Starring Sham 69
Written By:
Directed By: Dave Meehan
Studio: MVD
Buy on Amazon.com link

I’m not really familiar with Sham 69’s music besides a few songs like “If The Kids Are United” and “Borstal Breakout.” I do have a ‘best-of’ album but I haven’t really listened to it that much. I’m trying to get into older punk bands that I didn’t get into when I was younger and this is a good start. Even though the band is a way bit older when they first started out as a band, it’s still a good representation of what the band is like.

This concert was filmed in 2002 in Brighton, England at the Concorde 2. The concert footage is intertwined with band interviews, which you can barely hear. The levels are way off compared to the better sounding concert. Doesn’t help that the band members are soft spoken, which is kind of hard to believe considering how they sound live. The concert video quality looks excellent, just like the rest of the films by Dave Meehan (Bad Manners, Buzzcocks, The Selector, The Beat).

The band opens with “What Have We Got” and goes through a lot of their classic sing along songs. I did recognize quite a few songs, either from other bands covering them or the Sham 69’s versions. The band still has a snotty punk edge after all these years. Other songs I liked from this set were “Hersham Boys,” “Tell Us The Truth,” “Angels with Dirty Faces,” “Hurry Up Harry,” “Borstal Breakout,” and of course “If The Kids Are United.” I’m sure you heard “If the Kids Are United,” just about every punk band has covered that song at one point. Overall, this concert DVD is filled with great punk rock anthems and it’s a top notch DVD in terms of production. My only gripe is that the levels for the interviews are really low. But Sham 69 fans shouldn’t pass this DVD up, it’s definitely buyable.

Features:
Interviews

Audio:
Digital 5.1 Surround Sound

Video:
4:3

Subtitles:

Favorite Scenes: Hersam Boys, They Don’t Understand, Hurry Up Harry, If The Kids Are United, Borstal Breakout
Rating: NR
Running Time: 74 minutes
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating: