Heart - Live at The Royal Albert Hall With The RPO DVD review

Seattle rock sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson still resplendent.

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Heart Live at The Royal Albert Hall DVD cover

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Filmed playing to an emphatic and packed Royal Albert Hall this summer, Heart are all about the sisters Wilson – the rest of the chaps in the line-up appear more as hired hands than as band member equals.

Is anyone complaining though? Not in this enthusiastic audience, whose rousing reception is immediately rewarded with an assuredly devastating Magic Man. Melodically radiant and dynamically charged raven-haired lead vocalist Ann is the focal point, and proves to be an utterly compelling presence.

The arrival of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra gilds the epic Dreamboat Annie immeasurably, while guitar-shredding Nancy is a mesmerising accomplice.

With their judiciously compact set supplemented by an interview, this DVD memorably captures a rare British outing for the pioneering siblings, and does full justice to the Wilsons’ artful reach and stellar musicianship. Just as classy delivering contemporary Beautiful Broken as flamenco-fanfared classic Crazy On You and requisite Zeppelin cover No Quarter, this Heart is still beating strong.

Gavin Martin
Gavin Martin

Late NME, Daily Mirror and Classic Rock writer Gavin Martin started writing about music in 1977 when he published his hand-written fanzine Alternative Ulster in Belfast. He moved to London in 1980 to become the NME’s Media Editor and features writer, where he interviewed the Sex Pistols, Joe Strummer, Pete Townshend, U2, Bruce Springsteen, Ian Dury, Killing Joke, Neil Young, REM, Sting, Marvin Gaye, Leonard Cohen, Nina Simone, James Brown, Willie Nelson, Willie Dixon, Madonna and a host of others. He was also published in The Times, Guardian, Independent, Loaded, GQ and Uncut, he had pieces on Michael Jackson, Van Morrison and Frank Sinatra featured in The Faber Book Of Pop and Rock ’N’ Roll Is Here To Stay, and was the Daily Mirror’s regular music critic from 2001. He died in 2022.