"Those Who Are About To Die Salute You" by COLOSSEUM – March 1969 UK Debut Album on Fontana Records STL 5501 and July 1969 USA on Dunhill Records with Different Tracks and Artwork (both Stereo) – featuring Jon Hiseman, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Dave Greenslade, Tony Reeves, James Litherland and Jim Roche (28 July 2017 Esoteric Recordings Expanded Edition CD Reissue with Three Bonus Tracks – Ben Wiseman Remaster) - A Review by Mark Barry...

"...Ides Of March..."

On holiday with his wife in Italy, Jon Hiseman was clearly impressed by some building in Rome that's apparently been there a while. Having studied Roman History in school as an A-level, our Drummer even got to stick (if you'll forgive the pun) the Gladiatorial chant "Morituri Te Salutant" on the mural photo adorning his band's debut LP. Colosseum stuck as a band name for sure, but the English language translation of his fave Latin phrase to one's emperor was deemed more commercial - so Colosseum's debut LP became the very AC/DC-sounding "Those Who Are About To Die Salute You". Bring your daughter to the Jazz-Rock slaughter. Beware the girl-guides of March etc.

Recorded in the winter of 1968, the five-piece Fusion outfit had shed guitarist Jim Roche by the time the album hit Blighty shops in March 1969 - adorned, as it was by that eye-catching Fontana Records laminated cover. Roche plays only on the Leadbelly cover "Backwater Blues" - for all other tracks he was replaced with Vocalist and Guitarist James Litherland. Colosseum's rip-roaring debut has had a bit of a strangulated history on digital, but as ever, Cherry Red's Esoteric Recordings has done the business it and in fact by all five of their originals albums up to the seminal "Colosseum Live" in June 1971 and beyond into the band's late Seventies incarnation Colosseum II. But now back to the beginning; time to explore the road she walked on before...

UK released 28 July 2017 - "Those Who Are About To Die Salute You" by COLOSSEUM on Esoteric Recordings ECLEC 2598 (Barcode 5013929469846) is an Expanded Edition CD Reissue and Remaster with Three Bonus Tracks that plays out as follows (53:16 minutes):

1. Walking In The Park [Side 1]

2. Plenty Hard Luck

3. Mandarin

4. Debut

5. Beware The Ides Of March [Side 2]

6. The Road She Walked Before

7. Backwater Blues

8. Those About To Die

Tracks 1 to 8 are their debut album "Those Who Are About To Die Salute You" - released March 1969 in the UK on Fontana STL 5501 and July 1969 in the USA on ABC/Dunhill Records DS-50062 with Six Tracks, a different running order (see notes below) and slightly altered artwork. Original copies of the British LP credit the album title on the label simply as "Colosseum" - while US originals insert the correct coma in the title "Those Who Are About To Die, Salute You".

BONUS TRACKS (recorded in London, November 1968 at Pye Studios):

9. I Can't Live Without You

10. In The Heat Of The Night

11. Those About To Die (Demo)

NOTES (US Variant of the LP):

The US LP of "Those Who Are About To Die Salute You" featured re-recorded tracks from their second British LP "Valentyne Suite" and was sequenced as follows with only six cuts instead of eight:

Side 1:

1. The Kettle

2. Plenty Hard Luck

3. Debut

4. Those About To Die

Side 2:

1. Valentyne Suite

(i) Theme One - January’s Search

(ii) Theme Two - February’s Search

(iii) Theme Three – Beware The Ides Of March

2. Walking In The Park 

You might wonder why neither The Kettle or Valentyne Suite are on this CD, that’s because they are dealt with on the 2CD reissue of "Valentyne Suite" as those songs were appropriate to that second UK album and not this American debut (see separate review).

The 16-page booklet starts out with Jon Hiseman's original 1969 LP liner notes - quickly followed by several pages of a MALCOLM DOME history of the band's genesis as far back as the early 60ts. There are photos of Jon Hiseman (Drummer), Dave Greenslade (Keyboards), Tony Reeves (Bass), James Litherland (Guitar) and Dick Heckstall-Smith on the Horns. There are a few other memorabilia bits like Tony Barrow's called card from Fontana and the usual reissue credits.

But the big news is a new Remaster by Audio Engineer BEN WISEMAN. Produced by Tony Reeves and Gerry Bron, you wouldn't call the original LP an audiophile experience by any means - but take the Dave Greenslade solo that suddenly explodes into the speakers on "Plenty Hard Luck" and Hiseman's manic whacking of the kit in the background - it's way better than any transfer I've heard before.

They open proceedings with a Graham Bond cover version, "Walking In The Park" - firmly establishing the Jazz-Rock credentials with Henry Lowther guesting on Trumpet. Although the vocal leaves a tad to be desired in terms of range and impact, "Plenty Hard Luck" is impressive. "Mandarin" is based on some Japanese Jazz scales and gives Heckstall-Smith centre stage at first only to be followed by a Chris Squire-like Bass solo from Tony Reeves - no doubt dreaming of gigs with Peter Gabriel in the 80s and 90s. The six-minutes of "Debut" amps up the horns and drums and apparently is what it claims to be on the tin, the first piece the band played together. Litherland gets to give it some marching guitar licks alongside Hiseman's shuffling beat - Heckstall Smith soloing over the top - building and building on the speed.

Side 2 opens with "Beware The Ides Of March" - an impressive Jazz-Rock smooch that feels like it's a 'Whiter Shade Of Pale' cover version in the opening minute. Soon it settles as Heckstall-Smith allows Dave Greenslade take over soloing on Organ. The short doubled Vocal/Sax of "The Road She Walked Before" is cute - written by Dick Heckstall-Smith although it predominantly features Dave Greenslade on straight-up piano threatening to go into a New Orleans jellyroll at any moment. We then go to a cool Blues-Rock-Jazz moment (seven and half minutes of them) when England's Colosseum tackle Huddie Leadbelly's "Backwater Blues" - Jim Roche shining on that lean and mean Fender Strat like a young Robert Cray (love that Bass Guitar and Saxophone solo moment - the transfer so damn good). It ends on five-minutes of frantic organ like Georgie Fame gone 'really' Jazz - and again Hiseman's drums up there all the time as Litherland gets to let rip on the Guitar.

The three extras are amazing finds. The first of the three "I Can't Live Without You" is a James Litherland song - a guitar-funky sort of Deep Purple "Hush" moment that clearly didn't fit in with the overall Jazz-Rock musical theme of the album. But it's a winner - the kind of Rock-Dance funky little brute that's bound to turn on a 3CD RPM box set soon as 'one we missed'. Studio cut number two "In The Heat Of The Night" is a cover of the Qunicy Jones theme song to the 1967 race-relations movie with Sydney Poitier and Rod Steiger (both eating up the screen in Oscar performances). Colosseum give it a slow drawl across the shuffling hi-hats - sweetly complimentary Sax soloing upholding a great Vocal (a fantastic find). Last is a Demo of "Those About To Rock" which at 4-minutes is still pretty faithful to the manic racehorse pace of the finished LP version.

I don't quite subscribe to Dome's assertion that Colosseum's debut is a masterpiece, but it sure as Hell made its mark. And that is hammered home on this exemplary CD transfer. Top job done (again)...