The world of hard rock and heavy metal attracts many larger-than-life characters, and few are larger than life than John McCoy. Although he has had a long and varied career, from Atomic Rooster to Zzebra, plus Samson and Mammoth, among others, McCoy is probably best known for playing bass with Gillan, the band he formed with Ian Gillan of Deep Purple. For an all too brief few years, John McCoy could be relied upon to entertain millions whilst whilst holding down the bottom end with Gillan on Top Of The Pops, playing sold out world tours, or snapping bass guitars in half on Saturday morning kids TV shows like Tiswas.
When Gillan came to an abrupt and untimely end in 1982 following a packed Wembley Arena show, John McCoy formed the eponymous McCoy with an impressive line-up featuring former Gillan colleague Colin Towns on keyboards, Paul Samson of Samson on lead guitar, original Iron Maiden drummer Ron Rebel Matthews and vocalist Tony T-Bone Rees.
This set kicks off with the self-titled 'McCoy' EP (CD1), which starts with a rollicking cover of Fleetwood Mac's 'Oh Well'. The EP ends with 'Because You Lied', a song sadly aimed at the lead singer of his former band. Released in 1985, 'Think Hard' (CD1) was McCoy's first full set, featuring 'Hell to Play', 'Heads Will Roll' and 'Ride The Night'.
01 Oh Well ! 7:20 02 Night Lights 3:16 03 The Sound Of Thunder 3:42 04 Temporary Threshold Shift 4:49 05 Because You Lied 4:45 06 Freemind 3:41 07 The Demon Rose 4:55 08 Loving Lies 4:44 09 Hell To Pay 3:48 10 Heads Will Roll 2:39 11 Ride The Night 4:21 12 Fear Of The Morning 5:55
13 Jerusalem 6:11 14 Night Lights (alternate Version) 4:20 15 Oh Well ! (single Version) 2:15
Disc 2
01 Dreaming Of The Dead 3:26 02 Heavy Metal Cowboy 4:25 03 On And On 4:29 04 Outrageous 3:26 05 I Know A Place 5:10 06 Don't Walk Away 2:40 07 Save Me 3:59 08 Steamtrain 5:03 09 Bad Luck 2:57 10 Josephine 3:44 11 Tarot Cards 6:19 12 The Prophets Of Doom 4:47 13 The List / Zoo Music / The List Continues 10:55 14 Disillusioned 2:16 15 Hawaiians 2 - Electrolux 1 8:22
Disc 3
01 Are You Sitting Comfortably? 0:45 02 I'll Be Round (part One) 1:49 03 Will You Want Me? 3:26 04 I'll Be Round (part Two) 1:02 05 Big Brother 6:55 06 Telephone 4:19 07 Wrong Side Of Time 6:36 08 Loser 4:31 09 Six Foot Under 5:17 10 Cathedral 1:58 11 Love Lace Lady 4:26 12 The Shuffle 8:01 13 Nasty Dogs And Funk Kings 3:40 14 Big Boss Man 4:46 15 So Low 3:26 16 I Wish I Was 9:44