Five Double Live Classics

Status Quo - 'Live!' (1977)

Recorded over three nights in October 1976 and the Glasgow Apollo, this gem probably marks the high point of Status Quo's career before they began the long slide into becoming a cheesy parody of the band they used to be. This is Quo at their heaviest and purest. Tracks like Roll Over Lay Down, Backwater, Big Fat Mama and especially Is There A Better Way roll from the speakers like boogie powered steam rollers and just lay waste to everything in their path. But the twin highlights have to be the extended versions of Forty-Five Hundred Times and Roadhouse Blues (the old Doors number, first covered by Quo on the Piledriver album), both of which turn into extended jams that show just what good players the band in fact were.

Crash Street Kids - 'Live From The Waist Down (2010)

With the concept trilogy of The Supersonic Star Show completed, what better way for Arizona glam focused retro rockers Crash Street Kids to celebrate than to record and release a good old fashion double live album. Recorded in a small club in their home town in front of a fanatically loyal crowd over two nights, this album is a live document that stands up their with the best of them. With a set drawn from right across the preceding three studio albums, Live From The Waist Down shows just what a classic rock band in the making CSK are, from the opener - C'mon C'mon C'mon to the closing chords of Penthouse, the band take a listener on a thrill ride of rock and roll excellence that really does make you feel like your there in the crowd. And with cuts like Cigerettes and Star Fuckers, Space Rock time Bomb, The Kids On Dope, Mandy and The Leapers and a storming cover of the Mott the Hoople classic All The Young Dudes on offer, and presented in their rawest and striped down form, full of the pure joy of glam rock enthusiasm your left asking just one question. 'Why the hell aint this band better known'

REO Speedwagon - 'Live: You Get What You Play For' (1977)

 Although some people, especially in the UK, may find it hard to believe, before MTV and the power ballad hits, REO Speedwagon were a damn fine hard edged rock and roll band. This double live set, recorded in various Mid West venues on the band 1976 US tour proves the point in fine style, there's not a cheesy power ballad in sight as the REO boys layout a solid hard rocking set which includes rock and roll classics like Son Of A Poor Man, Lay Me Down, Riding The Storm Out and their break through US single Keep Pushin'. But to me the true highlights are the guitar and vocal interplay on 157 Riverside Avenue and a cracking version of the Chuck Berry classic Little Queenie. 

Demon - 'One Helluva Night: Live In Germany' - (1990)

 NWOBHM outfit Demon may not be a household name, but as a cult draw on the underground scene, especially in Germany they have few equals. So its hardly surprising that when they decided to release a live album, they recorded it in Germany. This album is basically a full set recorded at The Rockfabrik in Ludwigsburg at the tail end of the band 'Taking The World By Storm' tour in 1989. Demon as a live animal is a slightly different beast from their by then slick progressive metal style of their later studio output, live they reverted to the old school NWOBHM sound of their first two albums, but it still works fine. Whilst tracks like Life Brigade, Living In The Shadows and Life On The Wire do loose some of the studio majesty, they are instead fitted with a new pair of bollocks and are reformed in a fire of glorious angry politically aware metal attitude. Throw in a couple of quieter spine tingling moments like the wonderful Remembrance Day and a load of uptempo rebel rousing classics such as One Helluva Night, Wonderland and Night Of The Demon and you've got a live document that should be owned and cherished by metal fans everywhere.

Hawkwind - 'This Is Hawkwind - Do Not Panic' (1984)

Not so much a double live album, this classic from space rock gods Hawkwind is in fact an archive live set recorded in 1980 at the Lewisham Odeon on the bands Levitation tour coupled with a 12" single recorded at the 1984 Stonehenge free festival. Both sections of this one are well worth a listen. The Lewisham tracks are note worthy for the fact Ginger Baker is the drummist on show and include a storming high energy versions of Psi Power and Shot Down In The Night and a rendition of Angel of Death that by contrast is slowed down to a glorious spaced out sleaze. Of the two Stonehenge tracks Stonehenge Decoded is a tripped out acid improvisation which show a side of the Hawks that had been often neglected since the early 70's, and Watching The Grass Grow is a classic number from Nik Turners Inner City Unit (with Mr Turner guesting) given the Hawkwind treatment. Over all a pretty damn good record.

Five Hawks Doing Their Own Thing

Dave Brock & The Agents Of Chaos - 'Agents Of Chaos' (1987)

This is Dave Brocks second solo album and is an interesting little find as it seams to lay out the foundations for the electronica path the Hawks were to follow following the departure of Huw Lloydd Langton and Harvey Bainbridge. Tracks like Hi-Tech Cities are deliciously bleak soundscapes and a couple of numbers, Heads and Wastelands of Sleep were later to surface on the Hawks Xenon Codex album, but here they are sparser stripped down versions that make for enlightening if somewhat uneasy listening. However this is still a good record and is a good insight into Mr Brocks songwriting genius. 

Robert Calvert - 'Hype' (1981)

The third solo album from Robert Calvert isn't his best known, but it is arguably the most rounded and musically complete. Released to tie in with Calvert's novel of the same name, Hype is devoid of all the standard Hawkwind-u-like psychedelia, instead exploring a dark almost new wave direction. Featuring, amongst others, tracks like the dark and paranoid Flight 105, the strangely touching The Green Fly And The Rose, the delightfully atmospheric The Luminous Green Glow Of The Dials Of The Dashboard (At Night) and the jagged riffing of the almost hit single Lord Of The Hornets; this is the album that showcases Calverts incredible songwriting skills and distinctive vocal talent best. Take in some tasty guest performances from fellow Hawk Nik Turner and novelist Michael Moorcock and you have a real classic that everyone should check out.

Huw Lloyd Langton Group - 'Time Space and LLG' (1988)

This is the third official album from the Huw Lloyd Langton Group, and the first since Mr Langtons departure from Hawkwind. Featuring a rich blend of blues, hard rock and psyche rock - all delivered with a striped down punk style and attitude this is in my mind perhaps the strongest of the early LLG albums. High points include the driving grind of Work of Art, the shiver inducing Market of Death, and the Hawkesque City Of The Future. This album is also noteworthy for it's deep and challenging lyrics penned by Huws wife Marion.

Steve Swindles - 'Fresh Blood' (1980)

Ipswich born, but Bristol bred, Steve Swindles wasn't a hawk for that long, only appearing on the 25 Years On album (although he does contribute to several retrospective archive releases - most noticeably The Weird Tapes series), but in that time he did pen one of their best loved tracks, Shot Down in The Night. After leaving the band he released this, his second and surprisingly final solo album (although several 'lost' albums are due to be re-issued). Featuring fellow hawks Huw Lloyd Langton and Simon King along with Van der Graaf Generator bass man Nic Potter this album is a bit of a gem. Blending the late 70's Hawks sound with a harder more punk/new wave edge, it contains not only a striped down and raw to the bone version of Shot Down In The Night, and a couple of corkers Bitter And Twisted and Don't Wait On The Stairs which would later turn up covered on Roger Daltry albums, but a host of other rather groovy cuts like the deliciously dark Low Life Joe and the edgy and angry Figures of Authority. Definitely an album that should be better known.

Harvey Bainbridge - 'Red Shift' (1996)

After leaving the Hawks, and doing a stint in the Alman Mulo Band, Harvey Bainbridge issued a couple of interesting solo records of which this in my mind is the stand out. Featuring tracks like the wonderfully titled And He Smoked His Pipe and Talked to Them Till the Last Whiff and Then his Head Disappeared in a Cloud, this is a wonderful adventure into very trippy, instrumental psyche prog. Sounding not unlike Tangerine Dream or maybe Church of Hed  this is a classic and well laid back album, Highlights include the epic Long Lines At The Double Helix Bar, the spacey Blue Giant and drifting Solar Drive Down.