The bald facts are that this is a double CD of Jeff Scott Soto’s set at the fifth Firefest melodic rock festival, at Rock City, Nottingham in October 2008. But so much had happened in his career in the months leading up to this show, as he explains in the notes that accompany the CD, this becomes something more than a record of a single show. It came barely 18 months after his unceremonious ousting from Journey, then, after taking the decision to go outside his normal melodic rock comfort zone, working with new writers and introducing more contemporary and diverse elements into the music, eventually released on the ‘Beautiful Mess’ album.

This was also to be his last show with the band that had backed him in his solo work for most of the last decade, the excellent Howie Simon on guitar, Gary Schutt on bass and Dave Dzialak on drums. Even the recording of the set had its own story, as the show was originally filmed for a DVD release, then the footage was shelved and nothing more was heard of the recording until this album appeared in the release schedule.

The songs are mostly drawn from the Beautiful Mess album, but there are regular journeys into the rest of Soto’s career, which does show up how often funk influences had come into his music over the years and, on occasions, the JSS band start to sound a little like the great and much missed Dan Reed Network. The brief extract of Talisman’s ‘Colour My XTC’ is a perfect example of this, and I’ll always maintain that his version of Seal’s ‘Crazy’, which Soto originally recorded on Talisman’s ‘Life’ album, is superior to the original. Despite the concentration on the ‘Beautiful Mess’ songs, the set does cover a fair amount of the rest of his career, although it does omit anything from his time with Axel Rudi Pell and Yngwie Malmsteen. The older material also serves to show Soto’s versatility, from the excellent rockers ‘Eyes Of Love’ and ‘Drowning’, to the slightly mellower ‘Soul Divine’. He also shows how well he knows his way around a ballad, particularly in his solo piano spot, including a belting ‘Nobody Said It Was Easy’, from the ultra rare ‘Eyes’ album.

In comparison to the older stuff, the newer songs do come over as mellow and relaxed That’s not to say that there’s anything wrong with the writing, ‘’Hey’ and ‘Gin Tonic Sky’ in particular are cracking pieces of work, but in the context of the live show, don’t really serve to crank up the excitement. And as good as they are, the fact that the album was only available via download, with the CD version still a few months away, meant that the crowd were mostly unfamiliar with a lot of the material, and so really only come to life when the more familiar songs are played.

There’s also the issue of the ‘Boogie Knights Medley’. This is an 11-minute compilation of assorted disco/funk songs, such as ‘Kung Fu Fighting’, ‘Ice Ice Baby’, and ‘Night Fever’, as sung by Soto during his time with the stage show of the same name, sort of a disco version of ‘We Will Rock You’. It’s funny and enjoyable seen live, especially considering how hard the band work it, including some quite outrageous dance routines, but doesn’t quite work on CD, much less when being sold to what is predominantly a rock audience.

The only major complaint I have with the album is how short it is. The whole package lasts less than 72 minutes, which would easily fit onto a straight forward single CD. This also loses in comparison to JSS’s previous live set, 2009’s ‘One Night In Madrid’ which differs from this by only one proper track, ‘Stand Up and Shout’, a full version of ‘Colour My XTC’ and an extra track in the piano medley. I have no idea why this was issued as a double disc package, and in view of the lack of bonus tracks, alternative versions or the like, issuing it as a double seems completely unnecessary. Soto has recorded so much music in his career, surely there’s some unreleased material in the vaults which could have been added to make this a more attractive release

Apart from those reservations, as a live album, it’s fine. JSS’s vocals are, as usual, consistently excellent, and his band are as tight as the proverbial. Any JSS fan will want to hear it, it’s a nice souvenir of the last show with the band and for a casual listener, along with the astounding W.E.T. album, makes a good introduction to one of one of melodic rock’s greatest and yet most underrated talents.



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