Pete Haycock (guitars, vocals) / Colin Cooper (guitars, saxophone, vocals) / Richard Jones (keyboards, vocals) / Derek Holt (bass, vocals) / John Cuffley (drums)
Climax were a seriously good band. I had already seen them back in 1974 and had also recorded their 1/2-hour slot off the BBC’s ‘In Concert’ radio broadcast in 1975 where they played ‘All The Time In The World’, ‘Amerita / Sense Of Direction’, ‘Running Out Of Time / Good Time Blues‘, and ‘Going To New York‘ and I’m guessing that they would have played those here at Reading (sadly there are no setlists for the band from this period).
Karl Dallas writing for the Melody Maker said of them: “When Colin Cooper picked up his sax and they swung into a jazzy instrumental, I realised that there is more to this band than immediately meets the ear – though I’ve got to admit that the most exciting moments were during a long slide guitar feature which explored almost every nuance of what some would think was a fairly limited medium of expression.” I think that he liked them… maybe…
Writing for New Musical Express, Tony Tyler and Chris Salewicz said, “The Climax Blues Band demonstrates a thumpin’, rip-snortin’ control of their five instruments. Colin Cooper obviously revels in the role of white cat as mean sax-playing jazzer: the fact that he faces the audience aside, there is more than a suggestion that he has given much study to – the obvious choice – Miles’ onstage stance. He is also more than a mere R’n’B honker playing mellow, forceful free sax. His stints of rhythm guitar are adequate but subdued. Taking Care Of Business. Climax come on like a real bunch of bohos. “Wow. The sun’s shinin’,” mumbles lead guitarist, Pete Haycock. That’s exactly the kind of nothing remark the audience seems to identify with. Not for nothing are this bunch huge in the proverbial mid-West. They also like to play with cigarettes stuck in their mouths, thus firmly stating their position vis-a-vis Real Men and Rock’n’Roll. No mealy-mouthed faggots, these dudes. “
The band would, of course, hit the big time the next year with the worldwide smash hit ‘Couldn’t Get It Right‘ from their 1976 ‘Gold Plated‘ album but for now they were still universally applauded for their efforts, especially in the USA where they had cut a wonderful live double album, ‘FM Live‘ (released here as a slimmed-down single LP).
Oh, and ‘Sense of Direction‘ is my favourite album of theirs with the beautiful title track which I really, really hope that they played when we saw them.
Setlist: unknown
Here’s what the official newspaper programme had to say about them…
Gigs'n'Stuff 