|
1. You are back
now with more than an album, a full concert filmed for the
evident pleasure of your fans. What motivates you in issuing
this? Keep your fans patient?
Nick Barrett: Well, after a
ten year gap since the last DVD, it was about time that we
did make one, and I am very pleased with the results of this.
I think the fans have been extremely patient to put up with
waiting for so long for it, but in the last year and a half
we have made four DVD's! There was the Barrett/Nolan (A Rush
of Adrenaline), "And Now Everybody to the Stage",
The Jewel 21st Anniversary one (Past & Presence release
due soon) and my involvement of course in the "NEO"
DVD (due soon) so I hope we will have made up for the lack
of DVD's in the last ten years.
2. Can you
tell the story of this DVD?
NB: We were on tour and we
were asked by the promoter if we wanted to make a DVD of the
tour, we said YES!, we recorded it at the Wyspianski Theatr,
Katowice, Poland and just like any other concert on that tour,
but it was filmed and recorded. Fortunately production was
good enough to supply enough cameras and good quality lighting
to make it such a special event.
|
|
|
|
3.
"And Now Everybody to The Stage" is the 4th motion
for Pendragon. Did you feel it necessary to say "hi,
we are still there?" Or was it to show an evolution in
the band?
NB: We have only made two DVD's,
we made "Live at Last....and more" and this one,
its obviously to show some evolution, the other DVD was ten
years ago, that was representative of the band then, this
is representative of the band now.
4. The recordings
were made in Poland. Wasn't it too difficult to make it rather
far from your home base?
NB: No, we were on tour anyway,
we have got a very good fan base in Poland, the production
is excellent over there as I said earlier, the lighting, the
cameras, the crew are all superbly organised so it makes it
very easy to do. We did about 4 dates in Poland anyway so
it made it very easy to be able to do that.
5. Can you
tell us how it was perceived? Did you receive echoes from
other persons than your long time fans?
NB: It's hard to say at the
moment, it is still early days, I think we may make a few
new fans with it, I don't know yet, but I think that new fans
are probably more likely to buy a CD first before lashing
out more money on a DVD.
|
|
6.
Is this DVD a good introduction to Pendragon music?
NB: I would say it probably
is actually, if you watch it and listen on a good quality
DVD player with 5.1 sound it will sound just like being at
a concert so it is a good way to be introduced to the band.
|
|
|
7. The result is astonishing in terms of quality of image
and sound. Was this atmosphere the most convenient to your
music?
NB: It was difficult really,
because the venue is seated it has got more of a kid of a
feel of a conservative party conference (political conference)
than an actual gig, I think if they took all the seats out
and just had a standing audience, the atmosphere would be
totally awesome and electric, but that's the nature of the
venue. Sometimes way play seated venues, sometimes we play
standing and we have to gage what that will be like and how
the audience will feel. We know this venue (Wyspianski Theatr,
Katowice) and we know it will feel a certain way.
8. Pendragon
is now what can be called an "old band" as you started
playing at the end of the 70's. It seems that you still like
to be on the road. Is the stage important to you and your
music?
NB: Absolutely! You know you
can get all difficult and artistic and silly when you are
in your late 20's and early 30's by saying "Oh, I don't
want to do anymore touring, I am fed up with it!" but
believe me, when that is taken away you really miss it! We
have not done much touring in the last four years and to come
back to play live so much, well, we have relished every single
moment of it. It is a fantastic thing to be able to do. I
spoke to Andy Latimer from Camel about this a while ago, and
he said the same thing, once you have been away from touring
for a while and then you come back to it, you just want to
do it ALL the time! It's great! You are with your friends,
you are playing to people, people are coming to listen to
your music, you are in a different place everyday, you are
on a tour bus, which is extremely hard work, your food patterns
and sleep patterns all get thrown out, but it is very exciting
as well.
9. How did
you chose the tracks that appear on the DVD? Is it a standard
track list or you decided to modify it in view of filming
the show
|
NB: It's exactly the same
set as we played on the rest of the tour, some nights we
may have dropped out one or two songs depending on curfew
times or door times, some venues allow less time than others
so you have to cut back the set sometimes. But for this
show, well we wanted to record as much material for the
DVD as we could.
Thanks
|
|
|
|
|
|
