Monday, February 27, 2012

Over the Rainbow - in Brazil

Amazing what you discover relevant to your own city while exploring others… well, the second hand record stores anyway! Despite rifling through old vinyl at every opportunity I’ve never come across ‘Over the Rainbow’, a live recording of the last ever concert at London’s fabled gig, March 16, 1975. Finding it in the unlikely setting of downtown Curitiba (southern Brazil)certainly adds to the romance!

The Rainbow (formerly the Astoria) was where the Beatles played for their fan club, where Hendrix burnt his first guitar, where Zappa was pulled from the stage - breaking a leg – where Floyd premiered DSOM, where Marley … well, you get the picture. Perhaps the most iconic of the larger London 60s/70s venues. There were also a shoal of live recordings (Beach Boys, Sweet, Buzzcocks, Nektar, Van Morrison and may others).

A real find, then, discovering ‘The Last Concert, Live!’, and most especially in Curitiba of all places. I’d love to know how the album ended up there; it's a promotional copy, too. The Rainbow bowed out to the sounds of Procul Harum, Kevin Coyne, John Martyn, Richard Thompson, Hatfield and the North, Frankie Miller and Sassafras. A real connoisseur’s collection. And to complete the package, The cover is a stylized drawing of the Rainbow, picked out by searchlights. Needless-to-say, a copy of the cover will be added to the our Rock Bus decoration!