Vinyl Nostalgia 
An album that stayed with me for years. I bought it as a 12-year-old boy, and it was probably thanks to it that I fell in love with live albums. Recorded during a live performance at the Congress Hall in Warsaw in March 1976, it sold a staggering 750,000 copies (according to Wikipedia), which is probably why it’s so easy to find in used record stores. I managed to acquire the original, seemingly unheard, in near mint quality, which, for a 44-year-old album, is a rare opportunity.
The album „In Warsaw” immortalized the band in perhaps its finest lineup: Gábor Presser, Tamás Somló, János Karácsony, and József Laux. In the Polish music press of the period, including „Jazz” and „Non Stop” magazines, reviewers praised the incredible energy that emanated from the live recordings. Critics noted that LGT was not only a well-oiled rhythmic machine, but above all a band with a vast musical culture. As one reviewer wrote at the time: „The Hungarians showed us that progressive rock can be both technically complex and captivatingly melodic, without losing any of its live spontaneity.”
After the album’s release, the Locomotiv GT musicians repeatedly emphasized their fondness for Polish audiences in interviews. Gábor Presser, the band’s leader and mastermind, recalled years later that Warsaw was „a second home, where there was no need to pretend.” In an archival interview for Polish radio, Presser noted: „When we played at the Congress Hall, we felt the audience breathing with us. The album 'In Warsaw’ is not just a record of sounds, but of emotions that could not be recreated in a sterile studio in Budapest.”
For János Karácsony, a guitarist with a unique blues-rock bent, the Polish concerts and the album released after them were proof of the universality of their music. In statements to the Hungarian music press (often quoted by our journalists), he emphasized that Polish fans were exceptionally musically sophisticated:
„In Poland, no one clapped just because it was loud. They listened to the solos, picking up on the nuances. The album released by Polskie Nagrania was a prestigious confirmation for us that our explorations into jazz-rock had been understood.”
The album „In Warsaw” practically became the band’s farewell with this particular lineup. Shortly after its release, József Laux, the brilliant drummer, decided to emigrate to the USA. The musicians’ statements from that period are therefore tinged with a certain nostalgia. Tamás Somló, recalling the Polish tour, said: „We were in peak form then, as united as never before. The album released in Poland captured that moment, before everything started to change. It’s a snapshot of us in full swing.”
The album was released by Polskie Nagrania Muza under the number SX 1384.
Matrix numbers: S3X 1384 A-2 C (side 1) and S3X 1384 B-2 C (side 2).
There is at least one additional set with higher numbering (S3X 1384 A-3 C / S3X 1384 B-3). I haven’t found any information anywhere about whether -1 numbers even existed and/or were used.
The earliest pressings can be identified by the blue Polskie Nagrania label. Later reissues (often with poorer sound quality) had red labels, and in the 1980s, yellow or cream labels.
