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Supertramp - Gateway To New Horizons CD (album) cover

GATEWAY TO NEW HORIZONS

Supertramp

Crossover Prog


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Sean Trane
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR
Prog Folk
4 stars Finally this filmed TV broadcast surfaces legitimately, to reveal us a good idea of what that Superb Tramp was able to do on stage in their prime, just after the release of that classic Quietest Moments album. The group actually played at Queen's Mary's College in early November two gigs on successive nights, and to my knowledge both were filmed. Yet this DVD releases only the first night's footage, and even then, it was mostly a short set and surprisingly not featuring that much of their latest album.

Opening on the that instant crowd-pleaser Give A Little Bit, Supertramp plays it safe by featuring their most accessible material, like the bluesy Bloody Well Right with an extended ending section (this is rare enough as the group always tried to be as faithful as possible to the studio versions) and the other hits like Dreamer or Lady. Besides two low-keyed traclks from Moments, the delicious Babaji and From Now On, there is a surprising Poor Boy (with Davies' off-the-wall vocals) and an excellent version of Crisis' Another Man's Woman, where Hodgson shows his guitar skills. If Helliwell's usual clowning and frontman activities can be a slight turn-off, Siebenberg's drumming is quite solid, but it's clear that bassist Thompson is the glue that holds the band together and he gives as usual two excellent performances.

From memory, I remember viewing the second night's set footage once (aired on BBC4 channel a few years back) and the band's last track was a good rendition of the classic Hide In Your Shell, where a all-male (my guess is they were roadies) chorus section joined in at the end. But overall the set-list I remember was roughly the same (albeit shorter) except for Hide In Your Shell. Even if the two set lists were similar, I find it relatively shameful that that second night's performance hasn't been included in this DVD, and just for that, I'll penalize its rating of a half-star, and another for not featuring any of their magnum opuses in the proposed sets on the present. .

Report this review (#383873)
Posted Friday, January 21, 2011 | Review Permalink
Guillermo
PROG REVIEWER
4 stars This video was recorded in 10-November-1977 in London during their "Even in the Quietest Moments..." tour. . It was taken from a TV broadcast. I think that it only has some of the songs that they played at that concert. This video shows the "classic" line-up of the band playing some songs from the three albums which they have recorded together until then ("Bloody Well Right" and "Dreamer" from their "Crime of the Century" album; "Lady", "Poor Boy" and "Another Man`s Woman" from their "Crisis? What Crisis?" album; and "Give a Little Bit", "From Now On" and "Babaji" from their "Even in the Quietest Moments..." album). The band sounds very well playing all these songs, but the sound is not very good, and the same can be said about the quality of the images. But this video is a very good chance to see this band playing all these songs, and more in the case of some songs which were not played very often after this tour (this is the case with "Babaji" , "Lady" and "Poor Boy"). The other songs are more known in other live versions from later years. And also this video shows the band before the great international success that their "Breakfast in America" album gave to them. By 1977 the members of the band were living in the U.S. and this concert was done playing before an audience from their own country, so they were more like "visitors" then. The stage design and the lights were simple. It is a very good concert video despite the limitations due to the passing of time (being a recording of a concert from 1977).
Report this review (#1199138)
Posted Friday, June 27, 2014 | Review Permalink

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