Latest releases reviewed

MARVIN GAYE
Behind the Legend  
RED Distribution ***

Twenty years after his death, the cult of Marvin continues to grow with every passing year, as a new clutch of soul stars emerge who've taken their cues from What's Going On and Let's Get It On. This is the second DVD to make it this way in 2004 and, like the Very Best of Marvin Gaye CD/DVD that featured his entire dazzling performance from the 1980 Montreux Jazz Festival, it's Gaye's final years that are the focus here also. Besides interviews with friends and family about Gaye's self-imposed exile in Belgium and Hawaii and the paranoia that took over in the 1980s, it's the fascinating footage of Gaye at work, rest and play that grabs your attention. The live footage in particular is excellent, featuring a fine, funky band and, most poignantly, Gaye scatting and improvising away like a man possessed.  - Jim Carroll

VARIOUS
Bono - God's Favourite Son Chrome
Dreams Media **

With How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb all over the gaff, the U2 machine is once again in full swing. This also means that the peripheral machinery is very much in place to capitalise on the band's - and the frontman's - currently ubiquitous profile. Hence this wholly unauthorised account of the U2 lead singer. It's not without a certain charm: former teachers are interviewed, as are close friends (no, not the really close ones). Former CBS A&R man Chas De Whalley and a few others also give their two cents worth. It amounts to little else but a we're-not-worthy 60 minutes of soundbites, some interesting previously unseen footage of Bono and his mates and, well, not much else that we haven't heard or seen before, really. Ideal for the starter U2 fan, but pretty much old hat for anyone who has been into U2 for more than 10 years. No music, either. www.chromedreams.co.uk - Tony Clayton-Lea