Sean Trane
These recordings were taken as Nucleus was still in its prime although Chris Spedding had left and Jeff Clyne also, only to be replaced by Ray Russel and Roy Babbington! The only recorded live traces of Spedding with Nucleus can be found in the BBC recordings that are named The Pretty Redhead released by Hux label a few months after this album in 2003. The superb thing about this package is that only a few tracks are from studio albums, the rest apparently being composition that will not find their way in succeeding records either.
Songs For The Bearded Lady and Torrid Zone as well as Elastik Rock are only slightly elongated and Snakehip Dream is actually shorter than the studio version. Superb long tracks such as By The Pool and Kookie At The Zoom Club (where this was recorded) are obviously improvisations, but are they incredibly tight! Even with Russel not at Spedding's level, he manages to come out unscathed from those sessions.
On the second disc, Oasis/Money Mad is clearly a great moment, just after the Snakehip Dream (the major work on Solar Plexus) is a superb start but the rest are not as high standard (Elastic Rock excepted). This is maybe where that halfstar is lost, IMHO! But still well worth the investigation and the investment!
