Larry Norman - Live At Cornerstone

Reviewed by Mike Rimmer

The Cornerstone Festival 2001 saw Larry Norman’s final festival appearance. He’s too poorly these days to be able to play concerts which makes this release a little poignant. First up, you need to know that this is a genuine bootleg recording, not even from the mixing desk but by a guy holding up a mic in the crowd a distance from the stage. Therefore the quality is very poor almost on par with the dreadful ‘Roll Away The Stone’ live album from the late ‘70s. However as an historical document, Larry Norman completists might be interested. Stonehill didn’t make it to sing a duet but Larry is backed in the first half by the band Wayside and they play the ‘70s-style arrangements of famous songs like "Why Don’t You look Into Jesus", "Shot Down" and "Why Should The Devil Have All The Good Music". For the second half of the set, he’s backed by his brother Charles’ band Softcore and the songs are given a new millennium violent make over. There’s chunky, rocky versions of "Great American Novel" and "I Am The Six O’Clock News", an edgy "I Wish We’d All Been Ready" and one new song "Rock The Flock". If you’ve ever seen Larry in concert you’ll be unsurprised to find the set punctuated by lengthy chats, deadpan jokes, earnest entreaties to follow Christ and observations about the culture. To be honest unless you’re a rabid Larry fan, this is such bad quality you’d be better off visiting the newly launched British Larry Norman website (www.larrynorman.uk.com) and snapping up some of his classic albums.