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That special emotion engendered in the two last ever Petrols conerts is faithfully captured here. Thankfully someone has understood the potential of such live albums in just the way Frampton did when he came alive. Namely, with all that you 've learned, rework as/if necessary all the killer songs and hits of your career to date, stick in a few rare overlooked b-side nuggets, play like there's nothing to lose (in this case there wasn't - they d already called it a day) and live up to the big moment. Then hey! Dig the extra pizzaz! Few if any of these 16 songs have dated and it's hard to fault any of it. The loud riffy Catch a Fire was always a hard to handle bull in my living room and the dark, nasty fun of the dark, nasty Scum Surfin' is an Irish Stooges on bad acid romp meant only for robust girls and boys. Which may be you. But heck, overall the er , crack was good. The heady Chemicrazy(not on that original record) is the Clash playing the Byrds, Big Decision and Hey Venus are big riff magic, Blue to Black intense and the Bolanesqe Tingle really swings as does the good time Genius Move. Harmony is not strictly for the birds but for drummer Ciaran and spokesman guitarist Reaman too, notably on Sensitize with its lovely chorus and the no need to rush to the chorus of Sweet Shiver Burn. A blast. Go check out Abandon. A big blast. The Petrols are all busy with new lives, wives, careers and bands but if enough people hear and buy this then they may come alive again. Who knows? Whatever, here are the envoys of chaos at their best.

Stephen Ridley
CWAS #7 - Spring 2001

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