Bruce Dickinson – Anthology

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Sanctuary Visual Entertainment
Produced by Bruce Dickinson

On paper this is one of the DVD releases of the year. Not enough artists/labels put out DVD collections that really do contain absolutely everything. Iron Maiden front-man Bruce Dickinson has. Bringing together everything committed to film from his solo career to date, Sanctuary Visual Entertainment have released an outstanding three-disc (count ‘em, three!) collection that should have all Bruce fans more excited than ever.

Back in 1991 Bruce had in fact released a live home video, entitled Dive Dive Live (after one of his first solo songs Dive Dive Dive) recorded in 1990 in Los Angeles. This has long been out of print. Other live videos recorded in previous years, equally unavailable, included Skunkworks Live, recorded in 1996 in Spain and Scream For Me Brazil (the recording the live album of the same name was taken from) recorded in Sao Paulo in 1999. These three live concerts make up the first two discs of this release, with just two songs (Tattooed Millionaire and Tears of The Dragon) being duplicated between them.

The third and final disc contains every promo video Bruce made for his singles, plus a new and exclusive interview with Bruce about his latest album Tyranny of Souls and the Samson (Bruce’s first major band) home video Biceps of Steel, marking his first ever appearance on a music video.

Now, obviously the quality of the concert footage, and indeed some of the older videos, is not going to be as good as something recorded last year, but the transfer does seem to be about as good as it could possibly be, and the sound in particular is excellent. In terms of the shows themselves, Scream For Me Brazil is superb in both performance and footage. Dive Dive Live is likewise very good for the time. The problem comes with Skunkworks Live, where in the height of the MTV Generation, the film makers have failed to resist the temptation to go “arty” and have made the entire concert artificially grainy, with strange camera angles and shakey, fast moving camera work. The sound quality is just as good as the other two (although this can’t save Bruce’s woeful rendition of Born In ’58 on Dive Dive Live), but that doesn’t make the footage any more watchable. A great shame in the grand scheme of things, because Skunkworks is a horribly underrated album, and that line-up of Bruce’s band was probably the most creative.

Bruce has almost always made very good promo videos, The Tower and new song Abduction coming immediately to mind. Equal parts humour and darkness, his videos always fit the respective song perfectly, and while his lip-synching isn’t the best, he does “act” reasonably well in them. Certainly much better than in Maiden’s old videos (Number of The Beast, anyone?).

As is completely evident merely from the track list, this is an absolute must have for any fan of Bruce. For the first time in recent memory a truly complete DVD set has been issued, and not many are more deserving of such treatment than one of heavy metal’s all-time greatest singers and front-men. So, this is also one of the DVD releases of the year in reality as well. Result.

“ outstanding ”

Tracklist:
DVD 1 – Dive Dive Live: Riding With The Angels / Born In ’58 / Lickin’ The Gun / Gypsy Road / Dive Dive Dive / Drum Solo / Zulu Lulu / The Ballad of Mutt / Son Of A Gun / Hell On Wheels / All The Young Dudes / Tattooed Millionaire / No Lies / Fog On The Tyne / Winds of Change / Sin City / Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter / Black Night / Skunkworks Live: Space Race / Back From The Edge / Tattooed Millionaire / Inertia / Faith / Meltdown / I Will Not Accept The Truth / Laughing In The Hiding Bush / Tears of The Dragon / God’s Not Coming Back / Dreamstate / The Prisoner
DVD 2 – Scream For Me Brazil: King In Crimson / Gates of Urizen / Killing Floor / Book of Thel / Tears of The Dragon / Laughing In The Hiding Bush / Accident of Birth / The Tower / Darkside of Aquarius / The Road To Hell
DVD 3 – Tattooed Millionaire / All The Young Dudes / Dive Dive Dive / Born In ’58 / Tears of The Dragon / Shoot All The Clowns / Back From The Edge / Inertia / Accident of Birth / Road To Hell / Man of Sorrows / Killing Floor / The Tower / Abduction / Tyranny of Souls EPK / Biceps of Steel

Written by Andy Lye
More: Heavy Metal, Live DVDs, Bruce Dickinson