A band born out of the British
Blues era, who then got into the Jazz
Fusion scene with a vengeance. Definitely
trend setting in their style of composition,
inspiring a whole generation of bands
to follow with different degrees of success
in their footsteps.
The band was Jon Hisemans vehicle for
his freedom of musical expression, after
both himself and the superb Sax player
Dick Heckstall-Smith had been firstly
in the Graham Bond Organization, (where
Hiseman had replaced the Cream bound Ginger
Baker) and John Mayall Blues breakers
(which is a bit misleading as at the time
were themselves dabbling in Jazz Rock).
They decided to launch their wings with
their own band impressively titled Colosseum
in 1969 with the very young David Greenslade
on keyboards, Tony Reeves on bass and
James Litherland on guitar and vocals,
the long and uncertain yellow brick road
to stardom was undertaken, after two comparatively
successful albums, Tony Reeves and James
Litherland left to discover their own
particular Nirvana, and were replaced
by the much traveled Mark Clarke on bass,
the much more rock orientated Clem Clempson
on guitar and the unlikely choice of Chris
Farlowe on vocals.
These shifts is line up were obviously
very disturbing to the musical content,
so much talent in one band can actually
be a handicap, and expectations of their
loyal fans for the band to retread past
glories, written when half the band had
not even heard of Colosseum also never
made for easy inter band relations.
So after one more album they fragmented
into many different parts, Jon Hiseman
to form Colosseum II with Gary Moore,
Dick Heckstall- Smith to sessions, Dave
Greenslade to lead the British progressive
rock movement with his own double keyboard
band Greenslade, Mark Clarke to Rainbow
and Uriah Heep, Chris Farlowe to Atomic
Rooster and Clem Clempson to live his
Rock ‘n’ Roll dreams in Humble Pie.
This live album was released post-humously
and although not perhaps having the brilliance
of the first two albums still shows 6
top class musicians in their prime and
the band certainly give us some fine moments,
particularly in “Walking In The Park”
and first encore “Stormy Monday”, where
the forget their differences and just
have a good old blow, unfortunately Chris
Farlowe’s buffoonery in mid song (breaking
into Sunny boy, and the band pain fully
not following him) leaves you in no doubt
that here is one round peg trying to fit
into a square hole.
Perhaps not a fitting climax to a great
band, but I shall leave you with the great
drummers reason for unleashing this on
the public.
“From the Inside Colosseum can be a pretty
exhilarating experience and one which
I have always wanted to share. Close your
eyes turn it down to deafening and these
tracks will put you in the driver’s seat.
Pawed by Mott The Dog
Remastered by Ella Crew
E-mail: review@mott-the-dog.com
