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(More customer reviews)(This review is for the "Live" album released in 2002--NOT for "Live at Rainbow Music" which amazon has for some strange reason combined with "Live")Live
Culled from performances all around the world, Live captures the band having a blast with their past. Ferry, Manzanera, Mackay and Thompson are supplemented by Lucky Wilkins (more than ably filling in for former keyboardist/violinist Eddie Jobson), guitar wiz Chris Spedding, Colin Good on keyboards, Zak Katz on bass and Julia Thornton on backing vocals/keyboards.
Now, you may wonder, "why should I pick this up when I have the DVD Live at the Apollo?". Good question. Live at the Apollo consists of roughly the same songs (although the CD has very romantic reading of More Than This and a powerful, clever reading of their classic If There Is Something not available on the DVD), the performances are different. There aren't huge differences (Roxy's music was always very carefully arranged)but many of the solos by Manzanera, Spedding and Mackay differ significantly enough to make this a must have for a Roxy fan. Additionally, while I'm not usually a fan of compilation live CDs (they lack the organic energy of a single performance), the tracks selected clearly were among the best from thetour. I'm just sad that the band didn't select anything from their Northern California appearence.
This isn't a perfect series of performances or CD. Ferry's lost much of his upper register (not a surprise given the passage of time, number of recordings and tours he's done over the years). Still, range isn't everything. What Ferry has lost in range, he's more than made up for it his improved reading of the songs. Ferry was always a gifted interpreter of both his own and other's material. He gives a strong performance on this CD and the DVD.
Manzanera and Spedding are inspired throughout. Mackay's sublime sax playing particularly on the expanded version of Tara (featuring Lucy Wilkins' violin as a counterpoint to the piano and Mackay's sax)is among his most inspired performances. The backing vocals of Thornton, Sarah Brown and Yanick Etienne are nicely arranged (unlike the performance of "The Sirens" on the VIVA album fromthe 1976). Their lush vocals add a substanial amount of depth to Mother of Pearl as well as later period Roxy material.
The expanded line up works wonders. Because of the depth and variety of Roxy's back catalog, the band requires additional members to bring all their material to life. Admittedly, it really isn't required (their performances from their 1979 tour documented on a number of bootlegs and a legit live release with only a 5 piece line up is terrific), but it brings additional depth to some of the early material as well as the later, more layered songs.
The sound is uniformly excellent making this THE live disc to own. Since it's a career overview, it also touches on both hits (in both England and America)as well as key popular album tracks. I was thrilled to hear Street Life alongside Ladytron and Avalon. There is also a CD-Rom live version of Both Ends Burning drawn from the Live At The Apollo sessions as an added bonus.
While it isn't noted anywhere on the CD, this appears to be another SACD/HDCD hybrid as it has the dual layers and gold reflective coating that appears on those CDs.(which means it can be played on normal CD players but has enhanced sound on a SACD player). While I don't care for the digipak packaging, it doesn't detract from the overall quality of this release.
Most reunion concerts smack of an attempt to cash in on the past or, at the very least, playing on an audience's memory and good will. The Roxy 2001 tour presented the band in top form and they were clearly enjoying themselves which is aparent from the inspired performances and choice of material. Live presents the band reinventing themselves and not just strolling down memory lane. The only thing missing is some new material. Given Ferry, Manzanera and Mackay's outside interests, that wasn't a possibility. Perhaps they'll reunite and try their hand at collaborating on new material soon. Based on Live the old magic hasn't deserted them.
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Special enhanced (includes video for 'Both Ends Burning')double live CD from their World Tour in 2001. 23 tracks.Gatefold digipak. Eagle Records. 2003.
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