STEVE HARLEY & COCKNEY REBEL : LIVE AT THE ISLE OF WIGHT FESTIVAL

STEVE HARLEY & COCKNEY REBEL : LIVE AT THE ISLE OF WIGHT FESTIVAL

Here comes the sun
Mr. Soft
Judy teen
Sling it
Friend for life
Riding the waves
Sebastian
Make me smile (Come up and see me)
Bonus :
Death trip

Label : Direct Video

Venue : Isle Of Wight Festival, Seaclose Park, Newport, UK

Recording Date : June 12, 2004

Release Year : 2004

Running Time : 50 minutes

NTSC : 16:9

Review (Wikipedia) : Live at the Isle of Wight Festival is a live concert video by the British rock band Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, filmed at the 2004 Isle of Wight Festival, and released on DVD in 2005. It is the band's third filmed concert release, and first such release on DVD. During the summer of 2003, promoter John Giddings offered Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel a slot for the following year's Isle of Wight Festival. An agreement was reached, with the band confirmed to play on the second day of the festival. In a 16 June 2004 diary entry for his official website, Harley spoke of the band's performance: "I waited a little apprehensively for the Isle of Wight. I cannot explain it. John Giddings is an old mate. I wanted nothing in the world than to deliver for John on his festival island. The sun shone and we shone; we glowed; we kicked a 45-minute set off in the style of a truly compatible travelling rock band. On stage we felt tingly; I kid you not. The smiles on those big screens were genuine. And I saw the respect in their applause and in their waves." The band's performance was well received. Immediately after the festival, Cockney Rebel fans expressed interest in having the performance released as a DVD. This led Harley to approach the production company CC-Lab about purchasing the rights to the footage. Harley noted in his June 2004 diary: "It won't be cheap - the full 47-minute performance for sale, commercially, on DVD. It's what I want, and, as usual, it's likely to go that way. But don't hold me to it. It will take a little time, a little negotiation, and a lot of courage." The initial aim was to get the DVD released in time to be sold on the band's UK autumn tour. Although the release date was postponed, negotiations were completed during the autumn, and the festival footage, which was filmed using nine cameras, was then edited. Harley announced in November 2004 that the DVD was likely to be ready for sale in February 2005, to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the band's 1975 UK number one song "Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)". Plans were also made to add some further material to the DVD using footage of the band at a concert in Edinburgh during December. Harley revealed: "I've got a crew coming to Edinburgh to film an extra 40-minutes: get-in, set-up, soundcheck, backstage, Green room, dressing-rooms, chats with musicians/crew etc. Even a vox pop where the film crew will go outside, microphone in hand, and chat to the queue." In the end, a three-man crew recorded eight hours of footage. In February 2005, it was announced that the DVD was to be released in May, and would be followed by a new single release - a re-recorded version of "Make Me Smile" - in June. By April, Harley had numerous interviews lined up to promote the DVD's release. He had completed approximately twenty-five by the end of May. The DVD was released across Europe in May 2005 by Direct Video Distribution. The Isle of Wight footage, lasting 46 minutes in total, is made up of eight songs. The bonus footage lasts 48 minutes. The first part of the bonus features is a 21-minute behind-the-scenes documentary at the Edinburgh Queen's Hall on 7 December 2004. It is shown as a five-hour countdown to the band's concert there and features interviews with band members, crew, and some members of the audience. The second feature is an 18-minute interview with Harley, which was conducted by his publicist Wendy Bailey. The interview is notable for Harley's revealing of the meaning behind his 1973 song "Death Trip". The final feature is a near 13-minute performance of "Death Trip", performed at Edinburgh. The song was reintroduced into the set-list for the November-December 2004 tour after an approximate 30 year absence, along with a handful of other songs that had not been played live for a considerable amount of time. After this, the song would not be played live again until December 2011. Upon release, Ian Templeton of Record Collector reviewed the DVD and stated: "On a gorgeous sunny day, the set starts with Harley's well-known classic, "Here Comes the Sun". The band are clearly having a ball and belt it out for all their worth. Certain elements of the crowd are clearly waiting for The Who, but Harley's pretty successful in winning over most punters. The 50-minute set ends with the obligatory "Make Me Smile". The 'extras' are reasonably interesting. The common theme [of the interviews] being what a thoroughly nice guy Mr Harley is. There's also a stand-alone interview with the man himself and a live rendition of the 10-minute-long "Death Trip". Bit of a dirge if you ask me, but the fans seem to love it." Paul Higson of VistaVideo said: "In the supporting material there is a performance of the rarely heard "Death Trip" at the Queen's Hall, Edinburgh. Unlike some of the Isle of Wight songs it is a number designed to be magically epic and so it is. Harley and the band sound great, the night, the blue lights, the walls, the professionalism, all suggest that this is what it is normally like at a Cockney Rebel concert. Going to DVD with a concert because of the history and the footage is not necessarily the most rewarding gig you can sell to us. They should have ditched it and given us the cosier affair at Queen's Hall in its entirety instead. It would have clearly been far more impressive.

