Skip to content
Vik Bansal reviews
Warner Music Vision
- Cert:
- Cat.no: 0927499702
- Running time: 145 minutes
- Chapters: 30
- Year: 2003
- Pressing: 2003
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Sound: Dolby Stereo
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English for the hearing-impaired, French, German and Spanish
- Widescreen: 1.78:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras:23 minutes of interviews plus a DVD-exclusive, 9 minute interview with FooFighters
Director:
- Janet Fraser Crook
Producer:
- Alison Howe
Series Producer:
- Mark Cooper
Bands:
- Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, Screaming Trees, The Hives, Metallica,Ash, Hole, Sonic Youth, At The Drive-In, The Datsuns, Stereophonics,The Von Bondies, PJ Harvey, The Jesus & Mary Chain, Black Rebel MotorcycleClub, The Cardigans, The Rollins Band, Mercury Rev, The White Stripes, Alicein Chains, Garbage, The Afghan Whigs, Dick Dale, The Vines, Porno for Pyros,New Order, The Soundtrack of Our Lives, Mazzy Star, The Black Crowes andPrimal Scream
He may have been the keys player in Squeeze but Jools Holland,has really forged himself into the nation’s consciousness through hissuccessful fronting of two of the most credible music programmes on TV, namelyThe Tube in the ’80s and Later… for the last ten years.
Later… Louder does exactly what it says on the tin by focusingon thirty of the show’s more rock-oriented live performances. Although theremay have been the danger that “loud” would end up meaning “one-dimensional”,this has been avoided by the producers’ taking liberties with the definition of”loud”. Thus, it spans the range from sultry, Swedish indie-pop (The Cardigans)to full-on, visceral heavy metal (Metallica, The Rollins Band).
Like the show itself, throughout this DVD, the emphasis is firmly on the music.There is little in the way of spoken intros, just one song flowing almostseamlessly into the next. The non-chronological track order is a bit of amystery too, although there are flashes of cleverness in their arrangement.For example, the first three tracks are Foo Fighters doing All My Life,Queens of the Stone Age performing No-one Knows and Screaming Treesplaying All I Know. The link? Well, Dave Grohl fronts Foo Fighters, hedrummed on the recorded version of No-one Knows, while Screaming Trees singer,Mark Lanegan guested on the same Queens of the Stone Age album.
If this soundsa bit too much like a name-game quiz for music know-alls, then that is probablythe idea. After all, judging by this DVD, Later’s studio crowd has changedlittle since 1993, and seems to consist of twenty- and thirty-somethings whoare far too “cool” to do anything other than nod their head sagely in time withthe music. While this may be okay when Mercury Rev are delicately playingGoddess on a Hiway, it looks rather absurd when At The Drive-Inare delivering the limbs-akimbo, personification of anarchy that isOne Armed Scissor (definitely one of the highlights).
Given the fact that Later… is a show for real music fans andLater… Louder even more so, it is surprising that the DVD does notcome with even Dolby Digital 5.1. Bizarrely, this does not actually detracttoo much from the level of entertainment on offer, perhaps because it seems toaccentuate the rawness of some of the performances.
Extras-wise, you can program your six favourite tracks, while there areinterviews with The Hives, Courtney Love, PJ Harvey, New Order, Metallica,Garbage and Henry Rollins. There is also a DVD-exclusive interviewwith the Foo Fighters, during which Dave Grohl claims that Later… “is the only show like this in the entire world.”
This may or may not be true, but after watching this DVD one thing is for sure:with its emphasis on the ability of bands to actually play their instruments,Later… is one of dying and increasingly crucial breed. Long may itcontinue.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.