Among the many obscure British prog rock albums of the early '70s, Second Hand's Death May Be Your Santa Claus has to be one of the strangest, though not necessarily one of the best. While it's the kind of record likely to fire up genre enthusiasts, it's equally likely to inspire scorn from more general rock listeners unlikely to take a shine to its over the top frivolous absurdity…

Price moved to Jet Records in 1977 and recorded a series of successful albums throughout the rest of the decade. In 1980, he crossed the big pond to record an unusual album in Los Angeles: entitled Rising Sun, it included a reworking of the song The House Of The Rising Sun, which picked up quite a bit of air play in the UK.

This is a very good live album from Alan Price which features a good mix of his old and new original material and a nice set of covers, such as Simon Smith and I Put a Spell on You. While the songs from O Lucky Man would be the best known, there are other gems here, such as Between Today and Yesterday (the LP which followed O Lucky Man) and the set as a whole is great listening. The musicians are top-notch and the production sounds really good; the drum sound is well captured, for example. Alan is in fine voice and sounds as if he's really enjoying the show(s). Highly recommended for fans of Alan Price, R&B or Randy Newman type songwriters.