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Time to plunder the local HMV..
As surfers of this site will know, I’m not the biggest fan of this independent critical review series. My main criticism has been great live /studio footage constantly interrupted, and in the main by critics with no more insight than you or I.
So I was interested to see what I’d make of this review of Free. Free were a great band but I can’t say I really ever got into them, their star was fading as I exchanged by rock n roll diapers for a pair of loons. But they’re a band I’ve always thought I should investigate more. So the question was, would this critical review stimulate sufficiently to get me on my way to HMV in search of back catalogue?
The first surprise is a critic well known in his own right - Tommy Vance and some of the better contributors to this series - Geoff Whitehorn, Les Davidson, Alan Darby and Jerry Ewing also feature. And more so than on some of the other dvds in the series the techniques (of Andy Frazer and Paul Kossoff) are deconstructed which is fascinating.
But yet again footage is minimal - most courtesy of Granada TV. And when you look at the credits you realise that there’s actually minimum footage - All Right Now, Songs, Of Yesterday, and Mr Big. And while that explains why its diced up quite so drastically its nice to be able to report that there seems to be a lot less bollocks talked on this critique.
So, an interesting enough watch. But will I be on my way down to HMV at 9am tomorrow? Maybe not, but I will be digging out that copy of Fire And Water that’s lurking somewhere in my collection.
***½
Review by Pete Whalley
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