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Tangerine Dream
Phaedra 35th Anniversary Concert
(Voiceprint)

There's a school of thought which insists Edgar Froese lost his way when he began to include vocals in his music – and it has to be said that school of thought is helped immeasurably by the seriously underwhelming recent TD outing Madcap’s Flaming Duty – in fact Froese’s understanding of what makes a good vocal track is the polar opposite of his understanding of what makes a long, often improvised, slowly evolving composition work, his early years experimenting with tape loops predating the sequenced sounds with which his band would later become synonymous. Which brings us to this, although not as it would appear by the title a concert re-recording of classic TD album Phaedra (possibly the first album to ever feature sequencers), although half of it is here, but an almost three hour trawl through the bands massive back catalogue, a big chunk of it taken from what is considered to be the bands finest era (the Virgin years 1974-83). Some of the 80s material sounds a little ‘Miami Vice’ nowadays, but fans will lap up much of this, the uninitiated are directed to the first third and the remarkable Bootleg Box Set Series of concerts released by Castle.

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The Harder They Come
(Revolver)

There’s been something of a rash of re-released music films of late (just have a squizz at some of the other reviews dotted around here), but when you’re talking about classic music movies they don’t come much more classic than this. Originally released in 1972 and featuring Jimmy Cliff - the man many believe helped pave the way for Bob Marley - as Ivan Martin an aspiring singer who comes to the big smoke in Kingston, he’s barely off the bus before he’s been robbed locked horns with a religious zealot over the films love interest, finds himself at the mercy of the notoriously unscrupulous Jamaican music business and ultimately ends up on the wrong side of the law dealing ganja. The film is totally naturalistic (no attempt was made to soften the Jamaican patois for western audiences), portraying the grinding poverty of poor Jamaicans, and is positively loaded with cracking tunes like ‘Many Rivers To Cross’, ‘Johnny Too Bad’, ‘Pressure Drop’ and the title track. This re-release comes with extra features including interviews with recently deceased director Perry Henzell and Jimmy Cliff and a copy of the original soundtrack CD so there’s never been a better time to add it to your collection.

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****************************************************************** 10cc
Alive: The Classic Hits Tour
(Wienerworld)

As has been mentioned in these pages before 10cc are long overdue for reappraisal as arch pop stylists, and whilst their heyday was a long way behind them when they were captured live on their 1993 sell-out Classic Hits Tour in Japan - featuring the Graham Gouldman and Eric Stewart line-up which had reconvened in 1992 to record Meanwhile - you simply cannot argue with a set list, stuffed full of memorable pop hooks including imaginative, melodic hits like 'Wall Street Shuffle', 'Good Morning Judge', 'Things We Do For Love', 'Art For Art’s Sake', 'I’m Not In Love', 'Rubber Bullets' and, strangely missing from the track listing, ‘Life Is A Minestrone’. Of course 10cc were never the most, erm, pyrotechnic of live acts, but Gouldman and Stewart always surrounded themselves with quality players ensuring everything was reproduced faithfully, and such is certainly the case here. The only real complaint is why, with such an extensive range of their own material to choose from, do they indulge in two clunky Beatles covers ( ‘Paperback Writer’ and ‘Across The Universe’)? Extras include a short, typically excruciating, Japanese television interview with Gouldman and Stewart outside the venue.

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Richard Thompson
1000 Years Of Popular Music
(Cooking Vinyl)

There’s a school of thought that Richard Thompson could sing the telephone book and the results would be entertaining, and given the mans wonderfully sonorous voice and astonishing guitar skills there’s some truth in this, however this collection of his pick of the best songs from the last 1000 years – an idea initially prompted when he was asked by Playboy magazine for his choice if the 10 greatest songs of the millennium, a request he took at face value by going back as far as 1068 (needless to say Playboy failed to use his selections) – actually makes for a genuinely entertaining, warts and all, live set. As long time fans will already know Thompson is not without charm in the preamble dept. and needless to say even though, by the very nature of the project, every song is very different in style and content from the last, he makes the vast majority of the material here his own and is clearly enjoying himself immensely into the bargain. All credit to Cooking Vinyl for not only releasing such a wonderfully un-commercial item but for also presenting the three disc (1 x DVD 2 x CD) collection in such beautiful faux hardback book packaging.

