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Levellers - Chaos Theory
Live - Reviewed by Dannii Martin
Much like the Levellers
first live offering; “Headlights, White
Lines and Black Tar Rivers”, which was a
recording taken from their 1996 tour, “Chaos
Theory Live” is one show in this entirety,
filmed on 31st March this year at that intimate
setting of Reading’s Hexagon. Disc 1 is
the complete set of 23 songs taken from
the 8 studio albums covering the bands 18
year history. With such a large back catalogue
to choose their songs from, it was always
going to be a good set list, with classics
such as “One Way”, “Beautiful Day”, “Belarus”
and many more. 23 songs is not to be grumbled
at, but the fact that they didn’t play “Julie”,
“Sell Out” and “Hole Street” means this
is not so much of the “Greatest Hits” show
it could have been. The show is very well
produced and picture and sound quality are
both excellent. Although the visual effects
(Slow Motion, Black and White, Digitised)
are a little superfluous, they do not take
away from the quality of the show. Vocalists
Mark Chadwick and Simon Friend both sound
superb, whether singing solo or harmonising,
John Sevink’s violin drives the songs and
the members, bassist Jeremy Cunningham,
drummer Charlie Heather and Pianist Matt
Savage all sound fantastic. Anybody who
has ever seen The Levellers live will know
that they always put on a great show, and
this translates well onto DVD. The pure
energy, passion and conviction that they
play their songs with really shines through
on every song. The running time of disc
1 is an hour and forty-five minutes, but
it seems to go much quicker as it is a totally
enjoyable live performance. Watching a live
music DVD is somewhat on an oxymoron, in
the fact that you will never fully re-capture
the experience of actually attending the
gig – but, saying that, this DVD is probably
as close to actually being there. Disc 2
is a collection of extras, including live
performances, tour diary, band and fan interviews,
the Reading show sound check and a short
piece entitled “Jez Cam”. The live performances
included 4 tracks recorded from the bands
acoustic performance at the Buxton Opera
House in 2004, and their encore for The
Beautiful Day festival in 2005. “Part Time
Punks” is a 30 minute documentary from the
1993 tour, giving a great insight into the
bands early(ish) days on the road. The band
and fan interviews are intertwined with
footage of the bands sound check for the
Reading show. While the interviews are good,
the sound check footage is not necessarily
needed, as the actual performance can be
seen on disc 1. The footage does, however,
break up the interviews and the quality
of the sound check is still excellent. The
last section on disc 2 is entitles “Jez
Cam” and it is simply a 3 ½ minute montage
of bassist Jeremy Cunningham jumping around
stage randomly shouting into the microphone.
Completely pointless but compelling viewing!
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Max & Paddy Box-Set
Phoenix Nights was great, not many people would debate that. So when Peter Kay, on the hottest form of his life, decided to make a spin-off series about Max and Paddy, the Phoenix Club's bouncers, what could go wrong? Well, the fact that it wasn't really that funny. Sure, there were some good moments, but it all felt a bit half-arsed and bit too much like Kay and Paddy McGuinness larking around and having fun. Some of the acting was frankly substandard, particularly the latter, and overall it was just nowhere near as good as the series that spawned it, with ironically the best moments coming from brief returns to the club. This box-set features the whole of the series, plus The Power Of Two a comedy work-out DVD that came out last year in time for Christmas. Again, it's not hilarious, but it's a surprisingly decent fitness video that is certainly better than anything Jade, Chantelle or The Callard could pull off. The final part of the box-set is a soundtrack CD featuring music from the series and clips of some of the funniest lines. You certainly wouldn't want to buy it on its own, but as part of the box-set, it all adds to a decent collection of Peter Kay stuff, just don't be expecting anything too great.
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8 Out Of 10 Cats
- Claws Out
The idea of
a topical TV comedy quiz set out in
a compilation DVD doesn't sound like
it would work. Throw Jimmy Carr into
the mix and you're not exactly set
for comedy gold are you? Surprisingly
8 Out Of 10 Cats: Claws Out is actually
quite funny, particularly the bits
when someone takes it too far (hence
the Claws Out bit of the name, referring
to the 'too rude for telly' parts),
or when Richard Madeley tries to sound
'edgy' by swearing or making a joke
out of Mother Theresa's sex life.
Sean Lock and Dave Spikey make great
captains, particularly the former
with his slightly daffy sense of humour,
and even Carr is funny more often
than not. There's all kinds of celebrity
guests, including the usual suspects
from Channel 4 comedy plus unusual
ones like Christian Slater. The scenes
where Johnny Vegas is bleating away
in his hoarse Northern voice, telling
jokes to a completely bewildered Slater
are actually genius. The DVD is split
up into 'episodes' made up of clips
from various shows from the various
rounds, and while the topical nature
of some of them means that it is dated,
there's still plenty of laughs to
be had from this. But only once really,
because once you're heard Vic Reeves
talking about his plans for a stairway
to the moon once, you don't particularly
need to hear it again, and that is
the fundemental flaw in this DVD.
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Foo Fighters
- Hyde Park/Skin And Bones
A live
DVD with not one gig but two
is certainly not to be sneezed
at, particularly when it's by
a band as good as Foo Fighters,
and the shows on offer here
are so different that both are
well worth watching, making
this almost essential for fans
of Dave Grohl and Co. The first
is a 'normal' gig at Hyde Park
in London from this summer,
featuring all the hits that
you'd expect to hear, All My
Life, Monkey Wrench, Learn To
Fly, Breakout, My Hero etc.
Of course, we say 'normal',
but it's not every Foo Fighters
gig where Lemmy shows up to
run through Shake Your Blood
and Brian May and Roger Taylor
pop down for a spot of Tie Your
Mother Down (with Taylor Hawkins
surprisingly good on vocals).
They do here. Other than that
though, it's a decent gig without
really being a classic. The
other show is the Skin And Bones
gig (also available on CD) where
the Foos were joined by a bunch
of other musicians for an acoustic
set of reworked versions of
some of their more mellow tunes.
Again, it's good, if slightly
plodding at times, making this
double-DVD definitely worth
checking out, if only for that
surreal 'look, it's Queen' part from Hyde Park...
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Spirit
Sometimes
something arrives to be
reviewed that you had
completely forgotten you'd
asked for, and completely
forgotten that it even
exists. Spirit, is one
of those, as well as one
of the strangest things
we've ever received. One
of the most interesting
too. It is a set including
a DVD, a CD and a map,
all adding up to a chance
to experience the Middle
East without getting blown
up. The DVD is the songs
from the CD, all by artists
from the area, played
out to hallucinatory clips
of life in the deserts
of Arabia, etc. It all
comes across as being
a bit like Koyaanisqatsi
on dope, with the music
very 'new age' and the
visuals looking like a
very curious music video.
There's a quote from Deepak
Chopra on the back of
the box, which tells you
how transcendant this
multimedia experience
is, and it's certainly
not one to watch if you're
maybe in the mood for
a bit of Die Hard but
pick up the wrong case.
However, if you fancy
immersing yourself in
this world for an hour,
then it's a very relaxing
and peaceful experience,
with the National Geographic
Poster Map thrown in for
a bit of edutainment.
What more could you possibly
want?
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