The Band - And Then There Were Four: FM Broadcast, Chicago 1983 (2015)

This superb live recording, taken from an FM radio broadcast of The Band playing at the Mandel Hall - a seated concert venue holding 750 situated within the University of Chicago - during their first re-union tour following the group s split in 1976, subsequent to their Last Waltz concert - was nothing short of a roaring success. Despite the absence of Robbie Robertson who, following some perhaps unfortunate remarks made by Rick Danko after the initial split, had declined to take part , which some critics saw as blasphemous. Robbie had also, by this juncture, all but turned his back on the worlds of pop and rock music and was concentrating largely on movies, in which he would sometimes feature in an acting role, sometimes provide some or all of the soundtrack for, and sometimes do both. The other four however were hungry to get back on the road and did just that in July 1983; this CD is an excellent illustration of what went down during these initial re-union gigs. In truth, this same quartet had performed on a stage together since the Waltz , but it was at a show billed a Rick Danko gig at L.A.'s Roxy club in March 1978. That, however, was the only occasion until 83 that the four piece played together, although there were occasions which had featured the members in pairs or trios - Danko with Helm, Danko with Manuel and Hudson etc. Playing largely the old classics and a few covers, there was one song not previously performed by The Band, in the shape of Rick Danko s Java Blues . The energy and ambience of the night however was clearly electric and the audience appear to have been in raptures. This version of The Band was a relatively short-lived unit though, as following a gig by the same line-up in Florida in 1986, Richard Manuel was tragically found dead in his motel room. Aged just 42, his death was put down to suicide, which most insiders believe was due to Richard s by then both chronic and acute alcohol dependency. Robbie Robertson was to perform again with Rick Danko and Garth Hudson when The Band were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 1994, but Levon Helm declined to attend on this occasion for reasons, it is believed, of ongoing tensions between the pair. So while it turned out that The Last Waltz indeed had been the final time The (original 5-piece) Band performed together, the show presented here is most certainly the next best thing; four of the group playing one of only a very select series of shows a few years thereafter.