”, and then “Sanctuary” into “Running Free”. A pretty fair way to finish off your night, and this album. The final song “Running Free” also features an appearance from former guitarist Adrian Smith, coming on stage to be reminded of what he left behind when he left the band in 1989.

It was an interesting time when this live album came out. As already mentioned, this was the third live album that Iron Maiden had released in 1993, which is overkill in anyone’s language. Beyond this, there were mixed emotions, because when this album was actually recorded it would have been one of the highlights of the band’s career, headlining the Donington Festival in front of 80,000 fans, and yet when it was released just over a year later, it was at one of the lowest ebbs that the band had faced. And as a fan I felt that same way. This was a great album, showcasing everything brilliant about one of my favourite all time bands, and yet it was also showcasing what we would now miss with the departure of Bruce Dickinson.
This album is not in question in regards to quality and quantity. As I often remark, live albums should be an automatic 5/5 rating, because they have the band’s best songs played in their best environment. And that is certainly the case here. While the other two live albums released in 1993 may have some flaws, this full concert album does not. A great set list, all performed fantastically.
Is it an essential album for fans of the band? In the main, if you have “Live After Death” you have the band’s best live album. Both the “Maiden Japan” EP and “Maiden England” album from the Seventh Son tour are also terrific, and this actually makes a solid set with those three albums. Iron Maiden does have a lot of live albums now, but this is still great to listen to.
I saw Iron Maiden for the first time two months after this gig was played, in Sydney in October 1992. Due to a terrible mix and soundboard problems it was, unfortunately, a forgettable concert in the main. And this album was both a relief that it is so good when it came out, and a disappointment because the night I saw them sounded nothing like this. Thankfully for me, better Maiden concerts were to come, but not for a very very long time.

1224. Black Sabbath / Reunion. 1998. 5/5

For almost 20 years from 1979, when Ozzy Osbourne finally parted ways with Black Sabbath, the fan base constantly speculated about the possibility of a reunion of the original foursome to not only tour but to record a new album. No matter how good other lineups of the band happened to be, or how enjoyable the albums that they released were, there was a somewhat morbid anticipation of what might occur should the individuals Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward and Ozzy Osbourne ever get on the same stage again, and then the studio.
There were some close calls along the way that tried to amount to something but eventually fell short. The four did get on stage together to play a three song set at Live Aid in 1985, but it was a far cry from an outstanding success. Up against the biggest bands of the era, they failed to show the same energy that came from many of the other acts, and they all went their separate ways once again. Then there was the ill-fated appearance at what was to be Ozzy’s final touring performance when Iommi, Butler and Ward agreed to support Ozzy at that gig, and then come out at the end as the original quartet to play a couple of songs. It resulted in that current formation of Black Sabbath, with Ronnie Dio and Vinny Appice, collapsing on the spot. From here there was an attempt for these four to get together and compose some new material, but old scars and wounds seemed to reopen, and the venture once again fell apart as they all moved on again.
Eventually in 1997, for Ozzy’s own Ozzfest festival, Ozzy, Tony and Geezer came together to play as Black Sabbath, with Mike Bordin from Faith No More filling in for an absent Ward on drums, and played a set of classic songs to a rousing reception. This led to yet another bout of ‘will they-won't they’ discussion on a possible reunion. Following the success of these gigs, the four got together, and managed to agree on playing two nights in their home city of Birmingham in November 1997, which they would record to release as a live album under the name Black Sabbath. This was despite their still being concerns over Bill Ward’s ability to play two gigs given his health problems. Another former Sabbath drummer in Vinny Appice was on hand to step in if required, which fortunately did not eventuate. And so, the fans finally got what they were after, a true Black Sabbath reunion, even if it was only on stage. Or so everyone was led to believe.

