UNEARTHED THE BEST OF 1973-2005

I am waiting for this DVD since its invention, finally live footage from the Seventies and Eighties! We can enjoy the singers who joined MMEB all those years, from Mick Rogers (great effort in Father Of Day, Father Of Night) and Chris Thompson (very distinctive during the 'classic' Davy's On The Road Again) to Steve Waller (with talk-box in Don't Kill It Carol) and Noel McCalla (very inspired in Mighty Quinn). It's fun to watch the playback performance in the Seventies Top Of The Pops TV footage like Blinded By The Light (including wobbly keyboards) and this DVD also contains interesting video promo clips like Sikelele (about Manfred his home country South Africa) and Davy's On The Road Again (1978). But halfway it becomes a bit too polished and predictable for me with compositions like Lies Through The 80s, Do Anything You Wanna Do and For You. This is no problem because then we can enjoy very exciting live footage from the Swedish TV (1973/1974): Black & Blue (a kind of progressive blues featuring a sensational, pitchbend driven Minimoog solo), Father Of Day, Father Of Night (very dynamic and compelling with strong drumming, guitarwork and Hammond play) and Martha's Madmann (first a funny but a bit gruesome cartoon about a man with a beard and an axe, then it starts to swing and Manfred delivers a very spectaculair Minimoog solo, accompanied by a propulsive rhythm- section, the MMEB trademark!). The final track is Manfred Mann his 1968 UK #1 hit entitled Might Quinn: first swinging, boogie-woogie piano work, then a fiery guitar solo, culminating in the band playing Smoke On The Water, everybody freaks out! Also worth to experience are the 'cartoon' tracks like Fritz The Blank with an old man buying more and more cans of 'Instant Sex'. I remember this very well because I have seen the Angel Station tour in 1979 when MMEB performed this cartoon while playing a great instrumental tune. In my memory Manferd Mann is 'the master on the Minimoog', you can watch lots of spectacular soli on this exciting DVD. The 16-page booklet contains information about every song, including the line-ups. RECOMMENDED!!

Excellent DVD by one of my fav prog bands ever Manfred Mann's Earth Band. On this DVD everyone can see the history of this band in diffrent periods from early '70's to early 90's. Every musical choice from here is great, leaving the watcher and listner with no doubts that MMEB is among the best in their category. All the footages are good, with their famouses cartoons from the late'70's and early '80's when almost on every concert the cartoons were running in the back of the stage - for ex Fritz The Blank. Now the live cuts are excellent specially the one's from Sweden from 1973 where all the members was in full potential creativity delivering some outstanding moments, like Black & Blue. All the rest are very strong compositions witch I know them from the original albums and enjoying aswell in this versions. I love all the momets this DVD have , even those from the mid 80's where Mann's music capture a new grounds to a more popish side. Every period has something to offer and I'm very glad I have this one in my collection, and one of the best DVD I have and saw. Something bothering me, why there isn't anything from The good earth and Nightingale & bombers periods, I consider that period to be the peak of band's career. Strange not a single tune or a live footage from that period. I wonder if Manfred Mann considered that period not good enough for the band to leave those excellent albums behind and not included here????. Anyway a great document to watch, not to forget the booklet of DVD has 16 pages about every song and his story, the line up is aswell on every track.Si this DVD is for every serious prog listner, , 4 star for sure. Recommnded