Electric Prunes

One of the ultimate 60's psychedelia acts, the Electric Prunes recently released their first album in over thirty years, 'Artifact', and also toured Britain. Anthony Strutt examines their new concert DVD, 'Rewired'

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For those of you who are not part of the DVD generation and a lot of people are not, a DVD (Digital Video Disc) is a 5 inch disc, which is the same size as a CD, but which stores moving pictures and sound. The picture quality and sound is stunning, and DVDs do not flicker like dodgy, not well produced videos. DVDs are mostly the price of an album but most music DVDs do retail at about £ 18,00. Apart from the main feature, you get lots of bonus extracts. 'Rewired' is a 65 minute concert film of a show performed in Brighton last October by the reformed 60's American group Electric Prunes on a recent British tour. 'Rewired' is the perfect psychedelic trip and is recorded in beautiful trip style images. If you have never done LSD, and you shouldn't, this is the closest you will get without the withdrawal symptons. It consists of 9 old songs including a tripped out "I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night' and also several numbers from their new album and first record in 34 years, 'Artifact''. It is a great introduction to acid rock. There are also various bonuses. The first of these bonuses lasts 8 minutes and is called simply "Review'. If features an interview with bass player Mark Tulin about the band's choice of tracks for the gig and why they are there. The second bonus is entitled 'The Making of Artifact' and, lasting 13 minutes, is a diary of the band recording the album. Best of all, however, amongst the bonuses , however, is a 31 minute 'Rewired' tour overview which was filmed by Cameron Lowe , the son of chief Electric Prune James Lowe. This is a great on the road tour diary which shows footage of the whole tour and shows the band’s sound checking, travelling on the road, and also playing other live tracks than just those at Brighton.The biggest surprise is an interview with a fan who is a sister of one of the members of 1,000 Violins. There is also cracking live footage of the Damned playing 'New Rose' at the Canterbury Fayre, one of the stops on the Prunes tour I’m sure there are lots of Easter Eggs on this too. Easter Eggs are very secret tracks on DVDs which you have to learn how to find them before you can access their film or audio clip. I found one by mistake of a singing mouthorgan playing 'Egg Man'.