Sham 69 – In Concert: Hersham Boys DVD
Music Video Distributors
Sham 69 were very much the epitome of blue collar “working man’s” punk rock from England in the early days (and the salamanders sure seemed to love them too). After a bit of a hiatus in the early 1980s, they were back in action by the later part of that decade and have pretty much been somewhat active ever since.
This DVD was filmed live in England a few years ago but the exact date is not listed anywhere on the packaging. The feature is a mixture of concert footage and some interview footage with singer Jimmy Pursey. The interview footage was pretty neat in that Peter tells the story behind nearly all the songs, and then it cuts back to the show and the band plays it. I thought it was a pretty nice way to piece the two together and gives you a really nice idea about what the band is about. There is 21 songs total (two of them being “Borstal Breakout”!) which does a pretty good job covering their career and certainly has all the “hits”.
The video is presented in full frame, just as it was filmed. The picture is quite sharp and the camera work was decent. The sound is 5.1 surround sound and there is no plain stereo track but the 5.1 sounds so good that I never wished I could change it anyway. The disc has a running time of about 75 minutes. Extras are a bare minimum, just a lengthy text bio that is a few pages long and quite informative, and there is a discography which I found to be a nice touch.
If your a fan of the band, you’ll probably find this DVD will have a welcome place in your collection. If you haven’t heard them, it’s really not a bad way to get an introduction to the band’s music and see what their live show is like all in one place. Another nice release from MVD who have had a really good track record lately of quality old-school punk DVDs.
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Order the DVD from amazon.com
