Label: On The Fiddle/Proper Music Distribution Format: 2DVD (PAL)
The Levellers are a bit like Marmite, really. You either love them or you can’t fucking stand them. I’m pretty much in the former camp, but, also like Marmite, I can go for ages without them. Then one day I’ll fancy some toast, and there’s nothing better. Sort of.
One thing The Levellers have always been is generous- long sets, free festival appearances… and this DVD is no exception. Well, these DVDs, really- Chaos Theory‘s a double, with a live gig at Reading Hexagon, and extras including an acoustic set among whose guests are Steeleye Span‘s Maddy Prior and Rev Hammer (occasionally part of Red Sky Coven with New Model Army‘s Justin Sullivan in case you haven’t heard of him, which you really should have- he’s fucking great).
The gig is, of course, the main attraction. And it’s a blinder. It’s easy to forget among all the anarchy and the crusty image what a professional bunch of musicians The Levellers actually are. Like any decent Punk band (which is, essentially, what they are, though they make a wonderful Folk-rock noise) the trick appears to be in being disciplined enough to make the whole thing look effortless, like al that energy just takes over automatically. (And Jeremy also narrowly beats Colin from Conflict in the “least appropriately named bloke in a Punk band” stakes).
Setlistwise (is that even a word?) it’s pretty comprehensive- there’s stuff here from every stage of their career (I must confess, I lost them a bit round about Beautiful Day, which is nowhere near as bad as I remembered but still not their best by a long way)- they start with “England My Home” and “15 Years”. After that it doesn’t really matter to the crowd what they play- they all seem to know and love ’em all. I’d have liked to see “Is This Art?”, but last time I saw them live they played it and a friend, who loved the band but didn’t know the song, said “what’s this bollocks?” – so I could just be full of shit and wrong. Though it’s the stuff from their self-titled second album which seems to go down best; hardly surprising, considering it was their most popular record.
But what of the second disc? The acoustic set’s storming- given the Folky nature of Levellers songs, they unsurprisingly translate well to this format without sounding like an MTV Unplugged gimmick. Nick Burbridge sings his own “Dirty Davey” (the Levellers’ cover of the song is on the first disc) and things rock out considerably. There’s also the encore from Beautiful Days 2005, where the band are introduced by celebrity toker Howard Marks, and accompanied by Billy Bragg (again, something of a Marmite musician, but one of whom I’m a fan), who begins with a rabble-rousing elegy for Joe Strummer and a rant against “that corporate shit” before covering “Police And Thieves” and “Police On My Back”, which is pretty fucking cool, ‘cos I wasn’t expecting it at all, before ending with “English Civil War”.
Basically, like Marmite, yodelling and Snakes on a Plane, you’re either gonna like this or you’re not, and nothing I say can convince you otherwise. But remember- The Levellers have always been a live band first and foremost, so if you like them you could do a lot worse than buy this.
-Deuteronemu 90210 on a bit of string-
