BEYOND THE BEGINNING

Perfect? No...Absolutely essential? YES!!! This dvd is one of the few that I tend to throw in the DVD night after night and watch. If you are an ELP fan and dont have this DVD, make it a priority.

The cover is a well put together and attractive holder of this epic presentation. We are treated to a fairly decent pull-out booklet which has some good pictures. Disc one has "ELP in Pictures" which, although sometimes edited and shortened such as in the Isle of Wight footage, but it is nonetheless a good representation of their performances throughout the years. It is in all, a pretty good section. "Before the Beggining" is not something you'd watch much, due to bad footage of decent songs. As far as the bonus features go, I loved the "ELP in rehearsal" They are so talented! It is something that a non fan would find super boring, and a fan would find fascinating. The story of the covers is pretty cool, an interesting watch. Brands hatch?...I watched it once, I wont complain though, its ELP. The interview with Bob Moog is quite hard to watch due to his prozaic delivery, but it does have good information.

Disc two has a very good, but badly synced in some areas, performance at the CAL JAM. It has a truly awesome version of KE9 Third Impression, and some other highlights as well. This concert, while slightly dissapointing at first, is now quite interesting to me.

The documentary is very, very interesting, and would be a good place to start watching. It has excellant footage and good interviews with the band.

In all, this is killer, do not hesitate...

ELP forever