Live from London (Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel video)

Background

After a Christmas tour in 1981, Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel would not embark on another tour again until 1989. However, the band did perform three odd shows during 1983 and 1984, including the Reading Festival in 1983 and the Camden Palace in London on 14 December 1984. The London show was the last the band would perform until 1989, and was the debut performance for band's new violinist/guitarist Barry Wickens.

The Camden Palace concert was recorded for a one-hour TV special broadcast, and then released on VHS the following year. Filmed by Trilion Pictures Ltd., the VHS was released via Castle Communications Plc.. It was directed by Marc Over and produced by Philip Goodhand-Tait. The footage features fifteen tracks, discounting the 'Live from London' title music, which was counted as a separate track on the VHS track-listing.

Trilion Pictures Ltd would film two other Camden Palace concerts during 1984 for the British heavy metal band Girlschool and Canadian heavy metal band Thor. Castle Communications Plc. would also release these two concerts on VHS, as Play Dirty Live (Girlschool) and Live in London (Thor), similar to that of the Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel release.

Release

Live from London was released on VHS through Castle Communications Plc in 1985. Despite the back cover listing 16 tracks in total, the last two "Sweet Dreams" and "(I Believe) Love's a Prima Donna" did not actually appear on the release, suggesting they were recorded during the concert but not included on the VHS. In 2001, the concert was given its first DVD release through CP Entertainment as part of their 'Legends of Rock' series. The footage was digitally remastered for the DVD. CP Entertainment released two different editions of the DVD, one of which was a 'Collectors Edition' and featured different artwork, though both editions shared the same catalogue number. The Collectors Edition DVD had the bonus feature of being a DVD Plus flip-disc, meaning that an audio CD version of the concert was placed on the other side of the DVD disc.

On 26 February 2007, Live from London was given a new DVD release through Rhino. Another DVD release followed on 11 June 2012, when it was released by The Store For Music. This version of the concert came with a bonus feature of a previously unseen photo gallery, featuring photographs taken from the same concert.

VHS track listing

1. "Live from London - Title Music" (Spaniel Music)
2. "Here Comes the Sun" (George Harrison)
3. "I Can't Even Touch You" (Steve Harley)
4. "Freedom's Prisoner" (Harley)
5. "Judy Teen" (Harley)
6. "I Just Wanna Be a Star" (Harley)
7. "Irresistible" (Harley)
8. "Sebastian" (Harley)
9. "Riding the Waves" (Harley)
10. "Promises" (Harley)
11. "Mr Soft" (Harley)
12. "Sling It!" (Harley)
13. "Make Me Smile" (Harley)
14. "Tumbling Down" (Harley)
15. "Sweet Dreams" (Harley)
16. "(I Believe) Love's a Prima Donna" (Harley)

DVD track listing

1. "Here Comes the Sun"
2. "I Can't Even Touch You"
3. "Freedom's Prisoner"
4. "Judy Teen"
5. "I Just Wanna Be a Star"
6. "Irresistible"
7. "Sebastian"
8. "Riding the Waves"
9. "Promises"
10. "Mr Soft"
11. "Sling It!"
12. "Make Me Smile"
13. "Tumbling Down"

Critical reception

On 28 July 2001, writer Mike Sutton reviewed the CP Entertainment DVD release of Live from London for The Digital Fix website. He noted: "Considering that Steve Harley wrote one of the defining songs of the seventies - the sublime "(Come Up And See Me) Make Me Smile" - it's fair to say that I had fairly positive expectations of this concert DVD. While these weren't totally dashed, I have to admit that I wasn't particularly impressed. The music isn't bad at all but the presentation of the DVD is disappointing. I won't dwell for long on the concert itself. The songs are generally of a pretty high standard, although these live versions aren't a patch on the original records. This is one of CP Entertainments various music discs and it's better than some of the others without being remotely impressive. The quality of the picture is mediocre at best. Although this release is superior to some of the others released by CP, it's certainly not an essential purchase. Even fans of Steve Harley are likely to be a little disappointed by the poor visual quality of the concert."

Cockney Rebel

Concert crew

Video production team