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Not Bad...But...

Alexander T. Newport | Oro Valley, Arizona | 08/06/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"So far this is the only officially released concert recording of MSG on tour in 1982. This show was recorded in August at the Reading Festival in England. The band was promoting its Assault Attack album...but first, let's have a little background on what happened in 1982: In March, Gary Barden, the lead vocalist, was fired by Schenker because his managers thought a different vocalist might help to sell more records. They replaced Barden with Graham Bonnet, former vocalist of Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow. Bonnet & Schenker wrote the Assault Attack album and then went on tour to promote it. However, Bonnet only lasted a show or two before flaking out & disappearing. This happened two days before MSG were due to appear at the Reading Festival. Schenker did not want to cancel MSG's appearance so he contacted Barden and asked him to rejoin MSG. Barden agreed even though he did not know any of the songs from the Assault Attack album (nor had he performed for the past 5 or 6 months). So, what you have here on MSG's BBC Radio 1 Live In Concert is a recording of a show where the vocalist sounds a bit unrehearsed and the lead guitarist sounds a bit distracted at times. But it's still a good show. Schenker's sound is very good and his playing is pretty much up to par. The only flub track on this disc is Rock You To The Ground: Barden doesn't know the words and tries to fake it (and maybe this is why one Amazon reviewer thought he was drunk--but he wasn't). But hell, it's good for a laugh. What makes this disc unique amongst other MSG concert discs is the inclusion of Bijou Pleasurette and But I want More. Both are quite nice to listen to---and so are the other tracks (even Rock You To The Ground). Lost Horizons, as usual, is the star attraction. It begins with a sort of weak version of Courvosier Concerto (which isn't listed in the track listings) but gathers steam & momentum and ends up sounding just fine. Overall this is a good concert to own if you just have to have every early 80's MSG concert recording you can get your hands on. If you don't, then you'll probably be happy with just owning One Night At Budokan and/or Rock Will Never Die."