Texas-Paris DVD

Texas Paris is a visual record of some of the group's best tunes played live, along with the original promotional videos. Unlike most bands who are usually never even given one chance to make it big, Texas were lucky enough to be given multiple opportunities to become successful. Despite securing a Top 10 hit in 1989, with "I Don't Want a Lover" it wasn't until seven years later, riding on the crest of the Brit-pop phase that the group were to gain long-term popularity. The concert in Paris has added significance, because of the cult 1984 Wim Wenders film Paris, Texas... a favourite film of both Sharleen and Johnny and the motivating factor for their choice of the band name. The concert footage is shot superbly well, and has real atmosphere--you feel that you're at the Palais de Bercy rather than at some characterless out-of-town arena in the southeast of England. The electricity of this recording is stirred up further by Spiteri's excellent rapport with the audience, and her amazing stage and vocal performances. The selection of songs and running order is well balanced, with the concert kicking off with their more up-tempo tunes such as "Black Eyed Boy", descending down a notch or two to their slower numbers ("Tired of Being Alone" and "So In Love With You") and then climaxing with favourites such as "Say What You Want". Although she fails to don the latex mask and the stick on side-burns, clad in leather Sharleen's live performance of "Inner Smile" is almost as good (and Elvis-like) as the infamous promotional video for this track. On the DVD: The disc is jam-packed with both the excellent concert footage and videos. Both the concert tracks and the promotional videos can be accessed individually or played together. For DVD-ROM users there are also two exclusive Texas screen-savers. Coming across a tad arrogant in such footage, the DVD also includes a previously unseen interview with Sharleen Spiteri, which covers issues ranging from the group's formation to their recent global success. There's also exclusive live film of Sharleen's acoustic performance at Madonna's February 2001 concert at Brixton Academy, London. --John Galilee [show more]

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