Album review : TRAPEZE – Don’t Stop The Music – Complete Recordings Vol 1 1970-1992 (6 CD Boxset)

Cherry Red [Release date: 24.02.23]

A cool, 6-CD boxset of high calibre Trapeze material. Three CDs of studio albums plus 3 CDs of live recordings, one as recent as 1992.

CD1 : Trapeze (originally released 1970)

The debut tends to get overlooked, mainly because of its proto hard rock nature.

It was the sound of a band – primarily Mel Galley, Glenn Hughes, Dave Holland – in its formative years, reluctantly casting off the pop psychedelia of the sixties, tentatively embracing the blazing, driving hard rock of the seventies. But some of the past survives . . . two particular song titles alone, ‘The Giant’s Dead, Hoorah’ and ‘Fairytale, Verily Verily’ Fairytale’ kind of give the game away.

That said, Hughes’ darkly confessional, ‘Am I’ and the classic rock ballad, ‘Send Me No More Letters’ pointed the direction home, making an indelible mark on the face of seventies rock and is worthy of celebration here.

CD2 : Medusa (originally released 1970)

Now a solid, minimalist trio, we hear the band grafting Hughes’ rubbery funk bass runs onto Galley’s crafted chordwork, most especially on ‘Black Cloud, ‘Your Love Is Alright’, and ‘Seafull’.

What impacts you most is the fact that there’s a rigour to Trapeze’s music, a technical brilliance that’s hidden behind fluent, impressive playing, Hughes gets all the vocal plaudits, but Galley’s guitar, voice and writing helped lay the foundations of Classic Rock.

CD3 : You Are The Music… (originally released 1971)

Two albums under their belt, and the trio were really cookin’ now. This third album is full of stomping, stadium filling rock songs.

Hughes hit a songwriting purple patch, contributing a significant amount of enduring material, including standout tracks, ‘Coast To Coast’, ‘Way Back To The Bone’ and ‘Will Our Love End’.

It was to be their last studio album together. Soon After, Hughes took a free transfer to Deep Purple.

CDs 4 and 5 : Live In Dallas (1973).
CD6 : Welcome To The Real World: Live At The Borderline 1992.

This hand picked collection is a particularly appropriate memorial to the band’s famous line up, centred on two seriously good live gigs.

Live in Dallas is previously unreleased. Texas was something of a Trapeze stronghold, and the band naturally pick up the crowd pleasers from the first two albums – the rumbling sonic swagger of ‘Your Love Is Alright’ and ‘Black Cloud’ must have rocked anything in Dallas that wasn’t nailed down that night, plus ‘You Are The Music’ and ‘Keepin Time’, key tracks from that third album.

The sixth CD in the boxset, recorded live in London many years later, showcases the awesome talent Trapeze possessed in spades. The punchy 9 track performance includes all the usual suspects and received the ovation you would expect from a discerning audience.
Some people thought it was all over…

No argument, this collection exploits the bigger picture provided by a boxset. It’s a perfectly tailored example of how an astute compiler can take us on a thrilling journey though the best years of a band’s life. *****

Review by Brian McGowan

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KLOGR face The Unknown (Zeta Factory)
BEYOND UNBROKEN Dance With The Dead (FiXT)
REVENGIN Decadent Feeling (Wormholedeath)

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