FEATURED CD - Nektar : Live At NEARfest 2002

**Duncan Glenday** · 08-13-2014

Because so many of us were there for this incredible event, or the equally good Heepfest appearance ... this DVD might bring back a few memories.

Per a few Amazon reviews:

Review 1 :

This a very good way to discover this underrated band. This is what progressive music is all about. Long and complex compositions that have enough emotion in it to keep it interesting. Not a bad song on this show. There is also some interesting visuals on the screen. A must for the prog fans. This DVD show's you how the 70's music is still enjoyable today.

Review 2 :

It may have been 26 years between Nektar performances, but from this showing, you would never believe it. Absolutely scinillating(sp)and magical. The music is marvellous, the interviews are quite entertaining and informative and the camera work is very solid. Having seen the show live, I can say the DVD captured the feeling as well as any recorded show I have seen before. For Nektar fans this is a MUST have; and for those who may wish to sample brilliant progressive rock, then this is still for you

Review 3 - by a PE friend, who can identify himself if he likes :

I want to make one thing clear from the outset: this is not a slam against NEKTAR. My disappointment with this DVD is with Classic Rock Productions which, after watching the show, I surmise must be run by a bunch of amateurs.

I shall admit at the outset that I've been spoiled by the PINK FLOYD concert films. I know that NEKTAR does not have that level of financial clout. And therein lies the rub.

If I had to offer one criticism to CRP it would be on the value of editing so as to bring balance and enhance your product.

Cameras were often moving without purpose or focus; one sequence of bassist Mo Moore reveals the recorder beginning to drop his camera once he was finished with his shot. Embarrassingly awkward angles were taken of the band members, sometimes with no relation to the music. Some, Ron Howden & Larry Fast, hardly make any screen time. Way, way, way too much time was spent filming the mediocre back up singers. (Methinks there was either a love interest or a family relation.) And, just as with the CD, the recording of the vocals was maddeningly uneven.

But the low point for me was that insipid interviewer. I would have loved to have watched a serious interview of the band members discussing their past, as well as the present & future plans. Yet we see this awkward woman vamping the long-retired themes of sex and drugs. It's sad, but someone must have a talk with her and tell her what time it is.

However, I must confess to one guilty pleasure. It was when the young fan was asked about sex at the concert and, without missing a beat, he shot back that he was not interested given the overwhelmingly male attendance. I laughed out loud.

http://www.amazon.com/Nektar-Live-20...+NEARfest+2002

(I'm not sure if this video was taken at NEARfest, or at the Heepfest later that year.)

**JKL2000** · 08-13-2014

Is this the same tour Nektar played BB King's along with Caravan?

**HONDO** · 08-14-2014

[QUOTE=JKL2000;293877]Is this the same tour Nektar played BB King's along with Caravan?[/QUOTE

No I do not think so. I saw them along with Caravan in Atlanta in 2004 I do believe. But my memory is not so good anymore so I may be wrong

**GuitarGeek** · 08-14-2014

This was the NEARfest performance, which I was at. Great, great show. They played all of Remember The Future (for the first time ever by the original lineup), and I think all of A Tab In The Ocean, as well as a big chunk of Recycled (part of which they had to repeat for the final encore because apparently the cameramen weren't done changing reels when they launched into it in the middle of the set). It was the first performance by the original lineup 26 or whatever it was years, the first Nektar performance of any lineup in about 20 years, Mick Brockett did the lights, and I believe it was said this was also the first time the original lineup had played Remember The Future in it's entirety (albeit with a bunch of other classics in between the two LP sides).

Unfortunately, this is one of the most frustrating DVD's I've ever seen. My big gripe is some "genius" had this idea to snip out the Remember The Future sequence (they played side one, I think as the second number, and side two came at the end of the set), apparently with the intention of releasing it as a separate DVD (which never came out). We get just the Let It Grow section of RTF on this DVD.

And I think they also chopped up some of the other songs and moved them around. And I know for sure they ruined the Recycled portion of the performance by inserting an interview segment before It's All Over Now (on the night, it was a perfect segue).

I know a lot of people were unhappy with the visuals on the DVD, for instance the business with the vintage footage of them riding bicycles and handing out flowers at the train station during A Tab In The Ocean itself, or the computer animated elephant during Nellie The Elephant, etc. But I think a lot of that stuff was used because Mick Brockett was using a lot of movie footage in the light show. I remember seeing bits of 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Abyss, I think maybe Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, and I think there were one or two things I recognized that I'm forgetting now. I remember someone else pointing out that they remembered seeing Blue Meanies, so apparently there was a bit of Yellow Submarine, and I found out later the crashing waves that opened the concert came from the beginning of A.I. Presumably, for them to actually use any one of those on the commercial release would have cost more than the entire budget of the concert, the DVD, and probably most of the other concert performances the band has given since then combined. So they had to insert something in there, to keep the solicitors at bay.

