Band: Glenn Hughes
Album title: Live In Australia
Label: Thompson Music Pty. Ltd. – E.A.R. Music
Distributor: Edel – V2
Release date: October 2007 (Australia; Eur/US= 2009)
Release: CD + DVD

2006 was a busy year for Glenn Hughes. During January he recorded the tracks for his Music For The Divine album. Soon after, rumours that Glenn was to go to work with Pat Thrall again, were comfirmed with a first concert in April. June not only saw the release of the Music For The Divine album in Europe, but also witnessed Glenn and his faithful side-kick guitarist & co-writer JJ March going over to Australia for a couple of weeks to write new material with Jimmy Barnes (of solo and Cold Chisel fame)…of which I’m not sure I’ve heard anything to date!

Over in Australia, Glenn previous album Soul Mover had only arrived in stores during March, but got bonus tracks as an extra incentive to possible buyers. Being there anyway to write with Barnes, he jumped to the opportunity to play a short bout of intimate shows in and around Sydney. One of those shows (namely the one in The Basement venue played on June 16) was then recorded for later release on CD and DVD (actually, and so you know right off: in Australia the album was issued through Thompson Music in October of the same year). That evening, Glenn played a semi-acoustic set (meaning the keyboards were obviously electric/ electronic…and so was the bit of bass Glenn played, by the way…but the guitars, and the strings, were not) which included no less than 5 tracks (the Moody Blues cover “Nights In White Satin”, recorded as a bonus track; “This House”; “Frail”; “The Divine”; and “this Is How I Feel”) off the Music For The Divine album, two off Soul Mover (the title track and “Last Mistake”), but he actually started off the set with two songs from the beginning of his career: Trapeze’s “Coast To Coast” (off the 1972 album with the same title), “I Found A Woman” off his first solo album Play Me Out (1977), and Deep Purple’s “This Time Around” (off their one and only studio album with Tommy Bolin as guitarist, 1975’s Come Taste The Band). Towards the end of the set, he returns to a couple of classics with a rendition of Procol Harum’s “Whiter Shade Of Pale”, and Deep Purple songs “Mistreated”, “Getting’ Tighter” (the latter again off Come Taste The Band, and with Barnes coming on stage to perform the lead vocals), offering DP’s “You Keep on Movin’” as an encore. Although the string quartet is already on stage from the very beginning, they only start playing along with the fourth song (the Procol Harum cover), but then remain active throughout. Glenn himself starts playing the gig accompanying JJ March on the guitar, but for the last 5 songs he switches to bass.

Now as the set was longer than could be put on a CD, there’s been edits to shorten the album to a 76:46 length…meaning also you have to miss “This House”, which IS however on the DVD, as well as a nice extra into, and a bonus of three video clips made for the Music For the Divine album: “Monkey Man” (which features Barnes), “This House”, and “The Divine”…adding almost 13 minutes to the 85 ½ minutes of the concert (with intro). Additionally, you get a (far too short) history, and a 2:25 slideshow of pictures both in the studio and during the live shows!

Personally, I like Glenn more when he’s supported by electric guitars (because they complement his powerful voice to the max), but with this semi-acoustic set gives yet more justification for people calling him “The Voice Of Rock”! About the missing of a rating: I don’t rate live albums or DVDs, and this is both, so…!

Tony.