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Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
Runnin’ Down A Dream (SPV)

First things first, this is a shit load of Tom Petty, damn near four hours of documentary material, a full 30th anniversary concert and a bonus soundtrack CD, so if you’re a fan then this will be just about as good as it gets. From the interested onlookers point of view it’s a little long and this reviewer had to do it in two sittings but having said that it’s hard to see exactly what director Peter Bogdanovich could have hacked away, such is the quality of the material on show – including home movies, seldom seen TV footage and any number of famous talking heads – and to fans none of this will seem surplus to requirements. It would also have been nice to see some more personal material and even though his daughter does get a look in, this is a peculiarly male film, made about men and for men (indeed Petty himself insists that ‘this is a men's club’), fortunately Stevie Nicks gets a day pass for a soaring lurch through ‘Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around’, and at the end of the day Petty comes across as a likeable if overly serious man whose music stands the test of time very well.

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Elvis
The King Of Rock n Roll
(Sony/BMG)

You may well feel that the marketplace needs another Elvis DVD like a seagull needs a playstation but this collection, showcasing twenty one of his number one US and UK hits and another nine classics culled from TV guest appearances, movies, concerts and his own television specials dating from 1956 to the 1970s, includes such classic Presley moments as his hugely provocative (for the time) performance in 1956 on the Milton Berle Show - ripping up ‘Hound Dog’ and prompting a flood of morally outraged complaints - or his 1957 performance on The Ed Sullivan Show filmed from the waist up so female fans (or indeed some male fans) wouldn’t get too hot and bothered by those famous gyrating hips and of course possibly the first ever music video ‘Jailhouse Rock’. Any self respecting Elvis fan will already have this stuff which is why Sony have included a 1960 press conference with the freshly shorn Presley on his return from the army and a 1972 press conference undertaken before a Madison Square Garden show, slim pickings for completists to be sure but it must be increasingly difficult to find anything relatively unseen, and for the casual Elvis fan this has pretty much everything you could want.

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Primal Scream

Ah, Bobbby, Bobby, Bobby... If ever a man was genetically indisposed to fronting a rock band it has to be Bobby Gillespie, gifted with a voice which can best be described as atonal and weak, and a dancing style best described as anaemic and limp (imagine Mick Jagger crossed with a J Cloth and you’re not far off), young Gillespie has made a career out of other peoples ideas – like Andy Weatherall, Terry Farley, George Clinton or Kevin Shields – and a talent for saying the right things in interviews. All of which may lead you to believe that this is a bit of a stinker, but amazingly such is not the case as the live show is pretty good, especially the second half which winds up with an incendiary ‘Kick Out The Jams’, and VFM is provided by a bunch of (although sadly not all) the bands videos – no ‘Kowalski’? ‘No Higher Than The Sun’? There is also a truncated interview with Mani and BG, which is bloody rubbish and best ignored, but on the whole, especially given that the band are not currently represented on DVD, this offers fans plenty of bang for their buck and comes recommended.

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The Pixies
loudQUIETloud
(Plexi)

The first thing you should know about this film is it’s not aimed at Pixie newbies, if you are just discovering the band do a little homework first (read a bit, listen to the albums etc.), the rest of you can settle down secure in the knowledge that the subtext here is the Pixies were massively influential back in the day but earned bugger all themselves and Frank Black and Kim Deal are just as likely to clout each other as hug – although as it transpires it’s Dave Lovering who causes the most internal friction due to his transgressing the ‘no naughty substances’ clause laid down at the tours onset. Following the band from their first rehearsal and throughout the subsequent tour, what becomes immediately apparent is the fact that these are not natural buddies like, say U2, the conversations are stilted, and brief, the humour, whilst certainly present is nonetheless brittle and often terse, and nothing here really explains why it is that these four awkward and distant bedfellows become such a tightly honed and fearsome live unit when they hit the stage (oh yes, they’re still an astonishing live prospect). Compelling, fascinating and occasionally goosebump inducing this is yet another fine music documentary.

