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The Live Collection is a DVD partner to 2004's not entirely accurate double CD compilation, All The Best. It's a collection of performances from almost every solo tour since 1985, which was in support of Tina Turner's surprising, but welcome, comeback album Private Dancer.
Similarly to the CD set, The Live Collection is not entirely truthful. The chief title All The Best is somewhat misleading - although practically every live performance on this DVD is of high quality, certain songs lack spark and verve.
Take Turner's naff Cher-like single When The Heartache Is Over for example. As it was a hit single in the UK and elsewhere, it irritatingly takes precedence over the annoying avoidance of the criminally underrated Undercover Agent For The Blues and the almost equally forgotten Whatever You Want. On Silent Wings and Typical Male meanwhile don't even get an airing in this collection. It also seems very peculiar that performances from her massive Break Every Rule tour in the late 1980s are not present.
It is great though to see the obscure Show Some Respect and her robust cover of John Waite's classic song Missing You in the line-up. Yet it seems odd that perhaps her most famous single The Best is not included in the main set list, but can instead be found lurking in the extras page along with a few other songs and an enlightening interview.
Aside from the first track Steamy Windows - where the audio is taken from Turner's very professional 1994 What's Love Live American tour, synchronised over a montage of random clips - the rest of the collection is straight-forward performances from various tours. All of them show Turner's unmatchable talent to entertain live.
She may not have sold as many albums as Mariah Carey or Madonna and her last album lacked the raw R&B power and energy of much of her best work, her live concerts have never suffered. In fact her uncanny ability as a live performer improves in some way during and after every tour. Particularly since her famed concert in Rio de Janeiro in 1988 - which at the time was the biggest concert ever - her tours have grown more glossy and professional with bigger stages and tighter choreography.
Turner is one of those rare performers who can match the sheer size and scale of the stage and overall spectacle of her show - which is easily on par with the likes of AC/DC and Kiss - and plausibly balance it with the quality of her live music.
Her huge audience attendances garnered during her mammoth global treks, as witnessed on her purported final world tour in 2000, only goes to show that as a pensioner she has an enduring appeal and charisma. She can still sing Proud Mary and Nutbush City Limits without the making you cringe - and that's one hell of an achievement in itself.
As talk of Tina Turner making a touring comeback is heightening amongst dedicated fans, it seems the world stage will always call out to her. It's only a matter of time before she puts on one of her famous short skirts and a pair of black stilettos and walks back on stage in front of thousands of screaming fans - it's a God given gift that can't be ignored.
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