Henry Cow

Remastered repress. Comes with printed inner sleeve. Concerts is a live double album by Henry Cow, drawn from performances in London, Italy, the Netherlands and Norway between September 1974 and October 1975, originally issued in 1976. It arrived at a hinge point in the band's history, after Virgin had lost interest in releasing further studio records and before the group made its final move toward independence. The first two sides hold composed material; the second two give space, for the first time on record, to the free improvisation that made up roughly a third of any Henry Cow performance.

The composed side gathers the band's last John Peel session into a medley of Beautiful as the Moon; Terrible as an Army with Banners, Nirvana for Mice, Ottawa Song and a reading of Robert Wyatt's Gloria Gloom, with Lindsay Cooper's bassoon recasting pieces that Geoff Leigh's saxophone once defined. Two tracks were recorded on stage with Wyatt himself, during the period of shared concerts that included some of his last public performances. Then the floor opens: Ruins stretched into a sixteen-minute improvisation, the Groningen pieces, and the half-hour expanse of Oslo, a band of formidable players following the music wherever the moment took it.

It was Henry Cow's last release for Virgin, handed to the budget Caroline imprint with little ceremony. Heard now, it is the document that captures what the studio albums could not: a band whose natural habitat was the stage. Reissued by ReR as a double LP, remastered by Bob Drake with full sleeve notes by Cutler.