So what we have here is a two CD set, unless you have just purchased the brand new anniversary release on 3LP’s, that contains a great mix of songs from Black Sabbath’s era of 1970 to 1978, the era of the band that many hard core fans believe is the ONLY era of the band. And, looking back now, it’s probably a little hard to believe that these guys were still amazingly young. They were all under 50 years of age when this was recorded, well within the prime of their playing existence. And it comes across here beautifully. All of the songs played are classics, and while the versions may not be as fast of energetic as they were back when the band was in its prime in the 1970’s, they sound magnificent on this album. The production and recording of the two nights is done perfectly, and the result is a fantastic live album.
You get the songs you expect. The opening battle cry of “War Pigs”, the psychedelic ramblings of “Fairies Wear Boots”, the drug anthemic lines of “Sweet Leaf” and “Snowblind”. The majesty of “Black Sabbath” and “Iron Man”, the heaviest riff ever written in “Children of the Grave” and the afterthought of “Paranoid”. All are performed here exactly as you would expect, and their impact is significant. There are the other great tracks you would expect to hear as well, such as “N.I.B” (complete with a stage intruder at the end of the song proclaiming his love of Ozzy and the band before being dragged off) and the fantastic “Electric Funeral”, the power doom of “Into the Void” and “Lord of This World”. Each of them is terrific.
There are a couple of surprises, but none of them is a disappointment. In fact for me they are a highlight. Who would have expected “Spiral Architect” to make the cut, and yet it is a brilliant version of this classic song. I’m not sure anyone was expecting “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath”, if only for the reason that there is no way Ozzy could have sung this song in its original pitch, even at that stage of his career. But play it they did, and Ozzy’s subtle change in the way he sings it just gives it a different character that is fun to hear. And the wonderful version of “Dirty Women” from “Technical Ecstasy” is perfect, and great to have a song this far into their catalogue get a run for this album.
Perhaps the biggest talking point at the time of this album’s release was the addition of two new studio tracks, “Psycho Man” and “Selling My Soul”, both written by Ozzy and Tony. These were done in Aril and May of 1998, when there was a concerted effort to try and write for a new album. The sessions went slowly however, and eventually these two songs were all that eventuated from them. The differences in their styles are obvious, and given where each of the four members were at in their careers at that point in time, perhaps it is not difficult to understand how it would hard to write together again.

And we’re back with my overly typical comment – and if you are listening to these episodes in release order you’ll know exactly what I mean, as this is the third live album in a row I have podcasted on – in that a live album should ALWAYS be a 5/5 experience, because you have the band’s best songs in their best environment. And with “Reunion”, you absolutely have that. The return of the original line up of Black Sabbath, playing a bunch of their greatest ever tracks in front of an ecstatic audience, and having the time of their lives.
This truly is a terrific live album. Sabbath to this point had not done many live albums, and had barely taken the chance to do so when this line up was together. It is only in recent years, with the re-release of deluxe versions of those classic albums, that they have included rare and unreleased recordings of concerts from those grand old days, and they are all quite brilliant. But for the most part, despite the hurriedly released “Live at Last” album, this line up hadn’t had a proper live release. And this absolutely does the band justice. Bill’s drumming mightn’t be anything like he did in the day but it still fits the bill (pun intended). The ‘wall of noise’ known as Geezer and Tony is simply superb, both still supreme on their instruments, while Ozzy’s vocals are still amazingly good throughout.
I bought this within a few days of its release and loved it immediately. It was one of the highlights of my music purchases of 1998. My best memory of listening to this album was being at a get together at a mates house in my home town of Kiama, where he was renting a house that looked down the local beach into town. We had this album cranking during the BBQ and beers that went into the night, and it was brilliant singing along and air guitaring to each song as it came on. I highly recommend listening to the album this way.
The quartet tried again to write a new album in 2002, but they just couldn’t find a way to make it work, which Iommi always regretted as he believed that the songs they did produce were top shelf. Eventually, following the Heaven and Hell project and then Dio’s sad demise, Iommi, Butler and Osbourne did write and record a final Black Sabbath album titled “13”... but that story is for another day.

