This eighties' gig was unearthed by the GB Music research team, and what a find.
The
707 lineup for this live set is Kevin Russell, Tod Howarth, Phil Bryant and Jim McClarty and they are in incandescent form. More in a moment.
707 teetered on the edge of breakthrough for several years during the eighties, but never got to make the final step to stardom. By 1982 the band's fifteen minutes was over.
What's relevant though is this:
707 crammed so much good music, radio airplay, three fine albums spawning several hit singles, and amazing, ambitious live performances into that quarter of an hour, literally to last a lifetime.
Surprisingly, only nine tracks here. It's a slim volume of
'Greatest Hits' to trade on, but cover to cover not a second is superfluous, not a moment is wasted and the album catches fire several times, before going out in a blaze of glory with a fiery rendition of
'You Who Needs To Know'.
In essence,
'707 Live' has three things going for it. One, every song here is blessed with a memorable melody, an aurally adhesive hook and a dynamic band performance. Two, there's a near perfect interlock between Bryant and McLarty's muscle rippling rhythm section, Howarth's sweetening keyboards and Russell's strident, melodic lead guitar. Three, the band's extended, expanded middle sections - occasionally turning into freeform jams - are never indulgent, never dull, seeming to run on a inexhaustible ebullient energy and consistently raising the temperature of an enthusiastic audience. This works everywhere, but works best on
'Millionaire' and
'City Life'.
'I Could Be Good For You' was the one that broke the band on local radio. National radio and Billboard chart success quickly followed. It's a sharp dressed pop song decked out in hard rock raiment. There are parallels here and with other
707 pop monsters like
'Tonite's The Nite' and
'Live With The Girl' with the work of
Cheap Trick and Canada's April Wine. All three bands write angular, passionate poprock songs. Songs with immediacy, with hooks that raise the heartrate for those three or four minutes in time. Songs that occasionally reach that awesome melodic moment. Those moments that makes it worthwhile wading through the dross of a dozen mediocre rock bands to get there.
The perfectly prescribed antidote to cool, post grunge indifference.
Written by
Brian Wednesday, May 10, 2006
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