Dom Robinson reviews
Heart: Live
Distributed by
Essential/Cooking Vinyl
DVD: 
CD:
- Cert:
- Running time: 110 minutes
- Cat no: SOUND002
- Year: 2008
- Pressing: 2008
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 25 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: None
- Widescreen: 16:9
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £14.99
- Extras:
Interview
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Director:
Producer:
The Band:
Ann Wilson
Nancy Wilson
Mike Inez
Ben Smith
Craig Bartock
Debbie Shair
"How do I get you a loan?".
No, you've not wandered onto a business website by mistake but it's just something that sprang to mind the first time I heard
the song back in 1987. Quite why, I don't know, but maybe it's just the way my mind works.
Anyway, the important thing is that it's one of Heart's biggest anthems, and certainly their biggest hit in the UK, making
No.3 in June of that year. Their other top ten hits included a double A-side reissue of Never/These Dreams (No.8, March 1988),
the latter being one of my particular favourites, and All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You (No.8, March 1990).
Of the two sisters from California, Ann Wilson can still kick out the shrieking cries, even with her advancing years (she's
now 58) and Nancy, at 54, cuts the mustard on lead guitar and on secondary vocals.
Performing for the American live concert TV series 'Soundstage', the band perform 23 songs from their repetoire over the years,
such as Magic Man from Dreamboat Annie, classic '80s tunes, Alone and These Dreams, tracks from 2004's
Jupiter Darling such as Oldest Story In The World, Fallen Ones, Lost Angel and a cover of Led Zeppelin's Misty
Mountain Hop, and at nearly 2 hours in length this is going to be a great gig for their fans, although it's a shame about the
almost total lack of extras.
For me, the best tracks on this DVD are Kick It Out, Straight On, These Dreams - done in an acoustic style, Lost Angel,
Magic Man, Bebe Le Strange, Even It Up, Dog & Butterfly, Alone - also acoustic, Black Dog and Misty Mountain Hop.
. However, songs missing which I remember from their hey-day in the '80s include Who Will You Run To, There's The Girl and
Never, although I don't lament the absence of the song I although thought was dire, All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You.
The concert is presented in anamorphic 16:9 widescreen and does look very good indeed, with nothing obvious in the way of
artifacts, but although it states that it was recorded in HD, that cannot be viewed on a standard definition disc although
I'm watching an upscaled version via my Xbox 360 with a VGA connection so that certainly helps, although what does make it
suffer a bit is the fact that it's an NTSC recording converted to PAL so it looks a little on the soft side.
The sound is exceptional, being in Dolby Digital 5.1, however, and that shines across every single one of the 23 tracks on
the disc.
The only extra is a brief Interview (8:47), presented in 16:9 anamorphic widescreen like the concert, in which they
talk about some of their songs, their most recent album - Jupiter's Darling - and also their appreciation of the fans
and the following they have (literally, for those who come to every gig they do!)
The DVD contains 25 chapters, one for the opening, one for the end credits and one each for the 23 tracks, so you couldn't ask
for more there. The main menu features a looped piece of music and some images, but what this disc really could use is subtitles
for the lyrics - these should be essential on all concert DVDs.
The full list of tracks included are :
