Customer Reviews

Dusty Springfield: Live at the Royal Albert Hall

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

From the opening musical intro (a wonderfully tongue in cheek version of "The Bitch is Back", sung by her backing vocalists), to the very last notes of "Put Your Hands Together", this concert is a MUST see for any music fan, and of course, a total treat for anyone who calls themselves a true Dusty Springfield afficionado.

The evening is full of energy and shows Dusty Springfield in the best light perhaps since her 60s hey dey. Not since then had we seen her so relaxed, so laid-back, so fully committed to entertain her audience.

And entertain she does, going through a wonderfully varied repertoire for this concert. She covers disco ("We Are Family", "You Can Do It", Grace Jones' "On Your Knees"), delivers the big ballads she was known for ("All I See Is You", "I Close My Eyes and Count To Ten", "You Don't Have To Say You Love Me"), delivers a rousing medley of her well known hits, (starting with a mesmerizing few lines of Carole King's "Goin' Back") and as if that weren't enough, she throws in a few brilliant covers of Karla Bonoff's "Lose Again" (made popular by Linda Ronstadt) and Peter Allen's "Quiet Please, There's A Lady On Stage" in which she reaches Judy Garland-like proportions of showwomanship.

The picture quality is absolutely AMAZING and I love the Main Menu and the other Menus graphics..great sound effects and wonderful pictures of the White Queen of Soul. The sound quality is not as strong as the picture quality, but I guess they did the best they could with what was available on the master tapes.

Dusty looks radiant and performs majestically! The liner notes are actually quite good this time (in my view) and they capture perfectly the spirit of the concert. Dusty does seem more laid-back than ever on this one and yes, there are several small glitches and hiccups vocally as well as technically, but nothing major...and whatever precision is lost is made up for with a wonderful energy and enthusiasm that's wonderful to see.

The interviews are also fantastic..especially Pat Rhodes, Madeleine Bell and Simon Bell. Simon almost made me cry on several occasions, especially towards the end, when it was clear he was also moved and missing Dusty. He is a great guy, and it's clear to see why Dusty wanted him near in her final days.

While Springfield seems to excel at the ballads, what is most surprising is to watch her take command of her audience with an assurance and strength that is still encased in a warm, vulnerable glow. No one else but perhaps a Garland or maybe a Piaf, could make 3,000 people feel as if she was singing only to each of them...individually. That sort of ability is a rare thing indeed, and Dusty Springfield shows it fully during this concert. She has every single audience member in the palm of her hand from beginning to end. This is not something you see very frequently nowadays from a performer. It is something of legend, indeed.

Dusty Springfield performed live all too infrequently, especially in the second half of her career. Even less frequently did she appear before the camera. So these few moments caught on film are especially poignant. This performance, before Princess Margaret at the Royal Albert Hall, has a thrown-together feel, and Dusty doesn't always look like she knows what to do with the stage, but the rapport she establishes with her fans is immediate and real. I like the drama she brings to a song like "Quite Please, There's a Lady on Stage," a song she never recorded for an album and which was written by Peter Allen with Judy Garland in mind, but which provided the perfect coda to what was essentially a comeback performance, following her decade-long "exile" in America. But it's the hits that her fans want to hear, and she delivers these in spades. From "I Close My Eyes and Count to Ten" to "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me," her catalog is among the most recognizable in the history of pop (for insights into her career, one couldn't ask for more than the interviews with Pat Rhodes, Simon Bell, and others on the DVD). She looks great; she sounds great; and the songs hold up. So put your hands together and enjoy.

