DVD Review | Special Beat: Ska'd In Sydney

DVD Review - Special Beat: Ska'd In Sydney
Review by Danny Crombie - October 7, 2009

The Special Beat is a great idea in my eyes; it gives the chance for three legends of their genre to play as part of the same group. It gives the fans a chance to see them all up close in one evening and brings them all to the farthest corners of the world.

I know people might think it’s all a cash-in which is a reasonable enough conclusion to make. Looking at the DVD case and artwork it looks as though this is a rush-job: the artwork isn’t all that great and seems as though this release looks destined for the $10 pile at JB Hifi. Some people take care to release a live DVD that they can be proud of rather than make some quick cash from it.

For example let me tell you about one of my favourite live DVD’s The Hives’ Tussles in Brussels which not only shows off their excellent live ability but comes up with such brilliant extras as an incredibly weird documentary with a psychotic narrator and music videos.

My first problem with this DVD is that it goes straight into it with no menu and no credits even at the end. To me, a good live DVD should have the silly things like credits or scene selection – the scenes here have no correlation with the songs being played at all.

Moshcam’s logo is on the bottom of the screen continually throughout - that’s what you see on YouTube, not the ones you buy – I’d feel a bit annoyed if I bought this.

Looking past these annoyances, the quality of the video itself is very good. The colours are vivid, the focus is sharp and the multiple camera angles are enjoyable to watch. The cutting is well done and you can tell these people have a good idea in what they’re doing – if they cut their logo out the thing would be near-perfect.

The sound is superb too, the levels are perfect and you can make out every instrument clearly without straining your ears - you’ll be hard pushed to find a better sounding live DVD; watching Iggy Pop live in Paris yesterday made me realise how crap the sound sometimes is.

Neville Staple of the most excellent Specials kicks off the show with an energetic set that includes the tunes Monkey Man, Rat Race and Simmer Down amongst other ska standards. You can see the crowd going wild.

Despite being around for the past 30 years in music he shows no signs of letting up and could go on for hours if he could, his vigour can only me matched by the mohawked guy pogoing within an inch of his life in the crowd.

Next up is Pauline Black of The Selecter who joins Staple on stage for a duet rendition of The Specials classic Ghost Town - definitely my favourite tune from their discography and a highlight from the DVD.

Her voice is as soulful and dazzling as on the original Selecter recordings and she has a vibrant style in her performance which is matched with her sharp fashion sensibilities. The highlight in Pauline Black’s performance is certainly On My Radio and Celebrate the Bullet is certainly worth a mention also.

I don’t know too much of The Beat; my knowledge of Ska, Two Tone and Reggae is very limited to a few bands and I only know the names of people like The Beat, Big Youth and Junior Murvin – they’ve been on my to listen to list for years now.

Ranking Roger’s set is brilliant though, his sound is a bit more melodic than the past two performances and brings a totally different angle to the concert which is most certainly welcome.

At the end they’re all up on stage playing a few classics including Toots and The Maytals Pressure Drop and treating the crowd to a once in a lifetime performace (unless they went to the other shows)

What about extras, why can’t we see the guys leaving their dressing room to come to the stage or an interview at least? It’s little things like that that keep good music DVD’s away from the bargain bin but if you happen to catch this for $10 I sincerely suggest you give it a go and skank away to nearly 2 hours of Two-Tone classics.