An awesome collection, consisting of the often dreadful reunion promos, live tracks from 1984-85, then more live tracks from 1995-2001. It's certainly worth a careful inspection, which I've tried to keep simple, but can't, cos it isn't…

Right, there are 27 tracks on the DVD. Of these: FIVE were previously available on the now long-deleted 'Videosingles' video EP from 1988, a rather short collection of promos which at least we'll now not have to cough up for again as a rather short DVD collection. So, thumbs up.

The five promos are: Perfect Strangers from 1984, a collage of home movie footage from the album rehearsals, which make a rather nice historical artefact (see photo 1). Knocking At Your Back Door, from late 1984 is a daft Mad Max influenced waste of time. The band only appear via inserts of concert footage. Nobody's Home is live, filmed at the Providence Civic Center on March 5th 1985. Gillan's voice was in shreds at that particular gig, his vocals were re-recorded for the soundtrack of the promo. It says on the dvd box that it is a 'clip', intimating that it isn't complete. In fact it is complete; the only problem is that it is a desperately poor video transfer, with a very blurry and oversaturated picture. (photo 2)

Bad Attitude was put together from studio footage shot during the recording of House Of Blue Light, and comes across quite well, using a torn edge split screen effect to link the shots (photo 3). Call Of The Wild is dreadful, the awful premise being that the band won't show up for the video shoot, so all sorts of people are brought in off the street fill in for them.

NINE tracks from the dvd have already been released by Thames / Thompson on previous sets. Of these, six are from the deleted 'Around The World' (a video only release), and there's one track each from 'A Band Down Under', 'Bombay' and 'Total Abandon'. This recycling isn't easy to accept, at first anyway. I'm assuming that the tracks from 'Bombay' and 'Total Abandon' are really advertising trailers for those particular releases. 'Smoke..' from 'A Band Down Under' means that all of that collection is now available on DVD. The six from 'Around The World' have been upgraded to DVD (which is acceptable), leaving six others behind which haven't been, which is messy. Very messy.

The seven previously released T/T tracks upgraded to DVD for the first time are: Speed King from the Moscow Dynamo Stadium on June 22nd 1996, already covered in DTB as the show was aired in full by Russian TV at the time. (photo 4) Fireball from Sao Paulo, March 19th 1997 is good, though dark. It's broad daylight however, when compared to No One Came and When A Blind Man Cries from San Jose, Costa Rica, February 8th 1998. (photo 5) Very dull filmwork, dark and out of focus. Even accepting that the lighting for this tour was very muted, the tracks still don't make for good viewing. Luckily both are presented much better on the Perihelion show. Bloodsucker is from the internet broadcast LA House of Blues show, January 28th 1998; the sound's a bit thin, but it's a good performance. Lazy is from Sofia, November 28th 1998, a grainy picture but a tremendous performance. The full show was aired by Bulgarian TV soon afterwards, and included tracks yet to make it onto DVD, such as Any Fule Kno That and Fingers To The Bone. Smoke On The Water is from the wonderful mass jam session organised for Australian TV's 'Hey Hey It's Saturday' show in April 1999. (photo 6) Good to see it on DVD.

TEN tracks on the DVD are previously unreleased in any form (two promos which appeared on HM compilations in the early 90s could reasonably be added to that total), which fully justify purchase in their own right. These are: Black Night from Sydney 14th December 1984, the highlight of the entire collection for me, from the days when the track was given some muscle. (photo 7) Clips from the Sydney show were used in promos through the years, without the original sound. Great to finally see and hear it. In addition, the drum solo from the show has turned up on Ian Paice's new DVD. More! A Gypsy's Kiss is from the rather unsatisfying Paris 9th July 1985 Rockpalast recording. (photo 8) Gillan's voice sounds rough as arses on that one, and worse on Space Truckin', (listed as 'USA July 1985'... but really from Alpine Valley Music Theatre in August 1985). It's one which has never circulated on collectors' video lists, and is considerably less exciting than the Sydney and Providence footage. The performance is at times all over the place on Space Truckin', and the picture quality is hazy. (photo 9) The drum solo from the show is on Ian Paice's DVD.

The DVD now has a ten year gap in live performances. It is filled, at least up to 1991, with the remaining promo videos which Deep Purple have produced. Hush (from 1988) is perhaps the worst; bits of concert footage dropped randomly into some shitty ZZ Top scenario of bloke / girl / fast car / desert highway. The quality of the video source looks to heve been poor (or has been poorly transferred) and is disguised by reducing the picture size. King of Dreams cost a small fortune to make in 1990, and was then banned, seemingly for showing a girl jumping off a rollercoaster. Something of an over-reaction! Love Conquers All is a very silly video indeed, made 'controversial' by the nude cellists. (photo 10) Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming (photo 11) is an apathetic collage of studio and live footage, based on a dated looking cd-rom menu. Oh, and it's the full promo, not just a 'clip' as the track list claims. The promos are all naff, but at least they're rounded up together for the first time.

The live footage kicks in again with a rather weak Woman From Tokyo from Seoul (not 'Soeul' as the DVD box claims) in March 1995, and tremendous performances of Fools and 69 from Montreux, 22nd July 2000. Excellently filmed by Swiss TV, who aired an hour of the show, these tracks are real highlights of the disc. (photo 12)

There are three extras, the best of which is a lively Under The Gun promo from 1984, pieced together from rehearsal footage in much the same way as Perfect Strangers. (photo 13) It looks like unfinished work, very rough at the edges (again disguised by small picture frame), but features a grin from Ritchie which brought a huge cheer when it was shown at the 1995 DPAS Convention; and a soundtrack which goes beyond the fade at the end, meaning that you get to hear the take eventually grind to a halt. Great! The making of Slaves & Masters 'studio footage' is crap, mostly still photos of the band's equipment, plus bits of home movies including Ritchie playing football, all overdubbed with studio tracks ('Fire Ice and Dynamite' is wrongly listed as being unreleased). To round off is Hush, live in Wollongong from the 2001 Australian Tour. It's quite roughly filmed, but is more than the single camera job I was expecting. Musically it's not my favourite version, a bit of a mess featuring brass section and girl backing singers. (photo 14)

So, overall it's good value for money (a whopping 183 minutes), and a welcome addition to the DVD rack. The sloppy presentation (especially the track listing) has happily been improved on Thames / Thompson's latest DVD, ( Ian Paice 'Not For The Pro's').

David Browne. Based on a review in DTB54

CONTENTS (corrections / additions to list on dvd box in red)

1. PERFECT STRANGERS (promo, 1984)
2. BLACK NIGHT (live, Sydney, 14 Dec 1984)
3. KNOCKING AT YOUR BACK DOOR (promo, Dec 1984)
4. NOBODY'S HOME (live, Providence, 5 Mar 1985)
5. A GYPSY'S KISS (live, Paris, 9 July 1985)
6. SPACE TRUCKIN' (live, Alpine Valley, 17 Aug 1985)
7. BAD ATTITUDE (promo, 1987)
8. CALL OF THE WILD (promo, 1987)
9. HUSH (promo, 1988)
10. KING OF DREAMS (promo, 1990)
11. LOVE CONQUERS ALL (promo, 1990)
12. WOMAN FROM TOKYO (live, Seoul, 19 Mar 1995)
13. PURPENDICULAR WALTZ (live, Bombay, 8 Apr 1995)
14. SOMETIMES I FEEL LIKE SCREAMING (promo, 1996)
15. SPEED KING (live, Moscow, 22 Jun 1996)
16. FIREBALL (live, Sao Paulo, 19 Mar 1997)
17. BLOODSUCKER (live, Hollywood, 28 Jan 1998)
18. NO ONE CAME (live, San Jose, 8 Feb 1998)
19. WHEN A BLIND MAN CRIES (live, San Jose, 8 Feb 1998)
20. LAZY (live, Sofia, 28 Nov 1998)
21. SMOKE ON THE WATER (live, Australian TV, 17 Apr 1999)
22. TED THE MECHANIC (live, Melbourne, 20 Apr 1999)
23. 69 (live, Montreux, 22 Jul 2000)
24. FOOLS (live, Montreux, 22 Jul 2000)

BONUS FEATURE
-- UNDER THE GUN (promo, 1984)
-- STUDIO FOOTAGE (overdubbed with finished studio tracks, 1990)
-- HUSH (live, Woolongong, 13 Mar 2001)

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