DVD Reviews

A half of century at the door, a glance is cast back at the half-way of one of the most famous hangouts in the world.

If there ever was a template for a rock club, "The Marquee" was it. A launch pad for many music legends, the place has obtained a legendary status itself, but that's hardly comes across from this documentary. Shot in mid-80s, the movie tracks back the establishment's history through interviews with its founders, Harold Pendleton and Chris Barber, and such luminary patrons as Phil Collins and Kenney Jones. Their recollections are interspersed with the live segments, mostly from 1983, which are almost always out of the narrative context: NAZARETH, with their blistering cover of "This Flight Tonight", come up right after Barber mentions Rory Gallagher.

Still, it's amazing that not only rockers felt at "The Marquee" at home - it started as a jazz and blues hangout in the first place - but also such special artists as the voodoo charmer Dr John brewing up the gumbo of "Little Lisa Jane", or those Ghana Jumbos, OSIBISA. Nothing could be out of place here... Well, nothing but Dave Dee as a presenter, ridiculous rather than hilarious. Yet that's a part of the fun. There's a little story told of THE ROLLING STONES thrown out of the club for being "awful", and then there's Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts backing the British Blues Godfather, Alexis Korner, on "Hoochie Kootchie Man". Much to enjoy, then, from vintage STATUS QUO to CHERRY BOMBZ. A timely release for the institution, re-opened in August 2007.

***3/4

The RENAISSANCE lady having a gracious ball in the closest approximity of angels.

With no official video from her former band, this performance is a great gift for all the fans of Annie Haslam's talent not able to experience her stage show. To call it a show would be unfair to the singer, though, as Annie's just being her natural self here, good-humored and welcoming. Not that Haslam has a fear of "five thousand people" she's joking about, but to sing before the friends always feels more pleasant - and challenging, too. Yet a warm, homey atmosphere with carpet-covered floor of the small studio adds to the impression of the concert being played in a living room, especially with the audience sitting right on the boards. Even the grand piano that Rave Tesar caresses brings no superficial grandeur to the proceedings, and it is captivating to see how Joe Goldberger and David Biglin build their perfect harmonies under the lead vocals in "Captive Heart".

Clad in a black trousers suit, Annie nevertheless looks like a fragile, if self-confident, butterfly fluttering over the twilight bloom, which fits the music she plays so well, and the songstress's little dance routine is so enthralling when it illustrates the nuances of the "Pool Of Tears" lyrics and melody. There's great plasticity in "What He Seeks" moves as well, and that's a showcase of Haslam's solo output, with only three RENAISSANCE pieces thrown in, with "Carpets Of The Sun" opening out and "The Young Prince And Princess" for the finale. This might be a challenge again if it wasn't so powerful; still, unlike many others, Annie doesn't show any physical tenston when reaching for the highest notes which she harnesses with marvellous precision. Sometimes the lady seems to be lost in some sweet reverie, and it's quite to easy to join Haslam in it because what she gives is a gentle, watercolor dream.

*****

"The other band" of the Glaswegian blues lady coming on strong but flying too low.

It's a matter of time - and perhaps space - to position what you do right in order to succeed, and this British quintet appeared in limbo and went along with the flow. Their element was blues, not the most fashionable genre in the early '80s, so not ready to move too far from the Muscle Shoals and not willing to be splashing on the shoal, the band decided to flex their collective muscle in rock 'n' roll. And what a mighty collective that was!

Drummer Dave Dowle, bassist Tony Stevens and, of course, Maggie Bell whose post-STONE THE CROWS solo career hadn't been as successful as it should have been, all had immaculate credentials, and here the famous Swiss festival's crowd gives the ensemble their due from the off, once the singer starts rocking from the hip with "Hey Boy". But most of the time MIDNIGHT FLYER seem bored with entertaining the mob and trying to entertain themselves. They're indeed having fun in "Danger Money", with Tone Stevens and guitarist Ant Glynne reinforcing the vocal department, yet there's a feeling that the band never show their abilities in full swing. They come alive in ballad "Rough Trade" where Bell fathoms the bottom of the heart, and Glynne operates the keyboards before unleashing a slide solo, and you wish they extend it and take it to the limit - but they don't. Maggie doesn't even care to announce the songs under the titles they have on the album - released 6 months earlier!

