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Rick Wakeman
The Six Wives of Henry VIII - Live at Hampton Court Palace (Eagle Vision)

Did you know that aside from being in the classic line-up of Yes Rick Wakeman has recorded almost 100 solo albums and performed as a guest or session musician for artists as varied as Alice Cooper, Elton John, Lou Reed, David Bowie, Cat Stevens, T. Rex, Black Sabbath and , erm, Brotherhood of Man? If you can answer yes to these questions you are clearly an obsessive fan and will already own this, but for the rest of us who may only be acquainted with a few of his solo albums – The Six Wives… probably being one of them – this performance documents the first time the whole album was ever performed in concert and finally includes the track ‘Defender Of The Faith’, which had to be cut from the original album for space reasons plus new opening and closing pieces. On the minus side Brian Blessed seems to have had only a few seconds to learn his narration, and is woefully under-rehearsed (although, being the trooper he is, perseveres manfully) but all in all this is a very entertaining show, complete with some great wobbly scenery and an absolute must have for fans of the album, it is also available on Blu-Ray and CD (shorn of the Brian Blessed sections).
Ray Harper

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Bernie Worrell
Stranger: Bernie Worrell On Earth
(Wienerworld)

Never heard of Bernie Worrell? Don’t worry, you’re not alone, but just check the list of people more than happy to wax lyrical about the man, George Clinton, David Byrne, Mos Def, Bill Laswell, Bootsy Collins, Prince Paul and Doug Wimbush are just some of the talking heads on offer (in more ways than one as Byrne is also joined by Tina Weymouth and Chris Franz), and all of these people are clearly both in awe of, and exceptionally fond of, Bernie Worrell. Still none the wiser? well you may well have heard his playing on both Parliament/ Funkadelic and Talking Heads albums but this is just a small part of his incredible musical life as Worrell was also a musical prodigy, learning to play the piano by age three and writing a concerto at age eight. Worrell himself speaks very little but the film is absolutely littered with his playing which speaks volumes, it also highlights the fact that this prodigiously talented and influential keyboard player is pretty much broke and finds it damn near impossible to get his music released or indeed to even play it live. One assumes Worrell will earn something from this DVD so do yourself and the man a favour and buy one today.

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The Who
Live At The Isle Of Wight Festival 1970
(Eagle Vision)

The trouble with ‘legendary’ live performances is they’re often best left as fond memories rather than being disinterred and committed to film for repeated reappraisal. The Who in particular were a chaotic live proposition, Townshend’s deranged, unglued windmill gymnastics and Moons tumultuous, whirlwind ‘if I can reach it, I’ll hit it’ looning ensured bum notes, clattered chords, miss-hit cymbals and rim-shots peppered every performance. John Entwistle did his level best to hold it all together with marvellously florid bass rumbles and Daltry was always a class front man, the epitome of rock god cool, but the reality of the Who was always a cacophonous racket. That racket occasionally coalesced into something far greater than the sum of it’s parts and the results were very special indeed but more often than not audiences were left breathless due to the sheer rampaging runaway train-wreck nature of the live shows. This has its fair share of both inspired coherence and shambolic disorder, but it’s obvious that by ‘See Me Feel Me/Listening To You’ the audience and band are having a full blown epiphany and that still comes over 35 years down the line.

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Paul Weller
As Is Now
(Liberation Entertainment)

On something of a roll of late – a Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music, a double live album Catch-Flame and his very well received, by fans and critics alike, ninth album As Is Now, the meat around which this double disc DVD sandwich is built (eh? Ed) – Paul Weller’s star hasn’t burned quite so brightly since his heyday in the Jam, and judging by the incendiary clatter of the live 100 Club footage (recorded in 2005 to an intimate, and clearly enthralled audience of just 150, backed by Steve Craddock (guitar), Steve White (drums) and Damon Minchella (bass)), the current excitement surrounding him is pretty well justified, and proves the man behind some of the most intense tunes to tumble out of the punk scene is definitely back in love with the power of rock and roll, he even dips into the Jam’s back catalogue for versions of ‘In The Crowd’ and ‘A Town Called Malice’. The DVD also features a 45 minute documentary looking in-depth at the high speed creation of As Is Now, along with full renditions of five tracks in the studio, and an exclusive interviews with the grumpy old bugger himself.

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The White Stripes
Under Blackpool Lights
(XL)

Poor old Jack White, in the words of another great fish out of water Brian Wilson he simply wasn’t made for these times. Like Wilson’s old muckers the Beach Boys Jack and Sister/ex-wife Meg dress in matching, rather drippy, stage wear, and also like Wilson he’s fallen out with his old friends in a big way (belting poor old Von Bondies frontman Jason Stollemeister for good measure). Unlike Wilson however Jack’n’Meg deal in huge great clattering breeze block blues-rock and far from looking to load everything but the local fire-station onto their albums al la Smile J’n’M are about as stripped back as it’s possible to get without actually not turning up at all. So as you might imagine a White Stripes live show is about as bare bones as a bleached cow skull in the Mojave Desert, it is also the only real way to properly ’get’ what the White Stripes are all about. Contrary to a live review on this very web site (and accepting even good bands have an off night), you are unlikely to see anything as full-on as Jack’n’Meg in full bombastic, thunderous, goosebumb inducing flow anywhere, and this show recorded in Blackpool catches them in just such form.

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Andy Williams
Moon River and Me
(Demon Vision)

Whilst the rediscovery of lounge crooners like Tony Bennett and the reinvention of belt-‘em-out merchants like Tom Jones over the last few years suggests that anything from the less cool end of the 60s is now ripe for re-visitation it’s highly unlikely that the king of ‘easy listening’ Andy Williams is ever going to be anything other than an ironic name to be dropped in conversation for anyone under fifty years of age. Which is a pity as on this evidence it’s obvious Williams was a master of his art, the problem isn’t with his undoubted vocal skills but, oddly enough, with his effortless approach which too often simply made his performances sound soulless, made it look like he wasn’t trying. That and of course his willingness to drape a song with enough saccharine coated schmaltz to induce tooth decay at 100 meters. Fans will of course dismiss this as ill-informed tosh and will happily lap up the 90 min documentary (loaded with AW hits and narrated by Frasier star Kelsey Grammer), and the 75 min second disc entitled My Favorite Duets featuring Sammy Davis, Jr, Johnny Mathis, Bing Crosby, Judy Garland, The Osmonds, Simon & Garfunkel and the mighty Ray Charles.

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