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****************************************************************** Oscar Peterson Trio
The Berlin Concert
(Wienerworld)

Recorded in Berlin (1985) when he was a sprightly 60 years of age Canadian jazz pianist and composer Oscar Emmanuel Peterson is held by many to be the finest jazz pianist of all time, and if you have never experienced the man in action rest assured this is not hyperbole. Filmed with the minimum of fuss (this isn’t Kiss after all), this ten track film catches Peterson in astonishingly nimble form for a pensioner, if he’s having any age related problems with his joints it certainly isn’t reflected in his playing, there are any number of pianists a third of his age who would struggle to keep up – although, lest we forget, Peterson’s genius is not just the speed at which he plays but the fluid beauty at which his mind and fingers work. Ably assisted by another legend, bassist Niels-Henning Oersted Pedersen, and drummer Martin Drew (their understanding of each other verges on the telepathic on occasions) this concert would make a fine addition to any jazz buffs collection. It would have been nice to find an interview lurking in the DVD’s nether regions, but around 80 minutes of astonishing bass, drum and piano virtuosity will just have to do.

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****************************************************************** The Police
Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out
(Universal)

“In 1978, when I was a member of a struggling rock band called The Police, I scraped together enough money to buy a Super 8 movie camera. As soon as I raised it to my eye and started filming, amazing things began to happen.” Thus spake Stewart Copeland referring to the reams of wobbly hand held footage documenting his whirlwind six year journey from the second wave of punk bandwagon jumpers to global superstardom. The moral of the story appears to be ‘beware of what you wish for, you just might get it’, and whilst some people clearly come to terms with, and ultimately embrace, the superstar lifestyle (Mick Jagger, Bono and Freddie Mercury spring to mind), some find it incredibly limiting and Copeland definitely falls into the latter category. So whilst he is at pains to point out how the early years were a ball and everyone got on like a house on fire it was when they began swanning around on boats and helicopter-ing into shows that the fun went AWOL. Add a ‘lobotomized and de-arranged’ soundtrack created by Copeland from stage jams and studio recordings and the result is an entertaining 74 minutes of laconically narrated cinéma vérité.

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Prince & TNPG
Diamonds And Pearls
(Warner Music Vision)

Two incontrovertible facts about the man previously known as ‘the man previously known as Prince’, one he has created some timeless, classic, go on let’s use the word genius pop music, and two he has no concept of the notion of quality control. Pick any Prince album after 87's Sign O The Times and you’re gonna have to wade through some fair old drivel in the search of diamonds (or indeed pearls). If only the same could be said for his filmic output which has been uniformly duff from day one and this, his long-form video released in support of the patchy Diamonds And Pearls is no exception – ‘Strollin’’ must rank as one of the worst things he has ever committed to any form of recorded media - what it does have tho’ is some blistering live performances from his, then new, outfit The New Power Generation, a smattering of daft disjointed narrative, some astonishing (good) dancing and some equally astonishing (bad) acting all linked up with interview footage and the album’s highlight, one of the dirtiest slices of clonking great funk ever recorded, ‘Get Off’, the video for which is as ludicrously camp and lascivious as the song itself.

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****************************************************************** Pink Floyd
Pulse
(EMI)

After the bands headline grabbing Live8 performance and rumours – since scotched by Gilmour – of a possible reunion EMI must have been champing at the bit to get some Floyd product out there and we can only imagine the frustration they undoubtedly felt with Pulse taking longer to arrive than the average British summer (Gilmour and long-time Floyd producer James Guthrie laboured long to remix the concert into 5.1-channel Dolby Surround Sound before the project encountered further hold ups avoiding clashes with Gilmour’s solo album). But at long last Pulse has made it onto DVD and it's been worth the wait. Floyd fans of old will already be aware that this performance is from the bands Division Bell tour (boasting some astonishing laser, lighting, and projection effects all of which are now far better than on the original VHS release) but the real draw is the inclusion of 1974's Dark Side of the Moon, played in its entirety. The packaging and menu system are a joy (designed by old Floyd mucker Storm Thorgerson), the sound choices an audio buffs wet dream and there's more than enough extras, videos and tour gubbins to keep even the most dedicated anorak happy.

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****************************************************************** Iggy Pop
Live At The Avenue B
(Virgin)

Looking ever more these days like the bastard dad of the Chili Peppers Anthony Kiedis, Iggy Pop has always been something of a live phenomena, a reputation for dangerous, unpredictable, frightening and disturbing behaviour, never, ever accepting anything less than being the complete focus of a live venues attention, indeed it was hard to imagine how he could ever hope to even vaguely approximate the sheer dynamic instability that had became the trademark of his early years. Yet this astonishing man, easily double the age of some of his sidekicks (approaching three times that of some of the audience), remains the total epicentre of The Avenue B, a whirling dervish hurtling around the stage stuttering, jerking and spinning like a cartoon Tasmanian Devil still exuding naked aggression and a patent disregard for his own physical wellbeing (even though he’s clearly the fittest man in the room) – hanging precariously from objects and encouraging a stage invasion during The Passenger which he clearly has no idea how he’s going to clear for the next song – and by the time he’s reached the thunderous punk jackhammer of I Got A Right and No Fun the room is entirely his. A ‘lust for life’ doesn't even come close

