The Greatest Show on Earth

Martin Darvill first tried to get a record company contract back in 1978 and was told to go back to school and qualify as something! Twenty years on, after becoming a partner at Music Of Life, he fulfilled his life's ambition. 'The Greatest Show On Earth' is the result of music written during these intervening years.

The CD is credited to Martin Darvill and friends - and boy, does he have some talented friends! The main band is made up of Darvill (lead, rhythm and harmony guitars, keyboards); vocalist Ian 'Moon' Gould (Landmarq, Medicine Man); Arena and Janison Edge's Ian Salmon (bass, rhythm and harmony guitars); Paul 'Whiskey' Ward on keyboards and bass; and Kevin Woodford on drums.

The huge guest list is star studded, and guest appearances include (in no particular order): keyboards from Martin Orford's flying fingers, the voice of John Wetton, Dave Kilminster's guitar work, John Jowett on bass, vocals and acoustic guitar from Al Stewart and his guitarist Paul Robinson, a guitar solo from Pendragon's Nick Barrett, Don Airey's keyboards, bass parts by Noel Redding, drums from Kenney Jones, Wild Willy Barrett's acoustic guitar, Karl Groom on keyboards and guitars, a very brief explosive appearance from Arena, and more... phew!

The album was produced by Karl Groom and Martin Orford, and mixed by the talented Rob Aubrey.

You'll rarely find a CD that is as crammed as full as this one - first check out the CD packaging, there's a myriad of images on the reverse of the CD box. The accompanying booklet has its first two pages choc full of photographs of the whole host of musicians who appear on the album, along with details of when they appear; the next ten pages contain the full lyrics (with explanatory notes) with many more images, and photos which are illustrated with lines from the songs. The last two pages are given to the history behind the CD and acknowledgments.

The CD is jam packed full of great music too. In fact it's too much to take in at one go, I've listened to this several times over the last couple of weeks and am still spotting things I've previously missed. Here, strands from all sorts of musical spheres are unified into a full rich tapestry of sound that is, at the same time, new and yet somehow familiar - producing an album that is well worth coming back to again and again. 'TGSOE' is comparable to Ayreon, but with a very British rock feel (Darvill cites as influences Deep Purple, Wishbone Ash, The Faces and The Who).

Some of the highlights of the album, for me, are: firstly, 'I Will Love You Forever', a sweet love song that has a fabulous show stopping feel and is described as "A concept prog epic - capable of filling an entire side ... condensed into less than 3 minutes". This is followed by the wonderful warm vocals of Al Stewart on the all too brief 'I Must Go' - less is certainly more here. Then there's the story of Aphrodite coming to life for just one day, 'Don't Touch The Marble', "another prog epic in less than three minutes" - an upbeat number with a reggae feel to the instrumentation behind the verse, some wonderful guitar work and great vocals. More of Moon's fabulous voice in 'Paradise Is Waiting' - perhaps this should be subtitled as a tribute to Freddie Mercury. Moving onwards to 'Circus In The Sky' with a totally magnificent guitar solo from Nick Barrett, the CDs would be worth getting for this alone!

Yet there are still more wonderful things to come; 'I Am the Future' has some inspired guitar work, more lovely vocals and The Swanbourne House School Choir - yes I know that kid's singing can be naff but, believe me, here it is absolutely right. The wonderfully sing along 'The Only Way To Fly' manages to combine a countrified steel guitar sound with a pop feel, and ends with a manic laugh from Al Stewart ... just great! The CD closes with the eighteen minute epic, 'The Greatest Show On Earth' which is a pastiche uniting several themes from what has gone before and which includes some wonderfully spine tingling vocals from John Wetton in which, especially during the last section, producer Martin Orford has almost out-Asiad Asia!

There is a huge concept behind the album, and the many different visions behind the songs incorporate views of religion, scientific discoveries, drug addiction, insanity, relationships, love, peace, happiness, sadness, hope and the hereafter. The songs are intelligently written and, I've found, make you stop and think - and that's no bad thing!

So, huge concept, huge and wonderful sound - and I love it. This CD will keep you enthralled for a very long time... everyone should have their own copy, I have reviewed a fair few albums and this one goes straight into my top three must haves. — Marisa.