GG AT THE GG

Second DVD release from the proggiest of groups, but from the main piece of footage present here, it is clear that the band's better days were behind them, although they still give a good performance, but this proghead can't seem to getting into it as much. It must be said that inferior The Missing Piece album is part of the set and if memory serves they also feature a track from the catastrophic GFAD .album. Minnear's keyboard assortment has grown the equal the caped keyboard avenger Wankerman, Derek's vocals and gesturing are often a bit too much (why didn't GG play more instrumentals to keep his hands busy??) and his intervention on a dumb mini instrument (an electric dysfunctionning ukulele?) in Playing The Game is unworthy of the group. But then again, Derek makes it up in the excellent Memories Of Old Days, where he plays the bass while the two acoustic guitars arpeggio away. As Minnear himself gets on the electric guitar. After such a delicate moment, they feel they must go punk and feared not in playing the noisy Betcha You Thought, which is not the last surprise either. Ray now plays a trumpet (albeit a bit briefly to judge on his skill) on the excellent version of Funny Ways and Minnear proves to be a superior vibes-player than Weathers. Still a good footage and worth having for all fans.

The 76 videos from the In'terview album (my fave without Phil with GH) are abit deceiving because the footage doesn't correspond to the music (the harpsichord is not played and the sax is not heard, but seeing GG play reggae is fun. However the 78 videos are much less enthralling since they feature the awfully AOR-ish Giant For A Day, where we get a shot of the group in its (short) decadence. In the extras we get an Old Grey Whistle Test performance from 74 and featuring (again) the Octopus extracts/medley, only a medium quality shoot and we'll pass on commenting the German Super 8 footage

The same remark can be made on this DVD than the previous package? was there a need to feature a Cd of the main performance?? Most fans would have Playin' the Fool. Nevertheless despite taking place in the later part of the Giant's career, this DVD is almost as good as the GOTB DVD and actually fairly complementary as well. Now all we need is a DVD for their first four albums with Brother Phil in the line-up to make it complete. If tyou're gonna dream, you might as well do it in colour, right??