Greenslade emerged in the very early seventies when, after Colosseum split following Dave Clempson leaving to join Humble Pie, keyboard man Dave Greenslade rounded up three other musicians and formed a band which featured two keyboard players (Dave Lawson being the other, plus also vocalist) alongside Tony Reeves (bass) and Andrew McCollough (drums). After releasing four albums between 1972-76, Greenslade disbanded as the only way to escape from an extremely unfavourable contract with the bands management.
Greenslade were one of those bands who somehow managed to slip through the cracks. Their albums were always good, enriched with the sounds of the mellotron and Hammond organ, and they were a popular draw on the ‘live’ circuit, yet they never managed to achieve full-on recognition. The band reformed in 2000, though with only Tony Reeves from the seventies band, and Large Afternoon was the outcome. The album’s now been remastered and being rereleased as a double disc, with the second disc a ‘live’ gig recorded at the Classic Rock Society in 2001, which’d been previously released in 2002 under the title The Full Edition, soon after which Dave Greenslade folded the band to rejoin the reformed Colosseum.
It’s not clear what kind of band Greenslade wanted to be with Large Afternoon. Certainly pieces like ‘Hallelujah Anyway’ and ‘Anthems’ are all very nice and R2 friendly, but they don’t come close to the quality of tracks on seventies albums like Bedside Manners Are Extra or Spyglass Guest. Reforming the band, Dave Greenslade had stated he hadn’t wanted to ‘get stuck in the seventies,’ which he certainly didn’t as the sound on this album is very different. In the seventies Greenslade performed a beguiling mix of keyboard passages, endearing them to a prog audience but here, the sound of the Hammond organ and Fender Rhodes is replaced instead by an eighties synth sound. Â
Opening track ‘Cakewalk,’ with its squeaky 1980’s synths, is reminiscent of the film/TV work Dave Greenslade did when in between bands. While mainly an instrumental band, they did feature occasional vocals but, while there was never any doubt about the quality of the musicianship, Dave Lawson was unconvincing as a singer whereas, on ‘Large Afternoon,’ John Young’s vocals are a big step upwards, as seen on tracks like ‘On Suite’ and ‘In The Night’.Â
Ultimately, however, the move towards a more ‘modern’ sound took away something from the band, thus this album, while still being a decent effort, falls somewhere between being a Dave Greenslade solo album and an eighties band pretending to embrace prog, not that there’s much prog here. This is an album lacking the spark of what had gone before and is probably for completists only.
The ‘live’ album, however, is a different proposition, not least because of the inclusion of tracks from Greenslade’s seventies persona and, while the sound is anchored firmly in the eighties onwards, there’s a much better range of song.
‘Cakewalk,’ from the new album, opens proceedings promisingly, which is followed by a fine version of ‘Feathered Friends,’ from their debut album, and it was good hearing 70’s sounding keys again. ‘Catalan,’ from Time and Tide, features great bass work from Tony Reeves, who sounded like he was soloing while the band played.
The low spot of the set comes towards the middle with a series of tracks from the new album ‘No Room But A View,’ ‘On Suite’ and ‘In The Night,’ plus title track ‘Large Afternoon’. All of which are well played, but are very much soft rock with prosaic lyrics, giving the feel of talented musicians playing within themselves and not really stretching out. I can’t imagine any of these pieces being included on any seventies Greenslade album.
Things pick up with ‘Sundance,’ also from their debut album, which is a gorgeous piece and well performed, one of the highlights of the evening. The set concludes with three seventies pieces. It was lovely to hear ‘Bedside Manners Are Extra,’ from the eponymous album, albeit with an eighties sound. Followed by two tracks from ‘Spyglass Guest,’ a fine version of Joie de Vivre before concluding with the delightful ‘Spirit Of The Dance’.
Overall, quite a good ‘live’ album though, as a fan from back in the day, the embracing of a more modern sound was a distraction.
