{"id":41638,"date":"2009-08-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-08-15T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/live-dvd-2\/"},"modified":"2009-08-15T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-08-15T00:00:00","slug":"live-dvd-2","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/live-dvd-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Live (DVD)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The \u201880s really was a make-or-break decade.\u00a0 Some folks became superstars, while others \u2013 mainly those hungover from the distant and dark \u201870s \u2013 became obsolete.\u00a0 Lionel Richie became a superstar, largely on the back of his inoffensive but criminally catchy pop gems from his first three solo albums.\u00a0 His self-titled debut released in 1982 saw him successfully break away from The Commodores, spawning three top 5 singles in \u201cTruly,\u201d \u201cYou Are,\u201d and \u201cMy Love.\u201d<\/o:p><\/p>\n

His follow-up release would become one of the decade\u2019s most loved and played albums.\u00a0 Can\u2019t Slow Down<\/i> was a perfect blend of catchy, funk-inspired pop songs and Richie\u2019s by-now trademark love songs.\u00a0 The album spent all of 1984 in the Billboard Top Ten, all the while sending five of its eight songs to the singles Top Ten charts.\u00a0 Three times a charm?\u00a0 For Lionel it was as his third solo LP 1986\u2019s Dancing On The Ceiling<\/i> that kept the sales skyrocketing and the hits coming in astonishing numbers.\u00a0 With four more Top Ten singles and new videos for the ever-hungry MTV crowd, Richie cemented his place in the decade as one of pop\u2019s most celebrated and bankable artists.\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

His output in recent years has seen him tackle the dance pop and R&B of modern times, with varying degrees of success.\u00a0 A couple of years back, his wisest decision was to go back out on the road and tour a Greatest Hits show for the fans.\u00a0 This DVD captures the tour during its European leg in Paris and finds Richie and his band in awesome form.\u00a0 All the hits are represented with much love and fanfare, and for the diehards, some classic Commodore material sneaks into the latter half of the set with ease.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The show opens with the two lead singles from his last two albums: \u201cJust For You\u201d gets the job done, though I could do without \u201cI Call It Love.\u201d\u00a0 However, it\u2019s the hits that everyone wants to hear, and Richie wastes no time in delivering just that.\u00a0 A majestic seven-minute version of \u201cEasy\u201d has the crowd in raptures, jut as it should.\u00a0 For good measure, Richie throws in a chorus of \u201cMy Love\u201d before thrilling the crowd again with \u201cBallerina Girl,\u201d a beautiful song in anyone\u2019s language.\u00a0 Another mega-selling ballad, \u201cStuck On You\u201d is delivered with soul and flair before the band brings the house down with a show-stopping, blistering rendition of \u201cDancing On The Ceiling.\u201d<\/o:p><\/p>\n

New track \u201cAll Around The World\u201d sits quite comfortably between two more hits in \u201cThree Times A Lady\u201d and the feel good funk of \u201cSela.\u201d\u00a0 Richie prompts the ladies in the house to take the Diana Ross part of \u201cEndless Love,\u201d which, of course, they\u2019re more than happy to do.\u00a0 He then eases through Commodore specials like \u201cSail On,\u201d \u201cLady (You Bring Me Up),\u201d and \u201cBrick House.\u201d\u00a0 The band races through \u201cFancy Dancer\u201d to allow Richie a short break and shirt change before returning to the stage and closing out what is a fantastic show.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

His much-maligned (mainly for the unforgettable video) ballad \u201cHello\u201d is here in it\u2019s original form, and the crowd once again sings along, unprompted, but to the sheer delight of Mr. Richie.\u00a0 I have to say, there\u2019s a great rapport between Richie and his audience on display here, one I\u2019m sure many of his contemporaries would envy.\u00a0 A medley of \u201cDon\u2019t Stop,\u201d \u201cAngel,\u201d and \u201cDestiny\u201d follows, and by this time, the crowd is so well and truly punch drunk on Richie\u2019s soulful gems that they resort to chanting their ovations.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Richie is an expert showman, an old pro, and so saving two of his very best to close out the show is a no-brainer.\u00a0 \u201cSay You, Say Me\u201d gives the band another chance to flex their considerable muscle, and it\u2019s always a nice surprise when a song works even better live than on record.\u00a0 Of course, the show ends with the full version of \u201cAll Night Long.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s an iconic song and the perfect choice to cap off what has been an exceptional display of how great pop can sound when it\u2019s done right.\u00a0 Richie\u2019s band is worked in like a well-oiled machine but they are never machinelike, delivering every song with soul and surprising power.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

As for Lionel himself, he is a master entertainer; he knows what his fans want and is more than happy to let them have it.\u00a0 His easygoing nature, friendly banter, and natural charisma all make it impossible not to like him.\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s because he\u2019s such a loveable kind of guy that he can pull off stuff like \u201cHello\u201d where perhaps others couldn\u2019t. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

This is a fantastic DVD in all aspects; it looks and sounds great and is expertly edited.\u00a0 So if you love your 1980\u2019s pop stars, then this is a must-have, because Lionel is one of the daddies of \u201880s pop and he still does it so well.\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

There is, however, one thing that I\u2019m still no wiser about.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been to enough parties to know what goes down, but I\u2019ve never seen nor heard of anyone \u201climing.\u201d\u00a0 So if anyone knows, please let me in, \u2019cause I feel I\u2019ve been missing out on something big, very big.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":30008,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7363],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-41638","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-lionel-richie","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41638"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}