In the 80s, it was common for music shows on TV to be hidden away in a graveyard slot. With almost every household owning a VCR, such things were no longer missable, and for rock fans it became common practice to record shows like The Power Hour and Live From London for weekend viewing. Live From London was particularly interesting. Running between1983-1985, it would show footage of all manner of rock bands – ranging from Husker Du to Uriah Heep – captured at the Camden Palace (now Koko).
One of that series’ most celebrated shows featured neo-prog band IQ who, at that point in 1985, had only released one album. They were on the cusp of releasing their second LP ‘The Wake’, a record that would go on to be their biggest chart success, peaking at a meagre #72 just a week before Marillion – at that point the greatest success of the neo-prog movement – would hit the top spot with ‘Misplaced Childhood’. The band later admitted they had mixed feelings about the Camden Palace gig, with keyboard player Martin Orford admitting that the band “played everything too fast” and vocalist Peter Nicholls noting his obvious nervousness in front of the cameras. A hard to find VHS release of that show soon appeared under the name ‘Living Proof’, along with a live LP of the same name. Released on the Samurai label without the band’s consent, the vinyl release was considered a bootleg, but became a popular item among fans. ‘Living Proof’ would eventually be tweaked and repackaged and given a full release on the band’s own Giant Electric Pea label in the 90s, but it wouldn’t be until much later that the video footage finally saw a DVD release.
Repackaged again in 2026 on Cherry Red’s Esoteric label, the CD/blu ray version of ‘Live From London’ – at least on the surface – doesn’t offer fans much they don’t already have. Yes, the hard to find DVD gets promoted to a blu ray disc, but those hoping for a massive upscaling of the footage are possibly going to be disappointed. Given the age and analogue source of the original show, any improvements that could be made are minimal.
Where the Esoteric reissue comes into its own, though, is through its audio component. All nine tracks have been remixed from the best available sources, and although in this case “remixing” doesn’t lead to any Steven Wilson type tinkering, parts of the recording sound notably different to before. In the main, the performance sounds a little more even; it sounds as if the brittle top end has been removed. This makes everything sound less like a bootleg. The bottom end has also been levelled out, which makes a few of the rhythm section’s contributions less prominent. One of the times the latter comes into play is during the opening performance of ‘Awake & Nervous’ where Paul Cook’s drums sound a little flatter and Tim Esau’s bass is a tiny bit less clear. Everything still sounds “right”, though, with Peter’s vocal presented nice and clearly, warts and all. Martin’s keys sound a little more natural, a little warmer, even, during the intro of ‘The Outer Limits’ – and the new mix really brings out the menace in Mike Holmes’s guitar sound during ‘It All Stops Here’ – but more importantly, the slightly more sedate drum sound allows for a little more of the rhythmic complexity to cut through the busier moments of these tracks. Beyond that, but there aren’t too many other discernable differences present via the audio tweaking.
Fans will certainly like to know that a key difference between the basic audio recording here and the GEP issue from the 90s comes at the beginning of ‘Just Changing Hands’. Omitted from the official GEP CD, the full announcement leading into the track has been reinstated, complete with Peter gently brushing off the man heckling for ‘Wiggle’. It may seem like a minor point, but the CD version of ‘Living Proof’ never felt right without it. Elsewhere, it would’ve been good to hear Tim’s bass a little more prominently during ‘The Wake’ but, as before, Mike’s fuzzy guitar lines still sound superb buzzing behind one of Peter’s more emotive vocals.
Unfortunately, the smoothing out of the source material has lead to less enjoyable ‘Magic Roundabout’. Tim’s impressive basslines during the extended intro are now half buried, and as lovely as Mike’s ringing guitar sounds are during the bridge sections, they now seem a little too loud, which is odd considering so much of this performance has been made to feel a little quieter. Thankfully, during one of the set’s highlights ‘Widow’s Peak’ everything sounds lovely. Tim’s bass is a touch quieter than before, but it’s more than possible to hear everything, and the way the guitars soar, Hackett-like, against the blankets of keys still creates one of the defining moments within the early IQ catalogue.
A buoyant ‘Thousand Days’ feels the benefit from the clean sounding mix without losing too much of Mike’s busy guitar work, but all the tweaking in the world doesn’t make ‘Corners’ any more interesting. It always felt like an odd, slightly downbeat closer – presumably there was an unrecorded/unreleased encore for this gig – and still does. As with the bulk of the tweaking that’s occurred here, though, the dyed in the wool IQ fan will likely delight in picking out the subtle differences between this and the original mix presented on the GEP CD from 1993.
As energised as this show is, it remains a shame that it appears to be the only early IQ show available in an officially recorded source. The band show off a lot of spark, and there are plenty of moments that are truly live, but it doesn’t quite capture the “anything could happen” ethos of the band’s shows from that time, where they might throw in a cover of ‘Ace of Spades’ or the jingle from the then well known British Gas adverts for no real reason. This plays very more like an industry led showcase for ‘The Wake’…but, obviously, most potential buyers know exactly what they’re in for here.
This reissue isn’t aimed at the casual buyer. Those without a huge interest in the band possibly wouldn’t notice a great difference between this and the older ‘Living Proof’ CD, and those who already own the older ‘Live From London’ DVD might be just as happy holding onto that. It’ll purely be the hardcore collectors looking to upgrade, but that said, a label willing to get a much loved prog release back into circulation should still be applauded, and despite being a little rough in places, new mix or not, ‘Live From London’ still shows why the IQ were one of the most celebrated bands of the 80s prog revival in their early days, despite being eluded by genuine commercial success.
January 2026