An essential 8-CD collection celebrating the extraordinary live legacy of progressive rock visionaries Gentle Giant
Featuring eight hours of rare U.S. concert recordings from 1975-1980 including the complete Live at the Bicentennial show, The Capitol Studios Sessions, four previously uncollected performances and a 60-page hardback book with new essay and band interviews.
Few bands in progressive rock history earned a live reputation quite like Gentle
Giant. Renowned for translating their astonishingly intricate studio recordings to the stage with remarkable precision, imagination and musicianship, they delivered performances that remain among the most celebrated of the era.
Front Row Center (US Dates 1975–1980) presents an extensive document of that legacy, bringing together eight CDs of rare American performances spanning the band's classic years. From the celebrated Live At The Bicentennial concert recorded at New York's Calderone Concert Hall in July 1976, through the acclaimed Playing The Fool touring period of 1977, to a powerful 1980 performance from Atlanta and the superb Capitol Studios recordings from 1975, this collection captures Gentle Giant at every stage of their evolution as a live band.
Across these recordings, the group's extraordinary interplay, multi-instrumental virtuosity and fearless arrangements are showcased in full, featuring definitive performances of classics including Free Hand, Proclamation, On Reflection, The
Advent Of Panurge, Just The Same, Playing The Game, The Face, Funny Ways, Knots, Memories Of Old Days, extensive Octopus excerpts and many more.
Front Row Center also includes a 60-page hardback book featuring a substantial new essay by Alan Kinsman, drawing on extensive interviews with the band to explore Gentle Giant's unique approach to live performance, touring, musicianship and stagecraft, alongside rare photographs and memorabilia.
Expertly mastered by Peter J. Reynolds from the best available sources, Front Row Center is the most comprehensive collection yet of Gentle Giant's remarkable US live recordings - an essential archive celebrating one of progressive rock's most original, adventurous and accomplished live bands.