THE LOST PERFORMANCE: LIVE IN PARIS '70

This is an amazing find, and a piece of history I didn’t realize existed until I came across it in a record store not long ago. I was traveling and as usual didn’t bring enough music to fill the evenings in the hotel, so I managed to find a record store and picked up this and three CDs. It wasn’t until I got back to the hotel that it occurred to me that all the discs I had bought were live recordings. Go figure.

This is apparently some obscure and rather amateur video recorded at La Taverne de L’Olympia in Paris during the band’s 1970 European tour supporting the release of ‘A Question of Balance’. The club setting is actually a night club, with small tables of Parisians sitting around drinking and smoking while the band performs on a small stage at the front center of the room. There appear to be at least three cameras, one of which is clearly hand-held and wobbles a bit from the back of the room. Another is on or near the stage and shows some very close-up views of the band members, while a third is positioned behind Graeme Edge and shows several unoriginal shots of his back. Not sure what the thought process was behind that one. The quality of the video is marginal at best, with the close-up shots being pretty good and the ones further away a little washed-out due to the overhead lighting. The audio is quite good though, especially considering it was recorded thirty-seven years ago and sounds like it comes from positioned microphones and not the soundboard. The subtext narration is also primitive, just simple white lettering (Times New Roman I believe) with the names of the band members flashed at the beginning, and the song titles scrolling past as each one begins. At the opening the hand-held camera tracks the band as they carry their drinks and instruments from the dressing room and through the audience to the stage. Very laid-back, and kind of charming.

The accompanying notes are disappointingly sparse, with only a single sheet enclosed that lists the songs and gives a very brief history of the recording. Too bad, the package would have benefited from some photos and maybe a bit of background about the tour itself.

The song selection is quite good, even though there is quite a bit of overdubbed music, especially the vocals. But it includes what were probably the band’s best- known tracks at that time: “Never Comes the Day”, “Are You Sitting Comfortably?”, “Ride My See-Saw”, and “Don’t You Feel Small” among them. The crowd responds enthusiastically to a great rendition of “Nights in White Satin”, as well as to “Tuesday Afternoon”. Most of the songs are very faithful renderings of the studio versions, which is a bit surprising considering the modest and informal setting. Justin Hayward and Ray Thomas keep up a small bit of banter with the audience between tracks, while Michael Pinder mostly sets off to the side playing his keyboards a a bit of acoustic guitar.

This is a great snapshot of the band in their heyday, although it is quite unpretentious considering the simple packaging and pretty much nonexistent promotion behind its release. The closing “Question” is an excellent fadeout to an enjoyable sixty minutes of music. The surround-sound is also a nice touch but there really isn’t much benefit to it, at least not on my humble home sound system.

I have to give this three stars simply because it is a rare piece of footage from a classic band in their early days, and one which I didn't know existed until it surfaced only a couple years ago. Worth seeking out, especially if you are a Moody Blues fan, or simply enjoy early seventies live videos.

peace

Avoid it! This is not a concert, but a television show, and a very poorly filmed one (only two cameras operating) and most of the songs are plain lip-synchs. The miming is sometimes hardly convincing, since the band are obviously confusing the studio versions with the current live versions and forget about the backing vocals that appear from nowhere. Justin Hayward is the one who cares the least, but - to give him his due - a couple of his compositions do feature the live lead vocals (e.g. "Nights in White Satin", "Tuesday Afternoon", and "Are You Sitting Comfortably?" where he confuses the order of the verses). Sometimes the mikes are on despite the presence of the studio vocals ("Ride My See Saw"), which pushes the backing track further to the back, leaving the vocal harmonies awfully over-prominent. Other blunders include the whole band's false start to one of the "Ride My See Saw" verses and Thomas' live flute on "Are You Sitting Comfortably?" being slightly out of tune with the studio one. There is little to justify the word "live" in the title. Don't get fooled!

Talking of a disappointment.... I got this DVD truly believing that these were actual live recordings of the early Moodies. And it seemed to be a very nice selection of songs for apart of the rather obligatory ones ('Nights', 'Tuesday', 'Ride my seesaw') songs like 'Gypsy' and 'Don't you feel small' were supposed to be performed live.

