Simon RushworthTaste – What’s Going On: Live At The Isle Of Wight (Eagle Records)
Genre: Classic Rock
Days after this legendary performance Rory Gallagher announced that one of rock’s most exciting power trios was – as had long been rumoured – going to split.
A fractious build-up to the band’s Isle Of Wight show meant all three members were on the edge even before they experienced a stressful journey to what would go down in history as the world’s biggest outdoor music festival.
But perhaps that underlying tension was the reason for such an incendiary set. Remixed, remastered and featuring previously unreleased material, this 10-track testimony to a very special collective oozes raw passion from start to finish.
Plucking victory from the jaws of defeat, Taste somehow overcome a simmering internal feud – brought about by rank mis-management – to triumph in adversity. Gallagher is in exquisite form on a sensational 10-minute version of Sugar Mama but even that is eclipsed by the 14-minute take on Catfish Blues.
Ryhthm section John Wilson and Richard McCracken might not have seen eye to eye with their supremely talented band mate but for one afternoon only it seems all three set aside their differences and let the music do the talking.
Taste did limp on beyond this 1970 watershed as they fulfilled previous touring commitments but Gallagher’s announcement that the end was nigh rang true. And for those who were there this was the spectacular peak of the band’s short-lived career.
RUSHONROCK RATED: 8/10 Tastemakers