I think this could have been a fantastic DVD, but whoever it was who came up with the idea of splitting up the performance and inserting the interviews into the "main feature" dropped the ball like a Cleveland Browns wide receiver. So instead, we get a "just decent but could have been better" item. Oh, and my friend Roy can be seen in the opening, so that's kinda cool too.

And we never did get to see that vintage footage of them doing Good Day that was supposed to be on the Remember The Future DVD as well.

**GuitarGeek** · 08-14-2014

[QUOTE=HONDO;293885]

Originally Posted by JKL2000

Is this the same tour Nektar played BB King's along with Caravan?[/QUOTE

No I do not think so. I saw them along with Caravan in Atlanta in 2004 I do believe. But my memory is not so good anymore so I may be wrong

Yes, the Nektar/Caravan tour was in 2004. I remember because I wore my Remember The Future t-shirt to every single concert I went to that summer, with the intention of telling people about the Cleveland show, should anyone recognize the shirt. Just as had happened at nearly every show I wore that shirt to (Rush being the lone exception), at least one person recognized the shirt at each show. Even when I went to see Boston, a couple guys recognized it. When I went to see Yes and Dream Theater together, I met one guy was from out of town, but when I gave him the date of the Nektar/Caravan show (it was sometime in October), he realized he'd be back in town that week again. So I felt like I was helping promoting the show, the tour, and doing what I could to help make the show a success.

The problem was, I was telling everyone the show was going to be at the Odeon, but for whatever reason, that situation got frelled up, and they booked the show into the Agora Ballroom instead, which wouldn't have been so bad if they had actually had a chance to properly publicize it. But the Agora didn't announce the show until a couple weeks before it happened. So there ended up only being about 100-200 people at the show. Not that I thought they would have sold out at the Odeon or there would have been a huge crowd, just because some dork in a Remember The Future t-shirt was telling people about the concert all summer long (wait a minute, that's the wrong band), but it really stunk that the things played out the way they did. Talk about your Spinal Tap moments. Oy!

**Rarebird** · 08-14-2014

This was my first DVD and I hoped to find the second DVD later, but it never was released. I have the CD, which seems to have the complete concert.

**flowerking** · 08-14-2014

Its sad that the second DVD never came out so that we could have the full concert. It makes this DVD somewhat disappointing. Also, the performances were not crisp but then you wouldn't necessarily expect that of a band who had not performed together in 26 years and at least one member, Mo Moore, was long out of music.

The 2004 tour with Caravan was a different lineup - Roye, Ron Howard and different (a much younger) guys on keyboard and bass. I believe it was this incarnation of the band that released the 2005 DVD, Pure.

**Mick** · 08-14-2014

IMO, the double CD of that same 2001 Nearfest show is actually better than this DVD.
I say this only because I was actually hoping that after 40 years I might finally have a visual record of a complete show which included my full stage projections. The suits won, I lost.
It is true that short sections of well over sixty "well known" movies were used to portray the lyrics and themes of many classic Nektar pieces, all superimposed by the original liquids and effects from the seventies, which (again IMO) created my artistic interpretation of those same movies (without sound) to depict specific meanings of the Nektar songs ... an argument which COULD have been resolved peacably if anybody had given a damn. The full stage footage WAS shot... however, it disappeared sometime during the editing process, replaced by the aforementioned pink elephant, the Good-day movie (which was used in "Tab") and extra stage footage of the band members.
The bottom line is that unless you were actually AT a Nektar show... there is now no way to ever experience one, as cameras could never really capture it anyway, thus the reunion period became the absolute last chance to attempt to re-create it. That was twelve years ago, meanwhile time has taken its' toll on my equipment (my 3 remaining Aldis 1000 watt projectors are now over 50 years old), and like a guitarist who doesn't play every day... no calouses or routine to keep all that gear working.
This DVD is probably the closest you'll get to seeing classic Nektar, and it is true that THIS show was our first dress rehearsal together since the seventies. It's just a shame it wasn't a FULL video of that show and despite all the drawbacks of the production, that DVD really WAS the last chance to record a REAL Nektar show for posterity.

**rickawakeman** · 08-14-2014

I was at this show, and iirc didn't the band perform the last number twice to get it "right" for the cameras? I don't have this DVD but do have and enjoy the "Pure-Live in Germany" DVD.