But that's as close to blues as you could get, because even THE CROWS' "Penicillin Blues" receives a speeded-up interpretation which incorporates guitar foray into Monti's Csardas. Fortunately, there were two old masters on the bill that day who, in turns, join the band on stage to save the day. And it's here, in a tremendous reading of Sam Cooke's "Bring It On Home To Me" with Taj Mahal and in fiery jamming with Albert Collins that the greatness of MIDNIGHT FLYER is revealed. And it's a pity they occupied the wrong time.

***1/2

Look up at the blue-sy skies. At the end of their flight, the Scottish finest still were the mighty firebirds.

"Shot down in flames" may not be the right description of the STONE THE CROWS sad demise as the band just ceased to be. Their soul started to wane in 1972 when Les Harvey was electrocuted on-stage, even though ex-THUNDERCLAP NEWMAN guitarist Jimmy McCulloch seemed an adequate replacement musically; for Maggie Bell the emotional gears shifted to the point of no return. Not that the finest female blues belter Britain has ever produced showed that in public.

Always a focal figure, this performance finds the singer hot and strutting but she doesn't play up a sex card. Maggie's a great ball of fire, her magnetism making it rather hard for other musicians to shine, but they rise to a challenge and while McCulloch looks rather shy, Ronnie Leahy fries a fine funky chicken on his organ on "On The Highway". Young Jim, six strings blisteringly blazing, comes to the fore on the Freddie King classic "Going Down", a visual testament to the band's amazing ability to build a tension and then, on the very edge of frenzy setting it, to give a groove the rein. It feels just natural for them to switch from the climactic "Niagara" coda to the slow sadness of "Sunset Cowboy", a move by which a rhythm section of Colin Allen and Steve Thompson demonstrate their subtle versatility.

The boldness is in play even in the choice of the material as the quintet stick strictly to their last record, "'Ontinuous Performance", save for another King's cover, with no cut from the STONE THE CROWS' previous studio efforts. The "Beat Workshop" TV programme feels a good place to do a small workout from "Penicillin Blues", and if the band could put such an incendiary show in a television studio, it's easy to imagine how inflammable they were in front of the crowd.

*****

A hilarious yet highly informative stroll behind the scenes of one fine record.

One band between two worlds, two shows one week apart.

There are many sides to the night - but how many facets can the different nights have? In July 2005, having just integrated a new drummer into their ranks, IQ set out for foreign shores, and in ten days crossed the Atlantic twice to play two festivals: the NEARfest, in the US, and, in Germany, Burg Herzberg. So the circumstances initially determined very different settings which could pose a real challenge for a lesser band but not this one. This one went along with the flow, mainly in the mood and the spirit of things, bringing on the musical goods according to the situation.

The sombre Liverpudlians caught in the act between heaven and hell.

You can't remain unchanged being from the Merseyside, and this band has made a natural - for them and, it seems, for their fans, too - shift from doom metal to progressive rock. That didn't make the group fall from grace in the eyes of those hooked on heavy music, which is nicely documented on this DVD shot in March 2006 in Poland, at the Metalmania festival stage. The title has it all wrong, though, as there should have been "the" instead of "a", because it was a special performance, with ANATHEMA accompanied by BACCHUS STRING QUARTET. Not a full-on rock ensemble plus orchestra combination, which is not a rare thing these days, the two collectives' sounds blend perfectly. Albinoni's "Adagio" is a very chamber beginning that emphasises the importance of the event, but if sometimes the acoustic instruments get drowned in electric storm, in "Balance" it turns into a magnetic - and magnificent - blizzard spiked with vestiges of the Liverpool band's metal past.