1208. Ozzy Osbourne / Live & Loud [Live]. 1993. 5/5

By the time Ozzy Osbourne had released his “No More Tears“ album, an episode of which you can listen to on Season 1 of this podcast, he had decided that he had become jaded and sick of touring, and that he would go out on one final world tour, calling it the “No More Tours” tour, and that a resulting live album recorded on that tour would be his final album. Looking back now, thirty years ago, it seems like a facetious remark, given that even into his 70’s now and suffering from a number of ailments including Parkinson’s disease, he’s still out there making live appearances. And given that there have been a number of things said over the years that appear to be more of a promoting of Ozzy and his music, and things including reality shows and series made which, in the long run, come across as brazen promotion of the artist and his music, is it so wild to believe that the whole “No More Tours” thing was just a way of selling out more shows and selling more albums? Or was it simply a case that once he had gone on a break following this tour, that he realised how bored he was, and that it was making music that was keep him going? In the long run, it probably doesn’t matter, that even if it was a promotional tool it turned out to be a good one, but other things that went into it did create some ructions.
As it was going to be his last time out, Ozzy invited the other three original members of Black Sabbath to come out on his final night and have a reunion for the encore, and asked the band to play as support for that night. At the time, Sabbath was touring on their “Dehumanizer” album with Ronnie James Dio back as lead singer. When Iommi and Butler agreed to this, Dio dead set refused, saying that to be considered as a support act for Ozzy was degrading for the band and not what their status demanded. It caused this second formation of this lineup of Sabbath to dissolve immediately (although the band played the support slot with Rob Halford filling in on vocals), and also eventually led to a reunion of the original foursome for a tour in 1997, though a new album did not eventuate from this.
All in all, lots of consequences came from the tour that this live album was recorded on. Most of all, it produced a cracking live album of some of the best music Ozzy and his bandmates ever produced.

The “No More Tours” tour stretched through the back half of 1992, and the songs from this live album were taken from several shows on that run, including from Orlando, Atlanta and Cincinatti.
The first thing to consider here are the performances. And they don’t miss a beat. Ozzy is in fine form, no doubt standing in front of his autocue to make sure he doesn’t forget the words, but he sings everything terrifically. Zakk Wylde on guitar is as awesome as ever, every nuance of every song is found with the correct ting of the string, from the ferocity of “War Pigs” and “Bark at the Moon” to the mood swings of “Mama I’m Coming Home” and “Goodbye to Romance”. He was truly on a prominent rise at this stage, before his journey into Black Label Society, when this was the dream gig that he had been waiting for. Mike Inez finds all of those wonderful Bob Daisley written bass runs perfectly through each song, and Randy Castillo is as powerful as ever on the drums. The performance of the band here is second to none.
The song set list is also a who’s who of the best that Ozzy has to offer. The Sabbath tracks “Paranoid” and “War Pigs” are as bombastic as always. The mix of tracks for the rest comes from all six of the studio albums to that point in time, with the focus remaining on the album they were touring on at the time, “No More Tears” with five songs from that album. Only one song appears from each of the mid-era albums, represented by “Bark at the Moon”, “Shot in the Dark” and “Miracle Man”, while the Randy era albums get the six classic tracks played, as one would expect.
At the end of the album we have the aforementioned reunion of the original four members of Black Sabbath performing that title track, which, while it was a somewhat momentous moment at the time, has paled into insignificance in the years since. And for all the grief it caused at the time, with Dio leaving Sabbath again and Tony Martin returning to Sabbath again, and Ozzy deciding he WASN’T going to retire after all and in fact go on for another 30 years of albums and tours, including one more with Black Sabbath again... it feels more and more like an Ozzy promotional exercise than any other possibility. But in the long run, the people behind Ozzy’s career were always looking for those angles.

The most annoying part of this album’s recording and release was that, once again, Australia got looked over for a tour by the band, and as it had been ‘the final tour’ we believed we were never going to get to see him perform these songs live, which was very frustrating.
I got the album on its release and played it on rotation over a long period of time. The live versions of all the songs were just fantastic. Sure, perhaps the Randy era versions on the “Tribute” album were better, but not by much. And it was great to hear songs like “Bark at the Moon” and “Miracle Man” get the live treatment.
And as I’ve said before here when reviewing live albums for this podcast, live albums really all should be brilliant, because you are getting the best songs in their best environment, and that is absolutely true of “Live & Loud”. Great songs, performed by a great band. And there is probably no better way to “finish” your career than for it to be with this song.

1207. Deep Purple / Nobody's Perfect [Live]. 1988. 5/5

In many ways, the release of this new live album by Deep Purple came at the right time. Having brought back their classic line up, toured the world endlessly and brought out two brand new albums, ones that showcased each member of the band perfectly and also showed that they could still write songs and albums that were contemporary of the time yet retained the essence of what made them Deep Purple, all that really remained was to show that they were still doing that on stage as well.
On top of this, the ability to not only play their newer material live was counter argued that they had to show they could still pay the older material with the fire and passion that they always had in the past, and that they still deserved in the next decade.
Recording of the live tracks took place in several locations, including Irvine Meadows California, Phoenix, Oslo and Milan. As it is a collection of live tracks from several shows rather than just one concert, there is a fade in and out between most of the songs on the album, which is something with live albums that can sometimes annoy me greatly. However, it is done so seamlessly here that it doesn’t affect the enjoyment of the album at all. Roger Glover as producer finds a way of putting these fades in without destroying the live appearance which is excellent. The mix between the old, well known songs and the newer material is also well done, so that it doesn’t feel as though there is a proliferation of one over the other when listening to the album for the first time.

