(Blue-Eyed Soul / Modern Electric Blues) Chris Farlowe - At Rockpalast - 2006, WavPack (iso.wv (image+.cue)), lossless

More than 40 years into his career, Chris Farlowe proves he can still deliver a superb show with this live performance, running just over an hour, that captures the '60s/'70s U.K. soul legend near top form. Farlowe is still a soul shouter with the best of them, even if he has to make a few concessions to the calendar at age 66. The key to his success, ranging through material from across his history (including one original, "I Don't Want to Sing the Blues No More"), is that his voice has held up, and he still feels the music inside. And some of the songs represented here, such as "Out of Time," actually work better than they did in their original recordings -- Farlowe has, fortunately, outlived the worst excesses of some of the periods in which he recorded, and has lived to put down updated (and upgraded) renditions of various chunks of his history, with a solid lean and mean band. Here we get to hear Farlowe's voice unadulterated by the inclinations of various producers and engineers with whom he's worked in the distant past, and that's still mighty impressive. That he's never received the level of international recognition enjoyed by rivals such as Eric Burdon is a situation that might amaze those who hear this CD. It's a great account of his latter-day capabilities, and actually not a bad way to start discovering Farlowe's singing.

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He used to sing in the Thunderbirds, in Colosseum and for plenty of other popular bands. At sixty-five years old, and with more than 50 years in the music biz, Chris Farlowe still has one of the most remarkable voices in the blues and rock universe. Not without reason, critics as well as audiences and other musicians, reverentially call him “the Voice”. Chris Farlowe’s gigs are still driven by his enormous power and his skills as a natural entertainer.

It’s hard to believe, but it’s true, Chris Farlowe has been astounding audiences with his incredible vocal style for over fifty years now. In 1955 he won the UK skiffle competition at the Tottenham Royale, as The John Henry Skiffle Group, where Chas McDevitt presented him with the £25 prize. This launched him on the long running career that has now culminated in this, his first, DVD.

During the sixties John Henry Deighton became Chris Farlowe and formed one of the most respected bands on the UK club circuit, The Thunderbirds. The band featured, at various times during its career, Albert Lee, Dave Greenslade, Nicky Hopkins and Carl Palmer, a veritable who’s who of future musical superstars.

In 1962 he signed to Decca Records and released a number of singles including the controversial ‘Buzz with the Fuzz’ that was withdrawn just after release. A switch followed this to EMI’s Columbia label who released a number of singles. It wasn’t to be until 1966 when Mick Jagger came to Chris Farlowe with a song he had written with Keith Richards that Chris hit that coveted number one spot. ‘Out of Time’ is the quintessential sixties pop record, those dramatic cellos leading the big band sound make it one of the most played oldies on radio today.

At the end of the sixties, with the collapse of Immediate Records, Chris Farlowe went to New York to record some demos for Polydor. Sadly these never saw the light of day and following a call from Thunderbirds bassist Bruce Waddell Chris returned to the UK to join Bruce in The Hill. This project, which featured Paul Buckmaster who had worked with David Bowie, was the most diverse thing Chris Farlowe had ever attempted. This was followed by an invitation from ex Thunderbird keyboard man Dave Greenslade to join Colosseum the band he had formed with ex John Mayall drummer Jon Hiseman. After two albums Colosseum split and Chris Farlowe was invited to join Atomic Rooster with Vincent Crane. He recorded two albums with this band but was somewhat dissatisfied with the musical direction and left.

1975 saw a reunion of Chris and Albert Lee who with a new Thunderbirds line up recorded a live album at the Marquee Club, witnessed by a record audience of over 700. The album was released by Polydor, followed by a single, a version of The Beatles ‘We Can Work it out’. After this Chris Farlowe was without a record deal for close to a decade until a chance meeting with legendary producer Mike Vernon allowed him to record two albums for Mike’s own label.

Since 1990 Chris Farlowe has regularly recorded new albums every two or three years including ‘Waiting in the Wings’, ‘The Voice’, ‘Glory Bound’ and most recently ‘Farlowe That’. In 1995 Colosseum reformed and have also recorded new albums. He tours incessantly packing in over 100 concerts every year either with his own band, featured here on this CD, Colosseum or as a guest of Van Morrison.

After fifty years Chris Farlowe has most definitely lost none of its power or feel, the evidence can be seen in this concert which was recorded for the famous Rockpalast in Bonn, Germany on March 22nd, 2006.

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