Free - Free Forever [DVD] [2006] [NTSC]

Free are most definitely one of my favourite bands of all time, and I think that 'Fire and Water' is a true masterpiece, so I waited for this DVD to arrive with great anticipation. The first disc contains fantastic live session performances of all the Free songs you want to see, with some quality 70s psychedelic TV effects. The band's muscianship is evident from the off, Kossof and Fraser's solo work on 'Mr Big' is stunning, whilst throughout, Paul Rodgers serenades you with his raw bluesy vocals.

The Isle of Wight footage on the second disc should have been the highlight of the DVD. However, I found out to my dissappointment that there was only visual footage for three of the songs, the remainder were in audio format with pictures tracking the bands career on the screen. If it had the full footage, I would have given 5 stars without hesitation, as the performances you do see are of monalithic quality; but I would have bought a Free live album if I merely wanted to listen to the songs.

It is a great shame as it could have been so much better, but worth the purchase nevertheless.

I'm delighted to see this on sale. I've been waiting for a properly researched and well-put together Free retrospective on DVD. This one has David Clayton, the biographer who wrote Heavy Load, as a consultant, and the attention to detail shows. This is a definite buy for anyone with an interest in early '70s rock or blues.

There are two discs, one with all the TV studio footage of Free and some other items, and a second disc with the entire set of Isle of Wight footage. The second disc includes material from various camera angles, so if you don't like the original edit and you have lots of patience you can mess with it. The Isle of Wight show is awesome. The band do a stripped-down set of their most crowd-pleasing songs, which was probably necessary as they were playing Sunday breakfast time. That's actually an advantage for us at home; the light's great in the morning and the band, possibly cowed by a crowd of over half a million, pulls in and plays a tight, energetic set.

Disc one starts with the legendary Beat Club footage. This was a German TV show which specialized in 1970 visuals effects like colorful trails that overlaid the picture. All Right Now is almost completely obscured by clouds, as one might have phrased it at the time. Beat Club never provided an audience, but they did provide Orange amplifiers, possibly because they needed much less video processing to be eye-wateringly psychedelic on screen. Paul Rodgers keeps his eyes closed and sings to himself; this doesn't stop him putting on a fine, heartfelt performance. The camera work is good, and for those studying the instrument techniques, there are plenty of close-ups.

The Granada Doing Their Thing show is the stand-out. This program has an audience and a lack of psychedelic effects. It also has Orange amps, but Free's own regulation black amps are standing in front of them. PR opens his eyes and sings to the audience. The band look very happy to be playing together. Mr Big kicks ass, but All Right Now is the one for guitarists to watch. Instead of the usual familiar staccato riff, for some reason PK decides to hint at the chords that stand silently behind the riff but are usually left out, turning the rhythm upside down. (His solo here is disorganized as the same sort of thing applies. That's rock'n'roll.) The picture and camera-work are outstanding. There are some nasty flares on bright reflections and microphany (horizontal-bands of sound-on-vision) on one camera, but it comes across as cute, a visual marker that the camera, like the amp, is pre solid-state, and They Don't Make 'Em Like That Any More.

There's plenty of other material on the DVD. A lot of other tracks, including a very good-looking VHS-derived All Right Now of unknown provenance (it might tell me on the insert but the insert is so brown, wiggly-fonted and authentically hippy-looking that I can't read it) featuring the entire band looking like real rock stars, shot from below, under great stage lighting, with their long hair combed and an unusual (for them) lack of experimental beardage. I don't know if it's the traditional rock'n'roll lights or the fuzzy and warm VHS quality, but PK and PR look like the Plant and Page analogues they could have been if things were different. They look great together. There are several sets of interviews including with Simon Kossoff, Paul's brother. Of the interviews, I will confine myself to saying that Simon Kirke has won the aging gracefully event, and is currently gorgeous (and witty). There are a couple of tributes to Koss, including a short piece of film from Simon Kossoff showing his brother and his dad (David Kossoff) eating fish 'n' chips, a lovely piece of film that works as the inverse of Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, a brief look at two connected people eating in a diner, doubly poignant when one reflects how PK died, insecure and lonely, a few years later.

I've tried not to gush too much about Kossoff's guitar playing here. I can't spend too much time saying how great he is, as the one thing that jumps out during this DVD is that the whole band is great; each one of them is way above proficient. It's unbelievable that all four could just meet more or less by accident and all be so good. What a shame it didn't last!

Technical notes: It's probably mean of me to carp about this since I knew I was buying a UK disc on Amazon.co.uk and I'm trying to play it on US equipment. But, the DVD's package says that the disc is Region 0 and NTSC so I expected it to play on unmodified equipment. However, my US DVD player had issues with the menu of disc 2, and is very reluctant to play disc 1 without freezing. Of the computers in the house, one will play the discs using Power DVD but not Windows Media Player, and the other one won't touch it with Power DVD and it plays with only an updated (v11) Windows Media Player, and is rather grudging about it. When the official US release takes place it may be considerably improved. In the meantime, I'm upgrading the house DVD player. Hopefully that will cure it.

This is truly Free at their very best. They were definately better on stage than on record. Great value for money as well and really well presented it's worth all of the money and more. It's a shame they couldn't find the masters for the Japan performance or the sound for Ealing Collage. All of the footage though is crystal clear and better than some others i've seen. This is a must have for any Free fans.