Well, there are not.

This is a very poor film with the band mimicking most of the songs and doing so in a hardly serious way. They don't care about the backing vocals, they don't care too much about some of the instruments to be played in time (Ray Thomas continues to sing while he is supposed to play the flute), so it is really is quite an embarrasing experience to watch this DVD.

Leave it where it is, forget it at all!!

3/15P.: A sham package, don't ever buy unless you want to see the five guys lip-synching.

'Quite a bit of overdubbed music' says a review here. I would be glad if there was just 'quite a bit' of overdubbed music. The entire DVD consists of a well-filmed TV recording by the Moody Blues in Paris 1970, divided into two pieces - the first and the second set. But the music that we hear when watching this DVD are just the studio recordings with the Moodies lip-synching to it. Justin Hayward's electric guitar emits acoustic guitar sounds, Ray Thomas breathes in and breathes out at the same time in the blues harp solo in 'Lazy Day' and Graeme Edge's drums sound before he starts beating his drum sticks on them in 'Ride my See Saw'. But (at least) most of the songs where you can see Justin playing the acoustic guitar feature his live vocals although I believe that the instrumental backing tracks all come from the studio.

Ironically, the sham is revealed when you see that Mike Pinder's only keyboard on stage is a Hammond organ B-3 (complete with drawbars and two manuals) while you hear his string sounds of the Mellotron. Pinder rarely played Hammond organ, and this time it's the only instrument on stage. For sure, a mellotron could sample the sounds of a Hammond organ, but the other way round - no way! I would have loved to hear a concert of the Moodies where Mike only plays the Hammond organ and no Mellotron, but this played-back DVD is useless.

As the order of the featured tracks is absolutely untypical for the Moodies in 1970 the DVD doesn't have any documentary character either - and even as a best-of-DVD with film material put underneath the studio material wouldn't get a good rating because essential songs and albums are missing here, and because the sound is by far worse than the production of the studio versions.

All in all, I have to admit that the DVD is totally useless. It would be nice to see the band performing live, but as they only play to their studio versions I prefer enjoying the genuinely live 'Caught Live' instead, a really fine live recording. 1 point, very poor - only recommendable for fans who want to see the band playing.

Update (April 28th 2012): Since 2009 a DVD from the Moody Blues gig at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970 is available both on CD and on DVD. Better spend your money on that release!

Well this DVD is getting an absolute caning from the fans here and perhaps for good reason.

There is very little to recommend apart from the very cheap price I was able to get it. As a worthwhile curio it works on two levels in some ways: first, it is the Moody Blues in their heyday, the original, legendary lineup, second, the song set list features some of the best tracks the band has produced, including Nights in White Satin, Question, Ride my see saw, and Tuesday Afternoon.

The main problem with the concert is it's not really live, instead we have overdubbed music and vocals throughout and it is obvious when band members forget to sing, or do not sing close enough to microphones, and the songs even fade out!

There are however a few shining moments, Hayward prefers to sing live and does so to backing tracks on Nights in White Satin, Tuesday Afternoon and Question in particular. For that reason I can be generous and give this more than one star. But TV concerts like this should never really make it to DVD. Audiences today are far too discerning.

This is a cheapie DVD and its ratings here are not very favourable. OK, the performances are not real live - one can notice the lip sync - but that's not very dramatic fault in my opinion. The picture or sound clarity are not bad at all, as is often the case with such early concert footage. And the set list includes many great songs such as 'Lovely to See You', 'Never Comes the Day', 'Are You Sitting Comfortably', 'Legend of a Mind', 'Candle of Life', 'Tuesday Afternoon' and 'Question'. Only two songs are not very interesting: the monotonous 'Tortoise and the Hare' and naively light-hearted 'Lazy Day'.

Despite the fake live performance (some vocals ARE actually sung live), one can sense a nice intimacy of the concert as the audience is sitting right under the band's feet, so to speak. There are no many DVD's with the Moody Blues at their halcyon days, so I wouldn't spit on this one. A friend of their classic years has lots to enjoy here. 2½ stars, rounded up.

A thank you goes to a huge MB fan I've come to know lately. More DVD reviews will be coming.