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Loving Gentle Giant is the ultimate sign of a progressive rock insider – there may not be many fans out there in comparison to other groups of their era, but by heavens, how they are loved.
They were always one of those bands that people would earnestly lean in and state that the LPs were good, but live was where it was at. This buffed-up and slightly renamed reissue of 1977’s Playing The Fool – The Official Live proves it.
After their one-time US support artist Peter Frampton helped popularise the double live album with 1976’s Frampton Comes Alive!, Gentle Giant decided that their tour to support the same year’s Interview album should be captured for posterity.
Recorded across four shows in Europe and mixed at Jethro Tull’s Maison Rouge studios, Playing The Fool – The Official Live, was, in its original 1977 incarnation, one of the most vibrant and exciting live albums of its day.
Dan Bornemark has opened up all the performances to create an incredibly warm, immersive experience
They were able to deliver the deep, winding and intricate passages of their music while also cruising into hyperdrive hard rock without breaking a sweat. They played prog like their earlier incarnation Simon Dupree And The Big Sound played R&B; it was still fundamentally a soul revue with Derek Shulman as the genial MC, everything delivered with forceful conviction.
Technical and muscular, yet always serving the song, drummer John ‘Pugwash’ Weathers also never forgot his time in mod band Eyes Of Blue, bringing the swing that set Gentle Giant apart from their peers.
This souped-up, enhanced, Atmos-ready, expanded version raises the bar. Dan Bornemark has reinstated the full running order of the shows, added the crowd and Shulman’s introductions back in (“Guten tag Düsseldorf, bonsoir wherever you are!” plus the classic, “This album was called In A Glass [Audience Member: ‘Wahhhhhhh!’] … House!”) and opened up all the performances to create an incredibly warm, immersive experience.
One highlight is the stunning seven-minute Ray Shulman violin solo at the end of Timing, cut from the original album, which is a fitting tribute to the multi-instrumentalist who died in 2023.
Hopefully hearing this, the other great prog group beginning with ‘G’, just ahead of them in the racks, will be inspired do the same thing with their double live Seconds Out from the same year, and add back in the other songs, the crowd and Phil Collins’ banter.
The reissued Playing The Fool is quite exceptional. It’s on sale now via Chrysalis.