Customer Reviews

Live Revolution Rock

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

 

 

There's some great stuff here, to be sure, but VERY few complete performances. Songs get thru two verses, then get jammed into some lousy graphics or a voice-over that gives no real input into what we're seeing. Why cut off "White Man In Hammersmith" two lines from the end? Why not have the full performances from The Tomorrow Show instead of chopping them off right before the climax? There's already a perfectly good Clash documentary out there ("Westway To The World", highly recommended if you've not seen it), so the only real reason to pick this up is to see some new footage and hear how powerful the group's live performances were. And this doesn't achieve that. Hang on to your bootleg DVDs, your VHSs taped off late night TV, the clips downloaded from wherever... That's still (sadly) the only way to get the best of "the only band that matter".

So in short, the tracklist looks good, but the product falls very flat. Only for the true completist. Sad, but true.

...I agree with many of the other reviewers here-much of this footage is available elsewhere, and there are some exclusions and omissions that are glaring.
Most irritating, however, is the attempt to combine these performances into a cohesive documentary, through the use of voice-over narration over the beginning and end of each song. This is disruptive, as i was hoping for a "video jukebox" approach, lacking any need to cohere the material. Equally, the voice-over says things like "London Calling-a double album, with the hidden track 'Train in Vain'"-obvious, uninteresting Clash 101 platitudes. I might not be so frustrated if the voice told me who played the keyboards on the last song, or other obscure factoids, something new and interesting for folks who already know, at the very least, who the band members are.
So, while its great to see the new material, and to study it, this is a sadly capitalistically-minded package.

I also saw clips from this on PBS recently. And from what I saw there and in the tracklisting, most of these performances were already seen in "Rude Boy" and "The Essential Clash."

Where's the brilliant Saturday Night Live performances?? Why only one song from the "Fridays" show? They performed four. Same with the Elizabethan Suite. Only two of the four songs performed there are included. And "Tommy Gun" isn't even a live clip.

Of course, any live footage from The Clash is going to be impressive, but I wish more new stuff was on tap here.

Every time I see this DVD in my collection I get angry! What a missed opportunity. There is so much great footage available out there but this eagerly awaited live DVD under-delivers in three ways:


1 - Almost all of the clips are available elsewhere (there's nothing really new)

2 - Don Letts has the cheek to include his own Tommy Gun clip which is lip-sync video not a live track

3 - The voice-over is patronizing, dumb and annoying.

What would have been great would've been a DVD which took "Clash on Broadway" as an inspiration and delivered a compilation with the same depth and integrity as that CD boxed set.

Instead we get this very lazy cash-in.

A real missed opportunity.

If you're a Clash fan trying to teach your children about what you listened to when you were their age, then this is the second vid to start with. Start out with "Westway to the World".

After watching this with my daughter she now has some Clash on her ipod. We went for a drive the other day and she asked to listen to "I fought the Law". It made me want to cry.

Buy it for the moments that count.

I was excited about this and looked forward to it.
But, why cut off songs?
Anyone who is into this wants to see complete songs.
If you are patient and want to start somewhere great, track down the trading community DVD "The Clash On TV Vol. 1", before you pick this up.

Don, I know you don't want to hear this - why did you not follow the track flow of "The Clash On TV Vol. 1" and release it official?
The whole thing works so great.

Thanks for your hard work on this - I really wanted to recommend it.
Look forward to your next project.

I just watched portions of this DVD on KQED Public Television here in San Francisco during their pledge drive. The performances are raw, and powerful, and fun. Some (much?) of the footage has never been seen before and I can't wait to get this for myself and friends.

I wish the DVD just had more of the Clash in concert instead of the mishmash that this DVD provides. A great band deserves a great DVD.

...the LIVE footage is great. Raw, energetic, unrivalled. The narration is moronic and it treads on the performances. You're better off picking up the From Here to Eternity: Live CD.

Though the Clash still are the Only Band That Matters, this DVD does not matter so much. It's always nice to see footage of the band playing, of Paul Simmonon doing his punker bass-player thing, Joe doing what he did (not quite singing the lyrics or playing his guitar), Mic desparately trying to do something good and poppy, and Topper rocking quite hard. But there's nothing too new here. The commentary is not worth having on, and a lot of the live performances we've already heard on bootlegs and live releases. Westway to the World is far better...and if you're looking for some footage even more in the raw, Rudeboy is always a good bet.