Singing Through You DVD

10th Anniversary concert live in London

singing-through-you-cover02

Song List

  1. My Human Gets Me Blues
  2. Low Yo Yo Stuff
  3. Diddy Wah Diddy
  4. Bass Solo (Hair Pie)
  5. Clouds intro into Golden Birdies
  6. When It Blows Its Stacks
  7. Hot Head
  8. Doctor Dark
  9. Drum Solo into On Tomorrow
  10. Alice In Blunderland
  11. Suction Prints
  12. Hair Pie (Bake 1)
  13. Steal Softly Thru Snow
  14. Owed T’Alex
  15. Click Clack
  16. Floppy Boot Stomp
  17. Moonlight On Vermont
  18. Big Eyed Beans From Venus
  19. Electricity

Recorded at Under The Bridge, London on 16 March 2013

singing-through-you-screen

Notes

From the sleeve notes:

On their 10th anniversary The Magic Band celebrated by playing music of Captain Beefheart in front of a capacity audience at Under the Bridge, London. John ‘Drumbo’ French, Mark ‘Rockette Morton’ Boston, Denny ‘Feelers Reebo’ Walley, Eric Klerks and Craig Bunch delivered a stunning set. Reviewers were searching for superlatives.

From John French’s note on the DVD insert:

The mood of the audience fed that of the band, the intense rehearsals paid off, and I think we delivered these fabulous compositions with energy and confidence. Afterwards, when the lights were dimmed and the dressing room was empty, I stood there, a bit in awe that ten years had passed. And yet, the music still lived and was as powerful as the day it was conceived. Not a bad investment of time, No, not at all.

Radar Station Overview

A special concert, being a celebration of 10 years together for the reunion Magic Band, at a state-of-the-art venue with its own video recording facilities. This was the last date on the band’s 13 date Spring Tour of 2013 so they were well practised and hopefully not too exhausted.

The DVD includes the complete show … almost. One song, Circumstances, is sadly missing due to an unspecified technical problem. It’s a pity because this complicated song was usually the rousing finale to the first set on this tour. However there are plenty of favourites here to get you jiggling about.

The sound quality is excellent so crank it up and enjoy.

There are excellent visuals throughout. The professional filming from the venue has been cleverly augmented by video footage shot by a couple of fans on the night. These sequences have been edited expertly together by Elaine Shepherd (yes, the same one who did the Artist formerly Known As Captain Beefheart documentary). This gives a great feeling of sometimes being right in there with crowd and works well even though the visual quality is obviously not as good as the professionally shot footage.

Apart from the excellent concert there is an extra feature on the DVD. This is a 28 minute interview John French did at Rough Trade Records as part of the publicity for his book Through The Eyes Of Magic in which he recounts some of his relationship with Don.

Overall a nicely packaged single DVD.

Once the concert was filmed it wasn’t immediately certain how or when it might get released as a DVD. However, John was pointed in the direction of the crowd-funding website Indiegogo which provided the means and eventually the funds necessary. Many of the funders who requested it as a ‘perk’ are listed on the DVD insert. Thanks to them this DVD is now available as is Magnetic Draw.

The set list of Singing Through You is significantly different enough to that of Magnetic Draw to make it worth while buying both DVDs. They are not available through regular outlets but can be purchased online through Indiegogo. At least this way the band reaps all the benefits of the sales.

Buy Singing Through You on the Indiegogo site

 

under-the-bridge-2013-02

 

`

3 Comments

  1. So, this is not available to buy anymore? The Indiegogo site link is broken and the new one won’t let you buy.

    1. Author

      I remember John French saying there were problems with Indiegogo but I thought he’d managed to get them sorted out. If there is still a problem then it’s unlikely to be sorted now until after the Magic Band tour has finished at the end of November. Unless you know someone who’s going to a show and can pick a copy up for you at the merch stall!

      1. Thanks Steve, I appreciate the reply.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *