You are allowed to enjoy this…

Now I have fond memories of the ABWH period of music. For those of you who don’t know or who have absolutely no knowledge of progressive rock music, this band was the bastard offspring from the Yes franchise in the late 1980s, which had floundered both commercially and creatively. With lead singer Jon Anderson conning ex-Yes and King Crimson dummer, Bill Bruford, to come play some drums on his solo album, an interesting franchise was creating. With the band name sounding a lot like a local solicitors, the first album offered a lot of promise. OK – some of it was a little sweet and sickly thanks to Anderson’s input, but as a whole, the album is quite robust when compared to others of that period. And for once it was a progressive rock album that actually had a smile on its face, rather than frowning earnestly and asking you to marvel at the musicianship.
So the best memory was getting excited about going to see the band at Wembley Arena and it was the first time that I had ever been to a gig. It was also the first gig me and the Missus attended together and it was a rather stonking night. I got to watch my favourite rhythm section (Bill Bruford and Tony Levin, both of King Crimson) working out and to hear some old Yes classics that I thought I’d never hear played live. It was a good night, apart from me slipping on some spilt beer (not my own, I didn’t drink back then) and falling down the stairs during “Heart of the Sunrise” as I attempted a quick toilet break. Ouch! Also, my English teacher Mr Bailey was also a fan and he attended the concerts, though I found it a little embarrassing to talk prog rock in the class in front of frowning, disapproving peers. (Mind you, this was the guy who used to quote King Crimson lyrics and give me the wink during lessons too…so it was a really progtastic period of my life!)
In terms of merchandise, there was a video EP released called “In the Big Dream” that documented the recording process for the album, which was put together at the recording studios in Montserrat, and included a couple of promotional videos too. A few years after all this, a concert was released on video as a limited edition and I was lucky to pick this up and it is the same concert that I am reviewing here.
Voiceprint, a company that specialises in reviving old classics back from the dead and the obscurity of deletion, saw fit to release this concert in its entirety and bring out a 2 DVD edition that also includes “In the Big Dream” as a bonus. Of course, being a fan and deserving of a couple of hours of sweet nostalgia, I snapped it up. The concert itself is a surprisingly good transfer, however there’s nothing in the way of a surround sound mix or anything. But despite this, the music sounds fresh and clean. The concert itself starts with each member of the band doing his party piece until they are all on stage and then the fun begins with cuts from the ABWH interspersed with some well chosen songs from the Classic Yes period. The only downside to this performance is that Tony Levin is missing due to illness, replaced by Jeff Berlin.
In terms of quality, I thought this was a good upgrade to my old VHS edition, but my one bugbear was that the concert was split over two discs (ever heard of dual layer, Voiceprint?) and the original introduction was tacked on as an extra on the second disc, completely out of sequence. This original opening showed Jon Anderson as he walked to the concert explaining that he was going to appear in the middle of the audience and start singing. OK, so its not THAT important, but when I saw it originally, it really added to the sense of excitement and anticipation. Now, it is resigned to an outtake on the second disc, which seems a bit stupid. Either keep it in or cut it out, no?
My other major grip is the quality of the “In the Big Dream” video EP. There have been edits made to this and the video quality is bordering on awful. It is actually worse that my old VHS because it is obvious that they’ve taken a PAL VHS source and recoded to NTSC, rendering the colours muted and washed out. The sound is also awful. On my old VHS, there was a recording error during one of the songs and the sound is spiked by a tape wobble. Guess what? The same error occurs on this DVD, so obviously the tape was from the same source. Gee – I could have just dubbed my VHS to DVD and saved myself the trouble.
On one hand, this is really great for those who have never owned the original VHS, but for those of use die-hard fans who have the tapes and the T-shirts and the novelty blow-up Steve Howe dolls, you might be a bit disappointed with the quality of the “extras”. It really is a game of two halves. But saying that, for the money, it was nice to wallow in the warm glow of nostalgia with The Missus and feel really, really old.
“The order of the Universe, the order of the Universe…”
Indeed!
For even more information, go to http://www.abwhdvd.com/
And here’s a little video sample for you:

It seems I am jinxed. Someone out there has been busy with needles and wax effigy or has thrown a dark hex my way. “How so?” I hear you ask. Well it all began when I stepped into my local tube station with the intention of getting to the gig on time. I had left early, so that I could meet up with the Missus and have a bite to eat at one of those snazzy eateries on the South Bank, before tootling onto see Peter Hammill in concert. However, my Spidey-senses tingled as soon as I hit the station and the word “delays” echoed over the PA system.
What should have been a simple, 60 minute journey was stretched out beyond all recognition. Travelling from Debden to Stratford, which normally takes about 25 minutes, turned into a 90 minute marathon with the driver apologising profusely for there being signal failures at Bethnal Green. The problem with that bottleneck of the Central is that you are stuffed until you get to Stratford as there are no connecting trains, so I stood in cramped carriage and swallowed it down. I’ll be honest with you, I don’t like the Underground. I know it is a bit wimpy, but there’s something I just don’t like about the UK tube network. I always think it is on the edge of collapse and when we get stuck in a tunnel for a long period of time, my bowels begin to churn. But enough of the details, eh?
So when I did eventually get to The Missus, all hopes of having something to eat were out of the window and it was just a matter of walking to the venue and taking our seats. I was in a bad mood and didn’t particularly want to be there – my nerves were shot by the prolonged tube fiasco and I wanted a drink. Yes, I wanted a drink real bad. But I never drink before a gig as I believe music should be received untainted by alcohol, so I was very tetchy.
In this tour, Hammill was accompanied by violinist Stuart Gordon and I was interested in hearing how it would turn out as I hadn’t had the chance to pick up their collaboration “Veracious”. Tracks like a “A Better Time”, “Driven” and “Bubble” were stripped down and arranged in such a way that there was plenty of space for Gordon to fill in with his violin. I am not entirely sure if this approach worked. I mean those guys are great performers, but some of it just didn’t work for me and didn’t engage my senses. The only time things really started to get electric was during a harrowing performence of “Like Veronica”, a song about spousal abuse, which really went for the jugular. An old classic “The Birds” elicited whoops from the audience and I was particularly pleased when Hammill performed “Stranger Still” as the final song. It’s one of my favourites, but again the rearrangement jarred me, but all came good in the end. There was one encore with “A Way Out” and it was all over. While I thought it was an interesting night of music, I did find myself feeling slightly underwhelmed by the proceedings. Hammill, I felt, was a little off and a little sloppy in the guitar/piano department and Gordon’s violin, while sweet and soaring in places, began to grate after a while. Again, this is no slur on their performance, I just think a whole evening of this configuration is difficult listening, which can be a good thing sometimes. I guess my tube troubles had clouded my musical brain, which upset me.
After the show (yes, Hammill performed that song too), we headed out into the night and The Missus want to eat. Again, my Spidey-senses were tingling and, much to her annoyance, I insisted we went straight home. Good job too, because the tube was still up shit creek without a paddle. First there was the “Passenger Action” on the Jubilee Line (yes, those are two words you don’t want to hear on the Tube), so we hopped off and diverted to Bank station. There we waited ages for a train to Leytonstone, then had to wait there for a connecting train heading to Epping, which was another 20 minute wait. By the time we got home, it was 11.50pm and we’d left the concert at 9.30! The Missus remarked that in total, I had been travelling nearly four and a half hours on the Tube that evening for a round trip of less than two…
You’ve got to laugh, ain’t ya?