Doves recorded live at the Eden Project in July 2002. The tracklist includes: 'Pounding', 'There Goes The Fear', 'Catch The Sun', 'Caught By The River', 'Here It Comes' and 'Spaceface'.
This review already contains more than 120 words. As a Ciao member you could earn up to £5 with this review.
Best Deals for Doves - Where We're Calling From DVD
The Doves DVD 'Where We're Calling From' was a surprise acquisition that I won in a very late night competition on the DAB radio station BBC 6 Music. I love the Doves, so I was rather thrilled to get the DVD - and it was certainly exciting when it came through the post in its official BBC packaging!
Appearance
The DVD is very well presented. The case is entirely cardboard except for the plastic sheet that the DVD disc clips into, and it opens like a book and then slips into an outer cardboard slipcase. The outer slipcase is dark with what looks like fireworks or seeds on the front and all the tracks listed on the back. The inner case is much lighter and shows a rather arty photo of an overcast sky with an electricity or telephone pylon silhouetted against it. The Doves seem to delight in suitably British photos on their albums and this DVD is no exception - proud to present the mundane and ordinary as beautiful and unique.
Inside the inner case there is a full colour photo of mismatched tarmac on a country road (perhaps even A Roman road). The loose booklet in this case shows the underside of a motorway bridge with fireworks in the background (again against an overcast sky) on its cover, and inside contains a few other understated images along with the contents and credits for the DVD. The back cover of the booklet shows a selection of small photos from gigs an music videos which sets the tone for the combination of live and recorded music on the DVD.
Contents of the DVD
The DVD contains a variety of tracks recorded live at the Eden Sessions concerts in Cornwall in 2002 alongside the promotional music videos for The Cedar Room, Sea Song, Here It Comes, Catch the Sun, The Man Who Told Everything, There Goes the Fear, Pounding, and Caught By the River.
Also on the DVD there are a few short films - 'A Very peak Practice - 2000 Tour Intro Film', 'Episode One - The Last Intro - 2002 tour intro film', a hidden Sub Sub documentary, and a Doves documentary. There are also some photo galleries and screensaver and the suchlike for if you watch the DVD on your computer.
Playing the DVD
I apologise for the list-like form of this section of review, but I think it's worth laying out exactly what this DVD contains or else my review will become a bit confusing! When you load the DVD you are presented firstly with a parental guidance message and then secondly with a rather confusing screen that appears to have no options on it.
I think the reason that the DVD has been designed like this is so that you feel like you are exploring it and that you might come back to it again at a later date to see if there is anything else hidden on it that you missed. To access the music you need to use the arrow keys on your DVD remote to move left and right and little labels appear over the arty images of towns and satellites to show song names. When you choose a song name and press OK you are shown a picture of the single cover and the song starts to play, but you need to press Play or OK to access the music video.
Initially it looks like there are just 3 songs, but if you keep pressing either right or left then the perspective changes and the screen shows more songs as your view moves around the city/town. There are some excellent graphics on these scene changes, and when you press OK on a song you zoom in towards open windows and door in this imaginary town and find yourself in a perfectly ordinary, but artistically imagined, bedroom or lounge before the music begins.
The Live tracks recorded at the Eden project are under their own 'Eden' tab and a picture of the Eden Project domes appears before you select the videos you want to watch as before. The live tracks are really worth watching - I'd say more than the promotional videos - because the crowd is clearly loving the gig. At the beginning of 'Pounding' the thumping beat starts up and hundreds of people start jumping as one to the exhilarating opening bars. Its nice to see the gig from the crowd's perspective as well as up on stage - you really feel a part of the experience.
The videos and galleries included on the DVD seem like extra bumph to me. I have to say I watched them once and haven't ever been bothered to go back to them. The 'Very Peak Practice' video is particularly childish and I felt a bit like I was watching an in-joke that I wasn't party to. It was almost like an A Level Media Studies video really. The tour intros are arty and nice, but they are short and not particularly filled with content.
Of course I couldn't possibly tell you where the Sub Sub documentary is hidden - it would spoil the fun of interacting with the DVD for yourself. But for those who aren't up on their Doves trivia, Sub Sub was the band Doves were in a previous incarnation - with a more 90s dance vibe.
Would I recommend it?
I don't think I would have bought this DVD if I hadn't won it, but then again I've enjoyed owning it and interacting with it. It's definitely a bit different from the norm and its nice to get something like that when you are expecting just a load of live tracks in a list. They've made a real effort to put it together nicely, but saying that, it is still just watching the same tracks and I certainly won't sit down and watch it as much as I'd listen to a CD while I'm working or in the background at a party.
If you love Doves music then you'll enjoy watching this DVD and it's very beautiful to look at so it'll look nice on your shelf. If you're not such a fan then I'd perhaps suggest not getting it, or maybe borrowing it instead, because once you've seen it and found all the hidden features then I don't know if you'd have the drive to watch it again.
When I won this DVD it was pretty expensive as it had just been released, but now you can get hold of it for around £4 on Amazon marketplace. Full price you'll still be paying around £18 for this DVD, but it's definitely worth it as a collector's piece, even if it's not going to be watched regularly.
Overall
I love this DVD, but I rarely watch it. I think it would certainly make a nice gift for a true fan, but if you're just scouting about for new music then I'd definitely try the audio CDs first!
and beyond the top-quality music, it's easy to forget that the Doves have only released two albums to date. This is a band that has worked tirelessly to nurture a ...
and beyond the top-quality music, it's easy to forget that the Doves have only released two albums to date. This is a band that has worked tirelessly to nurture a ...
