£15.00
**Please note that this DVD is only available in PAL European format**
“ The band that plays together, stays together.” I often say that.
I also say: “Playing in this band is so easy”
....and: “These guys can play anything”.
All these statements are largely true, but it was not always so. It’s
been a long and sometimes hard 41 year journey for me. Wishbone Ash -
the band of my dreams - has come a long way. As this rockumentary
DVD shows ( and my ol’ mum says ) the proof is in the pudding - this
DVD. The greater Wishbone Ash family of musicians has had its ups and
downs over the years, for sure. Everyone knows that, but good music
comes out of dynamic tension - struggle, if you will. Blood, sweat and
tears got us to where we are today. The result is the legacy of a
great band and its music from all four decades of its existence.
I’m proud.
A lot of the lessons from the past go in to the continuation of this
band’s creative efforts. The band is the thing. The dream lives on!
Teamwork produces great results. That has taken me literally years to
figure out. You can see it clearly in the scenes from this, sometimes,
but not - always flattering, DVD. Team work also figured greatly in
our video team during the summer of 2009. Director Christian Guyonnet
(whose idea this project was ) with veteran cameraman Christophe Petit
and editor Mikael Samson, did a great job collectively as a team. Our
audio engineer, Stephan Ernst really surpassed himself capturing
everything faithfully under often difficult and makeshift conditions.
It was a brave decision by us, to get a French perspective on the
band, since everyone knows the French documentary tradition always
goes that little bit further, rarely shirking from showing the human
condition, warts and all. A lot of faith and trust is needed from the
artist to allow all of this to be displayed, but I was happy to hand
things over to Christian, a no nonsense professional. It was also
through him that we were introduced to our charming hosts, Michel and
Nathalie Journo who opened their house ( and wine cellar ) to the Ash.
Rock & Roll is sometimes hard to play host to, but these folks ( now
firm friends ) did it with both style and grace.
I question whether, back in the day, Wishbone Ash could or would have
allowed such an intimate view behind the scenes during the creation of
our music. It’s not always a warm and fuzzy feeling watching yourself
struggle through the creative process. You have to be prepared to open
yourself up. As a drummer looking for the groove for example or in my
case, when playing the rôle of band leader or in Christian’s case, as
director working to get the results he was looking for. Christian had
a very subtle technique and an almost soft way of cajoling us to
produce the results he was after. Though, we were mostly unaware when
he and his camera team would come in for a ‘sneak attack.’ That is the
true skill of the documentarist.
The DVD is finally complete after struggling for over a year with the
financing and time constraints of all of us plus our crazy tour
schedule. Last week we asked that Christian and our editor, Mikael,
produce for you, a 3 minute ‘teaser’ of the hour long DVD rockumentary
“This Is Wishbone Ash”. There’s nothing more to add other than I’m
really pleased with the result and hope you enjoy it too,
Andy Powell