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T Rex
T Rex On TV
(Demon Vision)

Anyone vaguely cognisant of Marc Bolan’s incredibly driven approach to stardom, and the securing thereof, will already be aware that for a period in the mid seventies you wouldn't have wanted to be around the man for any length of time as the glam rock superstar he had created morphed into an unpleasant, self-obsessed monster, discarding friends, associates and releasing increasingly sub-standard drivel (it’s hard to fathom how the man behind Electric Warrior came up with the hideous Bolan’s Zip Gun). Fortunately a brush with madam failure ensured a older, wiser and quite possibly much nicer Marc Bolan emerged in 1977 (championing punk on his television show ‘Marc’, some clips of which can be found here – although sadly nowhere near enough, suggesting there may be enough material to warrant an entire DVD release sometime) only to be cut short by his untimely death in 1977. This collection is loaded with plenty of great clips from various French, German and British television pop shows like Supersonic and Get It Together (all the hits plus some misses), a 56-minute documentary - Dandy in the Underworld – and interview material recorded with Humphrey Burton and Russell Harty. Marc Bolan would have been 60 next year.

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Robin Trower
Living Out Of Time
(Wienerworld)

Looking craggier than the seaward aspect of Ben Nevis – in fact the entire band look like the sort of ageing shunt acts you might catch in any local R&B club – Robin Trower, like Tony McPhee, and one imagines had he lived Rory Gallagher, failed to parlay his not inconsiderable talent into Clapton sized monetary rewards. But of all the guitarists who were influenced by, and consequently tapped into, the Hendrix power trio style of playing (with the possible exception of Stevie Ray Vaughan), Trower was the one that really harnessed that overdriven, wah-wah drenched pyrotechnic style. As you might imagine this live recording of his set at the Rockpalast Crossroads Festival in March 2005 features plenty of extended soloing, although in all honesty the more recent material is pretty run-of-the-mill blues, albeit run-of-the-mill blues punctuated by beautifully fluid, warm and soulful guitar soloing. It’s only when he plays earlier material like ‘Day Of The Eagle’, ‘Little Bit Of Sympathy’, ‘Too Rolling Stoned’ or the title track from his classic 1974 album Bridge Of Sighs that it becomes clear why so many people hold him in such high esteem. Fans will also be delighted to find a career spanning interview buried away in the bonus section.

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****************************************************************** Pete Townshend
Live
(Universal)

Many of us refuse to buy into Townshend’s continuing conceit that his music needs to transcend the concept of ‘pop’, into his obsession that work like Tommy, the unrealised Lifehouse (which ultimately became Who’s Next) and Quadrophenia be recognised as more than just a collection of songs. These are the signs of a man who takes himself far, far too seriously. Indeed nobody but Townshend himself has ever fully grasped what the hell he’s on about (including, incidentally, the other members of the Who), and even after listening to the, frankly tortuous, explanation of his latest opus Psychoderelict it’s obvious this is once again another of his vague, woolly headed attempts to say something big, and frankly failing. So obviously we hate this right? Well, no because if you wade past the convoluted and confused ‘storyline’ (in this case delivered via live dialogue by actors) you will, once again, find some fantastic songs, some of which even hold their own beside tracks like ‘Behind Blue Eyes’, ‘Baba O’Reilly’, ‘Pinball Wizard’ and ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ (all here as well). The man also retains an absolutely iconic stage presence, and would be well worth watching even if he was simply singing from the phone book.

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Thunders Kane & Nolan
You Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory
(Wienerworld)

The New York Dolls were always a shambolic live proposition, even on their best days shows often hung together by the briefest of threads, so it’s no surprise to find that this gig at the Roxy in LA, featuring three fifths of the Dolls, is about as baggy as Shane Ryder in a sack. Thunders, as you might imagine, appears a little, erm, the worse for wear (although oddly enough very aware of his hair) the whole shebang – filmed in shaky handheld stylee - lurching around erratically filled with pregnant pauses, badly clattered endings, false starts and mumbled rock-speak. Of course this will matter not one jot to New York Dolls fans as this would not only be the last time all three men would ever share a stage but, as all three then promptly went on to join Curtis, Cobain and Co. playing at that great last gig in the sky, is also a remarkable historical document. Sylvain Sylvain and David Johansen have since successfully exhumed the NYD corpse (see DVD review here) to great acclaim but Dolls fans should still find much to enjoy on this ramshackle curio.

