Released in 1997 without Holdsworth’s permission – it led to a huge falling out with Williams – this is a significant recording because it’s about the only live instance of I.O.U before Holdsworth went completely instrumental, added keyboards and embraced synth axe more profoundly. This package includes a CD plus a DVD of the original live performance, which itself was recorded as a laser-disc (ah, who still has one of those in their attic?). The provenance of the DVD is not altogether clear, as the visual quality isn’t great (it looks more like a re-constituted VHS recording), but it’s still intriguing to see Holdsworth in his prime, the master brewer in masterly form. And how young and skinny are Wackerman, recommended by Zappa after a stint with him, and Johnson! The music is culled largely from Holdsworth’s first three albums, notably ‘Tokyo Dream’, which of course the crowd love, and a coruscating ‘Road Games’, which introduces Williams’ vocal. There’s also a monster ‘Metal Fatigue’, and the altogether more balladic ‘Home’. All the swells, sighs and tapping are there, and those cascading chromatic runs starburst everywhere, but as Holdsworth’s bent was soon to change, they’re all the more appreciated, captured in this live and now ‘official’ format.