New York, NY - Supertramp, in 1979, were one of the biggest bands in the world, following the release and extensive accompanying tour for the album Breakfast in America. Their complete set at the 8,000-seat Pavillon de Paris in December of that year, on the third of four sold-out nights, will be released as Live in Paris '79 on 3LP for the first time, as well as a standalone 2CD package, the first time the audio has been available without the video.
Filmed and recorded on December 1st and 2nd, 1979, the show features the classic line-up of members Rick Davies (singer-songwriter-keyboardist) and Roger Hodgson (singer-songwriter-guitarist-keyboardist) with John Helliwell on sax, woodwinds, vocals and keyboards and a rock-steady rhythm section of bassist Dougie Thomson and drummer Bob Siebenberg, capturing Supertramp performing at the peak of their career.
Unlike the previously released 1980 Paris live album, featuring selections from earlier shows of this Paris run, the triple LP and double CD soundtrack to the film features the audio of the home video release, recorded during the two December shows.
Supertramp had been on the road for almost 10 months throughout America, Canada and Europe in support of Breakfast in America, 1979's top selling album, which sold in excess of 20 million copies, producing several hit singles and went on to win two Grammy awards. For a London-based band that started in 1969 and, with a new line-up, reached stardom in 1974 with the release of its third album Crime of the Century and within five years to have now reached the very pinnacle of music success, it must have felt sweet.
Performing such Supertramp favourites as Bloody Well Right, The Logical Song, Breakfast in America, Goodbye Stranger, Asylum, Even in the Quietest Moments, Give a Little Bit, Dreamer, Rudy, Take the Long Way Home, Fool's Overture and others amounted to nothing short of a celebration. Plus, Supertramp punctuated the proceedings with theatrical flair including moments of pure insanity including a gorilla, a banana, filmed projections of some of history's most evil characters, and silent film star Charlie Chaplin himself actually walking out onstage!
Drummer Siebenberg says: "Looking back at that period, it really was the experience of a lifetime... the best of times." Saxophonist Helliwell notes: "Those Paris shows were a definite high point for us because you could feel the audience reaction. You can actually hear the volatility in the French crowd. They sound a little mad!"
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Tracklist:
LP 1:
1. School
2. Ain't Nobody but Me
3. The Logical Song
4. Goodbye Stranger
5. Breakfast in America
6. Bloody Well Right
7. Hide in Your Shell
8. From Now On
LP 2:
1. Child of Vision
2. Even in the Quietest Moments
3. You Started Laughing (When I Held You in My Arms)
4. A Soapbox Opera
5. Asylum
6. Downstream
7. Give a Little Bit
8. Dreamer
LP 3:
1. Rudy
2. Take the Long Way Home
3. Another Man's Woman
4. Fool's Overture
5. Two of Us
6. Crime of the Century