Product: Bond - Live at the Royal Albert Hall (2001)
Rating: 4.0
Shaken - Not stirred
I am in love with Haylie, the lead violinist. She's the cutest fiddler you'll ever see. And she plays as good as she looks! In fact, they all do.I discovered Bond through listening to Vanessa Mae, who was also produced by Mike Batt early on in her career. Batt has been able to tap into something with these artists to make them a commercial success. It's a blending of classical and pop, culture and curves, high brow and vegas, bach and buttocks (get the idea?). The essential ingredients are 1) talent and 2) looks. Both Mae and Bond qualify, although the talent part is always going to be debated by the classical purists.In this DVD you get a good sense of what Bond is all about. The video and audio are excellent, except for the times when the members are speaking to the audience and it sounds like you're listening from the backstage area. The performances are good, although like the other reviewer one wonders if there isn't some syncing going on. There are bonuses as well, with videos and interviews of Bond which I enjoyed.The problem with this DVD is that it's a bit overdone. A little butt-shaking is fine, but an hour of it can get old, even with Haylie. The final number (Victory Reprise) has dancers and musicians all over the stage in a frenzied free-for-all. Vanessa Mae's perfomance at the Royal Albert Hall was a much more balanced approach in my opinion. Unlike Bond she played a few classical pieces. It would have been great to see them play a couple of classical quartet pieces to showcase their classical skills and counter the discolike pieces during the rest of the performance. Hopefully Bond will be able to capture that balance in the future.