Review - Lobby Loyde & The Coloured Balls - Ball Power

This is an older review I have done that was never published so I thought I'd add it.

Although Ball Power was the Coloured Balls debut album in 1973 after signing to EMI it was actually their 2nd recorded album. First Supper Last was released posthumously in 1976. In some-ways as Australian band Bored! (who covered the Coloured Balls, Human Being) so eloquently put on the inner groove of their debut self titled 12-inch EP “Raw Power….Ball Power” They were just as influential as the Stooges album of the same year to many Australian bands at the time.

Ball Power has been unavailable for many years and Aztec Music has painstakingly reissued this cornerstone of Australian rock with 7 extra tracks, a 24 page booklet and in beautiful 6 panel digipak.

The album kicks of with the melodic and catchy “Flash”, then a rock n’ stomp “Mama Don’t You Get Me Wrong” which goes into “Won’t You Make Up Your Mind” which is quite clearly punk before it existed. The next track “Something New” is a slow song that shows off Lobby Loyde’s guitar prowess as does the Bluesy “B.P.R.” “Human Being” is nothing short of Aussie rock classic with biting, menacing riffs. After that is a raucous cover of the Jerry Lee Lewis “Whole Lotta Shakin’”, “Hey, What’s Your Name” then continues the hard rock blueprint and the original album closes with “That’s What Mama Said”, just shy of 11 minutes is heavy prog rock. Of the extra tracks we have three 7-inch singles that were released between 1972 and 1973 on the Havoc label and EMI. “Liberate Rock” is stand out, but they all have their charm and seem to get heavier with each single. The CD closes with a 16 minute live version of “G.O.D.” from the 1973 Sunbury festival. “G.O.D.” could be best described as freeform guitar exploration, recorded at the awful hour of about 4am on Monday 29th January and demonstrates one of the greatest guitar performances ever to inspire the legion of Aussie Rock bands to soon follow, like AC/DC, The Angels or Rose Tattoo.

Sadly Lobby Loyde passed away in April 2007 after a long battle with cancer, but we are left with a legacy of great guitar rock albums.

www.aztecmusic.net