Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. It Takes Time
2. Homework
3. Black Magic Woman
4. Hey Mama Keep Your Big Mouth Shut
5. Supernatural
6. Rattlesnake Shake
7. Shake Your Hips
8. Albatross

Disc 2:

1. Travelling Riverside Blues
2. Steady Rollin' Man
3. Honeymoon Blues
4. Last Fair Deal Gone Down
5. If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day
6. Green Manalishi
7. Goin' Down
8. Help Me
9. Look on Yonder Wall

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #112214 in Music
• Released on: 2002-01-01
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: Live, Import
• Dimensions: .26 pounds

Album Description
UK live release recorded Sunday April 5th 1998 at Ronnie Scott's, the world famous jazz club. This 2 CD compilation will come as welcome news to the many fans who missed out first time round with the limited edition, 20,000 numbered copies of the Soho Sessions package which sold out immediately on it's first release. The set includes many of Peter Green's most famous compositions such as 'Albatross', 'Black Magic Woman', 'Rattlesnake Shake', 'Green Manalishi' & 'The Supernatural', plus versions of other blues classics such as 'Traveling Riverside Blues' & 'Steady Rollin' Man'. Includes extensive liner notes. 2001.

Customer Reviews

Will likely satisfy fans of the now defunct Splinter Group
The legacy of any band should in part be tempered by its live recordings. Though we are fortunate to this two-CD collection "Soho Live at Ronnie Scotts" by the Peter Green Splinter Group, the session does little to enhance the band's legacy nor does it undermine the studio work.

The clear, crisp recording is a decided plus for this session. You can clearly hear a guitar string scrape or bend, the brightness of the cymbals, the chugging organ, or the multipart harmonies on tracks such as Last Fair Deal Gone Down with splendid clarity.

The first disc, the better of the two, is more up tempo and engaging. Even Black Magic Woman sounds fresh and jaunty while Albatross takes its time and can, if one's imagination rambles, conjure up the image of a long sea journey via the giant bird. The band sounds engaged, tight, and efficient.

The second disc proves a bit of a letdown. It's hard to know what to make of some of the Robert Johnson covers-a couple thrown in would be enough, but five in a row tend to kill the pace and energy of the live show. A less than stellar recounting of Green Manalishi is followed by a too long Goin' Down, which is capped off by an irritating minute of nothing but audience applause and response.

The vocals throughout are at times frail, which in some cases melds with the content, but in other spots, the vocal, whether from Peter Green or Nigel Watson, seem to falter. Both Green and Watson have several bright moments on guitar. The bass seems boomy at times, and one wonders if Neil Murray has already lost interest in the band (he left following this CD). Keyboardist Roger Cotton keeps matters interesting throughout, and drummer Larry Tolfree sparkles. Together, they keep things smoldering on Shake Your Hips.

To recap, "Soho Live" will likely satisfy fans of the now defunct Splinter Group but is perhaps not the best entry point in the band's catalog.

Decent But Not Essential
I have been a Peter Green fan for about 40 years now, dating back to his days with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. After he later mysteriously left Fleetwood Mac on a personal spiritual quest, I and probably thousands of others religiously scanned the bins at record stores on every visit hoping for his eventual return to music. Then one day, there it was: a new Peter Green album.
Since his return, his solo albums have been mostly hit and miss. But then he teamed with Nigel Watson to form Peter Green's Splinter Group which has over the years issued a steady string of mostly very good but also mostly obscure albums. I did not even know Soho: Live at Ronnie Scott's existed until I was alerted to the fact on one of amazon's music forums. When I looked it up, the songlist seemed interesting, so I ordered it from an amazon partner at a good price.
Though I like the CD, I can't help thinking that a music fan returning today to the music of Peter Green would be much better served by getting one of Splinter Group's studio albums like Destiny Road instead of this. As tasty as the song selection may seem, the realities of the live performances mostly just don't measure up to the studio versions. The songs that work best here are The Supernatural and Albatross, which as you may already know are both instrumentals. Help Me, from disc 2, is probably the strongest non-instrumental piece.
So overall, while this is a decent CD and worth what I paid, I cannot deem it essential for any except a diehard completeist. Though I will enjoy listening occasionally, there are many other Peter Green CDs that deserve more eartime. Compare this to his other work, and you'll hear what I mean.