CD Review

Rating 75%

reviewed by Charlie O'

Picked this CD up cheaply a couple of days back (well, the marvellous Pete Gee sent it to me actually) and, thought I'd give it a listen, despite it being a couple of years old now. Anyone who knows me will tell you that Pendragon are one of my favourite bands of all time so far, so to have a quick listen to these old "masters" was a temptation too far for me.  Going through the tracks on this one then...

Time For A Change What a horrid way to start a CD! Total pop rock, with sharp keyboards, awful drums etc. It went thru much improvements before seeing the light of the day on Kowtow. Moving quickly on to Last Bus Back, this is an interesting instrumental, reminiscent of the more recent Pendragon output. Next up comes The Mask. Yes, the old Marquee classic, lovely for jumping up and down to, with lots of that old finger pointing stuff too! This demo version possibly sounds better than the Kowtow version, but I haven't got it in my hand so I don't know. Whalespeak comes next and it's a nice and interesting musical interlude before No More Tricks which is obviously an early incantation of the old classic "Higher Circles" Another one for the "jump up and point" brigade. Ah, they were the days... Another demo off the Kowtow album next (I must get in on CD some time...) I Walk The Rope is a nice song, and I'll kick anyone who says different! Ok, on my booklet it says Holiday '89 is next, but for some reason I keep missing it. Maybe it was just utterly forgettable! Or maybe it was just because I wanted to hear Victims Of Life from the 1983 Friday Rock Show sessions. Classic. Well, from that high point, it's a sharp drop down to More Than Just Freedom, or "eeek!" as Nick says. It picks up a bit with the "Purple Rain"ish Whispered Words, which I quite enjoyed before taking Sleep a bit too literally. The New Romantical Oriental Man comes next, another solo Barrett effort. What is it with him and DIY? Then comes Valleys. Followed swiftly by The Black Knight which is THE Pendragon song. This is again the BBC FRS version. Rock On! Bringing up the rear is Son of Sun which apparently ended up as parts of Dune and Sister Bluebird.

So, all in all, a very interesting collection, if not one that'll get played to death. Probably for die-hard fans only, but I guess that's the idea of it.