While the new line-up of the mighty COLOSSEUM tour, proving the British ensemble’s timelessness, it’s the band’s classic line-up that never cease to intrigue connoisseurs and the barely-initiated alike – and it’s both categories of fans that two forthcoming releases from the veterans are aimed it. The first offering targets true aficionados by corralling rarities which could form the fourth album of the band’s original lifespan and the second entices newcomers who prefer to keep the bulk of what the group issued during their heyday by boxing up the collective’s classic records.
The first one, a 2CD set arriving on January 26th, is titled “Upon Tomorrow” and gathers the cuts from the late great Jon Hiseman‘s archive – the numbers that would have made a follow-up to 1970’s “Daughter Of Time” yet was consigned to the team leader’s vaults, although “The Pirate’s Dream” escaped to land on Dick Heckstall-Smith‘s solo platter, and “Jumping Off The Sun” had already appeared on “The Grass Is Greener” LP, an American alternative to "Valentyne Suite" which saw the light of day on the other side of the Atlantic. Fleshing it all out are a smattering of demos and pieces the band played on camera – for the “Supershow” programme in March 1969 and for a short film released in cinemas in 1970 – all recently remastered, of course.
CD 1:
1. Those Who Are About To Die Salute You
2. Debut
3. Downhill And Shadows (The Questors Theatre, May 14th, 1970)
4. January’s Search
CD 2:
1. Upon Tomorrow
2. Jumping Off The Sun
3. Sleepwalker
4. The Pirate’s Dream
5. Thank God For Things That Grow (Advision Studios, August 13th, 1971)
demos, Landsdowne Studios, August 1st, 1971:
6. The Pirate’s Dream
7. Upon Tomorrow
8. Thank God For Things That Grow
What is to hit the shelves on February 23rd under the title of “Elegy: The Recordings 1968-1971” is a 6CD collection of the sextet’s three classic studio albums, including the two aforementioned variants of their third, some with bonuses, and the ever-popular "Live" augmented with a disc of concert recordings from the same era. Nothing previously unreleased here, yet the package seems convenient, and the book in the box set feels interesting.
CD 1 – Those Who Are About To Die Salute You:
1. Walking In The Park
2. Plenty Hard Luck
3. Mandarin
4. Debut
5. Beware The Ides Of March
6. The Road She Walked Before
7. Backwater Blues
8. Those About To Die
bonus tracks – Pye Studios, November 1968:
9. I Can’t Live Without You
10. In The Heat Of The Night
11. Those About To Die (demo)
CD 2 – Valentyne Suite:
1. The Kettle
2. Elegy
3. Butty’s Blues
4. The Machine Demands A Sacrifice
5. The Valentyne Suite
bonus track:
6. Tell Me Now
CD 3 – The Grass Is Greener:
1. Jumping Off The Sun
2. Lost Angeles
3. Elegy
4. Butty’s Blues
5. Rope Ladder To The Moon
6. Bolero
7. The Machine Demands A Sacrifice
8. The Grass Is Always Greener
CD 4 – Daughter Of Time:
1. Three Score And Ten Amen
2. Time Lament
3. Take Me Back To Domesday
4. The Daughter Of Time
5. Theme For An Imaginary Western
6. Bring Out Your Dead
7. Downhill And Shadows
8. The Time Machine
bonus tracks – Lansdowne Studios, May 3rd, 1970:
9. Bring Out Your Dead (demo)
10. Jumping Off The Sun
11. The Pirate’s Dream
CD 5 – Colosseum Live:
1. Rope Ladder To The Moon
2. Walking In The Park
3. Skellington
4. I Can’t Live Without You
5. Tanglewood ‘63
6. Encore… Stormy Monday Blues
7. Lost Angeles
CD 6 – Live Recordings 1971:
1. Rope Ladder To The Moon (Brighton)
2. Skellington (Brighton)
3. I Can’t Live Without You (Manchester University)
4. Time Machine – The Machine Demands A Sacrifice (Manchester University)
5. Stormy Monday Blues (Bristol University)
6. The Valentyne Suite (Manchester University)