Volume 8 in Nippon Crown's Todd Archive series is called "Another Side of
Roxy", containing selections from 10 Roxy performances in August, 1978. The
cd encloses 15 tracks released first in between 1972 and 1978, Todd's most
creative and most productive period in writing, recording and performing
music. Allthough I don't know what the Roxy is like, the sound recordings
breath the atmosphere of a late evening concert with a small audience in an
intimate place. This may have to do with the audience mixed way in the back,
but it's certainly due to the choice of the song material, consisting of
short, mostly mellow songs like "It wouldn't have made any difference", the
medley "I'm So Proud--La La Means I Love You--I Saw The Light" and "The verb
to love". Still Another side of Roxy wouldn't have any surplus value for the
collectionist if it contained only these evergreens, which are present on
almost any of Todd's live albums. The only reason for buying the cd is it
contains some rarely brought out live tracks from the 1978 album Hermit of
Mink Hollow like "Determination", "You cried wolf" and the beautiful
"Bread". The tracklist also contains a brilliant version of "Lord
Chancellor's nightmare song", never thought it'd be possible to perform this
song live so well. Another surprise is the presence of "Lady face", a song
written by keyboardplayer Moogy Klingman, making Another side of Roxy a real
collector all in all.
René Bosman, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
