THE LARRY NORMAN UK77 SAGA
In 1977 Larry Norman was at the peak of his creative and performing abilities. Having just released his biggest selling album In Another Land, Norman embarked on an ambitious and lengthy world tour that included Australia, America, Europe, Israel, India, and Saudi Arabia among many other countries. For the UK leg of the journey he hired a mobile recording studio to capture several of his performances. Recordings that never saw the light of day. Until now.
After Larry passed away in 2008 his brother Charles began cataloging the thousands of photographs, master tapes, handwritten lyrics, and artwork Larry stored in his archives. It was a laborious task that took years. In 2019 Charles unearthed something long thought non-existent: the original 24-track tapes recorded in England 42 years earlier. He and several engineers at a Portland, Oregon recording studio meticulously restored, transferred, and digitized the tapes, and the result was stunning. Perfectly recorded concerts with a tight British backing band and Larry in top form interacting with the audiences and delivering like he seldom had before. Solid Rock is very excited to have finally brought this long-rumored artifact to completion as a two CD box set, each CD in a six panel Digipack with full-colour eight page booklets containing liner notes, tour recollections from those present, and previously unseen photographs.
We've also got it on two Vinyl LPs and as a digital download!
Select quotes from the CD booklet:
Nov. 26, 1977 - “The Kilburn Gaumont Theater, London: This Saturday night Larry Norman has sold out the venue twice – a total of 8,000 people – and by British music business standards this is quite impressive. Not many British acts could do the same. The next night I saw a band that was currently riding high in Britain, at the smaller Drury Lane Theatre and they haven’t sold its 3,000 seats out even once. Their manager, himself formerly manager of The Who, saw Larry at the Royal Albert Hall in 1975 and was amazed to encounter this phenomenon of the Christian underground who could quietly fill up 5,000 seats without the rest of the music business knowing about it.” - Steve Turner
“It’s not easy for a performer to make a large venue feel intimate and get the audience feeling at one with each other, but Larry is one of the masters of it. Preachers try to do it though it’s pretty hard to do, but there was a special unity that night which is rare. More 12 bar rock’n’roll ensued and Larry did Chuck Berry’s famous duck walk across the stage. People in Birmingham still talk about this gig.” - Alan Gibson
“There were quite a few luminaries that came to the concerts we did together – you know, bands, guitar players and million-selling artists all in awe of him, saying “Why is this guy not the biggest thing since sliced bread? Well, the reason is that he sacrificed his talent to God in a genuine way. I don’t think it was a contest. He pleased his Heavenly Father.” - Norman Barratt
After Larry passed away in 2008 his brother Charles began cataloging the thousands of photographs, master tapes, handwritten lyrics, and artwork Larry stored in his archives. It was a laborious task that took years. In 2019 Charles unearthed something long thought non-existent: the original 24-track tapes recorded in England 42 years earlier. He and several engineers at a Portland, Oregon recording studio meticulously restored, transferred, and digitized the tapes, and the result was stunning. Perfectly recorded concerts with a tight British backing band and Larry in top form interacting with the audiences and delivering like he seldom had before. Solid Rock is very excited to have finally brought this long-rumored artifact to completion as a two CD box set, each CD in a six panel Digipack with full-colour eight page booklets containing liner notes, tour recollections from those present, and previously unseen photographs.
We've also got it on two Vinyl LPs and as a digital download!
Select quotes from the CD booklet:
Nov. 26, 1977 - “The Kilburn Gaumont Theater, London: This Saturday night Larry Norman has sold out the venue twice – a total of 8,000 people – and by British music business standards this is quite impressive. Not many British acts could do the same. The next night I saw a band that was currently riding high in Britain, at the smaller Drury Lane Theatre and they haven’t sold its 3,000 seats out even once. Their manager, himself formerly manager of The Who, saw Larry at the Royal Albert Hall in 1975 and was amazed to encounter this phenomenon of the Christian underground who could quietly fill up 5,000 seats without the rest of the music business knowing about it.” - Steve Turner
“It’s not easy for a performer to make a large venue feel intimate and get the audience feeling at one with each other, but Larry is one of the masters of it. Preachers try to do it though it’s pretty hard to do, but there was a special unity that night which is rare. More 12 bar rock’n’roll ensued and Larry did Chuck Berry’s famous duck walk across the stage. People in Birmingham still talk about this gig.” - Alan Gibson
“There were quite a few luminaries that came to the concerts we did together – you know, bands, guitar players and million-selling artists all in awe of him, saying “Why is this guy not the biggest thing since sliced bread? Well, the reason is that he sacrificed his talent to God in a genuine way. I don’t think it was a contest. He pleased his Heavenly Father.” - Norman Barratt