While late-‘80s northern England contemporaries the likes of Happy Mondays and Stone Roses scored the cred, Inspiral Carpets were often dismissed as a bunch of chancers simply along for the ride. Perhaps one-upped somewhat by their controversial range of natty, cow-encrusted “Cool as F*ck” t-shirts (a natural hit with the indie kids), denying them credit where credit’s due for their canon of mighty fine pop/rock/groove ditties is more than a tad unfair, especially upon revisiting the genius of This is How it Feels, Dragging Me Down and gig closer Saturn 5.
This is how it feels to read bad puns...
Splitting in the wake of the ‘Britpop’ barrage of 1995, 2003 saw the Inspirals reform for a few celebratory gigs, one of which we witness here. Singer Tom Hingley may appear to have been on an exclusive diet of pies and pints in the interim, and you’d hardly label the audience indie “kids” any more, however the important stuff is all in tact; the band’s ability to really kick out those funky, Farfisa-infused tunes live, and the audience’s propensity to “moo” rather than “yay” or “boo” – a by-product of those aforementioned t-shirts. All the hits are duly wheeled out, along with a cover of Doves’ glorious Pounding. We’re even treated to a schoolgirl marching band as accompaniment for the mighty She Comes in the Fall.
There’s no sign of their old roadie, Noel Gallagher, though…
Track listing…
Joe
Directing Traffic
Generations
Bitches Brew
Two Worlds Collide
This is How it Feels
Weakness
Move
Caravan
Keep the Circle Around
Sackville
She Comes in the Fall
Find Out Why
Come Back Tomorrow
I Want You
Dragging Me Down
Commercial Reign
Pounding
Butterfly
Saturn 5
Video
Audio
Extras
Contract
The anamorphically enhanced 1.78:1 vision is hardly as clear as f*ck, but is serviceable nonetheless - it’s just a little soft overall.
Sound suffers the odd typical minor live glitch as often suffered in medium sized gigs; however it could be argued that such things add to making it a realistic experience. Of the two mixes provided, the boofier Linear PCM wins hand down over the Dolby Digital 5.1 affair, which tends to be a tad hollow-sounding.
Extras don’t amount to a hell of a lot, simply three very brief peeks at backstage footage from before the gig and three fun little web animations for Butterfly, Keep the Circle Around and This is How it Feels.
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