LIVE FROM LONDON

This concert was filmed for the television series "live from London" which was broadcasted in Europe during the eighties. Shortly after the show Pete Nicholls left the band due to tensions within the band and personal problems. In 1986, IQ discovered that a live album & video of the show had been released without commitment of the band. Despite this, it became quite popular with the fans. After the leaving of Nicholls this was the only opportunity to catch a live performance of The wake. Since its deletion in 1987, it became a collector album. In 1993 the band, including Nicholls, decided to re-release a tied up version of the recording on a cd but the video stayed unavailable for more than a decade. Recently 12 concerts of this series have been released on dvd. The concert happened around the same time "the Wake" was released and this is probably the reason why that album is omnipresent in the track listing. Besides that, it only contains one track of their previous album, one b-side of a single and one track from their debut cassette album "six to eight". The band only had a couple of days to rehearse the set and this explains the many imperfections. Still the concert is highly enjoyable in its present form thanks to the spectacular stage performance of Nicholls who is able to keep the attention. The tracks from the Wake still make sense after all those years. The dark sounding music is full of mystery but is not represented very well in the stage setting which is very standard. "Widow's peak" is the emotional peak of this album. Sure the mood is depressing but it's very romantic just the same. The way the mellotron is used on this track is perfect to create a ghostly atmosphere. Moreover in all the years I've been listening to prog, I 've never discovered a composition that was better crafted than this. Although Nicholls has several flaws in his vocals, it doesn't spoil the fun. "The atmosphere and emotional level in "the magic roundabout" is quite similar. On "the thousand days" and the following "Corners" the influence from pop & wave styles of that time are undeniable. Therefore "Corners" may sound a bit outdated when hearing it now but the eastern influences at the end are still lovely. For years I've been looking for the studio version of "It all stops here" because I still believe this is one of the best tracks IQ ever released. Mike Holmes & Martin Orford are pushing their virtuoso skills to the limit or at least it sounds like that. The first part is very hectic as it hold many different sections that succeed rapidly. When compared to the technical composition of the first part the second part shows the emotional, dreamy side of IQ. The lyrics may sound a bit too adolescent when hearing it now but the melody still sounds great ! "Just changing hands" is simpler but has a lovely atmosphere which is dominated by the mellotron sound once again.

As a video the visual quality is very good but there's little variation in points of view of the camera. The hairdressing & clothing type is typical for the eighties and may seem a bit silly now. You could consider this dvd as a time document of the eighties. IQ was one of the only bands that delivered a good combination of prog and influences from wave/pop. The sound quality of this dvd is rather poor as it lacks depth. Especially the sound of the rhythm section could have been better. The live sound is typical for a neo prog band as many moog and synthesizers are used. This is a must have for the fans but the band proves themselves more in other live DVD releases.

IQ is one of a legendary prog band from UK. You can taste their quality by buying simple DVD. I said simple because there are only 9 songs (all taken from "Living Proof" album, recorded at Camden Palace) and also without any bonus inside it. So, it can reflect my opinion about the quality of this DVD. One of the most remarkable song in this DVD is "It All Stops Here". Mike Holmes and Martin Orford did a great "job" in this song when they combined their guitar and keyboards together. Some credits must be given to Peter Nicholls who sang every song brilliantly (his performance makes me forget with his nervous when he embarrassingly dropped the microphone to the floor). Final word, try to have this DVD in your hand!!!

The Visitor

My main motivation to write a review about this DVD is to upgrade the poor two 3 star ratings! Many years ago I saw this concert on the European Super Channel, in a serie with other promising Eighties progrock bands like Twelfth Night and Pallas. My experience with this concert is very positive, especailly because of the very omnipresent Mellotron M400 work by Martin Offord. Meanwhile he has sold this unsurpassed keyboard but listening to this DVD I have to say that Martin did an excellent job with the Mellotron, in almost everything song he managed to add an extra dimension by touching that M400 model. Once he said in a progrock magaizne I worked for "If you got the idea that the music becomes too bombastic, THEN play the Mellotron!". Well, on this DVD you can witness this statement! If you got the idea that you have to buy this DVD only because of the mellotron you are right but the fiery and powerful guitarplay, the limited but very inspired and distinctive vocals and the compelling compositions are worth to buy this neo-prog highlight!

ESSENTIAL!!!!!!!!!

A good documentary of the Times of Cheesy Pop-Songs, Pretentious Make-Up, Vulgar Clothes and Ridiculously Hairy…yes, Heads I meant :) . IQ are described as “most melodic from all heavy rock bands” in DVD’s commentary, while other bands from the series like TWELFTH NIGHT and PALLAS have “Neo Progressive” term in their description. Besides there are no bonuses or extra materials. Funny enough.

The band plays the whole “The Wake” album except for magnificent “Headlong”, which is my favourite track there so far (recently I’ve known that they always play it pretty rarely), plus “Awake and Nervous”, “Just Changing Hands” and “It all stops here”. It’s fun to see the crowd slamming in 7/8 and 5/4 (or trying to slam at least). There’s also a charismatic beardy guy in audience, who almost steals the show – he’s slamming that much, that if you turn the sound off, you may think he’s at SLAYER or early DEATH show. The band itself is average: they were too young and frightened (especially Tim, who stood the whole show on one and the same place almost without moving). Peter fails to perform the role of charismatic frontman (he drops the mic before “Corners” and looks confused in that moment), and his haircut…OK, forget it :) . Michael had tuning problems through the concert, and it seems that only Widge and Cookie enjoyed the whole thing very much.

Anyway, it’s good and inescapable to get if you’re an IQ fan. Also I like 80s with all cheesy attributes of that time (oh, how I crave for having a light summer coat with shortened sleeves!) and I’ve enjoyed the show despite some flaws.

First of all, think about on those 80s: all that comes to your mind is clearly represented on this show. Apart from this, is a good retrospective view of the early days of the band.

They virtually played the whole "The Wake" album except Headlong, one of the bests songs by the way, there are some "imperfections" and the vocal parts are not very well executed, Nicholls shows a hughe improvement from his early days in the band and now he manage to capture the listener emotion with his voice, but in those days, he lacked the skill and the melody.....

The first part of the show is full of fresh energy and Awake And Nervous started the whole thing with energy, they only played one song from their debut cassette "Seven Stories Into Eight", and It´s "It All Stops Here", probably one of the best IQ songs in their early days.

The second part is centered in "The Wake" material, well executed, but a bit cold, I missed more energy, more passion in the stage here, anyway, good show.

Overall is an interesting document of how the band started and is good to compare with later shows to check the evolution of this fantastic combo.

Is curious but there are no live documents from the Paul Menel era (1986-1990), would be very interesting......