FREE Live At The BBC (2006 UK 26-track 2-CD album set featuring a compilation which captures the rise of one of the UKs most talented blues/rock bands from their very first session in 1968 [astonishingly recorded just days after bass play Andy Frasers 16th birthday] through to their last official recording for the BBC In Concert for John Peel in July 1970. Also includes the rare December 1969 session for Top Gear which never even made it to bootleg.
Disc 1 contains some excellent material all of very good quality including the first two tracks which are from Free’s very early days as a band in 1968. Both tracks are blues numbers and give you an insight into Free’s raw bluesy sound. Tracks 3-12 are all very good renditions of various tracks (although the beginning of “I’ll Be Creepin’ is missing because Paul Kossoff taped over it). Tracks 13-20 encompass two takes of “Be my Friend” and five takes of “Ride on a Pony”, neither of which demonstrate Free performing at their best, and the sound quality on all takes of “Ride on a Pony” is marred by low quality vocals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Hf5-YPkZgs
Disc 2 contains two afternoon concerts hosted by John Peel, although he is never heard between the tracks, as this was presumably missing or erased.
In the pantheon of blues-rock there has never been a band that burned so brightly, was more commercially successful and made so much great music in so comparatively short a period of time as Free. They are probably best known for their 1970 signature song, ‘All Right Now’ but theirs is a rich deep catalogue, surprisingly so given their comparatively short career.
One of the earliest known recordings of FREE ever. Recorded on July 15th 1968.
Tracks:
01 – Walk in My Shadow
02 – Moonshine
03 – Free Me (early version)
Total time 11:50
Paul Rogers – Vocals, Harmonica
Paul Kossoff – Guitar
Andy Fraser – Bass, Vocals
Simon Kirke – Drums
Free disbanded in 1973 and lead singer Paul Rodgers became the frontman of Bad Company along with Simon Kirke on drums. In 2004 Paul Rodgers worked with Queen offering a different take on Freddie Mercury’s vocals for the band. Bass player Andy Fraser formed Sharks and wrote ‘Every Kinda People’ that Robert Palmer covered, while the brilliant lead guitarist Paul Kossoff formed Back Street Crawler and then tragically died from a drug-induced heart failure at the age of 25 in 1976.
The Fat Angel Sings 