Dead End Drive-In: Now Showing – Heavy Metal Kids: Ultimate Kids Capers
Sunday, 23 December 2012 03:00
The timing of this all new DVD from the Heavy Metal Kids arriving at URHQ couldn’t have been more bang on even if the guys behind it had paid a million quid on a multi channel marketing campaign. Why? Well I was just about to set off to Birmingham for the Rebellion Xmas Bash when my ever reliable postie knocked my door asking me to sign for this veritable cornucopia of visual delights. It’s arrival actually left me with something of a quandary, as I really did want to break open the clamshell case and watch it there and then, largely because I’d enjoyed enormously both of the previous DVDs the guys had self released. But there were bands that had been influenced by the Kids to be watched that very day, so just for once I would have be patient … Hmmmmm.
I’m not sure what it is about Gary Holton and the Heavy Metal Kids that keeps getting me acting like this, but all the way up the M5 I couldn’t stop thinking about this new DVD and the impact the band behind it had on not only my formative years but also on the likes of Cock Sparrer and The Terraces, two bands who were both on the bill at the gig I was making my way to. In fact for no apparent reason mid journey to Brum I suddenly found myself telling my co-travellers just how gutted I was a few years back when I was told by Krusher Joule midway through Hard Rock Hell 3 that I had missed the fact that guitarist Cosmo had played with Mick Underwood as part of a band called Raw Glory the previous night, and I’d managed to walk straight past him to talk with and ex member of Gillan! Doh! Actually make that DOH!!!!
I suppose if you’ve read thus far you’ll understand exactly what I’m on about as you’re obviously a fan of the Heavy Metal Kids and are probably egging me on to get to the DVD review, but if by some chance you have yet to hear this band then please do your music collection a favour and go out and buy one (if not all) of the band’s studio albums, there’s only four and they are all pretty much still widely available on CD and trust me when I say they are all excellent!
Anyway, finally to the DVD which is billed as the Ultimate Kids Capers, and what we have here is over 100 minutes of quality rock ‘n’ roll, from a band who somehow still manage to inspire such adulation as that I mention above. I’ll warn you from the off it’s another self made affair that does draw heavily on their previously released Delirious DVD title, and because of the time frame of the material included please don’t expect to hear me raving about the 5:1 sound or Blu-ray picture quality over the next few hundred words or so. Nah! This disc is all about capturing the spirit of a band whose fire probably burned brightest between 1972 and 1977, and it is the archive material from this golden age that will have us all salivating the most.
So in no particular order what we do have to slake the thirsts of fans of this era of the band, that wasn’t included on Delirious DVD, is 4 songs from French TV from 1975 showcasing the Cosmo/John Sinclair line up, this segment captures the ever top hatted Holton in fine form, the audio is a bit shrill, but the picture quality is excellent as the band steamroller their way through ‘Turk’, ‘Crisis’, ‘The Cops Are Coming’ and ‘It’s The Same’. John Sinclair’s organ might add a more majestic edge to the band’s normally rougher sound, but this just makes things even more theatrical and it certainly makes for some fascinating viewing.
Likewise the 30 odd segments of 1977 footage from the band’s show at Barbarellas in Birmingham actually possess a similar feel to the Sex Pistols Boat Trip short film I raved about as part of my recent ‘Never Mind The Bollocks’ remaster box set review. Here this recently rediscovered film is pieced together in what is an intriguing if somewhat messy sounding montage. If you have the audio of this show already you will know just how good a performance it was from that latter day line up of the Kids, Holton in particular again in fine vocal form cajoling the audience whilst looking like a slightly less sleazy version of Colin Crompton.
Of the previously available Delirious material the two best elements from that DVD are both included here, firstly the Old Grey Whistle Test performances of ‘’Hanging On’ and ‘It’s The Same’ are worth the price of this DVD alone, just to see Gary Holton once again wearing his wellies whilst looking and sounding every inch the superstar he should have been.
Then secondly the Panorama time coded segment from 1974, which never fails to make me tut at how society really hasn’t changed that much in over 40 years. The media doing everything it can to demonise children even back then whilst the kids in turn look like extras from Scum. If you like your music with “boots, bovver and booze then the Heavy Metal Kids are the band for you” explains the documentary… Ahhh, right, now I’m starting to understand my obsession and adulation for a band I’ll really never get the chance to see live.
Of course with that comment in mind I should add that the Heavy Metal Kids still exist and tour today, albeit in a much different form to the one I first fell in love with back in the late 70’s and the Ultimate Kids Capers DVD does bring the band’s story bang up to date with the ‘Uncontrollable’ video from the short lived John Altman fronted line up of the band, plus four songs from the Croatia segment of the previously released (and still available) Phil Lewis fronted Heavy Metal Kids live DVD. Then to finish things off we get an crystal clear and mighty fine sounding trio of tunes from the current Justin McConville fronted line up’s Cambridge show supporting UFO back in March of this year.
Before I finish off this review I did want to return to one of the other Holton era extras dotted around this DVD, and one performance in particular of ‘Delirious’ from a European TV show called Disco where the scamp of a frontman has clearly taken the straightjacketed theatrical intro to the song to the next level, threatening and even visibly scaring the young adults pressed up against the stage. Today this performance would no doubt have seen Holton in court on some trumped up charge, here whilst a little unsettling to watch it is still pure TV gold.
Right, so if all this Gary Holton action has really tickled your fancy then you need to CLICK HERE and all your prayers will be answered. If however you’d prefer to perhaps sample an album or two first then simply click the red link below.
Either way, get out there and enjoy the Heavy Metal Kids music because you’re only on this planet once.
