Iveys - Iveys at the Beeb

All Music Guide

Although a bootleg of late-'60s Iveys BBC sessions sounds like it might be enticing for historical reasons if nothing else, the album proves extremely disappointing on two measures. First, the sound, obviously recorded with a tape recorder pressed up next to a radio speaker or some such setup, is abysmal even by 1960s bootleg standards. At times the sound is so bad that it's not much better than listening to a radio playing at the opposite end of a tunnel. Second, almost the whole set is devoted to faithful covers of then-recent rock and soul material like "River Deep, Mountain High," "Proud Mary," "Respect," "Drive My Car," "Revolution," and "You Can All Join In," though a bit of original material sneaks in with "Maybe Tomorrow" and "And Her Daddy's a Millionaire." Actually the band does play the covers well, but rarely tinkers with the arrangements, other than small deviations like a more ska-like beat for "Just One Look" (a hit in America for Doris Troy, and then in Britain for the ...Hollies). As a result it's pretty pointless, offering virtually no hints of the originality that would blossom in Badfinger, and not even any superficial pleasure due to the nearly unlistenable sound quality. - Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide Read more Less