**Casey** · 08-14-2014

It's ok Glendon. I am reviewer #3.

I haven't read my review in a long time, but I still stand by what I wrote. It was great to see one of my favorite bands reunited & playing the music that I love. I just wish it was filmed better. But it's the only chance I had - or will ever have- of seeing the classic Nektar line up in concert. Mick, at least we get to see you if not your visuals.

I ordered the "Pure" DVD back when Roy Clay was at the helm. Never received it... Or my refund.

**Sturgeon's Lawyer** · 08-14-2014

I also was at this show. The sound mix at first was very bad - we couldn't hear Roye's guitar at all where I was sitting. The friend I travelled from California with for the show actually went back to the mixing booth to complain.

But it was a great show for all that. By the time they finished the second number, the mix was great, and the performance was just electric (and electrifying).

The CD that came from it? Well, to me the sound is a bit muddy, but it's a great souvenir of a great concert.

**Duncan Glenday** · 08-14-2014

Originally Posted by Casey

I am reviewer #3.

**jgprogbear** · 08-14-2014

I recall sitting first row center balcony for this show. And when I saw the DVD had no recollection of the "visuals" on the DVD being what I saw at the show.

**markowitz** · 08-14-2014

The CD is great. The DVD I'm glad to own, but echo the feelings of others about what might have been. Still, it was a dream come true to have the original lineup reunite, have it recorded, videoed, and some touring afterwards. Thanks to all in the band and others who made the reunion possible at Nearfest and elsewhere. Nektar, the "bees knees" of prog rock for me. Anyone who has never heard these guys and is on this site really should check them out. What a wide range of styles, always high quality.

**Casey** · 08-14-2014

Maybe this should be a thread all by itself, but I'm curious how this reunion all got started. Mick...?

I remember the renewed interest during my first desert deployment. The internet is a wonderful thing.

**bobert** · 08-14-2014

I think that the performance from Nektar was amazing considering how long it had been since they played together. I also have the DVD but am glad I grabbed the double cd set , since the DVD did not have the whole show on it .
This was a show that I intended to see in person and really hated to miss being the long time Nektar fan that I am. But at least I have this to enjoy.

**Sturgeon's Lawyer** · 08-14-2014

bobert: I'm pretty sure the double CD set doesn't have the whole show either - I have a pretty clear memory of "Marvellous Moses." Though I could have dreamed it I don't think so.

**flowerking** · 08-15-2014

Originally Posted by rickawakeman

didn't the band perform the last number twice to get it "right" for the cameras?

They replayed the opening part of Recycled to start their encore. They said something about running out of film but I'm guessing they either made some mistakes or had audio problems requiring that they replay the opening.

**GuitarGeek** · 08-15-2014

Originally Posted by flowerking

They replayed the opening part of Recycled to start their encore. They said something about running out of film but I'm guessing they either made some mistakes or had audio problems requiring that they replay the opening.

Mo gave a speech about a third of the way into the set, supposedly to kill time while the camera crew were changing reels. Apparently, the speech didn't go on long enough, and the band launched into the Recycled suite before the camera crew were ready. Or at least, that's what they said before the encore. I'm not sure they'd be too aware of "mistakes" or "audio problems" on the night, without listening back to the tapes.

**nearfest** · 08-15-2014

it was on the fly camera edit. Why? No idea, it must have been cheaper for the Carruthers fellow from Classic Rock.

This show came about when Mark Powell (Esoteric Records) called me and said "What about a Nektar reunion for one of your headliners?" after we had booked Caravan through him for the other day's slate. I called Chad. Neither of us were very familiar with the band's music at that point, although we obviously knew of them and their wide popularity in the Northeast in the 1970s. I called Ken Golden and he was like "Nektar reunion? Are you f'ing kidding me? Book that now and you will sell out nearly instantly." Mark called me a couple of weeks later and said that it was the full classic band with Mick on lights and Mo on bass.

**Mike Potter** · 08-15-2014

Is the DVD from NearFest or is it from the show done later that year presented by Classic Rock Productions?

**nearfest** · 08-15-2014

this DVD is from NEARfest

**ronmac** · 08-16-2014

Originally Posted by Sturgeon's Lawyer

bobert: I'm pretty sure the double CD set doesn't have the whole show either - I have a pretty clear memory of "Marvellous Moses." Though I could have dreamed it I don't think so.

Regretfully, I never heard about this until after the fact. I did, however, get a soundboard copy of the entire gig. I don't recall MM being on it, but might have to double check that.

It really sucks that I didn't get to see it first-hand, but am glad they got together. And I'm happy to have seem them a few times since, although not the original line-up.