ROCK LEGENDS: PROGRESSIVE ROCK

I'm giving this seedy compilation DVD its first review, having ordered it recently at a very cheap price. I'm sure many of you are aware of Classic Rock company who have released loads of these low-price live DVD's. Two tracks here I've seen before on another of their prog compilations: 'Vivaldi' by CURVED AIR and 'The Weaver's Answer' by FAMILY, while some other tracks are probably taken from the same gigs as different songs on other compilations (and of course there are Classic Rock's DVD's of the represented artists separately, at least for most of them). RICK WAKEMAN's number here is 'Catherine Parr', ELP appear with vintage instrumental 'Barbarian', and FOCUS perform their excellent sidelong epic 'Eruption', albeit not the classic line-up featuring guitarist Jan Akkerman; nevertheless, this is among the highlights.

JOHN WETTON starts the 88-minute DVD in style with a faithful version of the King Crimson classic 'Starless'. After all the artists mentioned above comes BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST (a post-Wolstenholme line-up) and John Lees's 'Nights in White Satin' -imitating 'Poor Man's Moody Blues'. I do like it. STEVE HACKETT and his band perform instrumental 'Clocks' from Spectral Mornings (1979). Judged by Steve's looks I guess it's from the early 90's. The biggest minus of this DVD is the lack of more precise information on the performances. No years, no line-ups, not even song credits... What a pity, because a proghead like me would love to know especially the source years that vary from early 70's to - who knows, the 90's?

In my DVD collections there's the final part of VDGG's 'Plague of the Lighthouse Keepers' on the "Psychedelia" compilation (and it wasn't indicated on the cover as the finale only!); here is the George Martin instrumental 'Theme One'. No Peter Hammill in sight, but it's amusing to watch drummer Guy Evans and saxophonist David Jackson too. And premiering altogether in my DVD collections are SOFT MACHINE ('Tale of Taliesyn') and URIAH HEEP ('Paradise / The Spell'). I really would have wanted to know the exact line-ups for both! Anyway I'm glad of the latter's song choice: Demons and Wizards (1972) is my fave Heep album.

So, just another cheapie DVD with a varying quality of contents, but there surely are enough interesting numbers of prog classics to keep this on my shelves. 2½ stars rounded down for the lack of information.

Review Nº 702

"Rock Legends: Progressive Rock" is a DVD with a collection of eleven progressive live concert clips. All of them are focused about the classic progressive rock bands and all songs belong to the prog rock repertoire of the 70's. The clips are taken from different times being some of them taken from old live tapes and others from more recent live shows.

However and unfortunately, "Rock Legends: Progressive Rock" has no information about the places, the dates and the artists that played on the tracks. So, it was very difficult for me to have some information about them. Still, after several researches, I got some information about them. Anyway, I apologize for any inaccuracies that perhaps exist in some.

The first track "Starless" by John Wetton is a live version of a song of King Crimson from "Red", released in 1974. It seems to be a track taken from John Wetton's debut video "Live In The Underworld", released in 2003. Besides John Wetton, the band consists of guitarist John Mitchell, of Arena, keyboardist Martin Orford, of IQ and drummer Steve Christey of Jadis. The second track "Catherine Parr" by Rick Wakeman is a live version of a medley from "The Six Wives Of Henry VIII", released in 1973. This film shows Rick Wakeman captured in action with the English Rock Ensemble, in 1990. The third track "Eruption" by Focus is a live version of a song from "Moving Waves", released in 1972. This is a track taken from their DVD "Live In America", released in 2003. The fourth track "Barbarian" by Emerson, Lake & Palmer is a live version of a song from "Emerson, Lake & Palmer", released in 1970. It was taken from a very rare tape from an early 1971 film just after the group has finished recording their debut studio work. The fifth track "Vivaldi" by Curved Air is a live version of a song from "Airconditioning", released in 1970. It's an excerpt taken from a Belgian TV live show, in 1972. This is the classic Curved Air line up featuring Sonja Kristina, Daryl Way, Francis Monkman, Mike Wedgewood and Florian Pilkington-Miksa. The sixth track "The Weaver's Answer" by Family is a live version of a song from "Family Entertainment", released in 1969. This live version was filmed for RTBF, a Belgian public television, in 1971. This is one of the most popular line ups of the group, featuring Roger Chapman, John 'Charlie' Whitney, Poli Palmer, John Weider and Rob Townsend. The seventh track "Poor Man's Moody Blues" by Barclay James Harvest is a live version of a song from "Once Again", released in 1971. This is a track taken of a unique live concert filmed at London's Town and Country Club, to mark the 25th Anniversary of the group. The eighth track "Clocks" by Steve Hackett is a live version of a song from "Spectral Mornings", released in 1979. Apparently, the track was taken from Steve's DVD "Live Legends", released in 2004. It seems that the DVD version doesn't contain the whole concert Horizons, recorded live in Nottingham Central TV Studios, in October 1990. The band consists of Steve Hackett, his brother John Hackett on flute, guitar and Moog Taurus pedals, Julian Colbeck on keyboards and Pendragon's Fudge Smith on drums. The ninth track "Tale Of Taliesin" by Soft Machine is a live version of a song from "Softs", released in 1976. The line up of the band on this video is John Etheridge (guitar), Karl Jenkins (keyboards), Roy Babbington (bass) and John Marshall (drums). Allan Holdsworth and Mike Ratledge both were gone from the band by this time. The tenth track "Theme One" by Van Der Graaf Generator is a live version of a song from "Pawn Hearts", released in 1971. The track didn't appear on the UK releases but appeared on the US releases. I think this is a track taken from their live DVD "Godbluf Live 1975", recorded for the Belgian TV, on 21st March of 1972 and was released in 2003. The eleventh track "Paradise/The Spell" by Uriah Heep is a live version of two songs from "Demons And Wizards". This track was taken from their live DVD "The Magician's Birthday Party" released in 2002. It has also the participation of Ken Hensley.

Conclusion: Today, you can get no end with DVD's gathering the sounds of the past. Some are poorly edited and put together almost by chance than knowledge of the bands or the time. Still, this is one of the better, with a good selection and some really good performances all over it. So, "Rock Legends: Progressive Rock" is a very interesting DVD and it represents a good introduction for those who aren't accustomed to progressive rock music, especially with the bands from the 70's. However, it seems to me that we can't say that it's an essential musical document and an excellent addition to any of us. Particularly in this case, since that many of the names of some of the prog bands here aren't the most known for the public in general. So, and despite be an excellent musical live document for the beginners, this isn't really essential for most of us. The bands represented here for a prog head are so important, that is essential to have some of their DVD's in our progressive collection of music, that we can't content ourselves only with this kind of stuff.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)