Review: 7a Records – Michael Nesmith At The BBC Paris Theatre

Review by Fred Velez

On November 27th, 1975, Michael Nesmith performed a solo concert at the BBC Paris Theatre in England and performed an acoustic set for BBC Radio which featured six songs, three of the songs were from Nesmith’s then new release ‘The Prison’. Audience recordings off the BBC Radio broadcast has been floating around in collectors circles for many years in various degrees of quality. 7a Records latest release, their first with Nesmith, presents in pristine quality this rare concert taken from the BBC’s original broadcast tapes. The songs featured are ‘Silver Moon’, ‘Some Of Shelly’s Blues’, ‘Joanne’, and from ‘The Prison’, ‘Dance Between The Raindrops’, ‘Marie’s Theme’ and ‘Closing Theme (Lampost)’. Nesmith was in England promoting ‘The Prison’ and does an encapsulated narration of the story for the attending audience and BBC Radio listeners. Nesmith’s sincerity and humor in explaining his concept of his “book with a soundtrack” comes through and is very charming. The intimacy of the radio broadcast conveys the image of a personal concert by Michael Nesmith in the middle of your living room.

7a Records is releasing these recordings in two formats: A regular CD with rare photographs of Michael Nesmith from the period, liner notes by co-producer Iain Lee, a reprint of a Melody Maker interview with Michael Nesmith from the April 12, 1975 issue and an interview with musician Dave Pegg from the Fairport Convention about performing with Nesmith.

The recording is also available as a limited edition picture disc of 500 copies.

The cd and picture disc are available on the Amazon and Deep Discount market websites.

Link: Deep Discount

Link: Amazon

For fans and collectors who have had poor quality versions of this concert in their collection for years, 7a Records deserves a round of applause for making Michael Nesmith At The BBC Paris Theatre in excellent quality to be enjoyed by all Nesmith and Monkees fans!

Fred Velez, 2017