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Richard Thompson
Live From Austin TX
(New West)

Originally seen in truncated form (a half hour show) broadcast as part of the Austin City Limits TV series in the US, this performance by Richard Thompson – with Danny Thompson on bass and Michael Jerome on drums – has now been restored to it’s full length for DVD release, and proves (if indeed it needed proving) that Thompson remains a fine guitarist, soulful vocalist and also continues to be a story-telling songwriter of immense skill. Like fine wine RT simply gets better as he gets older and with nothing but the most basic drum, double-bass and guitar set-up ably demonstrate how little great songs need in the form of adornment, just three effortlessly skilled musicians, intelligent and thought-provoking lyrics that bear repetition delivered by a singer that is clearly still in touch with his muse. Whether or not this is any better or worse than any of the other RT DVD’s out there is impossible to say – we’ve only seen this one – but as a document of one night in Texas in 2001 this is an excellent memento for both those lucky enough to have been there and those unlucky enough to have not.

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Thin Lizzy
Greatest Hits
(Mercury)

Having not seen the recent Phil Lynott-less Thin Lizzy live reunion it’s impossible to say whether it was a resounding success or crashing disaster (certainly the idea of Thin Lizzy without Phil Lynott sounds patently ludicrous, but then the Magic Band without Captain Beefheart sounded like a very bad idea and actually turned out to be excellent). Whatever the outcome watching this collection brings back fond memories of the tall black Irish vagabond, his ever evolving cast of guitar slingers and their string of classic melody drenched rockers, and despite the track list boasting stories of Killers On The Loose and people with Bad Reputation(s) Waiting For An Alibi, these songs are as comfy as big warm fluffy slippers, and just as cuddly. The videos themselves range from the good (live outings, early Eric Bell era cuts) to the bad (bog standard ‘all mime in a room’ efforts) to the downright ugly (‘all mime in a room but add a bit of poorly acted, lyric-driven action’), but with such great source material you could just bung some footage of drivel like Strictly Ballroom or Big Brother over the songs and it would still be entertaining

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Marc Bolan & T Rex
Born To Boogie
(Sanctuary)

The curiosity value alone of Ringo Starr filming Marc Bolan playing with Elton John makes this one of the great lost music movie events, in reality however it simply proves to be a collection of live and studio clips cobbled together with wacky links as Marc and pals are seen fannying around on airstrips, in John Lennon’s back garden and in a series of set-pieces with Ringo dressed as a mouse and clown. In it’s defence this is clearly a labour of love, hastily thrown together to try and capture just how brain scramblingly huge Marc Bolan was in 1972, which is all the more astonishing given that, bass player Steve Curry aside, Bolan’s live band were a pretty clunky affair - Micky Finn’s cheekbones obviously being infinitely more important than his clod-hopping percussion - but even lumpen sidekicks can do little to detract from great songs. Extras include a documentary film (Cosmic Rock) presented by Marc’s son Rolan, both afternoon and evening concerts at Wembley around which the film was built - now with exponentially superior sound courtesy of Tony Visconti - and numerous other outtakes, bits and bobs, all of which make up an essential package for fans, and flawed but fascinating collection for the mildly curious.

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Tindersticks
Bareback - Nine Films by Martin Wallace
(Beggars Banquet)

Nominally a collection of videos by the Tindersticks this DVD is in fact nine stylized short films directed by Tindersticks long term friend and international Emmy award winner and Bafta nominee Martin Wallace who has been collaborating with Tindersticks since 1993. In these days of fast cut, groin grabbing, booty grinding video, MTV gloss and in yer face pyrotechnics Wallace is something of an anathema dealing, as he does, in tiny vignettes of everyday existence, mini-movies inspired by the melancholia of the Tindersticks muse. Indeed if you’re looking for performance footage of the ‘sticks this definitely isn’t the DVD for you as the band only actually feature in three of the films, Bathtime, Rented Rooms, and Can We Start Again? (cropping up briefly in City Sickness), as we take in visits to Prague, haircuts and sex education. As you might imagine with the Tindersticks a great deal of thought has gone into the packaging – hand glued brown cardboard gatefold sleeves which flip open to hold the DVD in a cardboard sleeve on one side and a CD-sized booklet with video credits on the other – now they just need to come up with something this nicely realised featuring themselves.

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