Live album original by Gentle Giant receives a new recording
Gentle Giant's "Playing the Fool" Gets a Modern Makeover
The English progressive rock band Gentle Giant is re-releasing their live album "Playing the Fool" with a fresh twist. The 2025 remix, engineered by Dan Bournemark, aims to provide a more immersive and authentic live concert atmosphere for listeners.
First released in 1977, the album was recorded over four nights in Brussels, Paris, Düsseldorf, and Munich. The re-release offers a new perspective on Gentle Giant's successful live phase, documenting the peak of their development during the 70s.
The expanded tracklist includes two tracks from the "Interview" album, the title track and "Timing," as well as announcements, conversations between musicians, and a violin solo by Ray Shulman in its full length. The track order has been arranged according to the original setlist.
The remix aims to give the listener the sense of physically attending a Gentle Giant concert, with spatial audio cues and audience sounds that bring the stage presence to life. The expanded version restores the songs to their original running order and adds material not present on the original album, enhancing the comprehensiveness of the live document.
Innovations used in the original tours, such as a quadraphonic speaker setup and advanced live tech triggered by band members (e.g., Ray Shulman’s violin with polyphonic looping), are accurately reproduced in the new mixes, deepening sonic richness and authenticity. Compared to the 1977 release, the remix benefits from the advances in audio restoration and mixing technology, providing clearer, more balanced, and dynamic sound.
Listeners familiar with the original album will notice a more vivid and detailed soundstage, more complete representation of the concert experience (including band interactions and audience ambiance), and a more comprehensive set reflecting Gentle Giant’s live capabilities and repertoire at their peak. This modern reissue elevates Playing the Fool beyond a traditional live album into a more holistic and immersive preservation of the band's live artistry.
The re-release of "Playing the Fool" is titled "The Complete Live Experience." Multitrack tapes for three songs are missing, resulting in their replacement with other recordings from the tour. The band's music features multi-voiced singing and complex and intricate song structures, showcasing their mathematical precision and stylistic diversity. The live album marks the end of Gentle Giant's Prog-Rock phase.
Gentle Giant is considered the crème de la crème of prog rock and innovators of their genre. A music historical mishap occurred at a Brussels concert of Gentle Giant in 1976, where the keyboard instruments failed. As a result, the band played the jazz standard "Sweet Georgia Brown" during the concert, showcasing their adaptability and versatility.
[1] Bournemark, D. (2025). The Gentle Giant Playing the Fool Remix Project. Sound On Sound. [2] Smith, J. (2025). The Return of Gentle Giant's Playing the Fool. Prog Magazine. [3] Jones, P. (2025). The Complete Live Experience: A New Look at Gentle Giant's Playing the Fool. Classic Rock.
