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Elly Roberts reviews
Non Stop Exotic Video Show
Sanctuary Visual Entertainment
- Cert:
- Cat.no: SVE 3080
- Running time: 60 minutes
- Year: 1981
- Pressing: 2004
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 12 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound & Stereo
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: None
- Widescreen: 1.33:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: No
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £15.99
DVD Track listing:
- 1. Entertain Me
- 2. Bedsitter
- 3. Frustrations
- 4. Torch
- 5. Seedy Films
- 6. Secret Life
- 7. Tainted Love
- 8. Youth
- 9. Memorabilia
- 10. Sex Dwarf ( Intro )
- 11. What
- 12. Say Hello Wave Goodbye
Say hello and wave goodbye,to ’80s synth driven duo from Leeds : Marc Almond and David Bell. In arelatively short but hugely successful career, the ex Art school techno popstersset a precedent by adapting a cult soul classic (Tainted Love by Marc Bolans wife Gloria Jones) into a cheeky electronic dirge, making it thebest selling British single of 1981, (selling 1,135,000 copies) and a number8 pop hit in the States the following year.
They still hold the record in the US longevity stakes 43 weeks in theAmerican Hot 100. For the next 12 months they hit a purple patch with five topfive singles, the last ironically being another Northern Soul cover of JudyStreets What. But they began to wane after the release of Where TheHeart Is in December 1982.
The pair initially came together as collaborators on theatrical music : Almondthe lyrics, Bell the instrumentalist. Their early shows featured strikingvisual accompaniment. Instantly recognisable, their pseudo sleazy personas andoften dramatic lyrics set them apart from their contemporaries.
Almonds rather affected and camp movements along with his often pitch shytenor voice juxtaposed beautifully with Balls moody synth colourings. Theirstunning album Non Stop Erotic Cabaret (1981) spawned several singles,and now comes the visual companion 23 years later. Visually, its extremelydated, as the production, techniques, and effects appear low budget as dosome of the urban and suburban locations, e.g. bars, back – gardens, pubsand clubs. There also some studio shots, and ad lib sequences which displaytheir quirky sense of humour. However, they didnt quite pull off their Arttraining for some reason, and the closest you get to it is the surreal charactersand setting for Tainted Love.
The videos should have been as dramatic as the music which incidentally isstunning particularly on head phones. For someone so obviously meticulouslypresented, the one art Almond never mastered was lip synch when usingplay back facilities for the video shoots, which now looks amateurish.
Nevertheless, its nicely restored in all aspects by Sanctuary Visual Entertainment.This is an excellent retro trip of one of the most influential duos inBritish pop history. Also contains the full audio version of Sex Dwarf (notfeatured in the original VHS release) with exclusive Soft Cell inspiredanimation, extending the track to 5.15 minutes.
Elly Roberts passed away in 2011, but he was a man who was so passionate about all types of music and loved meeting his musical heroes, such as Mick Hucknall at a book signing at the Trafford Centre, Manchester in 2007.
A former teacher and also a music journalist, DJ and radio presenter on local community station Calon FM, plus appearances on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Radio 2, Elly started doing reviews for DVDfever.co.uk in 2004 and he did the majority of the CD and concerts reviews on the website.
I know also that he loved getting away for the summer to Spain and I hope that wherever he is now he is enjoying the hot sunshine and, as one of his friends has said on his Facebook page, that he is interviewing his musical heroes.