The Mellotron Group

Just finished watching the new DVD "Threshold of a Dream, Live at The Isle
of Wright Festival".  

 

All in all a pretty good disk. Unlike most concert disks it begins with a
documentary with all the original member commenting on the music and the
concert. There is a pretty cool chapter with Mike Pinder discussing the
Mellotron and playing a few bars of Nights on his MkII. After about 40
minutes I was wondering "Where is the concert?". 

 

To my pleasure they recoded the whole set and played it about 40 minutes
into the disk. It's a pretty good performance with highlights being Gypsy,
Tuesday Afternoon, Question, Melancholy Man, Nights, and of course Legend of
a Mind. Mike Pinder's tron seems to drift in and out of tune at times. But
considering the dicey power issues I am amazed it sounds a good as it does.
There are really great close-ups of Mike playing, especially during the
crescendo of Legend.  

 

Never Comes the Day is somewhat of a train-wreck (visually and sonically).
It looks like they spliced together whatever footage they could find and
half of it from other songs. Except for one camera, the sound is out of sync
on that song. Plus the band seems to fall apart going into the second verse.
I was wondering why they did not just cut the song from the DVD, but after
reflection I am glad they did not. You gotta give the guys a break as they
were playing in front of thousands of people with a crappy PA. It's amazing
that any band could hold it together.

 

All that being said, it's a great DVD. I highly suggest that you buy it
direct from Mike Pinder's website. He will sign the DVD for you. Plus I
would rather give him the $$$ than some corporation.