As if the enforced instrumentation isn't enough, vocalist Vincent Cavanagh plays not only guitar but resorts to the keyboards when it's needed, as do his brothers, bassist Jamie and guitarist Danny. When it comes to the attack, there's enough of this to bring the singer to his knees during "Closer", yet the music remains cold throughout no matter how comfortable the string envelope is, and the plush dog that sits on John Douglas' drum kit doesn't make the atmosphere too cozy. To sum it all up - and to proudly wear their influences on the collective sleeve at last - the concert closes with PINK FLOYD classic "Comfortably Numb". And with some amps bashing to boot which makes the public roar even more

Other than musical, there's almost no interaction between the players and, for that matter, between the band and the public: so while the crowd is enthusiastic and joins in for "One Last Goodbye", the group are self-contained to the degree of being uninviting to the uninitiated. Two years before, in 2004, they were more edgy, as seen in the additional material on the DVD, but still demonstrated a rare sensitivity by covering FLEETWOOD MAC's "Albatross" and pre-facing "Fragile Dreams" with a quote from FLOYD's "Shine On You Crazy Diamond". That wasn't anything unusual, whereas this moment in time is.

***1/2

Raise your hats and your glasses too, go and dance the whole night through.

Still a royal act to come down with thundebolt and lightning, they do it all right now.

When it was announced that QUEEN would tour again, many thought it was a joke - but their new singer's name convinced everybody in the seriousness of the intent. Whether Brian May and Roger Taylor with skilful extras are still QUEEN is questionable but there's no question theirs is a fantastic rock show, though now it's much more straightforward rock than before. Instead of theatricality and prancing there are muscularity and athletics. Paul Rodgers is not a mere stand-up for the great Fred, which is impossible, and not a part of the line-up: he's 'plus' as he's special. Brian and Rog couldn't have made a better choice for a singer's place than Paul, well-respected vocalist and a legend in his own right by the time when his new collaborators were only starting, so he's one of the few warblers not influenced by Mercury and, therefore, able to handle QUEEN material with his own bluesy inflections.

More so, now Taylor and May receive their due as singers, because over the years their late friend's vocal prowess overshadowed their voicing on the early albums. While they obviously feel insecure a bit, Paul's a really intimidating position, as there's no safety net of a one-off event that was Mercury Memorial Show where if one screwed up, people could forget about it )Robert Plant nixed inclusion of his take on "Innuendo" in the DVD release) but Rodgers is not of a feeble kind, and it's him who starts it off with "Reaching Out" that he and Brian recorded in 1996 before the band kick in for "Tie Your Mother Down" to rock on mightily from there on.

The harmonies are still majestic, be it "Fat Bottomed Girls" or creepy "The Show Must Go On" that Freddie never got to perform outside of studio, and perhaps, FREE's "Wishing Well' never packed such a punch before. And there's a genuine integrity that's stressed up when Brian and Paul take identical guitars for "Crazy Little Thing Called Love". A lot of grumbling that's been heard when the tour was announced turns into the punters' roar now, a sign of approval; there's more participance from the audience these days, they're so enthusiastic singing "Love Of Life" for Mercury's mother who was among them in Sheffield, where the show was filmed. But Fred is here too, with a clever resolution for "Bo Rhap" to be played along with Mercury's Wembley tape and Rodgers stepping in for the heavy part of the song.

As for new material, there's none, and even "Under Pressure" has been omitted from both DVD and CD. Still, the major complaint may be the stage lights, too contrast for both the artists and those who watch the concert. No extra additional material, too, except for "Imagine", where verses are shared between the three protagonists, from the Hyde Park. Well, the triumph needs no extras.

*****

Shock and rock, and then some schlock. No purring for The Kat

Even if you're familiar with Katherine Thomas' music, nothing prepares you for The Great Kat visuals. She plays a marvellous mix of classics and heavy metal, and you can hardly expect to see the lady in the full evening garb, so for her to be scantily clad is quite alright - that's humorous rock after all! - and she doesn't play erotic card as much as she could have, but... But to see The Kat doing Alice Cooper shock routine with the make-up on and the horror imagery in these six short videos makes you wonder if it's the teenagers who make up The Kat's primary audience. Her music appeals to everyone, not so with the videos. Well, cod-patriotic "Zapateado" with its American insignia is funny enough, but too much gore in other clips might be off-putting, and "Live In Chicago" fragment gives no real indication of what's The Kat's show is like. That's what you'd like to see on a DVD.

