Ballad of the One Eyed Man (CD cover)

A live Mark Seymour CD and DVD recorded at the Basement and released following the One Eyed Man album.

Released In: [Australia / NZ].

Release Date: CD: 4 February 2002. DVD: 26 November 2001

Australian Chart Position: CD: [Did Not Enter]. DVD: [Did Not Enter].

Availability: Moderately rare. Not available new.

Value: A$10-A$30.

Track Listing(s)

Legend:

 Highly recommended track.
 Commercial single.
 Promotional single.

Version: Warner/Basement Australian CD album.

Album length: 54 minutes, 49 seconds.

ReplayGain loudness: -2.17dB (2002).

1. El Dorado
2. Paradise Down Under 
3. Waratah Street 
4. Always A Fool
5. Sad Songs 
6. Long Way Down 
7. Home Again
8. Holy Grail
9. Lost In Your Illusion
10. The Ballad Of The One Eyed Man 
11. Don’t You Know Me
12. Supagirl
13. On My Way
14. Parting Glass 

Version: Warner Vision/Basement Australian DVD video (all region, PAL).

DVD Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1.

Video length: 91 minutes, 41 seconds.

ReplayGain loudness: +2.26dB (2002).

1. Holy Grail
2. Don’t You Know Me?
3. Always A Fool (For A Pretty Face)
4. Waratah Street
5. Sad Song 
6. Long Way Down 
7. The Ballad Of The One Eyed Man
8. Paradise Down Under 
9. El Dorado
10. In The Kitchen Of A Perfect Home
11. Home Again 
12. Jo Land
13. Lost In Your Illusion
14. Ready To Go
15. Supagirl 
16. On My Way
17. Parting Glass 
18. Documentary, mixed in with the next three tracks
19. [Bonus] Throw Your Arms Around Me (acoustic)
20. [Bonus] The Ghost Of Vainglory (acoustic)
21. [Bonus] The Ballad Of The One Eyed Man (acoustic) 

Version: The full original performance (unreleased).

Approx. performance time: 120 minutes.

Here is a full listing of songs that were performed at the Basement gig on the 20th of July 2001. The official releases were all some combination of the below songs (along with an acoustic version of The Ballad Of The One Eyed Man that was recorded earlier in the day during an interview with Doug Mulray).

Part 1 – Solo:

1. In The Kitchen Of A Perfect Home #
2. Strange Little Town
3. Good Old Boys Stuff #
4. Richard Cory
5. [Rod Davies joins…] The Eye Of The Needle
6. Lorelei # {original by The Pogues}
7. The Ghost Of Vainglory
8. Throw Your Arms Around Me

Part 2 – With Band:

1. Holy Grail
2. Don’t You Know Me?
3. Always A Fool
4. Waratah Street #
5. Sad Songs
6. Long Way Down
7. The Ballad Of The One Eyed Man
8. Paradise Down Under #
9. El Dorado #
10. Home Again
11. Jo Land #
12. Blue Morning
13. Lost In Your Illusion
14. Last Ditch Cabaret
15. [encore] Ready To Go (solo)
16. Supagirl
17. On My Way Home
18. Parting Glass (solo)

# At the time of the performance, these tracks were not available on any official release to date.

Original studio source of the songs on this live album:

• Human Frailty contains:
  • Throw Your Arms Around Me
• Cut contains:
  • Holy Grail
• King Without A Clue contains:
  • Last Ditch Cabaret
  • The Ghost Of Vainglory
  • Home Again
• One Eyed Man contains:
  • Don’t You Know Me?
  • Blue Morning
  • The Ballad Of The One Eyed Man
  • Ready To Go
  • Lost In Your Illusion
  • Strange Little Town
  • Long Way Down
  • Always A Fool
  • Sad Songs
  • Supagirl
  • On My Way Home
• Embedded contains:
  • In The Kitchen Of A Perfect Home
  • Paradise Down Under
  • Waratah Street
• Undertow contains:
  • El Dorado
• Seventh Heaven Club contains:
  • Lorelei

Review

[DVD]

“You’ll come looking for me, come looking for me and I’ll be there” and the band breaks free! Mark Seymour is back with a five piece band and they mean business. “The Human Tide”, named some time between the gig and the DVD production, ‘say hello’ with a blistering rendition of the Hunna’s classic “Holy Grail”. The most dedicated of fans may wonder how this song can be successfully rehashed yet again but the stunning epic version delivered here shows the old song still has plenty of life left in it.

Perhaps around now Mark fans could have looked forward to picking up a new single (perhaps for “Sad Songs”) considering “One Eyed Man” was only released eight months ago. Instead, we have the first Hunna’s related foray into the beauty of the Digital Versatile Disc (DVD). “The Ballad Of The One Eyed Man Live At The Basement” (mouthful?) is a fully fledged live recording featuring Dolby Digital 5.1 sound throughout taken from Mark’s Basement (Sydney) gig on Friday the 20th of July 2001.

One of the most unusual aspects of this performance is the scale involved. The Basement is a very small venue – particularly in regard to the usual stadium sized venues seen in DVD’s. The whole crowd capacity is around 400 (a sell out crowd, still!), there is a very small stage and there are posters everywhere in the background for different gigs. Once you combine this with the expected masses of beer and other alcoholic beverages you have the standard club setting. The result is a typical solo Mark Seymour gig that could feasibly take place in your own local small venue.

