Hot spot (Manzanera) (LP 3073 - 3075)

801  Live (Vinyl, Polydor Records, 1976) ****  

Phil Manzanera/ 801  Listen Now (Vinyl, Polydor Records, 1977) ****  

Phil Manzanera  Listen Now (Vinyl, Polydor Records, 1978) ****  

Genre: Prog rock 

Places I remember: Real Groovy Records, Spellbound Wax Co., Little Red Bookshop

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: TNK (801 Live)

Gear costume: Flight 19 (Listen Now)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5

Active compensatory factors: 801 is a loose UK supergroup and a side project away from Roxy Music for Phil Manzanera (and Eno).

This live album captures the group in dynamic form - exemplified by the trippy version of The Beatles' Tomorrow Never Knows (as highlighted above). The rest of the material is a wide section of genres but everything works!

Listen Now is a very interesting album too, but miles away from that Live one, even though it came out about the same time. 

It's the people involved that make the difference, obviously, and with, amongst others, Godley and Creme plus Split Enzers Tim and Eddie contributing, it's all classic pop sensibilities rather than the prog experimentation of the Live album.

K-Scope has Tim Finn as lead vocalist on a few tunes (which I love) and they point towards his own solo career. The sound is tougher on K-Scope - more straight-forward rocking than before. Neil Finn and Eddie also appear along with Mel Collins and Simon Phillips who also contributed to Listen Now. 

Where do they all belong? A great side project. I'm not a huge fan of Roxy Music/ Bryan Ferry and much prefer Phil's solo activities.