Rockin’ The City Of Angels: Celebrating The Great Rock Shows Of The 70s review

A mighty hardback of live classics from the 70s

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Rockin’ The City Of Angels: Celebrating The Great Rock Shows Of The 70s book cover

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Sure, this says ‘Celebrating The Great Rock Shows Of The 70s’, but don’t panic, there’s plenty of prog in Douglas Harr’s hernia-popping 380-page hardback slab.

Separated into four themes – Rock Gods & Entertainers; Shamans, Storytellers and Mellow Rockers; Virtuosos & Classic Rockers, Encore (Genesis and Peter Gabriel) – Harr’s taken the soundtrack to his teenage years in LA, focused on 36 stadium shows and rounded them up with oodles of classily curated live shots. Added to that is Harr’s pick of each act’s best live DVD/audio release out there for today’s concert buff to appreciate at home. Meanwhile, The Who, Queen and Cat Stevens mingle on page and on stage with Heart, the Eagles and AC/DC, but it’s the prog goblet that runneth over. Tull, Yes, Supertramp, ELP, Kansas, Floyd, Wakeman, Camel, Rush, Kate Bush and Crimson get great billing. Zappa is underserved with one shot and two spreads, but features on PFM, Dixie Dregs, Happy The Man and U.K. give the book a deeper gusto. Printed on thick, glossy paper stock and served up at $79.99 (£65), it’s no casual investment. But Harr has created an absorbing read, with fun, personal recollections and a real sense of his own love and enjoyment.

Jo Kendall
Jo Kendall

Jo is a journalist, podcaster, event host and music industry lecturer with 23 years in music magazines since joining Kerrang! as office manager in 1999. But before that Jo had 10 years as a London-based gig promoter and DJ, also working in various vintage record shops and for the UK arm of the Sub Pop label as a warehouse and press assistant. Jo's had tea with Robert Fripp, touched Ian Anderson's favourite flute (!), asked Suzi Quatro what one wears under a leather catsuit, and invented several ridiculous editorial ideas such as the regular celebrity cooking column for Prog, Supper's Ready. After being Deputy Editor for Prog for five years and Managing Editor of Classic Rock for three, Jo is now Associate Editor of Prog, where she's been since its inception in 2009, and a regular contributor to Classic Rock. She continues to spread the experimental and psychedelic music-based word amid unsuspecting students at BIMM Institute London, hoping to inspire the next gen of rock, metal, prog and indie creators and appreciators.