Suzi Quatro: Leather Forever (2004)

Suzi Quatro: Leather Forever (2004

It's been a long time since I have dusted off my Suzi records. She was a tough girl long before the Runaways and other females started rocking the scene and is hardly remembered at all. A nice DVD is out now, but it does little to honor her pioneering work. Here are a few other reviews.
Well, I have to say that I was looking forward to this title as i'm a Suzi Quatro fan. Unfortunately this was horribly directed and a diservice to a wonderful performer. Hopefully someone with more talent will decide to give us something better in the future.
I've seen better editing from PC's using Pinnacle. Suzi Quatro is rarely seen by her US fans. One would hope that the director, editor, and cinematographer would have made a point of showing more Suzi and less strobe effects. I'm talking about 10-20 frame edits! And seriously! How many times do we really need to see the keyboardist's fingers? The timing of the editing was so off-beat that close ups of the drummer didn't even sync with the music. And Ms. Quatro's close-ups were usually out of frame. They even strobed the ending credits! Pity! I was looking forward to this production. I'm glad I didn't buy it.

I was a kid in England during Suzi's reign, and loved her for years, but I have to say I was dissapointed by this DVD. I could look past the poor editing that was mentioned in other reviews but when it came to the sound mix the only word that comes to mind is HELP! I'm not sure who thought a loud horn section was a great Idea, but when you can barely hear the guitar and bass in rock band there could be a problem. Watch this for nostalga. Watch this for Suzi. Please don't rent it for the sound
Reading the previous reviews has me genuinely curious as to whether we saw the same video. The concert is a fairly short one, consisting of most of Suzi's well-known classics like 48 Crash and Can The Can, in front of an appreciative, though subdued crowd of aging rock fans. Although not a high-budget widescreen, 12-camera affair, it's a perfectly professional mid-grade videotaped concert with good multi-channel audio. The overwhelming negativity about the production here has me somewhat mystified, as it's nowhere near as bad as I expected from reading the reviews. Although I agree the editing was a bit patchy, it looks basically like your average TV special from the 80's. Granted it wasn't filmed then, but it's perfectly sharp and watchable, and the sound is actually very good. If I have any complaints, it's only with the inevitable "March of time" factor. Suzi, probably well into her early 50's by now, still looks slender and amazingly youthful up there in her trademark leather pants, but with a new "CNN/soccer mom" hairstyle that makes her look too tame and suburban for the occasion. Instead of the Biker-looking tough-guy band you remember, there is now a very clean-cut pop-looking band with a horn section. In other words, if you were hoping to see the edgy "Queen of Hard Rock" from the 70's, you're kind-of getting the middle-adged non-threatening Vegas version. But hey, it's probably the only Suzi show we'll get on dvd, and for that it's definately worth a look.