Huw DVD

[Jeff P]

Well, I was in the first batch to order the Huw DVD. So I guess I
shouldn't sit around and wait for someone else to review this time.

It was a good week for DVD's. On Monday I received BOC's Long Days Night
and watched it that night (after Trudy went to bed as she only has an
interest in The Reaper and Burnin' For You and doesn't understand why
anyone would bother with anything else!). Very pleasing given the
limitations with Eric's voice.

Tuesday the Huw DVD arrived - I was impressed with the speed in which the
package made it across the Atlantic.

The DVD had been advertised as a semi-professional production, an accurate
description.

The physical package consists of a standard dvd-case, a simple computer
generated cover(the back looks better than the front) and an unlabelled
dvd-r within (no inserts, but most relevant information and a couple of
URL's are included on the cover).

The dvd loaded without any problems (on my region free player) and
presented a menu of options.

The concert option takes you to a sub-menu from which you can start the
concert from the track of your choice.
Other menu options are to go straight to the encore, play a 'photo
gallery'(a series of Huw photos with Moonglum and Elric I seem to recall
playing in the background) and the production notes from Colin about how
things were put together and limitations and problems faced in
recording/editing/producing the dvd.

Despite the menu set-up playing, the concert option took me through the
entire content of the cd (only got the encore once though!) including
photo gallery and production notes.

The show was recorded on a single camera which undersandably means that
there is minimal change in view. For most of the time show Gonzalo Carrera
is out of the picture except for a few rare turns of the camera. With one
camera there is no option to switch to an alternate view during problem
moments. Fortunately these are few and far between. There are one or two
brief unfocussed moments and later in the concert a beer swiller parks
himself and his drinking arm rather too close in front of the camera (and
later sticks his face in front of it) but by and large the camera work is
better than hoped for. The lighting works well for capturing the show.

All good/forgiveable so far so let's look at what I actually found
annoying.

The breaks at the end of the main set and the end of the show are simple
frame freezes, the transition to the encore could have been subtler,
panning the audience (never saw them apart from the one guy mentioned
above) and/or some fading/in out would have been nice. Still minor stuff.

But.

Throughout the show there are brief drop-outs. According to the production
notes these resulted from problems in synching the soundboard recording to
the video footage. I could have coped with this far better if it had only
been a discontinuity in the video image. The dropouts in the audio were
major annoyances for me and my main criticism - in the end this is a dvd
of a musical experience and the integrity of the audio should have been
the main concern.

That leaves us with the performance!

Huw goes through a large quantity of cigarettes throughout the set. I
don't know if it was the presence of the camera or his usual technique,
but there is a lot of silly posturing at the end of songs.

Musically I felt that Huw was coasting. There were moments of good work
showing off some of his technique, but no real display of his talents. The
Lloyd Langton Group being a showcase for Huw's guitar skills (the other
musicians are competent but just there as background) he needs to fire for
it to impress and he was just idling.
Huw's voice doesn't seem up to the task of carrying the vocals as well
these days either.

During the encore Tony Hill (High Tide) joined the band for Psychedelic
Warlords and Hurry On Sundown which he seemed to have trouble following in
places but his presence added to the dynamic of the situation.

The Huw Lloyd Langton band was a promising offshoot from Hawkwind twenty-
years ago, but since the mid 80's has gone nowhere. Within the band Huw
sets himself no challenges seems to be taking a path into easy decline.

We know from his recent work with Hawkwind that Huw can still deliver on
the guitar, so in that respect the performance is somewhat disappointing.

But this is a dvd of the HLL band, not HW. As such it definitely captures
the essence of the band and is a worthwhile addition to the collections of
those who still concern them this group.

The discontinuities with the audio are a major blight, especially given
the otherwise great soundboard quality. The video is better than I
expected from what I knew of the limitations of the shotting, Colin has
done a great job in capturing the concert.

Huw isn't about to command the investment of money and production effort
that BOC had for Long Days Night, so this is the only chance you are going
to get to land yourself a DVD of the LLG for quite a while. If you've ever
had an interest in the band I suggest you strongly consider getting it. If
you are not familiar with them I'd suggest you try to track down some of
their early recordings before bothering with it.

Jeff


On Sat, 19 Oct 2002 15:45:00 +0100, Steve Litchfield
<slitchfield at UKONLINE.CO.UK> wrote:

>If anyone in here was among the first batch of Huw LL DVDs I sent out,
>perhaps you'd like to post comments/review, etc? All feedback welcomed!
>
>http://3lib.ukonline.co.uk/hawkwind/huwdvd.htm
>____________________________________________________________________