Felt

A Declaration! presents the only video recording known to exist of a complete Felt concert, which makes it doubly disappointing that it's so hard to watch. The picture is terrible. A lone camera zooms in and out at the performers from the balcony when there is enough light to see them; the rest of the time the only thing it captures is the swirling light show being projected behind the band. The sound is equally bad, sounding as if it was recorded directly into the camera mic. Still, despite all this, it's easy to see that Lawrence Hayward had the band in fine form on this February night in 1987 at ULU, London. The lineup for this show was Hayward on guitar and vocals, Martin Duffy on organ, Marcos Thomas on lead guitar, Phil King on bass, and Gary Ainge on drums. They appear to be very tight as they wisp through eight Felt tunes and end with a cover of the Ventures' "Soul Coaxing." It's just too bad you can't see and hear them better. But it's no use complaining: this is all there is in terms of concert footage, and as such, A Declaration! is an important document of one of the most unjustly under-appreciated bands of the '80s underground. Only the hardest of hardcore fans will want to watch it more than once (or even be able to get through it one time). Everyone else will only be left wishing someone had had the foresight to better document the band. In addition to the concert, A Declaration! also contains a short promotion video for the song "Stained Glass Windows in the Sky" which was put together from footage from the ULU concert and additional footage shot by the same director, Danny Weinstein. ~ Jason Nickey, All Music Guide