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The Police
Synchronicity Concert
(Universal)

Sting is officially the most irritating man in the world (with the possibly exception of Phil Collins) – is there anything more deeply annoying than a talented, good looking man who knows it? - add the well documented animosity shared by the tantric smirker and drummer Stuart Copeland and you should have a recipe for disaster. Yet it’s remarkable, not just how entertaining Mr Sumner is but also just how, almost telepathic, the rhythm section are, possibly one of the greatest ever in fact. Indeed The Police (helped in no small part by Andy Summers huge great swathes of guitar, filling all the necessary gaps left by a trio) were actually a superb live band, and are here captured in their prime by uber-video bods Godley and Crème belting out twenty-odd of the finest pop songs of the ‘80s. The whole package is then wrapped up with an interesting (if rather short) interview section with all three band members separately fanny-dancing around whether or not they are splitting up (although Andy Summers seems gloriously unaware that they were in fact playing their last show), four tracks especially created for all you multi-angle freaks and possibly the worst trailer ever

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Puddle Of Mudd
Striking That Familiar Chord
(Eagle Vision)

The band with the most idiotic name this side of Ned’s Atomic Dustbin have, since being championed by the king of big-short whine rock Fred Durst, been following a career arc (in the UK at least) roughly parallel with the four non-Robbie members of Take That, which for those of us unable to ‘tap’ (titter) into their sub Nirvana clatter is no real cause for concern. But there are those (and that includes one or two of the more grungey elements at TotalMusic-Online), who find the lads appealing so if you number yourself amongst those that dig the Pudd’s Mudd’y thrash then this is a pretty fair approximation of what you would get should you ever encounter Wesley Reid Scantlin, Paul James Phillips, Gregory David Upchurch or indeed Douglas John Ardito armed with instruments and a room full of like minded individuals – in fact it’s probably a bit better as it’s all in 5.1. and you haven’t got some tattooed oaf moshing your shins to pulp. You get all the hits amongst the fourteen live tracks, four studio based acoustic versions and plenty of slacker mumbling for those keen on digging a bit deeper into the creation of songs like Blurry, Away From Me and many more

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Pink Floyd
The Wall
(Sony Music)

Twenty five years after it’s original release on record, and twenty odd after making it’s first appearance on celluloid, Roger Waters grand folly – and let’s make no mistake here this is pretty much a Pink Floyd project in name only – finally makes the leap to DVD with embossed wall packaging, and the original poster included for good measure. Whether or not you will like this is of course entirely down to whether your willing to buy into Waters hugely overblown conceits. There’s little doubt tracks like Comfortably Numb, In The Flesh and Run Like Hell are classic Floyd but the previously reliable lyricist of Dark Side Of The Moon and Animals period PF – both of which contain some very pithy politicised vignettes - here mainly deals with the notion of rock stars losing the plot by, well, erm losing the plot really. Still Alan Parker creates some genuinely goose-bump inducing set-pieces, Gerald Scarfe’s cartoons are wonderfully obscene and even Bob Geldof’s rather mannered take on the lead role of Pink is OK. Add a bunch of après and post event featurettes (the retrospective versions being far the more interesting), and you have a set no Pink Floyd fan will want to be without.

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Russell Peters
Outsourced
(Warner Music Vision)

Why is stand-up comedian Russell Peters gracing the TotalMusic-Online pages? Well aside from the fact he’s a Hip Hop loving DJ and music routines often feature in his stage act Peters is an observant, personable, funny guy. Largely unknown in the UK his name might not immediately suggest a multi-cultural background – a Canadian of Anglo-Indian descent – but such is the case and his comedy focuses primarily on this cultural background, in fact cultural and racial stereotypes make up the majority of his act (an act helped in no small part by his excellent accent mimicry, although apparently he can’t do a Scottish accent). Naturally enough this approach can (and has) caused much controversy but his observations are delivered in an affable self-effacing way and by gently poking fun at everyone Peters’ philosophy that the world is rapidly shrinking, cultures are merging, and we're all going to end up, not white, black, brown, or yellow, but a nice shade of beige soon becomes apparent. This is not the comedy of hate, but of home-truths aimed at making us realise the sooner we are able to start laughing at ourselves the sooner we might stop killing each other.

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