Review (Videovista) : Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel are best known to me as a great band name and a collection of quirky intermittent tunes in the 1970s' soundtrack of my childhood, primarily the numbers Here Comes The Sun, Mr Soft, and (Come Up And See Me) Make Me Smile, all of which, of course, have to find their way on the gig play-list on this DVD recording of their appearance at the Isle of Wight Festival in 2004. The band are still going strong, the Cockney Rebel organic and changing always the plan, Harley the only constant, the current line-up the most pleasing assemblage to its front man so we are led to understand. The film opens softly at dawn, or dusk masquerading at dawn, to the sound of The Lighthouse, following the crowds to the Festival. There is no shortage of cameras at the event and the image and colour quality is good throughout. They launch into Here Comes The Sun, a great song and guilty pleasure; but the open air affects the sound, the instruments are in chase and Harley's voice a bit coarse. We are informed by the fans on the supporting material that Harley's voice has never been better, but as the show runs on, and Harley shouts more than he sings, I declare them, for the time being, delusional. It's all a little Bontempi for me as the keyboard, a Korg in truth that belongs firmly in the 1970s, tinkles and chirrups away. Mr Soft is sung without that weird gulping, melting vocal of the original recording, lost to a raspier version of his voice. The honest strumming and the voice seem to lose out to the al fresco circumstances and you long for them to go indoors and bounce it off some walls instead. Judy Teen if further example of the loss of characteristic edge to his once unique voice as he shouts like a Billy Bragg. On Sling It they are still trying to be loud with instruments that defy it. A Friend For Life is a mournfully unnecessary song, the voice crumpling farther. Surely the audience will be unforgiving on this one, but no they are rapturous, so it is possible I am completely missing something here. Then again, perhaps not, after all, The Proclaimers have a fanbase, don't they... large numbers of people can be wrong! Riding The Waves is next and by this stage I want to know who else is on the bill. Then mid-song a fantastic bit of instrumental guitar promises much... then breaks its promise. I am now becoming aggrieved because I think the band are enjoying themselves too much when I am not at all. Harley presumptuously tries to get the audience to sing along, but they want to clap, which I put down to the realisation by the audience that their collective singing voice is dismal. Sebastian shows the band in fine form and sounding fantastic, though the violin needs reigning in a little. It is a pleasant tune that is prolonged without upset. (Come Up And See Me) Make Me Smile is, as ever, a great song but it should not be stretched out to the length of Freebird as Harley does here. Repeating those few words over and over again can seriously damage one's interest in a number. It was never designed to run that long. And then it is over. The songs that are tortured with improvised length could have been kept down and a couple of more tunes added. Harley apparently has a habit for the ad-hoc prolongation on his tunes in concert and his band members have to keep a close eye and ear on him to keep up. It is clearly a habit that can end wrongly. The Isle of Wight Festival was a return for them, they had been there in 1970 and Harley had jested that many of those in the 2004 audience were likely conceived at the original as he played. The numbers for the 2004 festival may have had Harley overly excited causing him to get carried away in this clumsy manner. In the supporting material there is a performance of the rarely heard Death Trip at the Queen's Hall, Edinburgh. Unlike some of the Isle of Wight songs it is a number designed to be magically epic and so it is. Lyrics to impress to: "Now I'm in a death trip/ listening to the blood drip/ oozing from a cut lip/ never thought of dying this way." Harley and the band sound great, the night, the blue lights, the walls, the professionalism, all suggest that this is what it is normally like at a Cockney Rebel concert. The song evokes later artistes from Le Mat and Hugo Largo to Marillion, all of whom likely took some influence, but more redolently it appears to jab a finger accusingly in the direction of Rupert Wainwright. Going to DVD with a concert because of the history and the footage is not necessarily the most rewarding gig you can sell to us. They should have ditched it and given us the cosier affair at Queen's Hall in its entirety instead. It would have clearly been far more impressive.