Free – Isle Of Wight & Stockholm (August 1970 & December 1970) (Midas Touch 936212) (1999) 2 CD SET

Free – Isle Of Wight & Stockholm (August 1970 & December 1970) (Midas Touch 93621/2) (1999) 2 CD SET

Recorded Live in Isle of Wight – August 29, 1970 & Stockholm – December 12, 1970

Disc 1 (Isle of Wight, August 29 1970)

01. Introduction
02. Ride On A Pony
03. Woman
04. The Stealer
05. Be My Friend
06. Mr. Big
07. Fire And Water
08. I’m A Mover
09. The Hunter
10. All Right Now
11. Crossroads

Disc 2 (Stockholm, December 12 1970)

01. The Stealer
02. Fire And Water
03. Ride On A Pony
04. Heavy Load
05. Woman
06. Love You So
07. All Right Now
08. Be My Friend
09. Mr. Big

Personnel: Paul Rodgers: Vocals :: Paul Kossoff: Guitar :: Andy Fraser: Bass :: Simon Kirke: Drums.

Notes: Two live sets from Free’s prime are featured on this bootleg, one disc taken from their show at the Isle of Wight Festival on August 29, 1970, the other from a concert in Stockholm on December 12, 1970. The sound quality is good enough to make one wonder whether these were recorded with an eye for official release, and the performances are solid, drawing from an assortment of songs on their first four albums. Unfortunately it doesn’t have much of their quieter, more subtle material, though the cocky strutting blues-rock side (including, of course, &”All Right Now” in both concerts) is well represented. The song list from each set is fairly similar, which makes this more of a specialist/serious fan item than some other two-CD live albums might be, though a couple of the songs from their first LP (&”I’m a Mover” and &”The Hunter”) appear only on the Wight set. It’s interesting, too, to hear a version of &”Crossroads” in the Wight concert, as Free didn’t put that classic blues song on their early albums, though a version did show up on their Songs of Yesterday box. There’s no real reason why this shouldn’t be issued officially, other than a concern about the repetition of songs between the discs..