Video

Rip It Up, Issue 87, 1 October 1984, Page 4

Video

MUSIC VIDEO With hi-fi sound video technology becoming available in this country and given the general interest in music with pictures it’s inevitable that the music video market here will gear up over the next few months.

RCA Records has been the first to respond to the hi-fi challenge with its ‘Stereo Gold' range. These tapes have been especially produced for hi-fi machines but will produce good results with ordinary machines. The first six releases, all recorded within the last year, are: A Night With Lou

Reed (Lou live at the Bottom Line in New York); Eurythmics: Sweet Dreams (concert footage plus the videos); Daryl Hall and John Oates, Rock 'n' Soul Live ; Dolly Parton, Dolly In London (concert and documentary); Benatar (live in Connecticut); Fleetwood Mac Mirage Tour. The first four titles from Festival Video are Bob Marley Legend (studio and live Best Of), Grace Jones One Man Show, Spandau Ballet Over Britain (live), Ultravox Monument (live). Virgin Video also have some new releases coming up: Culture Club A Kiss Across the Ocean ; U2 Under A Blood Red Sky and ÜB4O Live. Scheduled for release later in the year are a Thompson Twins video and ÜB4o's Labour Of Love.

Warner Video is still gearing itself up to enter the market but its first releases later this year will be efforts from Van Halen and Al Jarreau. Warner does, however, have a selection of older music videos already on its books: Fleetwood Mac (documentary and live); The Doors: A Tribute To Jim Morrison (a promo vehicle for the Sugerman/Hopkins book, in which some fabulous archive footage is criminally chopped to ribbons with pointless interviews); Devo The Men Who Make the Music: Bette Midler Divine Madness: Hair: Woodstock Parts One and Two: Simon and Garfunkel Concert In Central Park: Rod Stewart Live At the LA Forum: Paul Simon In Concert. Other new releases include Eric Idle’s loving Beatles parody The Rutles (Video Power); Get Crazy, starring Malcolm MacDowell as punk rock star Reggie Wanker and featuring songs from Lou Reed, the Ramones and Sparks (Roadshow); and The Rocky Horror Picture Show (CBS/Fox).

Grace Jones A One Man Show (Island Pictures) The fact that launched a thousand fantasies, Grace Jones, the Amazon and the Animal. Unabashed, arrogant, outrageous. A compleat entertainer who would disdain such an effete term, an aritst who never looks back. Her performances are an audio-visual feast, a musical minefield, filled with savagery and a strange eroticism.

45 minutes of a peerless performer in action, live in New York and larger than life in the studio, in front of acclaimed director Jean Paul Goude. On stage, Jones works with backing tapes rather than a band, letting the visual images dominate. Yet there is nothing sterile in the performance: she projects too strongly to allow that. Goude's production of My Jamaican Guy' alone makes the trip worthwhile. DC Dolly Parton Dolly In London (RCA Video) Recorded last year, this 80 minutes of polished yet refreshing live performance will charm even the unconverted. Parton has a remarkable personality a

paradox of the unspoilt and the sophisticated, the saucy and the devout, the ingenuous and the shrewd and it is this which ultimately makes her concert a delight for any audience. The end of this tape shows the punks leading the pensioners in a standing ovation. PT

The Buddy Holly Story (Roadshow) The standard bio-pic treatment i.e. they mess with the details. Nonetheless, Hollywood sticks to the main outlines in tracing the seminal rocker's two years of fame till his tragic death in 1959. More importantly the spirit is there in a triumphant performance by Gary Busey as Holly. He does a fine job on the songs too recorded live in the movie studio. As a biography this may not be as accurate as Goldrosen's book, but Busey makes it more fun. PT Eurythmics Sweet Dreams, The Video Album (RCA Video) Sweet Dreams combines live footage and studio productions to give an extra dimension to already-famdiar material. You'll already know the clips for 'Sweet Dreams', 'Love Is A Stranger’ and 'Who's That Girl’ (did anyone spot Marilyn's cameo?). The live footage shows how the Eurythmics developed as a performing unit.

This earlier incarnation of the Eurythmics relied heavily on synthesised sound, having fewer on-stage performers. Stewart often doubles up on keyboards and thus has a lower visual profile than evident when they played here. Lennox s ambiguous sexual image has also since been toned down.

The performance, despite Lennox's failing voice towards the end. is outstanding, enhanced by some dazzling laser lights. With added visual trickery and animation. Sweet Dreams truly lives up to its claim of being 'a video album'. The sound, not entirely forgotten, is stereo, and it adds up to 63 minutes of complete entertainment. Suits me. DC