| Band
Members: |
Derek Shulman - Vocals, Saxophone,
Recorder, Bass, Percussion |
Ray Shulman - Bass, Violin, Acoustic
Guitar, Recorder, Trumpet, Vocals, Percussion |
| |
Gary Green - Guitars, Recorder,
Vocals, Percussion |
Kerry Minnear - Keyboards, Cello,
Vibes, Recorder, Vocals, Percussion |
| The
Review |
Seeing as how Gentle Giant has no plans to re-unite this
DVD comes along at just the right time. This disc contains
the classic 1974 German ZDF TV appearance that has been going
around as a video and .mpeg file and the bands 1975 Long Beach
concert that was filmed for ABC's In Concert series. Two short
pieces are also featured, Szene, a clip from German television
and Baroque& Roll, a short Italian documentary in B&W that
contains footage of the Giant performing "Features From Octopus"
and a band interview. All this footage is from the 1970's
and, as such it is somewhat grainy and it is recorded in mono
sound. Since all of this is over thirty years old, what else
would one expect? Nevertheless, the quality of the bands music
and the spectacular level of the performances make all of
the technical shortcomings irrelevant.
The first surprise found on this disc is the new intro
and menu music recorded by Kerry Minnear. Heavy on clavinet,
(big surprise, huh?) this is great stuff, and evidence that
Kerry needs to get a solo recording out. The next surprise
is how good most of the film used for this presentation really
is, considering its age. In the age of HDTV it may seem a
bit grainy but it certainly looks better now than it did when
it was originally broadcast, and that is a fact (I saw the
ABC broadcast as a teenager) I can attest to.
The ZDF broadcast is of the Giant's 1975 tour promoting
The Power And The Glory and it makes up the bulk of this disc
with eight songs in about fifty minutes. The group starts
with "Cogs In Cogs" and continues with "Proclamation", Funny
Ways" ,"So Sincere" and "Features From Octopus" among others.
The Long Beach show recorded for American TV features only
four tunes and all of them are also included in the ZDF broadcast.
The Italian short, Baroque& Roll features a band interview
but unless you speak Italian it won't do much for you. The
questions are asked in Italian and the voice over translation
of their answers to Italian makes most of their English language
answers near impossible to hear.
The really important (and obvious) reasons that this
disc is so welcome are that, unlike most of their peers, Gentle
Giant have never performed a reunion concert or tour, none
of the members have been in the public eye for near thirty
years and there has been little or no video of the band available
until now. The other reason is more basic. The Giant was one
of the finest bands ever to set foot on stage and after thirty
years of obscurity a lot of prog fans have no idea of how
amazing, how talented, how important Gentle Giant really was.
Folks who are unfamiliar with the band are floored when they
see the band members playing two or three different instruments
each, sometimes switching in the middle of a song. The stunning
virtuosity of the five members of Gentle Giant is even more
impressive now in this age of samples and lip-synching than
it was in their heyday and the incredible synchronicity of
the band members is unlikely to be matched in today's world.
As an added bonus a CD of the ZDF performance is included,
making this release one hell of a deal. This DVD is very,
very highly recommended to all fans of 1970's prog and even
more so to anyone who hasn't heard, much less seen Gentle
Giant before.
RATING: 5/5
©Thomas Karr May 15, 2006
|
