VALENTYNE SUITE COLOSSEUM 21st July 21st 1969

Agree, one of my favorite progressive rock albums. Can anyone comment on a good pressing, or CD, with superior SQ?

I got a new pressing made in Holland from an outfit in Shepherdsville, Kentucky, on ebay, and it sounds very good with a very quiet surface.  Nothing to compare it with, though...

Great album by a Great band.

Had a chance to catch them live in England but just went drinking instead that night... Ho hum!

That was the later reincarnation though late 90.s so not feeling too guilty.

Saw then performing at Keitele Jazz, Finland, July 2011 in a small venue, a remote little village in the middle of nowhere ! Last time they were here was Ruisrock Festival Turku, August 1970 ! You know, COLOSSEUM were those legendary classic rock bands that practically never visited our remote country. I almost missed them, my buddy had noticed the ad and immediately bought tickets. How fortunate we were. Polite and silent and luckily small audience only music lovers.
Barbara Thompson wearing big boots of Dick Heckstall-Smith, doing a great job and actually bringing a lightly different reed sound to the mix, a new kinda feminine aspect to the already fantastic mixture of blues, jazz, rock and classical. To my great delight she wasn´t worse than Heckstall-Smith, just a lightly different yet powerful approach to the music. Stunnig performance, the 2nd best concert I have had a pleasure to witness in my entire life. Just music, no BS hype of any kind. And of course, we got a drum solo, musical with intense drive and power, well as always. And not a single dull moment. And Chris Farlowe was as good as ever, really. All these guys were nearly 70 !

I've the next four albums they made after Valentyne Suite, but have never heard that one. I'll have to look at Amazon.com music tonight and see if it's still in print. I'm surprised at all the newer material that came out years later from the bands later incarnations. Is any of that any good?

Mike

Valentyne is great.

The other classic albums are Those who are about to die, salute you (also 1969) and Daughter of Time (1970).  To which we can add Colosseum Love (1971).  That's the heart of the original output.

Those are the ones I have twoleftears, plus The Grass Is Greener from 1970 on the ABC/Dunhill label I was pleasantly surprised by this post others knew of and enjoyed them. I never heard them mentioned anywhere before. I’ll have to break some out tonight to play. And sure enough, Valentyne Suite is still available on Amazon in both CD and vinyl. A copy shall soon be mine.

Mike

On a related topic, do you have any of the Greenslade LPs: Greenslade, Bedside manners are extra, Spyglass guest, and Time and tide?

I never hear anybody talk about Greenslade any more!

Nice call.

Another class act from the day.

I’ve never even heard anything by Greenslade. Maybe there’s something on Youtube or somewhere else to try a listen. I’ll take a look.

Mike

Well, Valentyne Suite is on the way all the way from Switzerland. Thanks for this thread harold-not-the-barrel, which rekindled an old interest.. That completes my collection of the original bands output too.

I did find some Greenslade on Youtube, but will need to listen some more. Which is their best album in your opinion? 

Mike

My pleasure, Mike. Well, my copy of Australian release is on the way. Couldn´t resist to buy, you know it is the very 1st Fontana edition and in stunning condition (fingers crossed) ; )

All the Greenslade albums are great, except Time and Tide, 1975 which is somewhat lame, too pop and quite commercial to my taste. No wonder bassist & producer Tony Reeves is no longer with them.

In our LRS today and with being fresh in mind went a hunting.

Picked up Colosseum Live and Cactus Choir by Dave Greenslade.

And another memory jolt.

Wardance by Colosseum II with Gary Moore.

Almost forgot about the most excellent Colosseum II version.

Well worth a listen as well.

Valentyne Suite the Australian first press on Fontana label is just beautiful.
And this Live reissue just released in spring seems to be very interesting:
https://www.discogs.com/Colosseum-Live/release/13483556
Gotta get that too, the best live record in the golden age of rock, it was 1971 ... oh boy ...

My original Colosseum Live LP cover has reddish clear thin plastic record sleeves glued inside the outer cover, with thin foam strips inside the edge of the sleeves to stop the records from sliding out.  This can't have been great for the vinyl...

COLOSSEUM LIVE 2LP on Tiger Bay label, with "I Can´t Live Without You" by original guitarist James Litherland, first time on vinyl. Can you dig that man ! https://www.discogs.com/Colosseum-Live/release/13483556

 A stunning reissue released this Spring, faithful to original sound and cover. With this one you can fool your friends listening to original UK Bronze. The best vinyl reissue of anything I´ve heard this far. Fabulous release does honor to these fine English musicians and this incredibly stylish music mix of rock, blues, jazz and classical influences/melody.

This is heavy music. COLOSSEUM took the blues to a higher level and boldly went where no man had gone before. It was 1971, at the pinnacle of Rock´s evolution when everything came together in Prog Rock. This live double changed it all. Soon followed Deep Purple´s Made in Japan 1972, Uriah Heep Live January 1973, ELP`s triple live album 1974 ...

RIP Jon and Dick, you are the greatest. Thanks for your Music.



 

Dave Greenslade's best organ solo ever is not  with Colosseum or his solo lps. 
Its on the "Electrocuted" lp  ('75) by Swede Lasse Wellander.


 Dick Heckstall-Smith's solo lp is very good but takes repeated listens to work-in.


"The Grass Is Greener" lp has same front cover as "Valentine Suite" and is basically Valentine Suite (Butty's Blues, Machine... & Elegy).
It took me a long time but a few months back I finally scored a copy.
 
On some forum I listed the few differences between the two lps - but I can't remember just now . One difference was the same song BUT A DIFFERENT VOCALIST.
And I seem to recall that the track "Bolero" exists on none of their other main lps.

Got in a minty WLP copy of "Daughter of Time" recently......really nice.