When it comes to legendary hard rock drummers, there's few that were bigger or better than Cozy Powell. Of course he's sadly no longer with us, but throughout his 30 years professional career he played with an amazing array of top hard rock bands and artists - Jeff Beck Group, Rainbow, MSG, Whitesnake, Black Sabbath, ELP, Gary Moore and Peter Green are just a few of these. He even had a couple of big hit singles under his own name.

With ‘In Command 1973', Angel Air have unearthed a nugget from Powell's past in the shape of this live recording of his 1973 band Bedlam. Bedlam were short lived, existing for little over a year, and featuring the Ball brothers Denny and Dave (formerly of Procol Harum) with vocalist Frank Aiello. Billed as the ultimate hard rock band, Bedlam only managed to produce one solitary self-titled studio album in their short time together before disbanding in 1974 as Cozy hit the charts with his big solo hit ‘Dance With The Devil'. This live recording was made in October 1973 in front of an audience in London's Command Studios, principally as a promo tool to use for the band's assault on the USA.

It's great that Angel Air have managed to bring this recording to a wider audience as what you get is a top notch slice of solid 70's hard rock that's very much of its time, but a thoroughly worthwhile listen for all fans of 70's rock. Aside from the rather silly little ditty ‘Mother In Law', ‘In Command 1973' contains some scorching slices of pure hard rock to thoroughly rock your socks off. The likes of ‘I Believe In You', ‘Hot Lips', ‘Putting On The Flesh', ‘The Beast' and ‘Set Me Free' all display the influence of predominantly Cream, but variously also have hints of Mountain, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and even Jimi Hendrix to them. ‘Seven Long Years' starts off with a thunderous drum solo to remind us just what an exceptional talent Cozy Powell was, and there's even a bonus track of Powell's hit ‘Dance With The Devil' - the only known recording of Bedlam performing the track, which was taken from a performance on US TV early in 1974.

The sound quality, aside from the bonus track, is extremely good by the standards of the day, and ‘In Command 1973' is essential for those that have and enjoy the band's studio album. Fans that love Cozy's work with the likes of Rainbow, Jeff Beck and Whitesnake will certainly like this too, as would anyone who likes their rock raw, powerful and seventies. It's a whole lotta Cozy.

http://www.angelair.co.uk/sjpcd397.htm