Happy Mondays – Call The Cops (1990/Eagle DVD)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C+     Extras: D     Film: C+

 

 

Formed in 1980, Happy Mondays were always more popular overseas than they were in the U.S., though they always had their audience among fans of New Wave, Alternate Rock and Dance.  They also had their tours, which always attracted loyal fans and some of all of that is on display in Call The Cops, a 1990 film about the band that is part concert, part documentary.  It fares better when they are singing, as the other footage seems choppy and thrown in.

 

We see the band getting ready to play, talk about things here and there and offer off-hand comments, but it is never anything more.  Add that this only runs for 56 minutes and it tries to do too much in too little time.  Songs include:

 

1)     Step On

2)     Clap Your Hands

3)     Kinky Afro

4)     Lazyitis (One Armed Boxer)

5)     Rave On

6)     Do It Better

7)     Performance

8)     God’s Cop

9)     Hallelujah

10)  Wrote For Luck

 

 

They are not bad in concert and the point of this film was to give the band a new boost.  It worked as they had more hits in the U.S. than before, yet they would break up 1992.  They have reformed several times since, but this is a nice capturing of the original version of the band at their peak.

 

The 1.33 X 1 image was shot in 16mm film and though that is nice, the transfer of the material looks like it is from an older analog master, so it is too soft throughout and has aliasing issues all over to boot.  It will have to be upgraded when for Blu-ray.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is also not bad, does not suffer from being a few generations down, but does not have the best stereo separation all the time.  There are sadly no extras.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo