Mott The Hoople and Ian Hunter

Ian Hunter DVD: "Live At Rockpalast"

Sleeve and track listing

MIG 90407 DVD (4.5 stars!)

  1. FBI
  2. Once Bitten Twice Shy
  3. Angeline
  4. Laugh At Me
  5. Irene Wilde
  6. I Wish I Was Your Mother
  7. Just Another Night
  8. We Gotta Get Out Of Here
  9. Bastard
  10. All The Way From Memphis
  11. Cleveland Rocks
  12. All The Young Dudes
  13. Slaughter On 10th Avenue

Recorded 19th April 1980. The notes actually say "...the night of 19/20th April...", which just means the gig went on over midnight.

NTSC DVD, Region 0, 4:3

Review

Hunter fans have been well served with live product of late. DVDs of shows from 2002 and 2004, the Ringo DVD (2001) and, of course, plenty of product from 1979 on CD. But what fans have really wanted all these years is live footage with Mick Ronson on guitar. Well, wait no longer because those good folks at Rockpalast have delivered the goods.

Several shows from the 1979/80 period were filmed for TV, and have been circulating amongst fans for years. Thus an official release of one of these shows is more than welcome. This is from a German TV show in 1980, right at the start of the tour to promote the Welcome To The Club live album. The set is shortened for TV, but that doesn't matter when it's topped and tailed with FBI and Slaughter On 10th Avenue. Ronson's class as a guitar player shines through without him ever being showy, while 'Unter is obviously the guv'nor controlling the stage with effortless ease. The audience participation in Just Another Night doesn't quite come off (the problems of a non-English speaking audience I guess) but apart from that this is a good show. Video quality is excellent throughout and a much-needed improvement on what has come before.

I do, however, have two minor criticisms. The band take to the stage at the start and there is then something like a minute of taking positions, plugging in, tuning up... this "dead time" could easily have been edited out without detracting from the show. Second is the post-gig interview is missing - there are no 'extras' on this DVD (save for trailers of other titles in the Rockpalast series).

At the time of writing the DVD is available from Amazon resellers but not Amazon itself. The normally efficient Germans seem to have dropped the ball... a shame as this is one excellent DVD.

There is also a CD of this show.