Face to Face: A Live Recording
| Face to Face: A Live Recording | ||||
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| Live album by Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel | ||||
| Released | July 1977 | |||
| Recorded | December 1976-January 1977 | |||
| Genre | Pop rock | |||
| Length | 73:11 | |||
| Label | EMI | |||
| Producer | Steve Harley, Tony Clark | |||
| Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| Record Mirror |
(sides 1+2) (sides 3+4) |
| Sounds | |
Face to Face: A Live Recording is a live album by Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, released in 1977. It was produced by Steve Harley and Tony Clark.
To promote the release of their album Love's a Prima Donna, Cockney Rebel embarked on an eight-date UK tour in December 1976. On the tour, Jo Partridge replaced guitarist Jim Cregan, who had left the band after the recording of the album to join Rod Stewart's touring band. The band's concerts at London's Hammersmith Odeon, Birmingham Odeon, Glasgow Apollo and Newcastle City Hall, were recorded for a possible live album, using the live mobile recording studios RAK Mobile and La Maison Rouge. Later in February 1977, the band played a one-off charity concert at the London Rainbow in aid of the homeless in Northern Ireland. This show was also recorded for potential use on the live album.
In a February 1977, a few days ahead of the London Rainbow show, Harley revealed to Melody Maker that he was in the process of listening to the tracks recorded on the December tour. He told Harvey Kubernik: "We did eight concerts and every night was great. I'm not just saying that. Jimmy had left to join Rod Stewart's band and Jo Partridge brought new energy. It was our fourth major tour and the fans were on my side from the word go. They're a great audience. It was the best concert tour I've done in my life. I've never enjoyed playing so much in my career." Over the next few weeks, Harley worked on mixing the recordings and selecting the best tracks. Tony Clark was hired as the album's engineer and co-producer. The tracks were mixed at both Abbey Road Studios and Air Studios in London. They were later mastered by Ken Perry at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles.
Speaking of the upcoming album to Record Mirror's Ray Fox-Cumming, Harley said:
"Quite frankly, I've always been much bigger as a live performer than I have on plastic. It will probably be my next album release. Basically it will be the whole of the one-and-a-half hour show I did on the last tour. We recorded the concerts at Glasgow, Birmingham, Newcastle, Hammersmith and The Rainbow, so there are plenty of versions of each song to choose from and make a good album. The results of what has been mixed so far have turned out excellently. I have cheated a little bit, though I think quite justifiably so. I altered the running order a bit, although I don't think that most people who went to the concerts will even notice. The reason for the change is that a running order which seems right for a show can be nonsense on plastic. Each side of each of the two records has to have a beginning and an end, which in all means eight ends-and-beginnings. In concert you don't have that problem. I've also cheated a tiny amount by erasing the odd bum note. Out of five versions of a song that I've got to choose from, there will always be one where the vocal's in tune, the guitar solo sounds great and everything else is just about perfect, but even then there's always some little thing that's off and I'm not going to spoil a good track by allowing an obvious bum note on it when that can be avoided."
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