Staying A Life

I finally got my hands on this videotape! Being a huge Accept fan, it's almost a dream come true! This professional release was filmed in Osaka during the Accept world tour in 1985/86 in support of their Metal Heart album and was released in Japan in 1990. It was directed by Stephan Kaufmann who was drummer for Accept and guitarist for U.D.O. nowadays.

The Teutonic band line-up was the best of their history with the twin guitars attack: Wolf Hoffmann (guitar), Jörg Fischer (guitar), Peter Baltes (bass), Stefan Kaufmann (drums), Udo Dirkschneider (singer). Staying A Life (please, do not confound with Staying Alive by the Bee Gees (-:), is essentially an Accept gig with some short interviews and footage of goofs by the band. There are also 3 video clips from the band: I'm A Rebel, Midnight Mover and Balls To The Wall. All in all, the video is about 65 minutes long. It's exactly the same gig as on the CD minus a few songs.

There is one thing that I dislike on this videotape: While it's great to see some interviews and goofs by the band, it's really annoying to be interrupted by that while enjoying the show. It should be placed at the beginning or at the end of the concert. Sure, a DVD with a menu would be a lot better, hope it will be done someday! (-:

The gig is well recorded considering it was taped way back in the middle of the 80s. The band played very tight and moved a lot on stage. It's really a pleasure to see Wolf playing integrally his great leads while smiling at the crowd and moving a lot. Many songs off Metal Heart were played during the show.

Definitely a must for all die-hard Accept fans. A testament for this great band and a peak area in their timeline history. It might be difficult or expensive to buy (I found it on eBay), but it's worth the money.