London, England (12-May-02)

D555.su SUGAR, BABY?

Bob's 2002 Spring Tour switchbacked its way through 11 European countries in 38 April/May days, playing 29 dates with the last eight in the UK. Whilst there, D reminded his fans both of his generosity and the astonishing depth of his back-catalogue, offering no less than 63 different songs and playing 20 only once. Recorded at London's Docklands Arena on 12 May 2002, D555.su gives us, near complete, the last show of the UK's eight and the tour. Overall running time: 125 minutes.

Five stars? No, for D555.su is maddeningly inconsistent. Though camerawork by and large is good, there are periodic wobbles and wavers too. The start of Wicked Messenger is missing (by the evidence of what remains, it wouldn't matter if it all was) and, though it's hard to fathom why, when we resume, picture quality has taken a dive and only improves again just before show's end. The film, shot from extreme left of the stage, features D and Larry Campbell pretty exclusively and, since, beyond them from this angle is only dark cavernous space, it frames the pair against an unappealing backdrop - when the camera goes in tight, it ceases to matter, but when it eases back, the impression given is of a gig being played in one corner of some large cold empty warehouse. And then there's D's upsinging (or terminal elevations to quote another phrase) most prevalent here in If You See Her, Mama and Forever Young. This silly and unnecessary affectation seriously erodes the pleasures of the ear, accommodating and forgiving as it may be. (The commonest accusation of non-believers is: "But he can't sing!" - so why give 'em another stick to beat us with?)

Two stars then? No, much better. In the depths of his 1990 despair D famously said I don't give a s*** who plays bass (i.e. in his band), but these days it's very plain that he picks his team with considerable care, and these boys can play! In consecutive songs tonight, the powder-blue suited Campbell deploys mandolin, cittern (a sort of long-necked ten-string lute), violin, acoustic guitar, electric guitar and electric slide - and not just for show. In the Love & Theft tunes, particularly, the band's collective talent shines button-bright. Though some songs - Bleeding, Hard Rain - struggle to survive their (over) arrangement, others - Ramona, LARS and (surprisingly) RDW - stand proud and tall. The strong guitar/harmonica/fiddle opening of the fourth song tells you immediately you're going to enjoy it, even though, unless you've already seen a set-list, you won't know what it is. It proves to be a winning If You See Her - irresistibly fine, upsinging or no. Moonlight is delightfully sung and played and Mama (more upsinging - why is it always the best songs?) comes by too seldom not to welcome (it also reminds us once again that, after a lifetime of trying - countless VoJos, Every Grains, Political Worlds, Dignitys, Billys, Changing Of The Guards, old Weary Tunes - Bob still can't pronounce the word mirror). In the quiet between this song and the next, an audience member yips: "Aren't we lucky!" It's hard to disagree. The extended mid-Summer jam between Sexton and Campbell is jaw-droppingly good and then we're into the reason, if no other, you ought to track these discs down - a full, flawless, dead-on Sugar Baby that will stand (indeed, reward) endless replaying and is surely a rock-solid shoe-in for Vygi's planned TTYL3. No upsinging here - rather, D delivers his blackest of lyrics like a veteran sage come down from his mountain to speak the word to his people. Fortuitously, this song is particularly well-filmed, except - very spookily - just as D sings Look up, look up the camera does just that, careening heavenward such that the song's foreboding last words issue forth from a dark (grave-dark?) screen. Upgraded sound is fine throughout.


Every moment of existence ...

GRATEFUL THANKS E
STARS Not a great set, but overall a good one, so four it is.

This DVD is superb great piece of work excellently filmed and the sound upgrade is dead on . Cant recommend this enough with some great performances . You must get this

Yes im maybe also a bit biased also, for I make the upgrade and transfered it to DVD, but I really like the result, very strong performances and its very crips and the sound is just top notch. Recommended.