I have mixed feelings about this performance. Filmed for British TV in 1979, ten years after Dusty's last chart hit, there is an air of "lounge act" to this show, with its medley of hits and her covers of trendy disco tunes that she felt obliged to include here (it would have been better had she sung Pattie Brooks' great "After Dark", where Brooks sounds uncannily like Dusty.) Dusty recorded some interesting things around this time period, and she could have done justice to a few of her recent recordings, but she chose not to, and instead did a couple of ballads which are effective, but a bit sad (especially one where she sings about not being the latest rage). For a show that apparently was a big deal, with the Queen in attendance, Dusty giggles through a few tunes, including "The Look of Love", spoiling the mood. Despite all this, it's interesting to see how the audience clearly loves her. It's too bad there are no shows available from her 1960s TV show. I have a bootleg copy of one of them, and although the quality isn't great, the performances are, with Dusty in her prime, complete with the high hairdos and black makeup, singing incredibly, gesturing enthusiastically, and even playing guitar (on the lovely "Wayfaring Stranger"). It wasn't until the Pet Shop Boys brought her back into the spotlight with "What Have I Done to Deserve This" in 1987 that we got to see & hear Dusty in top form again, which led to several more hits ("Nothing Has Been Proved", "In Private" and "Reputation"). This concert, while good to see once, isn't really essential, but nevertheless noteworthy for having been a rare chance to see and hear the legend in concert, even at this rather awkward date.

Despite the fact that the show itself was not rehearsed enough, and there are flaws in the performance of the disco compilation which unfortunately starts off this DVD, it is a must for any Dusty Springfield fan. When performing her usual songs her voice is wonderful and her performance captivating. This beautiful 40 year old struts her stuff so well that by the end of the performance the audience responds by mobbing the stage and the singer! What is wonderful is the appreciation and excitement you see in Dusty's face at the end of all this. Just in Dusty's life, no matter the flaws, she is still a wonder to view and so greatly adored by her fans. The bonus interviews, while lacking in extra videos or pictures still offer interesting insights into the singer.

Born in 1939, girl next door Mary O'Brien reinvented herself as Dusty Springfield just in time for London's swinging sixties, and at the time her hairstyles, make-up, and attire were probably as influential as anything she ever recorded. Like many singing stars of her era, she fell from grace in the 1970s, faultering in a mixture of alcohol, drugs, and sex, her recordings critically admired but barely selling. With her 1999 death, however, came the great re-evaluation, and she is now classed among the great female vocalists of the 20th Century. Which is why DUSTY SPRINGFIELD: LIVE AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL is such a disappointment. You cannot help but look and listen and think of what it should be that it is not.

Filmed in 1979, after she began to pull herself out of drugs and a series of nervous break downs, the concert finds Springfield offering an uninspired selection of songs, alternating between fits of disco, her most obvious hits, and condensing most of her signature songs into an extended medley. The concert is clearly under-rehearsed, the direction utterly non-existent, and the film footage is at best commonplace. Springfield herself is not a her best: her hairstyle is unflattering, her white harem pants are exceptionally unfortunate, and her body language seems gawky. And her voice? It is still there, but she seldom bothers to use it. She performs in an almost throw-away manner, mugging for the camera and shrugging off one error after another.

But a couple of things do come through very vividly, and they make this DVD worth the effort. The first is the rapport Springfield had with her audience. It seems obvious that there is more going on than what the camera catches: the audience is clearly mezmerized, which leads me to suspect the concert had an energy the camera simply didn't see. And then comes the moment when Springfield changes from her hideous white costume into a more flattering lavender and returns to the stage for two encores that exploit every nuance of her vocal talents: "Quiet Please" and "Put Your Hands Together." If the rest of the concert had been performed at the same level, it would have been a show for the ages.

The DVD is perhaps most interesting for a documentary that consists of four "talking heads" hosted by the concert director (who admits this particular concert was under-rehearsed, indeed completely unrehearsed) and includes one of the back-up singers (who says much the same.) The documentary is short on art, and there are many more questions that could have been asked of the subjects, but it does offer tremendous insight into who Springfield was as a private person and a public artist, and it is to be valued for that. Taken all together, I give both concert and documentary an average of three stars. Recommended, but pretty much for established fans only.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

I am not sure this was Dusty Springfield as Great as she could be, however for us to have any footage of her in concert is a blessing and I am very thankful it was released. Dusty looks great and hits her stride on "Quiet Please, There's a Lady on Stage". A MUST for any dusty fan.

I know that's an awful title for a review, but it's exactly what happened to me after receiving my RAH DVD in the mail today. I hadn't really expected much. I knew nothing about Dusty's concert career. I had only been a fan of her songs on the radio. You will not only love the way she sings, but the wonderful way she moves around on stage and is simply a total delight in every way. This was supposedly not a well rehearsed concert due to time restraints and I personally believe it is more alive and spontaneous due to the raw energy needed to brave it all and push on through! RAH was made in 1979 which would make it about half way through Dusty's long career. I fell in love with her singing in the 60's and have just recently found out about her later recordings in the late '80's. But, this is the way I will always, always remember Dusty Springfield.