That given, there is something about the Basement that makes it more than the average Australian pub. Attached to the pub area is the online radio station also known as The Basement, which broadcasts gigs that take place in the Basement out to the world in high quality video and audio. The Basement is fitted out with equipment so that performing artists get a high quality audio and video recording of their performances. Mark’s DVD is actually one of a number of “Basement” DVD’s that were released on the 26th of November 2001 (others include former Cold Chisel member Steve Preswich, Grace Knight and a ‘Night Out At The Basement’ compilation).

So the Basement has some pretty nice gear floating around. The question really is that, after all is said and done, ‘does it work?’. The answer is sort of mixed. The video is fairly average but the audio has generally came out extremely well. The whole DVD performance maintains the raw feeling of the gig but does not compromise quality to do so.

Releasing a full live recording of a recently formed band playing Mark’s new material could have been a risky event (how could it possibly face up to the old band?). This is where the most pleasant surprise can be found – the band Mark has formed here really are great. Of particular note is the excellent electric guitar work from Cameron McKenzie, formerly of the band Horsehead. The touch that McKenzie adds to many of the songs in the performances have managed to help turn some of Mark’s great studio tracks into monsters of their own in their live incarnations. Rod Davies on acoustic guitar, keyboards and backing vocals, Dave Beck on drums and Chris Bekker on bass guitar all gel well (in Mark’s words) to form the band we see playing here.

The majority of Mark Seymour’s solo gigs have been acoustic performances (without any support). Remnants of these gigs remain in the form of “In The Kitchen Of A Perfect Home”, “Ready To Go”, “Parting Glass” and the bonus acoustic tracks. The inclusion of these songs brings up many memories of past performances.

Contained on the DVD are most of the songs from the “One Eyed Man” album, with the exception of “See You Around”, “Strange Little Town” (an acoustic version was performed but left off the DVD) and “Blue Morning” (the band performed this but it is suspected they were not happy enough with it). “Home Again” and “The Ghost Of Vainglory” (in the bonus acoustic section) make an appearance from “King Without A Clue” while “Last Ditch Cabaret” has not been included despite being performed. B-sides “The Eye Of The Needle” and “Richard Cory” were played in their acoustic form but not included in the DVD. The only remnants from the Hunna’s days are “Holy Grail” and “Throw Your Arms Around Me” (bonus acoustic). Most of the songs appear a lot more ‘alive’ in their live form, with some songs completely rejuvenated and significantly better than their studio counterparts. Particularly impressive familiar tracks include “Long Way Down”, “Always A Fool”, “On My Way” and the incredible “Sad Songs”.

A number of brand new songs appear on the disc. These include the impressive rocker “El Dorado” and the devastatingly sad “Waratah Street” (which also provides some amusement at Mark trying to deal with not having a guitar in his hands). “Paradise Down” and “In The Kitchen Of A Perfect Home” continue along the particularly sad feel while “Jo Land” seems to be a dedication of sorts to his wife Jo (about her view on life or view of an ideal life). The beautiful traditional closer “Parting Glass” has been used by Mark for some time and has appeared before (Hunters and Collectors “Raw Material” US promo EP). The original Basement performance also contained the unreleased “Good Old Boys Stuff” and Pogues cover “Lorelei” but these did not make the final cut.

Keeping true to the DVD form there is a nice bonus section at the end of the performance. It involves three acoustic songs mixed in with an interview with Mark (who seems to be in need of a shave, but anyway).

Overall the investment is highly recommended. Remember that this DVD is multi region, so as long as you have a computer DVD player or a stand alone DVD player that outputs to the PAL format, you can play it! And a final important word of advice: play it loud through the best sound system you can find… 🙂

8/10 (video 6, audio 7, songs 10, performance itself 9).

Stuart Fenech

Liner Notes

CD Version

Ballad Of The One Eyed Man

The Human Tide Are:

Cameron McKenzie

Dave Beck

Rod Davies

Chris Bekker

www.markseymour.com.au

FOH Audio Engineer: Rob Miles

Mixed By: David Nicholas.

Mastered By: John Bee.

Photography – Paul Sadler.

Direction: Michael Roberts

For Loud & Clear Management

P.O. Box 276 Albert Park

VIC 3205 loud@zip.com.au

www.thebasement.com.au BASE002

The Basement. Chief Entertainment.

(P) and (C) 2001 Chief Entertainment All Rights Reserved. Manufactured and distributed by Warner Music Australia. Warner Music Group. An AOL Time Warner Company. www.warnermusic.com.au Artwork and design by QL Graphics.

DVD Version

Mark Seymour would like to thank all at thebasement.com.au for their boundless enthusiasm and humour. It’s been refreshing to work with people who genuinely enjoy their music!

Go Doug…

Direction: Michael Roberts for

Loud & Clear Management

PO Box 276 Albert Park VIC 3205

Fx: 51 3 95371471 E-mail: loud@zip.com.au

Colour Mode: Colour.

Region Code: All Regions.

Disc Format: DVD-5.

Duration: 1 hour 30 min approx.

DVD Authoring – Stream AV

Artwork and design: QL Graphics.

0927423472

(c) 2001 All Rights Reserved.

Chief Entertainment Pty. Ltd.

Warner Vision Australia

DVD Video

The Basement

www.markseymour.com.au

www.thebasement.com.au
For further information on Warner Vision DVD & VHS titles – visit our website: www.warnervision.com.au
Marketed and distributed, under exclusive licence from Warner Vision Australia.

A division of Warner Music Australia Pty. Limited. An AOL Time Warner Company. Warning: All rights of the producer and of the owner of the work produced reserved. Unauthorised copying, hiring, lending, public performance, radio or TV broadcast of this video recording prohibited.

The Human Tide Are:

Cameron McKenzie

Dave Beck

Rod Davies

Chris Bekker

Photography: Paul Sadler