Reviewed by Mike Rimmer

On an August Sunday night in a field in Bedfordshire in 1979, 16,000 people gathered as part of the Greenbelt festival and eagerly waited for Cliff Richard to headline the night. Just before Cliff took the stage, a young Californian in his mid 20 nervously hit the stage with his band. Years later he confessed to me that he was intimidated by the size of the crowd and maybe that explains the false start of the opening song here, "One True Love". Although the sleevenotes have Larry claiming he organised for a 24 track mobile studio to record Randy's set, it does feel more like a bootleg than a proper live album. Anyway wasn't that mobile studio booked by Greenbelt to record audio for what would be the 'Greenbelt Live' album and for the accompanying film? The set comprises mostly songs from his most recent recording at the time 'The Sky Is Falling' though that album was still two years away from a UK release so most of the songs were unfamiliar at the time. Highlights include "Lung Cancer Lament", "Trouble Coming" and a solo "Venezuela". One quibble is that Randy's set closer "Good News", which was the absolute highspot of the set, is missing. However Larry Norman's encore of "Let That Tape Keep Rolling" is here and of a much higher pristine sound quality overshadowing the rest of the set. Larry himself put the live "Good News" as a bonus cut on the CD release of 'The Sky Is Falling' so it wouldn't have been hard to include it on this set. Ultimately it's an unforgivable omission and when you take into account the poor sound quality and the incorrect song titles and the wrong timings on the sleeve, this is a shoddily presented release.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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