The first half of the album concentrates on material from the two albums released in the 80’s, “Perfect Strangers” and “The House of Blue Light”. “Perfect Strangers” and “Knocking at Your Back Door” both come from the aforementioned album, while “Dead or Alive”, “Hard Lovin’ Woman” and “Bad Attitude” are from the album they were touring on at the time. Other songs were played on the tour from that album, including “Call of the Wild” and “The Unwritten Law” but didn’t make the cut here, which seems unusual as “Call of the Wild” was the single released from that album. All the new tracks sound great here, which makes it unfortunate that most rarely saw the light of day live again.
Of the rest, all the great songs from the bands golden era are here - “Highway Star”, “Strange Kind of Woman”, “Child in Time”, “Lazy”, “Space Truckin’”, “Black Night”, “Woman from Tokyo” and “Smoke on the Water” - songs that would be hard to leave out of any Deep Purple set list.
What is also great about this album is that it shows the play off that goes on stage during their gigs, banter between Ian Gillan and bandmates and the crowd as well, Ritchie Blackmore chiming in with doodles and riffs from other songs which Gillan then plays along with. For two guys who had a long running disagreement while in the band together, they still did this kind of stuff really well.
The last song on the album is a reimagining of one of Deep Purple’s earliest hits, “Hush”, this one with Ian Gillan on vocals and a modern sound to it. Personally, I love this version, more than the original. It’s how the song always sounds to my ears now even when I hear the other versions that have been recorded.
The band, as you would expect, sound brilliant as always. Apart from Gillan and Blackmore, Jon Lord’s organ playing is magnificent, and his little solo leading up to “Knocking at Your Back Door” is wonderful. And the rhythm of Roger Glover and Ian Paice as always drives the band from the back seat, rarely afforded a leading position in front of the other three, but just as important in bringing the power to the songs, and in particular to the intro to one of Purple’s best ever songs.

There were several releases of this album with different variations of the songs available on them due to time constraints of the audio device produced, and I have owned all of them over the years. I initially bought the cassette version because it was the only copy available at my local record store when I found it, and so it went into the car and was played a lot at that time. Eventually I bought a CD copy of the album some years later to complement it.
I loved both of the albums the band released in the 1980’s, and therefore loved this album that combined the old and the new together in a terrific format. And given that I never believed I would get a chance to see the band live, this was as good as it got for me. Fortunately, down the road, I got that opportunity.
As live albums go, this gets an A from me. You know my opinion of lie albums, they should ALL be good because they contain the best songs, but as this one does combine the two eras of the Mark II lineup, it is especially good. Sure, you won't get any of the Coverdale/Hughes/Bolin songs here, as is also the case since the 1970’s sadly, but you will get some great songs performed excellently. And that in itself is worth the price of admission.

1189. Van Halen / Live: Right Here, Right Now. 1993. 4/5

Few people were aware of it at the time, but this album became one of the final releases on Van Halen, though the band was still active beyond this for 25 years. With several albums having now been released with Sammy Hagar at the helm, there were already nervous kicking at the ground and whispered thoughts behind closed doors as to how much further the band could go in its current form.
One thing that the band had not done by the time it had finished its “For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge” album was released an official live album, showcasing the greatness of the band and the four individuals who were a part of it. And whatever the decision making behind this album eventually being recorded, it still seems as though it didn’t go as smoothly as it probably should have, given it had been almost 20 years that Van Halen had toured the US in particular.
The album was recorded over two nights in Fresno, California, with a combining of performances over the double album release. However, what seemed to damn this release was the fact that the original show had been broadcast at the time of it being played, and when fans heard what was on offer with this album, it was apparent that some post-production work had been done. The originally broadcast concert had a rawer sound that was much closer to what people thought of as the Van Halen live sound, whereas this album had differences in both the instruments and the vocals. It was later revealed by Hagar in his 2011 autobiography that the Van Halen’s had tinkered with the speed of the recording and other factors in order to fix up perceived problems in the live set. Hagar said this then made his vocals sound out of key and sync. As a result, he was asked to come into the studio, and sing along with the video of the gig, and completely re-record his vocals. Now, other live albums over the years have used a similar technique and have survived the scrutiny that was on offer at the time, and to be honest this album has as well. Unfortunately, because it is the only true live album the band released, it perhaps doesn’t give the clearest indication of the powerhouse that van Halen was when on stage because of this.

