Andy Bell and Vince Clark are best known for their 80's style electro-pop music. Andy makes no secret about his sexuality and as a result his performances can range wildly (small pun intended). From "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" (which I heard him sing at the Milton Keynes Bowl on the Wild! Tour) to "Gimme, Gimme, Gimme" (from the Abba-e s q u e EP - sorry for the spaces but the IMDb spell-check insists on changing it to esquire), Andy demonstrates the amazing versatility of his voice.
The Road to Nashville was filmed at the Ryman Auditorium, the former home of the Grand Ole Opry, on May 6th 2006. Part of the Tour surrounding the album "Union Street", which, with the assistance of Steve Walsh, was the Band's foray in to producing existing Erasure songs with more than a small hint of Country.
I attended the concert held in Glasgow at the start of the tour, hearing the soulfulness of "Piano Song" and the upbeat signature tune "A Little Respect" with a slide guitar on one side of the stage and a penny whistle on the other was astounding.
The DVD pack contains an audio CD with the concert on it, and a couple of "Fancam" video performances which are good for a giggle.
I've given the DVD a rating of 8/10. Not because the DVD is particularly exciting or innovative, quite the contrary but because I'm a big fan of the band and the sound of Union Street is so unusual in comparison to their usual fayre. A new album is due out in May 2007 which was recorded in Maine. It will be interesting to see if the U.S. influence remains.