Louder is, as louder does

"Later... with Jools Holland Even Louder" DVD Review



Man, oh, man do I love English music compilation DVD's. Why the hell is it that England produces such great music shows and Australia? Nada. US. Nada. Sure, we used to have great shows like Countdown, Rock Arena et al. But now it's all videos, videos, videos. Rage is great for that. But there isn't really any live performance shows to showcase all the great talent out there. A performance on Rove here, a performance on Denton there just doesn't really cut it.

I knew about shows like Top Of The Pops of course, but my first real exposure to UK music shows was a compilation DVD I was lent called "The Old Grey Whistle Test". Stupid name (which was derived from a Tin Pan Alley phrase), the show ran from 1971 to 1987 and was incredibly influential on shows like Later... Eskewing the pop hits, the show showcased the serious rock music on the seventies and the DVD included such artists as Randy Newman, The Police, Iggy Pop and Tom Waits.

But back to Later... Later began in 1992 and is still running today. Jools Holland is himself a musician, so is a supremely appropriate choice as host - plus he often performs himself also. This is a perfect example of how to produce a music show - let the performances speak for themselves and occassionally have interviews. Is Australia so backwards that they couldn't just copy this format and run it late at night? ABC? Please?

The first DVD I saw (rented from the library) is subtitled "10 years Of Later... 30 Great Live Performances" is lives up to that title and then some. The Verve, Lady Smith Black Mambazo, Bjork, Paul Weller, The Hives, Jools, Massive Attack, Blur, Oasis, Robbie Williams, Coldplay, Morrissey, Primal Scream, REM and Radiohead give you an idea of the breadth and variety of talent on display. Some of the highlights include Portishead performing "Glory Box", Pulp with "I Spy", Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds doing "God Is In The House" and PJ Harvey with "Down By The River". The DVD is complemented with some interviews and behind the scenes footage.

The "Even Louder" disc which I purchased recently is IMHO even better. Showcasing mostly post 2000 songs (with a couple of great early nineties tracks thrown in) the highlights include "American Idiot" (Green Day), "Been Caught Stealing" (Jane's Addiction), "The Bucket" (Kings Of Leon), "Evil" (Interpol), "Malibu" (Hole), "Bohemian Like You" (The Dandy Warhols), "Pin" (Yeah Yeah Yeahs), "Halo Of Ashes" (Screaming Trees), "Who The Fuck?" (PJ again), "Would" (Alice In Chains), plus there's also Nick Cave (again), Sonic Youth, The Cure, Jet, The Datsuns, Garbage, The Vines, The Hives (again), QOTSA and more!

Sounding a bit like a broken record, but this is all really great stuff. There's also a couple of interviews (Green Day and Robert Smith) and there's even decent liner notes (christ, who does them anymore?) I've been turned on to quite a lot of music I'd never heard before and I look found to getting hold of more of these discs. Highly recommended.