Duran Duran Live 2011: A Diamond In The Mind/Pink Floyd: The Story Of “Wish You Were Here” (2012/Eagle Blu-rays)

 

Picture: C+/B-     Sound: B-     Extras: C+/B-     Main Programs: B-

 

 

So what makes a great band great or even make a sometimes good one endure?  As we get fewer good band and so many fly-by-night music acts in general, endurance and having members who have something to give and really care about music are major components.  Even if they have not had as many hits in recent years, people still like, listen to and enjoy a band like Duran Duran.

 

They were Princess Diana’s favorite band and at one time, some thought they might breakout past their Pop/Rock image, but the barely New Wave band that became the first success thanks to Music Videos (and MTV) put their band on hold to long at their peak and that spelled doom for the band in the long term.

 

However, they have reunited a few times and the new Duran Duran Live 2011: A Diamond In The Mind concert Blu-ray is not a bad show Simon Le Bon, John Taylor, Nick Rhodes and Roger Taylor (and minus Andy Taylor) play 20 songs here including hits like The Reflex, Notorious, Hungry Like The Wolf, Wild Boys, Rio, Ordinary World, Planet Earth and their #1 smash hit title theme song to the 1985 James Bond film A View To A Kill.

 

I was pleasantly surprised how good they were in delivering these hits nearly 30 years later as so many bands considered more “talented” or “important” have become legacy acts who should stay home.  They still sound good, Le Bon can still; sing and they play with some real energy, heart and soul, which is why this does not feel like a tired legacy act show.  They can still connect with their audience and deliver a fun show.  Only when they do other acts material (White Lines (which they had a hit with), Relax) do they falter.

 

Extras include two bonus tracks: Come Undone and Is There Something I Should Know? and an illustrated booklet inside the Blu-ray case with tech credits.  There is also a 12+ minutes featurette called “Duran Duran 2011” but it is not labeled clearly enough in the Special Features section and you could miss it, so be careful not to.

 

For more on the band, be sure to catch the Classic Albums series installment on their breakthrough hit album Rio on DVD at this link:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7854/Classic+Albums+%E2%80%93+Duran

 

 

That same series already did a great program on Pink Floyd’s masterwork Dark Side Of The Moon we also covered and the series is so successful, the Under Review music series started covering specific albums and other releases covering the making of classic and key albums followed.  Now we have Pink Floyd: The Story Of “Wish You Were Here” (2012) which runs an hour and tells how the band had to follow up Dark Side in one of the most difficult moments for the band.

 

Syd Barrett was still out of the band, still not well and even showed up at the same studio to try and record a solo effort, but it was incoherent, did not work out and would be the last recordings he ever did.  Barrett looks large here since the album was about him and his loss in part, but it is a much more complex effort and this program was made as new audiophile-quality versions of the album hit the market (on vinyl, in an elaborate Immersion box set and multi-channel Super Audio Compact Disc edition) so this is why we are getting this program now.

 

It is very good, though not much is discussed about how they left Harvest/Capitol Records and debuted at Columbia Records with this album, which is likely a story in itself and despite all the great interviews, so much is not said or covered simply because this is not long enough to cover such an important work.  As it stands, it is well done and we get more in the extras, but I wanted this to be much more expansive and to have some more challenging questions asked.

 

The only extras are an illustrated booklet inside the Blu-ray case with tech credits and 25 minutes of additional interview footage that continue the discussion of the title song, Have A Cigar, Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Welcome To Machine and more.  If anything, the actual album has only improved with age.

 

 

For more on the band, Barrett and works connected to this one, start with this link for Whatever Happened To Pink Floyd? – The Strange Case Of Waters & Gilmour and you will find five more links for related releases:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10898/Heart+%E2%80%93+Night+At+Sky

 

 

The 1080i 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image on both releases have their own issues, but Duran has a combination of bad style choices and constant motion blur issues that hold back what is a good-looking stage show.  The MTV-style Music Video editing is actually not a problem here.  The same on Floyd does not have motion blur like this, but some of the vintage film and video footage is not as good looking as expected and the newer HD-shot interviews are standard documentary shoots.

 

The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes in both cases sound better than their PCM 2.0 Stereo counterparts, but both tracks for Duran sound a little harsh and shrill on the edges which is a shame since the band was playing and singing so well.  As for Floyd, you can hear they are using the new higher-fidelity transfers of the album, but we do not hear that enough, interview audio is simple stereo at best and some archive audio is monophonic, so you get the typical mix of audio that even most music documentaries have and that is always uneven.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo