Search - David Coverdale, Glen Hughes, Jon Lord :: Eddie Hardin's Wizard's Convention

Expanded Edition

eveoflove | North York, Ontario Canada | 06/17/2001

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Made in USA in 2001, Serial# BIG-4045-2, Playing Time 114:50Originally released on Christmas Eve 1976, perhaps to inspire "last-minute-shoppers", this Eddie Hardin (of SPENCER DAVIS GROUP fame) was more or less following in the footsteps of Roger Glover's (of DEEP PURPLE fame) project entitled "The Butterfly Ball" of a few years prior. Though once again trying to combine the various talents of multiple rock performers (like David Coverdale, Glenn Hughes, Mike D'Abo, Mo Foster, Roger Glover, Ray Fenwick to name a few...), WIZARD'S CONVENTION was a commercial flop.The original release contained 10 tracks (up to "Swanks & Swells"), and was generally depressing and bland.It was issued on CD in 1994 (Repertoire REP-4474-WY) and included 6 extra tracks, courtesy of Eddie Hardin himself, which were recorded during those sessions. There were probably only 2 copies sold in Canada (the first one I bought was defective!)This latest version, now on 2 discs, includes a full disc of previously unreleased stuff, not to be confused with "Wizard's Convention 2".Considering the talent involved, this set is, well, banal. Most of the melodies are soft and depressing. Overall, the performances are dull and lazy, though I must say that some of the vocal performances are quite good.It's not a masterpiece, and IMHO, it's simply ordinary and weak. However, it's an item for the archives, because of the multiple people that participated on it."