“Live Over Europe” is a double DVD set released by SPV Records in recognition of, and as a celebration of, Axel’s show at the Rock Hard festival, Germany that took place on 25th May 2007. The first disc of the set features the bands full 75 minute show from the festival whilst the second disc is described as an “official bootleg”.

The main set features many of Pell’s biggest songs and, to be fair, he has chosen to play what most of his fans would want to hear and see. Incidentally for the sound buffs out there you get a choice of Dolby Digital 5:1 or 2 channel stereo. As I watched this show I was struck by the thought that when a band are having a concert filmed it is very much a case of getting things right first time, it’s not like an album where you can go back and re-record a part that you are unhappy with. Bearing that in mind “Live Over Europe” is very much a warts and all display, there are some odd notes flying around from Axel and on “Masquerade Ball / Casbah” I’m not sure everyone ends the song at the right time.

At times there is the feeling that Axel looks a bit anxious about what’s going on around him and there are moments when it appears the band are having either technical difficulties or problems with the monitor levels. This observation isn’t a way of saying the band were having an off night, far from it, if anything it adds to the realism of the event.

I am conscious that not everybody has the budget whilst making live DVD’s that say bands like Rush, Whitesnake or David Gilmour may have but what those DVD's do have is immense watch-a-bility thanks to clever and steady camera work. The one thing that kept me from embracing “Live Over Europe” was indeed some of the camera work. Some filmmakers seem to think that chopping between artists at a high rate of knots adds to the excitement and somehow captures the energy of a rock band. I have to say it just gets the viewer frustrated and it actually stops you from being able to get into the performance. Some of the camera shots that zoomed in and out really started to do my head in as it felt like the cameraman was experimenting with his viewfinder. I know I am probably sounding over critical here but the bottom line is this is a visual product under consideration and not a live CD. That being said the songs are great and the individual  performances are excellent, one of the highlights being Mike Terrana’s drum solo that is power personified and extremely impressive.

So what of the second disc labelled as an official bootleg. Well the description is spot on as that’s exactly what the various live films are. The band do put a comment on the start up menu informing you that many of the clips were filmed by amateurs and, as a result, sound and picture quality vary. There are two songs that have been professionally filmed and they are “Fool, Fool" from the 2005 Bang Your Head Festival  and “Strong As A Rock” from Wacken  in the same year. The footage is described as coming from Pell’s personal vault and, to be frank, I think some of them should have stayed there. The clips from Wacken and Bang Your head festival are excellent as are the acoustic songs filmed in 2006 (“Love Gun” and “Oceans Of Time”) and I feel they would have been better off putting these on the main disc as bonus features rather than including the second disc at all as I can’t see many people viewing the bootleg DVD more than once, or twice at the most.

As a package “Live Over Europe” could best be described as “less means more”. For Axel fans it will be un-miss able but I get the feeling that even the most ardent fan will feel that it could have been so much better considering the quality of material and musicians involved

Let us know your views on Live Over Europe

Track Listing

DVD 1 - Rock Hard Festival

Fly To The Moon
Strong As A Rock
The Masquerade Ball / Casbah
Drum Solo
Tear Down The Walls
Mystica
Rock The Nation
The Temple Of The King
Fool Fool
Call Her Princess

DVD 2 Official Bootleg

Sweden Rock Festival2004
Tear Down The Walls
Strong As A Rock
Bang Your Head Festival 2005
Fool Fool
Z7 Pratteln 2005
The Masquerade Ball / Casbah
Carousel (incl. Keyboard Solo)
The Temple Of The King
Call Her Princess
Bloodstock Festival 2006
Rock The Nation
Wacken Open Air 2005
Strong As A Rock
Zeche Bochum 2006
Love Gun
Oceans Of Time
Fly To The Moon
Mystica
Haunted Castle Serenade
Rock The Nation
Graspop 2005
Call Her Princess