(2020) Colosseum – Transmissions Live at the BBC


Review:
Pioneering progressive jazz rockers Colosseum are to have a new, fully authorised six-disc collection of their BBC Sessions from 1969-1971 released through Repertoire Records. Transmissions Live at the BBC features Colosseum sessions for BBC radio shows such as John Peel’s Top Gear, Sounds of the 70s, Jazz Workshop and more and comprises some 60 tracks recorded between 1969 and 1971. It features the earliest version of Colosseum with founder members Jon Hiseman, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Dave Greenslade and Tony Reeves joined by guitarist/vocalist James Litherland. Later classic line-ups include Dave Clempson on guitar with Chris Farlowe (vocals) and Mark Clarke (bass) with guest appearances by Barbara Thompson (sax/ flute) and the New Jazz Orchestra. Much of the material has been rescued from the BBC and Colosseum archives, along with rare recordings by fans and enthusiasts. It has been painstaking collected, collated, restored and digitalised by the combined forces of historian and archivist Colin Harper and Jon’s daughter Ana Gracey.





Tracklist:

CD 1
Top Gear, 19 January 1969:
1. The Road She Walked Before
2. Backwater Blues
3. A Whiter Shade Of Powell
Symonds On Sunday, 16 March 1969:
(re-broadcast World Service version)
4. Walking In The Park
5. Interview with Jon Hiseman
6. Beware The Ides Of March
7. Plenty Hard Luck
Johnnie Walker, 24 May 1969:
8. Elegy
9. Walking In The Park
10. Butty’s Blues
11. I Can’t Live Without You
Top Gear, 6 July 1969:
12. Elegy
13. The Grass Is Greener
14. Hiseman’s Condensed History Of Mankind
15. February’s Valentyne
Symonds On Sunday, 20 July 1969:
16. Elegy
17. The Road She Walked Before
18. Walking In The Park
19. Butty’s Blues

CD 2
Radio 1 Jazz Workshop, 17 July 1969:
1. Elegy (take 1)
2. I Can’t Live Without You
3. Walking In The Park
4. Those About To Die (take 1)
5. Butty’s Blues (Take 1)
6. Mandarin
7. The Grass Is Greener
Top Gear, 22 November 1969:
8. Interview with Dick Heckstall-Smith
9. Lost Angeles
10. Arthur’s Moustache
Unknown session, late 1969 – early 1970:
11. Jumping Off The Sun
12. Theme For An Imaginary Western
13. Take Me Back To Doomsday
14. Lost Angeles (partial)
15. Angle
16. The Machine Demands A Sacrifice

CD 3
John Peel’s Sunday Concert, 8 March 1970:
1. Lost Angeles
2. Downhill And Shadows
3. Theme For An Imaginary Western
4. Introduction: John Peel
5. The Machine Demands A Sacrifice
Sounds Of The 70s, 7 April 1970:
6. Bring Out Your Dead
7. Time Lament
8. Daughter Of Time

CD 4
John Peel’s Sunday Concert, 8 November 1970:
1. Introduction: John Peel
2. Rope Ladder To The Moon
3. Introduction: John Peel
4. Downhill And Shadows
5. Introduction: John Peel
6. Tanglewood ’63
7. Time Lament
8. Lost Angeles

CD 5
Sounds Of The 70s, 21 July 1970:
1. Butty’s Blues
2. Shades Of Blue
3. Rope Ladder To The Moon
4. Tanglewood ’63
Sounds Of The 70s, 19 February 1971:
5. Take Me Back To Doomsday
6. Skelington
7. The Pirate’s Dream
8. Tanglewood ’63

CD 6
Sounds Of The 70s, 10 September 1971:
1. Jumping Off The Sun
2. Sleepwalker
3. The Pirate’s Dream
4. Upon A Tomorrow
bonus tracks:
Symonds On Sunday, 16 March 1969:
5. Walking In The Park (off-air)
Jazz Workshop 1969 – extra takes:
6. Those About To Die (take 2)
7. Butty’s Blues (take 2)
8. Elegy (take 2)


Media Report:
Genre: rock
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits