TAKE THE LONG WAY HOME - LIVE IN MONTREAL

This is a great, beautifully filmed concert with an amazingly warm connection between the artist and the audience. For lovers of classic SUPERTRAMP songs this is probably the best DVD one can have. Yes, even when this is not a whole band performance. But Hodgson is not only the writer of the majority of the best loved songs, he also makes the songs as alive as one can wish, with only one musician (Aaron McDonald mainly on saxes) beside him. When performed by Rick Davies' Supertramp the Hodgson-songs sound simply fake compared to this.

Surely one may have prejudices such as this being a pathetic plea saying "I was Supertramp!"and a ride with old classics because poor Roger hasn't had equally strong solo career. Well, he happened to be most creative during his Supertramp days; even then he was in practise a solo artist who just happened to have a band to bring his songs to, all fully visualized and arranged. (The credit Hodgson/Davies on all Supertramp songs is a similar lie as Lennon/McCartney.) The spirit of this man is very amiable and honest, and he says he performs these songs now even happier than before. He is notably moved how warmly the Canadian audience welcomes him. And they really LOVE these songs! Anyone with a relationship with classic Supertramp songs is bound to enjoy this concert deeply. Think: over 30 years since Crime of the Century appeared, and his voice hasn't aged a bit. He plays in turns electric keyboards (e.g. Take The Long Way Home, Logical Song, Dreamer), 12-string guitar (e.g. Give a Little Bit, Easy Does It, Two Of Us) and a grand piano.

I was also surprised how good were the songs new to me. 'Lovers in the Wind' (from Eye Of The Storm) is a very beautiful, sad piano ballad; 'Oh Brother' is even stronger piano song that sends shivers down your spine. 'Love Is a Thousand Times' (Stronger Than You) is quite nice too. My personal favourite (since my early days of listening to Supertramp) is the dramatic 'Don't Leave Me Now'. Beautiful camera work, shooting him from the above during that song. The whole concert is visually beautiful: big green plants on the stage, elegant lights... The extras are OK: interviews, fans' impressions, backstage, etc. Thank You, Roger!

This DVD is a stunning reminder of the talent of Roger Hodgson. The name may ring a bell to some "older" folks but his music is enjoyed by all ages. The signature voice of Supertramp is back, and better than ever. Reminding us of such hits like "Take THe Long Way Home", "Give a Little Bit", "School", "Dreamer","Logical Song", "Crazy", "It's Raining Again", and way more, this DVD is a wonderful way to enjoy songs, when it was truly made of music, unlike much of today's techno-jabble. The production itself is awesome, filmed in Canada's Montreal, and in wonderful HD. And you can't beat the glorious Dolby digital 5.1 sound. And the bonus footage with an Orchestra is hopefully a teaser for yet another DVD. Roger is truly one of the worlds most brilliant artists and incredibly underrated. Lets just hope, this DVD will not be his "famous last words."

Clearly when one goes to see Hodgson in concert, one doesn't have to expect some demented and manic prog rock, or any kind of prog at all for that matter, but missing his passage in town is a bit of a treason to the great 70's SupergroupTramp they were. And indeed, the charismatic Roger's persona would make the treachery greater, given that he seems so genuinely gentle and generous of his time. In this umpteenth tour, Roger is again working solo, even if he has an accomplice on sax and sometimes on keyboards with Canada's Kitchener-born Aaron McDonald. And his musical partner in crime gets a warm welcome from the Montreal crowd (always a historical hotspot for Supertramp), even if the DVD shows people from all over the continent attending this particular gig. Set up on an all-too big stage for his lone presence and his Pancho teammate, our favourite modern-day Don Quichotte attacks his repertoire of classics, ultra-classics, semi-classics and almost-classics and tries to stick in there some would-be-classics and even maybe some future-classic tracks.

And of course from Long Way Home, to Hide In Your shell, to Logical song, to Dreamer, to Breakfast and a surprising School (where he asks and gets full audience participation), Roger hovers from his Electric piano to the grand piano (a little under-used IMHO) to his acoustic guitar with great eases and in no rush since the slightly over-appreciative crowd gives him an amazing amount of standing ovations, obviously getting to our Don Quichotte's heart and him knowing his recognition is in no danger. Indeed his list of Tramp classics is impressive and one (I anyway) feels that Roger's windmill targets are all usurped by Davies and such a DVD has ulterior motives. While I probably wouldn't have chosen the same song selection or would've rearranged the set's running order (avoiding Give A Little Bit getting a second go) and not avoided the two EITQM superb pieces.

One of the only irritating points, apart the omission of a full Fool's Overture and a live rendition of Even In The Quietest Moments (which this writer saw and heard done at the Belgian Radio for his Open The Door tour), is the insistence of the Hodgson entourage (and himself) to claim his part of the heritage of Supertramp, as if the public needed reminding or as if the Davies-led group was denying it at all. It all seems as if Roger felt he had the right of an unconditional reinstating the group as he wished and with no explanation given. And given Supertramp's fairly average recorded output, matching Hodgson's equally averageoutput

I see that this DVD is rated very, very highly here at Prog Archives. I think the explanation for this is simple; only the truly hard core Roger Hodgson fans will buy a DVD like this. And me. I think that this DVD is good, but that's it. The performance is inspired, the sonic quality is very good, the songs chosen are great. But they are stripped bare here; Roger is basically alone on stage (he has a guy playing sax for him though). No drum kit in sight, no electric guitars, no bass, no backing vocals, nothing!

This DVD is a very personal statement by Roger. Indeed, way too personal! A bit egotistic even. This is even more apparent on the extra material where Roger felt he had to point out about ten times in the interviews how important he was for Supertramp and that he wrote most of the songs alone. Come on Roger!

For those hard core Roger Hodgson fans I was talking about however, this DVD is truly essential! For the average prog fan, however, this is certainly not an essential DVD. Not even for Supertramp fans is this essential. As I said, this is a very personal statement by Roger. A bit of a celebration of one man.

Roger Hodgson is a great singer/songwriter here - in the pop realm, and a great one man performer at that. The audience here love him, of course. But for people who want Supertramp or any kind of progressive rock this DVD is a let down. Both the progressive credentials and the rock credentials are highly questionable.

Good, but hardly essential for anyone but the hard core fans of this man.

Roger Hodgson alone represented the whole project by Supertramp and still today! In fact the present DVD- featuring a famous concert recorded in Montreal in 2006- is a typical example regarding his unique style and talent as well..the ideas and the melodic impact of his songs are a "Roger Hodgson's trademark"; and moreover his versatility (He plays the keyboards, the 12 Strings Guitar and even the harmonica) makes himself like the "one showman" by Supertramp. So all these features let us choose the present DVD like a must-have within the AOR/pompous melodic music-genre: think of some ever- green tunes like "The Logical Song" or "Long Way Home", without forgetting another remarkable song such as "Dreamer" and you can understand his value as a strong melodic composer!! Naturally I'm a piano player like him and I'm so happy when He plays the Grand Piano or the Electric Piano with the same naturalness; even though I'm in the habit to have my personal benchmark to measure the skill by Roger (that's the Live In Paris by Supertramp) and sometimes it seems lacking his old approach when He's involved with the choice of the songs selection (actually a difficult and embarassing choice it is)...but it's a minor defect after all, like the omission of a full "Fool's Overture, cause He's able to create a great feeling and emotion anyway here...perhaps ever!!

Review Nº 813

"Take The Long Way Home - Live In Montreal" is the debut DVD of Roger Hodgson, the only so far as I can remember, and that was released in 2006. It was recorded in Canada on 28 August 2006 and it was a big success, which went to platinum in only seven weeks. The DVD reached hit # 1 in Quebec and reached the double platinum status too.

"Take The Long Way Home - Live In Montreal" includes a seventy-five minutes solo concert filmed live at the Place des Arts in Montreal, Quebec on 6 June 2006. It contains mainly the live versions of Supertramp's songs written by Roger Hodgson plus few Roger Hodgson's solo songs. In addition, it contains over ninety minutes of bonus, features with previously unreleased solo and orchestra performance footage, exclusive interviews with Roger Hodgson behind the scenes footage, a film from sound check, fan interviews, photo gallery and various song clips from Roger Hodgson's. There was a new DVD release in September 2007 by Eagle Vision with a new cover and some new additional material.

The line up on the DVD is only formed by two artists, Roger Hodgson (lead vocals, piano, keyboards and acoustic guitar) and Aaron MacDonald (backing vocals, saxophone, keyboards and harmonica).

"Take The Long Way Home - Live In Montreal" has sixteen tracks. As I said, the set list includes many classic Supertramp's songs, as well as a couple of songs taken from Roger Hodgson's solo career. The original Supertramp's songs performed live are: "Hide In Your Shell", "Dreamer" and "School" from "Crime Of The Century". "Easy Does It", "Sister Moonshine" and "Two Of Us" of "Crisis? What Crisis?". "Give A Little Bit" of "Even In The Quietest Moments...". "Take The Long Way Home", "The Logical Song" and "Breakfast In America" of "Breakfast In America". "Don't Leave Me Now" and "It's Raining Again" of "Famous Last Words". From Roger Hodgson's solo albums, we have: "Lovers In The Wind" of "In The Eye Of The Storm". "Love Is A Thousand Times" of "Open The Door". "Oh Brother", which was a new Roger Hodgson's song that was never released on any solo studio album of him. There was also another song performed live, "Sister Moonshine" from "Crisis? What Crisis?". However, it seems it faded out, but I don't know why.

Roger Hodgson was, until 1983, the compositional half of Supertramp, which refined some of their most famous hits with his characteristically bright vocals. On the stage, we have his white electric piano in the spotlight, next to it a glass of water, behind it a big black grand piano and an acoustic guitar. Headlights dip the stage in red and blue light. Every now and then, the picture turns black and white. In the semicircle, you can see the shadows of palm trees and other plants in large flower pots. Now and then, Aaron MacDonald appears to complement the solo performance of Roger Hodgson. In this live show one could of course ruffle where the extravagances remain the orchestra, the fast paced image editing, the fire eater, the elephant pyramid, etc. Could you, but you would actually be not advised to do that. Because the strength of this concert recording lies precisely in the economy of the means and the intensity achieved with it. There's just this man on his electric piano, his grand piano and his guitar that sings his repertoire of well known Supertramp's repertoire, plus some few solo compositions. An occasional glimpse into the audience shows, they were also sung by the assembled audience. This is just this great musician who exudes so much joy and serenity and love, as you can imagine. And it's that simplicity that delights and that makes you just not miss any extravagances on it.

The bonus material has "Even In the Quietest Moments", "Dreamer" and excerpts from "The Logical Song" and "Fool's Overture", a conversation, a Montreal interview and Hodgson's repertoire. When I see a DVD, what matters to me is the concert. But, I like to hear a few words from the artist in the interview, a bit of backstage shots, a little something from the rehearsal and possibly some second concert bonus material. There are also statements from fans and management.

Conclusion: "Take The Long Way Home - Live In Montreal" is an excellent DVD that became, for me, as in one of the best and most complete DVD's I've ever seen. On it we can hear the purity and the simplicity of the music of the original songs, which sounds probably fresher and more contemporary than the original versions, without losing their original strong feeling. When I saw for the first time this DVD, I was completely amazed with it. How is it possible that only a musician with so few musical instruments and with only some help of another musician can perform live so perfectly without the presence of a band? With this DVD, Roger Hodgson proves how good he is, as a musician, and why he is considered the heart and the soul of Supertramp. So, for all what I said before, I can't give to this DVD less than 4 stars.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)