Customer Reviews

Fela Anikulapo-Kuti: Live [VHS]

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

 

 

This video has historical as well as entertainment value. Recorded live in England in 1984, fans get a look at the Egypt 80 band in full swing right before Fela was jailed. The versions of "Teacher Don't Teach me Nonsense" and "Confusion Break Bones" are near note-perfect when compared to the recordings, and the nighttime outdoor setting is ideal. This video includes interview segments between the tunes, giving the viewers insight into Fela's creative process. Get it and complete your collection.

While some of Fela's later music is possibly less accessable when compared to some of his work with Africa 70 it is some of his best as illustrated in this dvd.
Fela's music by the time this film was made had taken on a certain mood that owes less to his James Brown influence from earlier in his career.By now the mood of his compositions was a reflection of the message of his lyrics and it's not pretty stuff by any means.This is not party music but it is truly deep .This dvd is one of the best documents of where Fela and Egypt 80's music had evolved to.
There is a slow-burn tension to Fela's compositions on this dvd... the waters slowing warm and gradually come to a full boil by the end each tune and then slowly cools by song's end.I think alot of folks kind of miss the point of what Fela's music had become.There is no instant gratification here...just majesty.

I can't give this DVD a rave review, but it is not nearly as poor as some of the previous reviewers have indicated. In fact, it is far superior in terms of both video and sound quality than the Fela in Concert DVD, which is the only other Fela DVD I am aware of at this point in time. That performance is definitely better, but the video is so murky that it's almost unwatchable and the sound cuts in and out. If you're set on buying a Fela DVD, I would give the nod to this one.

I agree that the band sounds less than tight at the start of the first song, but I attributed this to a bad mix in the onstage monitors. They seem to get it together after awhile. The camera work is also quite good, as you get some good close ups of most of the members of the band.

If better live footage comes out of the woodwork, I will definitely buy it, but for now I'm happy to have this DVD.

I think this was a bad night for Fela and his band. From the beginning of the film, I got the sense that they'd rather not be there ( in Glastonbury, England) The first words he says as he takes the stage are "Everything was so tight getting here"-something about security. He looks displeased. As the a ques the band into the first tune, they seem to be struggling to hear themselves and each other. I suspect the monitor system was not adiquate for them. They finally do get the thing off the ground and it does fly under it's own power, although it remains lackluster by comparison to most (all) album performances. I wonder if they recorded and released this film because they had bothered to set up all the equipment so they might as well.
I want to say again that I'm glad this video exists, I own it and watch it a few times a year. There aren't many places to get a visual Fela fix and for this, I am grateful. I just can't help but wonder when I watch it, what it would have been like to see him in his own environment in Nigeria.

The band sounds incredibly bad on this evening. The performance is worthless. Stick to the albums for the good stuff.

It's difficult to tell whether it was the band or it was the engineers of the performance but the audio to this DVD is [poor] The horn section sounds like it's a quarter-beat off the entire performance! It also sounds like they ran the monitor mix and not the PA mix. At some times it seems like you can't hear any instrument at all and then voila, it's right in your face, over-bearing. Fela is great and I love his material (all eras) but this DVD is nothing but a dissappointment to me. Some reviews here rip on the track choices... koay, they're not my favorites either but they're still great tunes on their own. The problem is the audio that you're "hearing" on this DVD....

Please save your money and purchase his CDs or vinyl instead...

the sound of the late fela that speaks of the trouble and hard times people have to suffer in the hands of the political oppressors in africa....then when he wants to talk about love..this is the dvd for you... slund is great...picture the best you can get ..kgraeat choice of african music

Is the $2,666.35 price tag a joke? For that kind of money I could have gone to Scotland to hear them myself!

I personally like Fela Anikulapo Kuti. I grew up listening to his music and I really admire him. I have a collection of his songs in mp3 format which gets a lot of play time, but this is the worse dvd I ever purchased let alone seen. To me the total of two songs for the entire dvd performed by Fela is not worth the media it was burned on. The sound quality is really bad and the video quality is just plain dispicable. He did not sing the songs that made him popular like zombie, shakara etc... This dvd is really not worth the money so if you're thinking about buying it save your self the aggrevation and headache, instead, flush your money down the toilet.