THIS IS WHAT WE DO (E), cd, dvd

The history of the British proggers of Credo goes back to the early nineties when the first line-up, including drummer Paul Clarke and keyboardist Mick Stovold, started recording the debut Field Of Vision (1994). Shortly after the release of the debut Stovold left the band in 1996, and two years later Paul Clarke left. The follow-up to this album took the band eleven years. The current line-up, a classic five-piece band, consists of guitarist Tim Birrell, bassist Jim Murdock, vocalist Mark Colton, keyboardist Mike Varty and drummer Martin Meads. The recording of this DVD was done with the help of Nick Barrett (Pendragon), who got Credo to play in the same theatre in Katowice (Poland) as where Pendragon recorded their Concerto Maximo (2009), and on the same day as well! In this lovely theatre, Credo played a good show, but without special guests, light effects or images on big screens behind the band. This Is What We Do contains a rather modest performance. The quality of sound and vision is just fine, but because there's not so much happening on stage, for me this DVD is a bit boring. The fact that I’m not so impressed by this band, plays a major role. Mark Colton’s voice is not exactly powerful with a wide range. It suits the music just right, but in combination with the melodies it gives me that ‘déjà vu’ feeling that there’s a remarkable resemblance with the early music of Marillion. However, undoubtedly less original and less dramatic or impressive as far as the performance is concerned. Certainly the boys in the band are accomplished musicians but in my opinion not as good as their colleagues in bands like Marillion, Jadis or IQ. I would have loved a bit of variation in both guitar and keyboard sounds. Martin Meads is a very busy drummer, gently delivering all his fills and doing a great job. Again as pointed out in my review on Pendragon’s Concerto Maximo, I don’t fancy rock shows filmed with an audience sitting comfortably in chairs. There's just too little interaction between the band and the audience and because of that, the whole video is composed of merely images from these five guys. Anyway, the by DPRP recommended album Rhetoric (2005) was played in its entirety, along with a few songs from the debut and a brand new song - for me the best of the set - having Round And Round as the working title. The actual show of October 13th 2008, was approximately 1 hour 45 minutes. The extras are an interview with Colton and Varty, some videos, some other live tracks from other gigs, member profiles and some more data. Furthermore some interesting old recordings from Credo dating from the early nineties, proving the band definitely had the early line-up of Marillion as their source of inspiration.

​This Is What We Do is a nice way to learn more about Credo, but in the light of all current competitors, I don’t think this DVD will stand the test of time. Having said that, the band played very authentic and solid renditions of all the songs, so it was a pretty clean and neat performance. Well worth considering for all who love the album Rhetoric, and/or old fashioned melodic prog as done by Marillion with Fish and IQ. Next to the version reviewed here, there’s also one with a double live CD+DVD in one package.