by Dave Franklin

Created on: January 28, 2007   Last Updated: May 09, 2007

In1996 The Levellers were at the top of their game, after years of living on the road, selling their own mix of folk, rock and social rebellion. Thus the choice to put out a live album was well timed, with a string of well-received albums and singles behind them and a captive audience before them it was a marketing executives dream. This album was recorded on tour through out Europe and has an accompanying video from the Blackpool Empress Ballroom, the last concert on the Zeitgeist Tour and both play like a greatest hits album. A large amount of the material comes from the Levelling The Land album, which to this day remains rightly regarded as a classic, but with contributions from the two preceding albums and also their latest release it stands up as a fine documentation of their work up to that date.

It could be argued that The Levellers were responsible for breathing new life into the folk rock music genre. When they first reached for their mandolins and army surplus boots in 1988, folk rock was as about as unpopular as you could get. After winning over audiences supporting New Model Army, through sheer bloody mindedness and determination they carved out a place for themselves and their re-launched style of music and by the time of this live album were reaping the fruits of their labours.

The rumbling bass line of Sell Out opens the show, random audience shrieks occasionally breaking through to add to the authenticity of the live setting. As the guitars join the fray, building the song and heightening the tension, unfortunately the downside of live recordings comes to the fore; the dramatic violin riff that should launch the song is lost in the mix, lessening the impact some what. This is only a temporary set back and buttons are tweaked and sliders slide and soon the balance is found, such is the nature of live recordings. One thing that it does show is that the recording has not been enhanced after the event. It would be all too easy to over dub a better violin track on the original, but here the band maintain their honesty and integrity. You get a truthful recording of the night in question, take it or leave it. The relevance of Sell Out is still to be found in its lyrics.

Now in a land not far away, there's men in prison because they say
The colour of your skin is not a question
Did you rally to their side
No, you sat back and let them die
I don't know how you get to sleep at night

What are also noticeable in this song is how many influences the band can call

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