U.K. Allan Holdsworth John Wetton U.K./Canada 1978

Even in 1978, a treasure trove of recordings, a superb stereo soundboard album that will be a major representative work of the early period has appeared. This work contains the “Toronto performance on June 27, 1978”. This show was also broadcast on FM, and the air check has produced many previous issues. This work is one that has mastered the highest peak of such a classic soundboard. I think that you have heard it once under some title because it is a classic, but the sound that flows from this work is the best ever. There have been historically muffled and blurred sounds, but this work is completely different from those air check boards. It was woken up from the reel master before the broadcast, and the extremely stable official sound sounds glossy without any noise or shaking peculiar to the air check. Moreover, the edge is also the height of vividness. Each instrument and each sound is extremely vivid, and the last brilliance of the 1970s prog is poured directly into the brain. Speaking of “1978 U.K.”, it is a treasure trove of unusually high quality recordings, but it is an outstanding stereo soundboard among them. And this work is more than just a “great soundboard”. The point is in the time of the show. First of all, let’s imagine the position of this work from the activity schedule at that time. {January: 1st album release} ・April 29-May 15: UK (13 performances) {About 1 month later} ・June 23-August 8: North America #1 (22 performances) ←★Here★ {About 1 month later} ・September 1-11: North America #2 (3 performances) ・September 18-October 8: North America #3 (8 performances) {About 1 month later} ・November 9: North America #4 (1 performance) {November: Four-person group dismantled → 2nd album production started} This is an overview from the release of “Yukoku no Shishi” to the production of the 2nd album. There are some vague points in the materials from that time, so it is not certain, but I think you can understand the general outline. The Toronto performance of this work is the third concert of “North America # 1”. This “North America # 1” was a turning point. In fact, the set list of this 1978 tour changed in the middle. The first few performances from “UK” to the beginning of “North America # 1” were the early set, and most of the subsequent performances were the later set. The big difference is from the middle to the latter half of the show. The songs themselves do not seem to be much different from the later tour, but the order of the songs is different, and the mood of the album “Yukoku no Shishi” remains strong. Specifically, after “Thirty Years”. In the later set, the ending of “Thirty Years” was basically followed by “Presto Vivace And Reprise” → “In The Dead Of Night”, but in this work, it is played in the flow of “In The Dead Of Night”, “By The Light Of Day”, and “Presto Vivace And Reprise” as on the A side of the album. It’s not just the order of the songs. The new songs “The Sahara Of Snow”, “Carrying No Cross” and “The Only Thing She Needs”, which were not released at the time, are already being shown, and the finish seems to be very early. Although “The Sahara Of Snow”, which will be officially recorded at BRUFORD, is quite complete, “Carrying No Cross” and “The Only Thing She Needs” also have guitar parts, unlike “DANGER MONEY”, and the latter also has a slow middle part that is not in the studio recording. It seems that these new songs were written during tour rehearsals to make up for the lack of repertoire, but they are still rough versions that have not been polished. The biggest point of this work is that you can enjoy these early listening highlights with a superb stereo sound board. As enthusiasts will be familiar with, there are excellent sound boards from this tour, including the official Boston performance, Chicago performance, Philadelphia performance, and Cleveland performance. However, all of them are late sets. Only the Toronto performance of this work is a sound board that conveys the early set. This is a major decisive album that depicts the classic soundboard with the ultimate master reel quality. It is the live album closest to the masterpiece “The Four Patriots of the Patriots”, and it is no exaggeration to say that it is a “live performance version of The Four Patriots of the Patriots”. Live at El Mocambo, Toronto, ON. Canada 27th June 1978 STEREO SBD (UPGRADE) (63:33) 1. Intro. 2. Alaska 3. Time To Kill 4. The Sahara Of Snow 5. Carrying No Cross 6. The Only Thing She Needs 7. Thirty Years 8. In The Dead Of Night 9. By The Light Of Day 10. Presto Vivace And Reprise 11. Radio Outro. STEREO SOUNDBOARD RECORDING John Wetton – Vocal & Bass Eddie Jobson – Electric Violin & Keyboards Allan Holdsworth – Guitars Bill Bruford – Drums & Percussion