THE BIRTH OF A BAND - ISLE OF WIGHT FESTIVAL 1970

The raw, buzzing sound of late 60's/early 70's live performance equipment (amplifiers etc.) was simply not suitable for sophisticated piece such is adaptation of Mussorgsky's piano masterpiece. You may call it energetic, but it's simply messy. It's not the band's fault, they just did the thing ahead of its time - although I find it a bit stretched, forced and, if I may say, boring at the moments, if we look at this performance from a different angle it could easily be rated with much higher rating. I always loved this band, their live performances and all the other bands stage antics including the rapture of the Hammond organ.

But this is not a real thing. You see, during the days of my brain-damaging-substances experimentation, I watched excerpts from the ELP's Live At The Isle Of Wight performance and...well, if you never experienced the phenomenon of non-sexually-related orgasm, there is no point of describing it. However this is not the same video documentation...it's a different camera filming from the different angles, and it's missing lots of good things.

The worst thing is, actually, the synchronization. The picture and the sound don't match. It's hilarious and annoying to see Keith playing Hammond organ with both hands while you actually hear monophonic Moog solo. Even worse, some sequences are repeated later during the play! What were DVD editors thinking, that the audience is that naive!? Any possible pleasure of watching this performance was destroyed for good.

This DVD contains a few other things, but they are not very relevant neither. Well, at least they are not annoying. The excerpt from the interview with Keith is interesting - when he's describing capabilities of a Moog modular synthesizer, and interview with Palmer is worth taking a look - drummer provided some very intelligent and witty answers.

There must be some other version of Isle Of Wight video, so try to find it if you are interested. Or if you want to take a good overview of Pictures At An Exhibition, go for the excellent performance (mixed with some psychedelic video effects) published on VHS in the late 80's. This one is to be avoided. (I exchanged it for Jethro Tull Live At The Isle Of Wight DVD - that is a much better investment.)

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