Description
Warwick England is a small, peaceful, historic town close to Shakespeare country. It was in the shadows of the famous castle that the Edgar Broughton Blues Band was formed. Featuring Rob 'Edgar' Broughton on guitar and vocals, brother Steve Broughton on drums, Arthur Grant on bass and Victor Unitt on guitar. Victor was to leave early on because the band stopped playing blues and would go on to replace Dick Taylor in The Pretty Things.
The band built up a healthy local following before taking the big step to move to London in 1968. They hadn't been there long before Peter Jenner, who was then managing Pink Floyd, signed them to his Blackhill Enterprises. This was swiftly followed by a record deal with EMI's Harvest label that also had Floyd and Roy Harper.
Their first album 'Wasa Wasa' was a hard-hitting grungy rock album, which established Edgar's trademark gravel sodden vocals. Along with the anthemic 'Out Demons Out' they quickly became the darlings of the festival circuit. With the aforementioned 'Demons', released as a single, reaching the top forty on sales that would have put it in the top 5 today the bands reputation grew further. They also embarked upon a tour of free gigs played from the back of a flat-back lorry which involved them being arrested for disturbing the peace!
A second album 'Sing Brother Sing' followed in June 1970 and reached number 18 on the albums chart. A new single 'Apache Dropout', a mixture of the Shadows 'Apache' and Captain Beefheart's 'Dropout Boogie' hit the top forty in early 1971. By this time the band felt it needed to expand and brought back Victor Unitt for their finest album to date simply titled The Edgar Broughton Band. Famous for its meat cover, the photograph had been taken hastily before the owners of the meat store could see them doing it, the album reached number 28 in the albums chart.
Two more albums for Harvest were released, 'Inside Out' in 1972 followed a year later by 'Oora', which would be the last for the label. After the release of this superior album Victor Unitt let the band once more. He was replaced by John Thomas, a guitarist from Australia, who recorded the album 'Bandages' with them for the NEMS label. It was after the release of this fine album that the band decided to call it a day with a farewell tour. The plan was to record a live album as a goodbye parting shot; it would take almost three years before it received a Switzerland only release.
However, you can't keep a good band down and 1978 saw Edgar, Steve and Arthur back in the studio with three new musicians. 'Parlez-Vous English' was released in 1979 under the trimmed down moniker of 'The Broughtons'. It featured the same trademark social comment of the previous albums together with more lighthearted songs. A further album 'Superchip The Final Solution' appeared in 1981 but following it's release the band once again decided to call it a day. The band reformed once more for a few short tours in the nineties but the were no recordings made.
Today, nearly forty years after it's formation, The Edgar Broughton Band features, for this DVD (Recorded by the Rockpalast at the Crossroads Festival March 24nd, 2006 in Bonn, Germany), the original line up plus a new generation of Broughton with the addition of Edgar's son Luke. The music still has the hard, rebel edge it's always had and 'Out Demons Out' is still a relevant today as it was in 1969. A "Best of" of a special nature - Edgar Broughton did not loose anything of his Charisma.
RegionCode: 0 (Codefree)
Running Time: 85 Min.
Soundformat: Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1, dts
DVD-Format: DVD 9
Menu: English
Features: Backstage Interview, Bonus Track: Green Lights (Unplugged)
Screenformat: 16:9
Languages: English
TRACKLISTING
1. Introduction
2. Evening Over Rooftops
3. Anthem
4. Speak Down The Wires
5. The Moth
6. Why Can't Somebody Love Me
7. Refugee
8. Momma's Reward
9. American Boy Soldier
10. Homes Fit For Heroes
11. Dr Spock
12. Love In The Rain
13. Revelations
14. Hotel Room
15. Last Electioneer
16. Out Demons Out