"Live At The Royal Albert Hall" on DVD is an ecstatic dream come true for Dusty's fans not only because it captures the legendary singer in fine voice and at her most lovely and joyous since returning from a long hiatus in the mid-70s but simply because apart from her 1966 and 1967 black and white TV series for the BBC which have since been (partially) recovered by the station, it is the only surviving tape of a full concert given by Dusty in her long and illustrious career that is still known to exist in the archives. Unbelievable but true.

Dusty's singing changed so much over the years it seems futile to debate when exactly she was at her vocal peak. Certainly, 1966 was an early peak when her voice was at its most searing and powerful whether she was tackling a big ballad or a torchy soul number. But then, the legendary "Dusty In Memphis" happened only in late 1968 and from thereon, Dusty began developing the softer, breathier and more delicate side to her singing voice, which effectively transformed her from 60s belter to mature pop stylist by the end of the decade. Still, many fans cite 1972/1973 - on the evidence of her performances on "Cameo" and private collectors' tapes of TV appearances given at the time - as another period when Dusty's vocal craft had possibly peaked in terms of control, flexibility and phrasing. By 1978, following a long break from singing, the new Dusty voice may have mellowed, but like good wine still retained its honeyed edge and sparkle. That's the voice we hear on the Live At The Royal Albert Hall concert performance given on 3 Dec 1979. For me, that's the third and (possibly final) vocal peak period I would assign to Dusty until the time she made her final album and public appearance in 1995.

The highlights of the concert are inevitably the spellbinding hits medley as well as full renditions of "I Close My Eyes And Count To Ten", "All I See Is You", "You Don't Have To Say You Love Me" and "Son Of A Preacher Man". Having said that, Dusty's incredibly soulful live takes of Natalie Cole's "This Will Be" and the O'Jays' "Put Your Hands Together" showcase her broad range and stylistic versatility if nothing else. That's not to say that Dusty ignored her own contemporary material. She did in fact include three songs from her late 70s repertoire in the concert - "Sandra", "Hollywood Movie Girls" and "Baby Blue" - but these were unfortunately excised from the TV edit of the concert we now have on DVD. Two of these three songs are included in the companion CD release as extras.

Dusty captured live at the Royal Albert Hall has a definite looseness about it. It was according to interviews with those close to the artiste (included as extras on the DVD) under-rehearsed, so there were a couple of less than polished spots like "The Look Of Love" which featured a laughing Dusty singing to the cameraman following her around on stage but these moments only add to the poignance of the concert experience. Dusty never seemed happier in front of her adoring fans in the audience. That two-way flow of love between artiste and audience just built and built as the concert went underway until it reached a climax in the encore.

"Live At The Royal Albert Hall" is a wonderful concert by a great artiste at one of her many vocal peaks and is a must in the collection of any self-respecting Dusty fan.

You can find a dozen flaws in this very rare presentation - a poorly rehearsed and conducted orchestra, poor stage management, abysmal lighting, glitches and gaffes galore, but in the end this DVD is a joy. If you're a lifelong Dusty fan your heart may burst. What a great woman, what a great girl, what an extraordinary talent. She's in fine and somewhat silly form, looks SENSATIONAL, and that voice... beyond description.

She's obviously enjoying herself here, and her loose delivery and sense of fun is thrilling to watch. Imagine a female version of Rod Stewart's easy command of the stage and bond with the audience. It's almost impossible to believe that this woman was insecure about anything.

The DVD looks and sounds great considering the year it was recorded, but what carries the night is a stellar and warm performance.

As was universally said in the overseas press when she passed, Dusty was and remains the finest female vocalist that England ever produced... perhaps the finest produced by the English speaking world. We shall never see her like again. She was the Beatles of the "chick singers."

At least, one hopes, she knew how deeply people loved her, as is evident by the number of people jumping onstage to hug her at the end of the show.

Rest in peace, dear sweet Dusty.

This is one awesome dvd you are entertained completely......it's so good that after I watched it for the first time I watched it all over again...Great songs from a great lady.