Review for Band on the Run CD+DVD

'Wings, the band The Beatles could have been.' Everytime I think of Wings, I always think of Alan Partridge saying that. However, when you listen to Band on the Run, you wonder whether this was supposed to be ironic or the truth. In their prime (which Band on the Run certainly is) Paul McCartney and Wings (Linda McCartney and Denny Laine) were a truly great band and had finally shrugged off the 'ex-Beatle' moniker and with this album he finally did it. The iconic album cover featuring James Coburn, John Conteh, Clement Freud, Christopher Lee, Kenny Lynch and Michael Parkinson is certainly one of the best of the period and the short film on the DVD section just shows how much fun it was to get that one shot.

Band on the Run was the winner of the Grammy for Best Pop Vocal by a Duo or Group and certainly based on that one song, they deserved it. The title song which is basically three songs segueing together is possibly the best and inventive thing Paul has written since A Day in the Life with Lennon for Sgt Pepper. The rest of the album is a strong pop album with Jet a storming song and Bluebird almost like classic McCartney and you can't help but think of his Blackbird as he sings. Picasso's Last Words (Drink to Me) is a great song and made even better when you read how he created it on a suggestion by Dustin Hoffman. Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five is a great way to end the album and has a great driving piano behind it.

This set includes three disks, a remastered version of the classic album which sounds as good as ever, a second CD with bonus tracks and some live versions of tracks from the album and finally a DVD that includes music videos, a promo of the band in Lagos and full length documentary One Hand Clapping which focuses on Band on the Run but has some interesting interview footage with Paul, Linda and Denny Laine and includes an awesome version of Live and Let Die and a rather amusing (if a little bizarre) rendition of the song Baby Face. All of this is accompanied by sleeve notes written by Paul Gambaccini and some great photographs of the band throughout.

Band on the Run is a great album that deserves an extravagant release like this. Though it is difficult to