Later With Jools Holland - Cool Britannia (DVD)

...have other titles from the Later library). You can also choose a particular track or play all.
As mentioned previously the sound quality is not totally brilliant and this has been picked up by other reviewers on other sites. For me personally I didn't have to much of a problem with it (though Ash have suffered quite badly from the bad mixing).

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I reviewed one of these Jools Holland, 'Later' DVD's previously ('Giants'). In that review I laid out the pro's and con's of the whole 'Later' programme. For me the downside is often Jools Holland feeling unable to resist joining in on piano with just about anything that takes his fancy. On the plus side you usually find that the bands involved try to put on a good performance and the production values (usually good sound and camera work) are also of a high standard.

I bought this because I wanted a blast of Britpop and the bands included were the bands at the forefront of that movement (Oasis, Blur, Elastica, Pulp, Suede, Paul Weller, etc etc). I'll get the tracklisting out of the way so you know exactly what's on the DVD (this being the thing that usually persuades someone to buy the DVD in the first place!):

ARTIST - SONG TITLE - DATE 1ST BROADCAST

1.Ash - Shining Light - 27/04/01
2.Blur - Tender - 16/04/99
3.British Sea Power - Remember me - 17/10/03
4.Catatonia - Bleed - 16/11/96
5.Coldplay - In my place - 13/12/02
6.Cornershop - Brimful of Asha - 06/12/97
7.Doves - The cedar room - 29/04/00
8.Echo and the Bunnymen - Nothing Lasts forever - 14/06/97
9.Elastica - Connection - 19/11/94
10.Elbow - Fugitive Motel - 07/11/03
11.Embrace - All you good good people - 08/11/97
12.Feeder - Just the way I'm feeling
13.Franz Ferdinand - Take me out - 21/11/03
14.Keane - This is the last time - 31/10/03
15.Manic Street Preachers - A design for life - 31/12/96
16.Morrissey - Boy Racer - 11/11/95
17.Oasis - I am the walrus - 10/12/94
18.Paul Weller - Sunflower - 09/07/93
19.Primal Scream - Movin' on up - 31/12/03
20.Pulp - Disco 2000 - 11/10/95
21.Radiohead - The bends - 27/05/95
22.Spiritualized - Come together - 17/04/98
23.Starsailor - Good souls - 20/04/01
24.Stereophonics - More life in a tramps vest - 17/05/97
25.Suede - So young - 04/06/93
26.Super Furry Animals - Something for the weekend - 01/06/96
27.Supergrass - Caught by the fuzz - 03/06/95
28.22-20's - Devil in me - 21/11/03
29.The Beta band - Human being - 16/11/01
30.The Charlatans - ...when you're thinkin' things over - 09/12/95
31.The Darkness - I believe in a thing called love - 20/06/03
32.The Verve - The drugs don't work - 01/11/97
33.Travis - All I wanna do is rock - 07/12/96

As you can see from the tracklisting there are quite a variety of bands performing a variety of tracks (mostly the hits but also some album tracks). The earliest performance coming from 1993 and the latest from 2003.

It is a bit of a mixed bag... For instance, 'The Verve' performing 'The Drugs Don't Work' are as awesome as ever. On the otherhand, Damon Albarns vocals on 'Tender' are atrocious.

THE GOOD STUFF
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- British Sea Power: put on a good performance, a lot of people will be unaware, and pleasantly surprised by the band.
- Coldplay: are a marmite band, loved and hated in equal measure. The one thing they do do though is write excellent tunes and put a lot of effort into their performances.
- Echo and The Bunnymen: singing 'Nothing Lasts Forever'. A brilliant performance of a great song.
- Elastica: loads of energy and now a timeless song.
- Elbow: grow on you! I bought the album 'Cast of thousands' and couldn't get into it, but with repeated listens it really grabs you. Brilliant performance of a great song.
- Embrace: great at writing anthems and always put a lot of energy into the performance.
- The Darkness: Great camp performance (Justin climbing onto a piano at one stage) and brilliant playing.
- The Verve: Excellent. A classic song which gets a great performance.

Other highlights: Franz Ferdinand (great performance), Paul Weller (always good value for money), Super Furry Animals (a very underated band performing a forgotten classic), Supergrass (ditto).

The fact that Jools doesn't get involved much is also a great bonus!

THE BAD STUFF
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- Ash: The sound quality on this track does them no favours at all.
- Blur: Damon's vocal whining lets a good song down.
- Keane: just can't get into this band
- Morrissey: 1995 wasn't a good year for the Mozzer.
- Oasis: great song, great band (this is them at their peak in 1994) but they just don't seem to be arsed with it.

There are also some middling performances of run of the mill songs on here ('22-20's, 'The Beta Band', 'The Libertines').

In places the sound quality is not great. I found myself having to turn the volume up quite high sometimes and then having to quickly lower it for the next song.

OVERALL
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For the price (£6.99 with free delivery at Play.com) this is a bit of a bargain. You're pretty much guaranteed to find something you'll like here. This is a DVD that you can dip in and out of.
The extras are a bit thin on the ground (couple of short interviews and the ability to program your tracks being the main ones) but I find that this is in keeping with the 'Later' DVD's.
The menus are fairly easy to navigate (especially if you have other titles from the Later library). You can also choose a particular track or play all.
As mentioned previously the sound quality is not totally brilliant and this has been picked up by other reviewers on other sites. For me personally I didn't have to much of a problem with it (though Ash have suffered quite badly from the bad mixing).

 

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