RENAISSANCE : CAN YOU HEAR ME? - BROADCASTS 1974-1978

 

Disc One : BBC Radio 1 "Sight & Sound in Concert" (65:40)

  1. Introduction
  2. Carpet Of The Sun
  3. Mother Russia
  4. Can You Hear Me?
  5. Ocean Gypsy
  6. Running Hard
  7. Touching Once (Is So Hard to Keep)
  8. Prologue

Disc Two : BBC Radio 1 'In Concert' (57:38)

  1. Can You Hear Me?
  2. Carpet Of The Sun
  3. Day Of The Dreamer
  4. Back Home Once Again
  5. Can You Understand
  6. The Vultures Fly High
  7. A Song For All Seasons
  8. Prologue

Label : Esoteric Recordings

Venue : Golders Green Hippodrome, London, England + Paris Theatre, London, England

Recording Date : January 8, 1977 + October 4, 1978

Release Date : August 25, 2024

Review : CD1 was previoulsy released on "Live At The BBC Sight & Sound" (Repertoire Records 2016). CD2 was previously released on "Day Of The Dreamer" (Mooncrest Records 2000).

Review (ProgArchives) : This collection from Esoteric includes cleaned-up live concerts from Renaissance, recorded by the BBC for broadcast (and so enjoying pretty decent sound quality). The audio CDs in the set include a 1977 gig from just before the release of Novella, previously released on the Live At the BBC Sight and Sound collection, and a 1978 concert supporting A Song For All Seasons, which hasn't previously had a wide official release. Neither of these live sets saw the light of day on any of Esoteric's prior Renaissance boxed sets, so if you've been following their excellent reissue program of the band's studio albums you won't have these recordings, even though you probably have accumulated a fair number of versions of the specific songs. If you're big on Renaissance, you already know you want this; if you just want one live collection from them to dip into, I'd go for Live At Carnegie Hall instead; it's the famous live release from them for a reason, and whilst this collection captures their sound in fine quality, it also captures a few mixing errors from the night (in particular, the keyboards are a tad overwhelming in the mix at the start of the 1977 concert). That said, if you have the Carnegie Hall set and want more live Renaissance, I'd certainly recommend putting this high on your checklist.