VIDEO

Rip It Up, Issue 70, 1 May 1983, Page 19

VIDEO

Discussing home video-taping is a little like the old trick in recipes for cooking trout first catch your VCR. Thereafter, one of the main sources of fun can be compiling your own music tapes from off-air recording. The main sources are obvious Radio With Pictures, Ready to Roll, RTR Video Releases, Shazam, Solid

Gold though the occasional one-off show can provide interesting material. For example, a couple of months back the American Music Awards special opened with the fascinating sight of Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Count Basie and Ray Charles all pounding pianos together. Well worth two or three minutes of tape time to preserve. The standard weekly shows offer varying opportunities. Shazam and RTR Video-Releases are on too early during weekdays for most workers to see. This necessitates preprogramming your VCR which in turn means the only way to edit out the nine tenths you don't want to keep is by linking up your machine to a friend's and

dubbing across. A further drawback with Shazam is that clips are sometimes edited as the programme is considered kiddy fare. Frontman Schofield also likes talking over the end of clips and/or leaving the one you really want till the end so credits appear on the clip. RTR' s Saturday slot means, finger on the pause button, you can edit as you go. The only snag is that you have no way of knowing what song is coming up next. RWP precludes such split-second decision making as Karen Hay announces the clips beforehand. For my money, however, the best music show to tape from is Friday evening's Solid Gold. Once you learn to brace yourself against

Rex Smith, Marilyn McCoo, feeble comedians, special guest star Barry Manilow et al, the programme does afford the occasional gem. Over the last few weeks I've taped O'Bryon, Skyy, Vanity 6, Prince, the Beat and ABC> recorded, if not always completely live, at least with live vocals. The Weather Girls appeared there weeks before the 'official' video reached RTR. Expensively produced video clips may be very impressive but for repeated screenings, in-performance stuff is far more durable. I can watch Prince's high heeled stepping, smirking and mike-grabbing routines again and again and again. Moreover, as some of the above examples indicate, Solid Gold

provides a chance to see American black funk in action. It may only allow one number per. week but, at the moment, that's better than, any other show offers. (A word of warning: often the most interesting number is the first one up so you need to be ready to hit the pause button when Rex and Marilyn interrupt the instrumental with their opening spiel.) Peter Thomson Mean Streets ... De Niro and Scorsese make their first mark in absorbing drama about Catholic guilt and Mafia deals in New York's Little Italy. Great 60s Motown/Spector soundtrack. The Long Good Friday ... East End London hoods take on the

IRA, a tense study and a violent one too, featuring the very comely Helen Mirren. Futtocks End ... the ideal trailer, lasts about 40 minutes, classic piece of English slapstick, starring Ronnie Barker. Emmanuelle ... Sylvia Kristal in the original version, apparently uncut in video form, for those into elegant erotica. Richard Pryor Live ... ideal for those who like their humour earthy and topical. Kentucky Fried Movie ... hosts of giggles here, in a send-up of everything from TV commercials to talk shows to kung fu movies. Duncan Campbell