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It is only in the past couple of years that record companies appear to have finally realised the full potential of the DVD format; not just as a way of recycling pop videos and concert footage but as a means of promoting previously released material.
Thus this DVD by the London-based boy band features, as its centrepiece, several tracks from recent third album, Guilty, recorded at a special live show in front of an invited audience of fans. Just in case anyone doesn't get the point, there's also the video of the album's title track and an "exclusive" interview in which the boys talk extensively about, you guessed it, the third album, as well as sundry fluff about songwriting and getting to the top.
Music biz types call this use of one product to flog another product "synergy"; rather more cynical types call it "craven exploitation". It's hard to see, however, how the fans could be disappointed with something that has been put together as thoughtfully as this particular package.
The concert footage is pleasingly intimate, even if the songs do all start to blur together into one after about the third number. The boys also come over as suitably sincere and appreciative of their fans in the "exclusive" interview, although it rarely rises above the level of "what's your favourite colour" Smash Hits fodder.
While insights into writing songs with Gary Barlow and the more guitar-based direction of the third album may be fascinating for diehard fans (which, let's face it, is the target audience for this DVD), it does tend to date the footage.
No doubt, fans will also welcome the inclusion of the video for Guilty (something else discussed in the interview), but it's hard to see the point of lots of people running around with flags and getting wet in what looks like a nuclear power station.
Rather more endearing is the archive footage of the band performing debut single All Rise, on SM:TV Live and a particularly effective performance of Riders from this year's Brit Awards, suggesting that the band's early youthful enthusiasm hasn't quite been dissipated by the treadmill of Saturday morning television and teeny-bopper magazine photo shoots.
There's even a suitably festive touch, a special rendition of Lonely This Christmas, taped for CD:UK. No prizes for guessing what's going to be top of the wish list for Blue fans this Christmas. One thing's for sure, they won't be disappointed.
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