Dead End Drive-In: Now Showing – Tales From The Tavern
Written by Johnny H
Sunday, 01 December 2013 04:00
Tyla J Pallas – ‘Tales From The Tavern’ (King Outlaw)
It all started for me about 12 years ago when I shelled out for a copy of Tyla’s them new album ‘Of Wisdom And Beastliness’ released in all its ‘Treasure Chest’ limited edition glory. No of course I’m not talking about my love affair with the music of Tyla J Pallas and Les Chiens Of Love but more my near obsessive collecting of his works ever since. So if it’s got Tyla’s name on I simply have to have it, the music, the books, the spoken word albums, the paintings (yup, Tyla even did me a special commission of the ‘(Is It) Still Alright To Smile? cover recently), plus of course the DVDs.
Now if like me you’ve picked up one of Tyla’s solo years DVDs previously, you’ll know exactly what not to expect from these affairs, and that is Hi Definition picture and Dolby Digital 5:1 sound. These titles (‘Live Or Death’ and ‘Live New York Europe’) were largely shot on one or two cameras with the sound at best described as “mixing desk” standard, but therein lies the attraction of these golden nuggets of visual entertainment, because this is the stuff we the fans really want to see. Especially when live shows by The Dogs D’amour and their glorious leader are becoming ever rarer. These packages of Tyla delights acting as stop gaps I suppose, televisual methadone for those of us addicted to the drug of rock ‘n’ roll.
So as per usual when ‘Tales From The Tavern’ arrived at my humble abode I, after carefully studying the as usual excellent Tyla artwork that adorns this bad boy’s cover, cracked open the Amaray case dropped the DVD into my player and sat back with a bottle of my favourite red for an evening of Tyla TV.
Split into four sections (‘Songs’, ‘Stories Behind The Songs’, ‘Stories & Rambles’ and the curiously titled ‘Odds & Sods Law Bits’) this DVD brings together the music videos from Tyla’s most recent studio albums, via tracks like ‘Love Is’, ‘Bess’ and ‘Supreme Creator’, none of which would be likely to be nominated for a VMA anytime soon, but each possessing a hell of a lot more charm and passion than any of MTV’s latest clowns of the block will ever be able to conjure up. There are eight songs in total in this section mostly shot in black and white and with studio sound mastering, but once again nothing to get the audiophiles out there jizzing their sta press over.
The ‘Odds & Sods Law Bits’ section continues the music via solo acoustic versions of ‘All You Had’ and ‘More Uncharted Heights of Disgrace’, before Tyla morphs the content of the DVD from music towards spoken word via some neat comedy visuals that kick off with ‘In The Studio’.
As the spoken word/talking head segment begins in earnest with ‘Stories Behind The Songs’ it’s difficult to tell you much about this intriguing element of the DVD without revealing too much, so (spoiler alert) if you want to know which of his own songs Tyla has plagiarised a few times over (the connection of ‘Satellite Kid’ to ‘Love Is’ being one I’d certainly never made before), or watch the man talking about inspiration behind such tunes as ‘Heroine’ and ‘How Come It Never Rains’ then this will be a must see segment of Tales From The Tavern. Okay some of it might have also been featured in ‘Dog Tales’, but with Tyla staring at you from out of your gogglebox those same stories just become so much more compelling. Something that continues into the DVD’s final segment ‘Stories & Rambles’.
Tyla has always been a supreme raconteur, and here he finally makes the logical progression to video, and for nearly an hour Tyla holds court in his living room gassing about everything from ‘Keep Fit’ to ‘Hangovers, Haircuts & Expensises’ (sic). I could quite happily watch this stuff all night, even without the aid of a bottle of red, however how many times it could bear repeated viewings I’m not so sure. I just wish Tyla would tour this stuff as he is a real natural talking in front of the camera, equal parts Tony Hancock and Keith Richards, I suppose such comparisons will go down well with the wanderer from Wolverhampton.
At £15 this DVD is the ideal partner to Tyla’s new studio album ‘Charmed’, (which as I understand it Dom Daley will be reviewing on Uber Rock tomorrow), so if like me you need to take the writing of Tyla to the Nth degree you might also want to check out the mighty fine ‘Lyrics & Chord’ songbook too. Me?, I purchased all three, keeping my Xmas tradition up by treating myself to yet another very special release from Mr Tyla J Pallas.
Go on you know it makes sense.
http://www.tylasarttavern.com/shop/4564982019