The band certainly made up for not having had a live album prior to this one. The two CD release covers almost two and a half hours of live songs and performances. And while ignoring a little the news I have already related over the post-production issues, it sounds terrific, but especially on those songs where the energy is at its highest, and the band gets to really showcase what they do.
But... and there almost always is a BUT when it comes to live albums... there are a couple of things that I find grate on my conscience a little. The first is the insertion of both a bass solo and a drum solo. Now I know the band was renown for these, and that it was a part of their live act through their whole career. But do we need to have them placed on a live album? How many of you out there, on ANY live album that contains bass, drum or guitar solos, actually listen them all when you are listening to the album? Truly! Because I know that when its on CD I press skip immediately, and when it is on vinyl I groan my way through until we reach the next song. They are unnecessary. Great when you see a band live, but please don’t hold up the momentum of the album by putting them on here.
Secondly, where are all the songs from pre-1985? I know the band pretty much only played their big singles from the 1978-1984 era once Dave had been let go, and I’m sure that grated on fans who saw the band during this era, but how can you release a double live album, with 24 songs on it, and only have four Roth era songs on it? And one of those was “You Really Got Me” which of course is a Kinks cover! So three Roth era tracks, but we also have TWO Sammy Hagar solo tracks on here, and a cover of The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again”! Now, come on. Were we just trying to wipe away half of the back catalogue because another guy was singing on it? Imagine Black Sabbath not playing any Ozzy era tracks when Dio was singing? How about Iron Maiden ignoring their first two albums once Bruce Dickinson arrived? It just doesn’t make sense.
And finally, while I am all in favour of bands promoting their latest album in order to show how good their new material is, surely playing 10 out of the 11 songs from their then current album “For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge” is just way over the top. I mean, how bad could “The Dream is Over” have been to miss out on being included on this album? (though they did actually play it). They could probably have just played that whole album in one hit, and then bunched the hits together in the second half of the concert. I mean, that’s been done plenty of times since. They could have been the originals when it came to this trend if they had.

I bought this album on a whim sometime in the late 1990’s at a shopping centre in Erskineville in Sydney, probably sometime not long before I eventually got to see Van Halen live for the first and only time – though by this time it was Gary Cherone who was fronting the band. I hadn’t heard anything by Van Halen since the “OU812” album, so I do remember getting through this for the first time and wondering what the hell had I just listened to. Probably was always going to be the case given I hadn’t heard the “For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge” album at all, and that I had been expecting to hear great Roth era songs such as “Unchained”, “Hot for Teacher”, “Mean Streets” and “Dance the Night Away”, just to name a few. Instead, I got this album, which at the time was a slight disappointment. Then I went off, saw Van Halen with Cherone which was absolutely sensational, and then promptly put this back in the CD shelves to be mostly forgotten for the next 20-odd years.
Pretty much until two weeks ago, when I pulled it out again to prepare for this podcast episode. And, not surprisingly, I have enjoyed this immensely. Time can sometimes be a comfort, and hearing Hagar singing at his peak has been totally worth the time spent. And, to be honest, it’s the vocals here that really win the day. And perhaps with Eddie’s growing love of synths and keyboards in this phase of the band’s career, that isn’t completely surprising. Because while there are still some good guitar pieces in the current material of the album, most of it is based around the soft rock ballad than the hard rock guitar. For someone of my vintage now, I am much more able to accept that as part of the Van Halen package than I would have been back when I first got this album, though as I have related, I’d have loved to have heard more of that older material as well, when Eddie’s guitar was the star rather than the band as a whole as it did eventually become, for better or worse. So for me, this album has improved over time, and become something that is still worth listening to – even given the gripes that I have brought up through this episode. Sometimes, you just have to accept what you have, and get on with it.