**

If guitar is a symbol of rock, so the more "rock" guitar of all is Fender Stratocaster, and the 50th anniversary of its introduction is a great cause for a celebration.

September 24th, 2004 saw much more stars at Wembley than there ever was in Hollywood's notorious Rat Pack, and here's a great document of the event, though there could be much more Strat-wielders running with the pack...

The start is glorious. No matter how Buddy Holly's missed, THE CRICKETS don't need their late buddy - nor, for that matter, Albert Lee and Brian May - to rock on, especially when they're led by Sonny Curtis, the first rock ‘n' roller to record with a Strat, into the brilliantly militant "I Fought The Law", now claimed back from the late great Joe Strummer. Strumming away, May's not the most prominent Strat user, but he's good at being not pretentious just like Ronnie Wood who joins in for "That'll Be The Day" is. But what a presence Hank Marvin still has coming down with so powerful a twang in "Apache" - some strut with a Strat! - while Gary Moore, having left home the legendary Gibson, does a bang with passionate "Red House".

Less blues and more soul pours in with Mike Rutherford plainly plonking until it comes to "I Can't Dance", whereas Paul Carrack, his partner in crime, goes on to pay tribute to two great guitarists in the sky, George, with "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", and Jimi, with "All Along The Watchtower". Sure, Hendrix made the Fender model very popular, but some perfomers took this connection too far on that night. What with Theresa Andersson being more of an added attraction rather than a showcase for the celebrated guitar she's holding, unless the young lady takes a fiddle to play around fabulous Albert Lee's "Country Boy", Jamie Callum's no picker at all: an ivory tinkler, he pitches in "Angel", reading from the lyrics sheet. Thankfully, there's a real guitarists' singer and one hell of a guitar slinger himself, Paul Rodgers, who brings on Brian May and Joe Walsh and, after a couple of FREE and BAD COMPANY classics, Ronnie Wood, and rams it all home with a scincillating take on the FACES' "Stay With Me". Before that, though, the EAGLES' man does his bit including "Life In The Fast Lane", and Phil Manzanera, having smoothed the mood with "6 PM", brings on David Gilmour who eshews FLOYD perennials for less known pieces.

No Clapton or Blackmore there, which is a pity - but one can only wonder how many guitarists there were in the audience except for MOSTLY AUTUMN's Brian Josh.

*****

When the heart rules the mind, the YES-man comes down for a grind.

Steve Howe is one of those lead guitarists who's never actually led a band - except when it was their musical turn - although he undertook some tours on his own, so "no expectations" could be the principle by which he came up on-stage with REMEDY. Yet what could be a good excuse in case something goes wrong, appears a great cause for throwing in some surprises.

The dusk before the dawn brings no pomposity while magnificence glistens still.

Affirmative and convincing but not ultimate, a celebration of their anniversary sees the progmeisters nowhere near the end.

"I know I mean a 'Yes' but it's all wrong, that is I think I disagree", sang John Lennon, and he was right as the YES have the ability to positively confuse people. The very epitome of progressive rock, 35 years since the band's inception the English quintet are still on top of the game of taking it all over the top, they still are a great experience, and this DVD brings forth a question of how you experience your YES. It comes in two ways, where "YesSpeak" can be either devoured in its 3-hour-long glory - which takes a lot of stamina or just being a fan - or served twice as short yet topped with an unplugged icing of the visual cake. The second, a later edition, is no doubt aimed at general public, as it's a cimena version, while the first pretty much reflects what YES is: a dinosaur of a film about the dinosaur of a band - but "Jurassic Park" is entertaining, isn't it?

The glory road to the core of the genius - from down-under and the world over.

