Damian Wilson Band
DVD: Cheers Lads! Live in Zoetermeer
Label: Blacklake
Tracks: 22 plus
Website: http://www.damian-wilson.net/

Firstly, I must apologise, because when I review a CD, I try and make sure I listen to it at least four or five times, before writing, in order to get to know the material. With a DVD that isn't so easy. In general, a DVD is a lot longer than a CD, and I can't play them on my car stereo, so there's no chance of listening on my daily commute round the M25. As "The Damian Wilson Band. Cheers Lads! Live in Zoetemeer" is a double DVD, I'm afraid I have only had time to listen to most of it just once, so far.

"Live in Zoetemeer" is a re-release, the concert having taken place in 2009, and the double DVD having first gone on sale in 2011, and subsequently sold out before I became aware of Damian.

I think that there's a fairly high chance that you probably haven't heard of Damian Wilson as, at least in the UK, he hasn't yet received the media recognition he deserves, but I also think that there is a pretty good chance that you have heard him, because he is an absoloute master of many different genres.

For a start, if you have ever seen the stage musical Les Miserables, you might well have seen Damian. He played the role of Jean Valjean for two years, commencing in the West End and then touring the UK with the production. He is the lead singer of an Iron Maiden tribute band called Maiden uniteD. As a singer songwriter he plays acoustically at folk clubs either solo or with his brother, Paul Jude Wilson and he's even been involved with Ayreon, who make rock operas.

But it is in the progressive rock world where he is most famous. He was vocalist for Rick Wakeman's English Rock Ensemble; lead singer with Threshold, who have been nominated as the best band of the year 2015 for the Orange Progressive music awards; lead singer for Headspace (who could well be my favourite prog rock band), and he has played with a vast number of other bands including Praying Mantis, Landmarq and Mostly Autumn.

The first DVD, coming in at just a couple of minutes short of two and a half hours features a recording of an entire live performance of the concert at Zoetermeer including a short support set from Paul, a total of twenty two songs in total. The show started with a full electric band session playing a Landmarq song, (Forever Young), an Ayreon song, (Into The Black Hole), a Rick Wakeman song, (Arthur) and even a Yes song, (Starship Trooper).

After this, the line up changed, and then continued to change throughout the night. Bassist Kristoffer Gildenflow and guitarist Ruud Jolie left the stage, leaving Dirk Bruinenberg on drums and Chris Mars on keyboards. Instead Damian was joined by his brother, Paul, along with a second keyboard player Nic Slack, and then gradually the band members came and went so that at one time it was just Damian solo, but by the end of the evening all of the band were together.

They played some excellent tracks, including my two favourite Damian songs, "Homegrown" and "When I Leave This Land".

Arjen Lucassen (Ayreon) was there in the audience, and when they played "Into The Black Hole" Damian tried to get him to join them on stage, feigning that he had forgotten the lyrics. Arjen called his bluff by claiming that he, too, had forgotten the lyrics. In the closing stages of the concert though, they played a second Ayreon track, "The Castle Hall", and were joined on vocals by Robert Soeterboek, another musician from Ayreon.

But this is a two DVD package, not just the DVD of the Zoetermeer concert. The second DVD is longer than the first and comes in just shy of three hours. The Zoetermeer concert was only one gig on a European tour, and they had filmed the rest, but only recorded the audio professionally at Zoetermeer. There were several songs that were played at other venues on the tour that didn't get included on disc one, so they've included some collages of those with the sound directly recorded from the cameras. As well as that, there's a documentary shot from behind the scenes during the tour. The main feature of the second DVD, however, is another documentary entitled "20 Years Of Avoiding A Job".

I almost didn't bother to watch it, as I thought I wouldn't be very interested in seeing Damian standing outside some block of flats saying this is where he first busked, etc. As it turned out, it is the best documentary I have ever seen. Extremely emotional, it had me in tears. Damian basically analyses the lyrics of a couple of his songs, ("When I Leave This Land" and "Part Of Me") and in so doing reveals his life story.

Loved the video of the concert, and am sure that as it covers acoustic, electric, folk, prog, rock and heavy metal, there will be something there that appeals to everyone but "20 Years Of Avoiding A Job" is just so good, I'd have bought the DVD just for that. If you hadn't bought the DVD in 2011, definitely something you ought to add to your collection now.

Pete Bradley