Concerts

Compiled in May 1976 for the Norwegian label Compendium, with Caroline, Virgin's budget label, reissuing it later, Concerts was a self-manufactured release. It was recorded in London, Italy, the Netherlands and Norway. Sides one and two hold composed pieces and sides three and four improvisations, and the cover is a collage by the roadie and sound mixer Maggie Thomas, made from a cut-up poster she had designed. Side one is the Peel session recorded at Maida Vale Studio 4 on 5 August 1975: Beautiful as the Moon, Nirvana for Mice, Ottawa Song, Gloria Gloom and a reprise of Beautiful as the Moon. Bad Alchemy and Little Red Riding Hood Hits the Road come from the New London Theatre concert of 21 May 1975, with Robert Wyatt singing, and Ruins and Udine from Udine on 13 October 1975. Oslo was recorded at the Hovikodden Arts Centre on 25 July 1975, and Groningen at the Vera club in Groningen on 28 September 1974. Groningen is part of a suite improvised around fragments of an early Living in the Heart of the Beast, which appears in full as Halsteren in The Road.

A 1995 East Side Digital double CD added four tracks from the band's set on Greasy Truckers Live at Dingwalls Dance Hall. A power failure and a 2 am curfew had cut their set at the concert to ten minutes, so they improvised it to tape at The Manor a week later and mixed it in a single session. Bob Drake remastered a 2006 Recommended Records CD in March 2006, restoring the original dynamics of Oslo, with a booklet that included a 1977 interview in Sweden and an extract from Cutler's Road Diary for November and December 1977. Glenn Kenny of Trouser Press called side one a beautifully rendered song cycle.