There's the keyboard wizard caught in his prime: on February 4th, 1975 when Rick Wakeman played Melbourne he was only 25 - and performing miracles. Later on, things went awry but here Wakeman looks magnificent, if shy, even though it's him who rules the show. And it the show, deceptively static yet deeply moving. Rick's hypnotic - and hypnotised with the music, eyes shut and mouth open in some aural reverie. Still, an air of fun covers the stage, with equal focus on both The Wizard and his ENGLISH ROCK ENSEMBLE, backed up by the orchestra and choir. How much fun it was off-stage, can be seen in a bonus footage shot on tour by one of the band's singers, Gary Pickford-Hopkins, and spiced on the Anniversary Edition DVD with the comments from five members of that line-up reunited 30 years to the date after the Australian gig. Another singer, Ashley Holt, is still with Wakeman, and the magic between the vocalists is so obvious now that it's a pity they don't deliver gentle "Guinevere" together any more or dig out the dramatics of "Journey To The Center Of The Earth" in all its glory.

It is glory in terms of music, as inflatable dinosaurs popping up don't add much to the full power blow that's hard not to go along with. There's no visual division between Rick's ensemble and The Melbourne Philarmonic Orchestra: it's the entity which Wakeman's close-shot fingers' art leads for all to enjoy. No wonder the audience thank the musicians with a standing ovation each time the band leave the stage to cajole them back on-stage for one more assault on "The Six Wives Of Henry VIII", yet to be released "King Arthur" and "Journey". It's amazing how improvising the maestro could be, as the encore reprises demonstrate, within the rigid structure of working with an orchestra! Not effortless - an occasional grimace on Wakeman's face betrays the hard work - but easy on the ear anyway. That's a unique insight into a great wizardry now long gone with the youthful times.

The previous edition of the DVD contained an abriged bonus CD of the concert for those who want not to be distracted from the music, yet "The Lost Journey" documentary makes the 30th Anniversary re-issue indispensable.

*****

The masterpiece in motion: a history of the mystery.

Those always wondering where the roots of ELP's mid-'70s gigantic antics were, should look no further than here. To the date, the British super-trio's take on Modest Mussorgsky's "Pictures At An Exhibition" classic suite remains the largest-scale cover version of all. Still, the piece everybody's familiar with came from Newcastle and was recorded in March 1971, already quite polished to make it into the vinyl; this film, though, committed to tape in December 1970, feels different: rougher and rawer. But, being much wilder, it's also rather intimate - a long way from arenas the band conquered at later stages. Back then, ELP were only beginning to stage a show which was supposed to never end, and the three look very close to each other. Physically. The distance had to grow yet, the music already didn't need to.

Physical, not only dynamic, is this unique performance, caught in the space where Keith Emerson's machinery a menace and Greg Lake's acoustic moments a bliss. More precisely, there's several shows in one: Emmo adjusting the Moog and swinging the Hammond, Carl Palmer pulling faces and smiling, Lake vocalizing serenely. And there's a revelation: if Palmer's note-perfect drumming has always been clearly heard, the music sheet tagged to the keyboards means that, with all the improvisation on display, the band followed the written structure. Or a grand scheme of things.

Here, this scheme takes in a deceptive chaos. Emerson, dressed in a shiny green suit, moves cartoonishly, waltzes with the organ, rubs a "remote control" board againts his bum during "The Old Castle"; it becomes clear why there was a plot for the trio to team up with Jimi Hendrix. Naive psychedelic visual effects may reflect the music to an extent but much more amazing is close-up of those fingers frenetically flying over keys and wires. Quite a contrast to Palmer who, following every Emmo's move, calmly hammers the vibes and Lake, vocalising shyly and doing miracles on guitar and bass. That's picturesque!

Moving from the visual to the aural, the bonus feature of the 35th Anniversary Special Edition is the "Pictures" orchestral arrangement played by the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, whereas the previous version had a CD layer on the DVD's other side. Which is extra, the core's still the core.

*****

"What became of us, mysterious and ageless?" asked the band, and here they answer the question themselves - in style.

A vivisection of a legend which leaves it still obscured by mythical clouds.

