Dio: Dreamers Never Die Review

“We gotta SEE DIO”

This is not a direct transcript. It was over a month ago. But this is what I got in my messages.

This is Paul. I never knew this until that moment, and more importantly. Paul is a Dio fan. I have known him for over ten years. Not only do I not doubt his loyalty to the big perm voice of epic…

Who the fuck is Dio? I know who dio is. I’ve seen jack black, and the record covers …but really…who the fuck is he?

It’s unusual for me to write the start of a review before I have even seen the film. But in the month between booking us tickets. Paul has been sleeping until Dio. There were no other tickets sold when I booked them. Then one ticket. Of some people, we are currently calling rando who, having seen a block of three seats sold for the film. (Tom is coming too) has decided to sit next to us…in an otherwise empty fucking cinema

As I type this, Dio in Hammersmith 1993 is playing behind me. I have watched three ‘Dio’ concerts and listened to them epically them back to back. I …

I don’t get it. It’s like Marillion with less vision and one note. But he starts killing actual dragons, and it kicks into a different realm. Dio, I find fascinating because he seems a frail and more diminutive man in a world of alphas and jocks, and yet…they keel over like a barbarian to the dungeon master. He’s their avatar of romance in a world that needs smiting.
I’m looking forward to this.

PART 2

DIO IS ALL.
MURRAY WILL BE DELIVERING US TO DIO

Well. Rando behaved himself. My and the council comprising Dio-Priest Paul and The Arcanist Tom and urm…me Rob was able to take outpost 40 bodies and run through the almost two and a half hours without going to the toilet

Dio: Dreamers never die is a memorial. It’s a story that is the lifeline of Dio’s life on a professional level. Dio stands out, not just because of his space boots, but there is no aversion to his career in the 60s as both a Beatles-inspired band and the lounge singles that were so popular before then.

For someone like myself, this is building block stuff as we follow his career path, ping-ponging from band to band, showing what influence he had on every one of them. It’s light and entertaining stuff, and the benefit of that era of rock is everyone is willing to talk. All grudges seem to have been curtailed. But all so enthusiastic about being heard and speaking about Dio. You can’t help that this would be a testimonial towards a living legend even if he were still with us.

Dio is depicted, soon accompanied as an almost visionary person as much off stage as on. He has a view and a commitment that drives everything he does. The battles within each band ultimately come from his disregard for ‘pop’ and a ‘calling’ to his voice and art, with Wendy Dio soon being his manager and wife. At the same time, they applied to rags and riches throughout their life together with a faith that the dedication to the music would provide.

Some elements seem quirky, and there is a lot of humor even within this reverence. Dio’s invention of the ‘rock horns’ is attributed to his ferocious grandma. Ultimately though the darker stories seem to be kept in the shade, this is not an investigation. Frustratingly there is not much in terms of what the bands do. So unless you’re familiar with their oeuvre, there is little to connect a casual viewer with. If I hadn’t watched the concerts before, it would be the story of this quirky man who got lucky in rock and had an up-and-down battle.

The cinema release has some exciting footage where the film could have gone, not least the technical. At the end of the screening, we went and discussed it.
Paul touched on the lack of tunes and music within the documentary. As a film that shines from the person until the end of Dio’s life, there is also frustratingly little about his vocal range and the sheer acoustic power he brought to everything.

Tom also mentioned the lack of criticism for how dio got through guitarists. There is a lot of tension still palpable around Vivian Campbell, and it would have played to show more of Dio’s reigns regarding keeping to the vision.

The film was well thought out and entertaining. The things It left me wanting to know more about would not be to do with Dio so much. As the pop culture buffers, that was MTV and the nirvana explosion.

Paul and Tom had their niggles but seemed, on the whole, happy with it. Spending it with Wendy Dio and Dio’s friends is a worthwhile afternoon. But it is very much a wake and can be treated as such.

For me. As wakes go. It’s like attending one for an Uncle you never met. You’re there for the others, but you don’t have much to contribute except to comment on the buffet, which was nice.