Live At Montreux 1982 & 1985

Like most people who are into Blues, I couldn't wait to see this set when it was released. It contained two SRV sets at a very reasonable price and a short documentary as well as 5.1 DTS sound. Well it is great! Like my all time favourite, Albert King (see my reviews), material available on SRV (for all his impact in the 1980s) is rather scarce. I even saw him in Australia and he was so loud you really couldn't appreciate it, he needed smaller venues! This was a great chance to see him perform.I think the overall production of this set is excellent, as it usually is at Montreux. Great sound and camera work.Well as a Blues enthusiast of 40 years. I think the first disc is far better than the second (but I love Reese Wynans keyboards). All the hipe about him being booed to me is overplayed. As a guitarist he was better when he was hungry, than after he became famous (do you know of a bluesman, not rock, that actually produced better material after they got famous?)(Listen to Buddy Guy, Albert King, Little Walter, Junior Wells, etc etc even Johnny Winter, the original SRV). So this is great and I agree the El Mocambo set is great, but I rate the first disc as his best work.Top selection to me on Disc one is how he modernized Freddie King's Hideaway and combined it with Rude Mood (Urban/Country Blues). Just great. And the final tune is a great Albert Collins salute without copying Collins difficult style-you still recognise it (like in some of Duke Robillard's work). Fantastic! The old standbys- Texas Flood and Pride and Joy are great of course and his great slow blues Dirty Pool has that great unexpected chordal solo- an ode to Otis Rush's "Double Trouble" without, again, copying him completely (except the intro).The booing didin't bother me. It's not as bad as the publicity made out. Most people are dancing and clapping and getting into it. If all booed maybe Stevie should have worried, but that wasn't likely. European audiences are strange as the Doors said in 1968, "they didn't clap or anything, they just stared". You know anything new from outside always has had trouble with Europeans, they are more traditional than we colonists. That's why in the 1960s the Folk Blues festival was so popular, they had Howlin Wolf and Muddy,(they were stuck in the 1950s) but never Paul Butterfield or Steve Miller.Well this DVD is a landmark. Advice: If you can get this in PAL: the sound and picture quality is better. I am in Bahrain travelling and just bought another copy in PAL to supplement my NTSC one. Great!!!The second disc has some replication of course. The addition to the band of Reese Wynans was a great move. Made them a Booker T & the MGs's with rock guitar and singing. All tracks are great, but the Slow Blues Tin Pan Alley with the late Johnny Copeland (who won a Grammy with Robert Cray and Albert Collins for the "Showdown" LP) is my personal favourite. Intense and honest the way the Blues should be!!! Actually the whole Copeland sub-set is my favourite part of the disc along with, again the opening instrumental of Scuttle-Buttin and Say What!Every Blues fan should own this historic DVD. Note, some useless information: SRV was the age Jimi Hendrix died when he played on Disc 1. He was also born the year the Stratocaster was first released by Fender.Also: To comment on a previous review. It seems that in "Ain't Gone 'N' Give Up On Love" Stevie switches guitars- from Old Number One Strat. Well it looks to me like he probably broke one of his heavy gauge strings on the first solo, changed guitars, and played on. The Swiss film crew just edited it, cleverly.

Stevie Ray Vaughan was a six-string force of nature with his Fender Stratocaster. He was playing small clubs in Texas with drummer Chris Layton and bassist Tommy Shannon in 1982 when someone with connections heard them and declared "you need to play Montreux". Sooo... without a record, a recording contract or any name recognition outside of the handful of people who had heard them playing in Texas, they headed over to Europe where they were booked at the famous Montreux Jazz festival on the same day as several acoustic stars. Stevie and Double Trouble hit the stage with their electrified cyclone and played to a rousing chorus of boos. Stevie, talented as he was, dressed like a cross between a Texas Gunslinger and a New Orleans Pimp, and the crowd reaction ranged between indifference and total hostility. Were they good? Take a listen... the accompanying and extremely informative documentary features interviews with Slater and Layton, along with Jackson Browne, John Mayer, and a few others who knew what happened that day. SRV and DT burned that stage to the ground. They had honed their 3-piece Texas Blues to a fine edge and they unleashed their power on that crowd. The "music fans", too stupid to notice the genius in front of their very eyes, hadn't yet been told by radio disc jockeys who they should like.... so they didn't like SRV - yet. Of course there were musicians there too, though, and the word spread like wildfire through Jackson Browne's band.... and David Bowie.... and soon all the Montreux musicians were down in the musician's lounge listening to the kind of band that makes musicians tell other musicians "come here.... you've just GOT to hear THIS!" (I had the same experience the first time my brother played their first recording - which was made as a result of this very concert.) David Bowie had to figure out a way to get this guitar genius on his CD and in his band. (Listen to Stevie's wailing guitar on "Let's Dance".) Jackson Browne offered the contractless trio the opportunity to record in his studio. They made their way out to California and basically just recorded their live set in the studio. THAT recording became "Texas Flood" and all of a sudden SRV was not an unknown...Two albums and a keyboardist later, Stevie returned to Montreux in 1985 as a "conquering hero" of sorts and although I would hesitate to say that they sounded better in the '85 concert, it is certainly gratifying to see them received with open-armed enthusiasm. In the '82 concert they only played about 52 minutes. In '85 they turn it on for a hot hour and a half.Both of those concerts are more than worth a listen - and this fantastic double-disc set includes both concerts, plus the documentary. This is 5-star all the way.

Was disappointed as cannot play on my DVD player. Did not realise that it would be region 1.

Beautiful 2-CD set ! Let you see the controversial yet appealing 1982 set and the magnificent and mature 1985 gig as if you were there and still young if you really were ! No documentary blabla unless you want some. Talent allowed is what music needs to survive unless it’s already dead !

Un premier spectacle en 1982 où SRV a donné une prestation impeccable devant un auditoire qui n'a pas su l'apprécier à sa juste valeur. En 1985, le spectacle était un peu moins bons mais plus apprécié de l'audience. C'est à se questionner si les gens de Montreux connaissaient vraiment la musique et les bons musiciens.

Ottimo

I prefer the Austin Texas and El Mocambo performances. The audience's negativity comes through in the 1982 show and takes away from the entertainment value even though I liked the 1982 performance better than the 1985 show.