Liverpool 1971 (Heart Breakers HB-933)
Liverpool University, Liverpool, England – February 6th, 1971
(71:56): The Stealer, Be My Friend, Ride On A Pony, Woman, I Love You So, All Right Now, Fire And Water, Heavy Load, The Highway Song, My Brother Jake, Soon I Will Be Gone, Mr. Big, The Hunter, Rock Me Baby, Crossroads
Free visited the US in late Janaury 1971, and (according to one source) played the Fillmore West in San Francisco from January 14th to January 24th. They also played in Santa Monica, California on either January 20th or January 22nd.
Their final dates in the US were two nights at Pirate World Amusement Park in Dania, Florida (located between Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood just north of Miami) on Friday January 29th and Saturday, January 30th. Free then flew back to Europe and appeared on Swedish radio on Februry 1st and in Croyden and Liverpool in the UK a week later.
Liverpool 1971 on Heart Breakers claims to contain the Liverpool performance. The authoritative Free Bootleg Guide from Japan claims this is untrue, but is actually the Dania show. A forty-four minute recording was pressed on Patrick’s World (Fire Power label FP-9047) in 1999 claiming to be the authentic Dania show, but really is compilation from a Free video and has nothing to do with Florida.
The sound quality of this tape is fair at best and quite distant from the stage. No mention is made of the venue or city, but it definitely sounds like a smaller indoor theater rather than an outdoor stage. “The Highway Song” seven second gap from 3:53 to 4:00, and the end is cut.
Whatever the case, this is a good release for the Free collection to have. Heart Breakers put a lot of effort into their Free releases and produced many very good titles including this one. Liverpool 1971 is worth having.
