MUSICDVDs

The latest releases reviewed.

DON LETTS The Punk Rock Movie EMI ***

Long before Kaiser Chiefs were singing about predicting riots, the likes of Don Letts - the Notting Hill rasta DJ who back in the day oversaw the music output at London punk club The Roxy - was filming the likes of The Clash and X-Ray Spex going through splenetic riots of their own. This amazing DVD gathers Letts's nascent, almost primitive visual recordings of the bands that spawned many imitators. In 1977 The Roxy was the hub of the UK punk scene; it was the dive (a former rent boy hangout, now a sports clothes shop!) that Siouxsie and the Banshees, Sex Pistols, Subway Sect, and Johnny Thunders & the Heartbreakers ripped up and rewrote the rock'n'roll handbook. The sound is occasionally rank, but the extra documentary, featuring a lengthy interview with John Lydon (recorded in 1983 for a VHS reissue) and the sight of the Sex Pistols surging through Pretty Vacant and New York is a total blast. Tony Clayton-Lea

DUSTY SPRINGFIELD Full Circle Universal Pictures Video ****

Mary Isabel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien, to give her her real name, was one of the greatest soul singers of all time. This documentary more than does her justice: it takes us from the glory days of the 1960s through to the so-called lost decades and up to her return in the 1990s. Along with telling contributions from the likes of Martha Reeves, Elvis Costello and Jerry Wexler, we get some fantastic footage from Springfield's TV appearances. She sounds great on tracks such as I Only Want to Be With You, Wishin' and Hopin' and Son of a Preacher Man. The picture that emerges is of a thoughtful, modest person who never seemed able to understand her popularity or, indeed, her amazing vocal talent. Just two small gripes: I'm not sure about the French and Saunders interview ("Dusty, tell us about your brother, Bruce Springsteen") and, at 50-odd minutes. this is a bit on the short side. Otherwise, it's a fitting tribute to a remarkable performer. Brian Boyd