Finally! My review of U.K.'s 18-disc Ultimate Collector's Edition box set, today at All About Jazz.
Even if it were only definitive CD & high res Blu Ray audio of U.K.'s self-titled debut, plus the three live shows of various origins but cleaned up beautifully, this box set would be enough.
I mean, we're talking Eddie Jobson, Allan Holdsworth, John Wetton and Bill Bruford here...
There's more, of course - 12 more discs, in fact, including a reunion show with Jobson, Wetton, the great Alex Machacek and Marco Minnemann...on CD and, again, in high res Blu Ray....
Anyway, here's the start of the review:
Well, there's certainly been a wait for this one, but for fans of what may be the last high profile progressive rock group to emerge in the 1970s, U.K.'s Ultimate Collector's Edition proves well worth the wait. What began as an already sizeable 16-disc box for a group that, during its relatively brief tenure, released just two studio albums and one live recording, has become an 18-disc set with the addition of a recording of the group's final show in Nijmegen, The Netherlands on December 17, 1979, as well as a disc that features two interviews (from 1978 and 1979 respectively) with keeper-of-the-flame, box set producer and U.K. keyboardist/violinist Eddie Jobson and bassist/vocalist John Wetton--the band's two constants across the entire box.
Bigger isn't always better, but in this case both discs are worthy additions; though the interview disc will likely only get a couple spins, it (along with the final performance disc) come at no additional cost, so they are true bonus discs. The 18 discs come, in an unusual and slightly inconvenient fashion, on six thick cardboard plates that hold three discs each (and, despite being unconventional, there's an inner logic that will be revealed...read on), along with a well-bound, 66-page softcover book the same size as the disc plates, all housed in an attractive black box with the U.K. logo that Jobson has been using since he began touring a reunion version of the band in 2009 with Wetton and, on some occasions, drummer ]Terry Bozzio = 18858, original member of the second incarnation of the group when its original lineup with über-guitarist Allan Holdsworth and equally renowned drummer Bill Bruford dissolved, largely due to artistic differences.
The story of the band can, to some extent, be found in All About Jazz's reviews of Jobson's 2009 remasters of U.K.'s complete discography: 1978's U.K., with the initial quartet with Jobson, Wetton, Holdsworth and Bruford, and 1979's sophomore studio effort Danger Money and follow-up live album, Night After Night--both featuring the trio incarnation that replaced the departed Holdsworth and Bruford with Bozzio, whom Jobson first met during his year spent touring with the late, great Frank Zappa.
The group was touted, at the time, as a progressive rock supergroup--and, indeed, was the last major progressive band to emerge in the 1970s at a time when many fans of the genre were deserting it in droves for the emergent Punk and New Wave. The term "supergroup" is certainly appropriate: Jobson--a child prodigy who began playing piano at seven and added violin at eight--had, by this time and, despite his relatively young age, played with Curved Air, Roxy Music and Zappa; Bruford, in addition to being a charter member of Yes = 21783 (one of the earliest rock groups to help define the progressive genre), left that group on the cusp of greater commercial success to join guitarist Robert Fripp's revamped, improv-heavy King Crimson, which came together in late 1972, releasing the first of four acclaimed albums, Larks' Tongues in Aspic (Island), the following year and, following that group's dissolution, became Genesis' touring drummer when Phil Collins stepped up as lead singer, following Peter Gabriel's departure (though it was a collaboration that didn't last all too long).
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Originally Posted by Yellow Jester
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