Colosseum II/UK 1976

In 2018, John Hiseman, a leading figure in British jazz rock, passed away from a brain tumor on June 12th, after releasing an album on JCM (John Clem Mark) and performing several live shows. This title is one of the memorial items for Hiseman, and it is a coupling of audio and video recording of his performance at the Reading Festival, a regular British festival on August 26th, 1976, during the Coliseum II era with Gary Moore, which is particularly popular in his long career. First, the audio CD contains 51 minutes of recordings directly from the original master, which was recorded for recording purposes by staff at a Japanese record company at the time. The quality is incredible for a recording of an outdoor festival at that time, and even the feeling of Gary’s pick touching the guitar strings between songs is clearly reproduced. And during the Euro tour after the release of their debut album “STRANGE NEW FLESH”, Neil Murray and vocalist Mike Stars left, and this time the band was a four-piece lineup with John Mall on bass and Gary on vocals. However, a rights dispute arose with the BRONZE label, which had terminated their contract, and they were unable to play any of the “STRANGE NEW FLESH” repertoire, so they did not play a single song from the album, and instead, with the exception of “Rivers”, which was included in their second album “ELECTRIC SAVAGE”, all the songs were completely unreleased, making this an unprecedented show. Nevertheless, the performance, which had a strong jazz essence with fierce improvisation injected into the rough structure of the songs, was still overwhelming with Gary’s playing, and especially the last song “People Back Home in Ireland” was a powerful 20-minute climax based on an Irish folk riff, and the playing here is legendary. In addition, the coupling DVD contains a digitalized version of the original 8mm film that the staff had filmed on the day. Although it is just under 15 minutes in total, it is also a miraculous record that allows you to see the scene of the day, which does not even have photos, in motion, and since it is a master direct, the quality is good enough. Here too, Gary Heighe’s appearance, who bends back and shouts with more flashy actions than in his hard rock days, and even plays with his teeth like Jimi Hendrix, is just speechless. The staff also interviewed Gary and John Mall backstage on the day, and the live voices of the interview, which ended up unreleased, are also included. Now that both Heisman and Gary are deceased, this is a must-have eternal requiem item that contains the most brilliant 70s. CD : 1. Can’t Get By 2. Sandstorm Ahead 3. Rivers 4. Instrumental feat. Jon Hiseman Drums Solo 5. People Back Home in Ireland Pt.1 6. People Back Home in Ireland Pt.2 [Live at Richfield Avenue, Reading, UK 28th August 1976 : 16th National Jazz Blues & Rock Festival] DVD : 1. Mix #1 2. Mix #2 [COLOUR NTSC Approx.15min : Filmed live performance at Reading Festival on 28th August 1976 / feat. Exclusive interviews of Gary Moore & John Mole recorded at backstage of Reading Festival 1976] Jon Hiseman – Drums / Gary Moore – Guitar & Vocal / John Mole – Bass / Don Airey – Keyboards