That's mostly a television fodder: people who have no connection whatsoever to an artist try to get under his skin to see what makes him tick. PINK FLOYD with their atom heart might be the hardest case to crack and, therefore, the stronger is a draw. But there's a catch, as the opinions laid out here are hardly more valuable as the guy's next door, and learning that Syd Barret was a driving force behind the awesome foursome is hardly a revelation. Still, pinpointing certain moments of a mystery is a dignified goal, so Classic Rock's Bob Carruthers and the lot do their best in order to convey their feelings towards each of the FLOYD's albums trying to veer away from the basic facts to show us where it hurts. And it hurts - especially when MOSTLY AUTUMN keyboard player Iain Jennings not only dissects the music into its components, all those B sharps and E flats, but also muses on Syd's thoughts as if he knew what went on in that sauserful of secrets. FLOYD have always been suspended betwixt the thought and the emotion; that's why, perhaps, AUTUMN's Heather Findlay puts it all more smoothly and more informative than any of the professional critics. Some points are mooted ones: was "The Wall" really conceived as a film soundtrack? does "The Final Cut" really deserve three stars out of five? Still, is our opinion more worthy than theirs?

Yet the moments that make up a dull story tick away once the music breaks in. Not even the interview excerpts, pinched from various sources, where the great quartet members tell it as they thought it was, but the music. The precious clips with "Grantchester Meadows" played by Roger Waters and David Gilmour on two acoustic guitars and orchestra-less "Atom Heart Mother", both recorded for TV, are great history pieces. And here the modern take on the latter, arranged by Jennings for THE CLASSIC ROCK STRING QUARTET, works a treat contrasting the band's heavy stomp. The narration, as straight as it is following the PINK FLOYD history, is good, too. For a casual fan two DVDs and a book tackling each of the ensemble's pieces might present an information overload and for an aficionado it might be of no real interest, yet as a package it works fine. Very fine. Although you'll still never know which one was Pink...

***

Fantasies long realised come to life to our surprise.

For a band whose success brought forth a term "Heepsteria", the British quintet's '70s peak left too little footage-wise, so for many years fans were desperate to find some of the recordings rumoured to exist and circulating in meagre snippets of appalling quality. Finally, the search resulted in material that's enough to fill a DVD - or two, yet the second disk of this set is for real Heepsters only, supposedly containing performances less acceptable in terms of picture and sound quality. Quite a moot point but on it, later, because it's the content that matters.

From primeval beat to sophisticated bliss: the King's Road.

It's a biography of sorts, in that the DVD comes off as the main man's chronologically built interview interspersed with videos from different eras of MANFRED MANN and MANFRED MANN'S EARTH BAND. It may come difficult to have a full picture if you're a complete stranger to this British musical phenomenon, but a stranger would hardly want to watch some old muddy footage anyway. For those with only a slightest interest in the ensemble, this is a thing to cherish.

Manfred is a fabulous storyteller with a great sense of humour, and there certainly could be much more anecdotes than one about Chris Thompson appearing for the audition in Zappa T-shirt - with love to Frank's music having set Mick Rogers apart from the rest of the lot - and the other of how "Blinded By The Light" almost flopped. But Mann's not the only one to delight; this band has always contained natural born entertainers, as seen in Paul Jones swirling and shaking his bongos in "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" and Mike D'Abo's borrowing Manfred's spectacles to play the character of "Semi-Detached Suburban Mr. James". Unfortunately, there's no footage from the Mick Rogers-fronted ensemble, yet "Blinded By The Light" heroically delivered to the Budapest crowed by Chris Thompson and topped with Mann's vocal counter part and one-hand runs makes up for that. A very special treat, though, is a stripped-to-the-bone performance of "For You": just Manfred on keyboards and Chris at the microphone in an empty studio - the emotional impact of this is much greater than that of well-directed "Nothing Ever Happens" video and on par with funny "Fox On The Run", with all its "Penny Lane" similarity. Still, the visuals never seemed to be important for this band.

Not so for the fans - to them, the MANFRED MANN's evolution is an amazing artefact.

*****