It's been speculated that this album, taped in front of an enthusiastic Tokyo audience in the early '70s, was recorded without
UFO's knowledge. When it was issued, however, it ended up as the final recorded document of the band with original guitarist
Mick Bolton still in the lineup. It was an unnecessary exercise, five of the six songs being rehashes of songs from their first two albums that were, as many live albums are, prone to bloated extended arrangements. Here the bandmembers favored their bluesy boogie side rather than their art rock aspirations, with the exception, in some respects at least, of their long
"Prince Kajuku/The Coming of Prince Kajuku" suite (which, in its studio version, had taken up much of the space on their second album,
Flying). The only one of the half-dozen tunes not to have appeared in a studio arrangement on the first two
UFO albums was a long, slow, and heavy slog through
Paul Butterfield's
"Loving Cup." The crowd certainly sounds as if it was eating the music up, and there's a somewhat more edgy raucousness than was heard in the studio counterparts, but it's not an essential release, even for fans. ~ Richie Unterberger
