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Category:    Home > Reviews > Rock > Pop > Variety > StandardsDance > Singing > TV Show > Australia > Concert > Musicals > Brian Henderson's Bandstand: Live At The Capitol Theater, Perth 1965/Live In Australia: Roy Orbison 1965/The Everly Brothers Live In Sydney 1968/Liza Minnelli & The Allen Brothers 1967/Dionne Warwick

Brian Henderson's Bandstand: Live At The Capitol Theater, Perth 1965/Live In Australia: Roy Orbison 1965/The Everly Brothers Live In Sydney 1968/Liza Minnelli & The Allen Brothers 1967/Dionne Warwick 1966/Best Of Volume 3, 1965 - 66/Volume 4, 1967 - 70 (Umbrella PAL Region Free DVDs)


Picture: C Sound: C Extras: D Episodes: B-/B/B/B+/B



PLEASE NOTE: The Bandstand Import PAL DVDs are only available exclusively from our friends at Umbrella Entertainment in Australia and all can be ordered from the link below.



Brian Henderson's Bandstand ran from 1958 - 1972 and Umbrella Entertainment has been issuing some really fine footage from the show, which was not connected to the Dick Clark hit in the U.S., but shares the same name. We covered two Best Of DVD sets and I gave my initial impressions of the show at this link:


http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/12361/The+Best+Of+Bandstand,+Volume+One:+1960



Most of those acts are back in the 5 new releases that have just joined the previous two including two more Best Of sets and the first star-driven singles. We will now tell you about the highlights of each set, as the performance lists are too long for this review.


Live At The Capitol Theater, Perth 1965 still is mostly acts only Aussies of the time would know from their home base of music playing the amusingly names New Wave On Stage 1965 show including the wildly popular Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs, Bryan Davies, Max Merritt & The Meteors (great name), Lynne Randell, Paul Wayne and Jade Hurley among them. That leaves the Lawrence Welk-like style behind, but these acts are really not much better live than they were in studio on the previous episodes of the show. Still, it is a time capsule of the show, its artists and how the acts Down Under were a step or so behind their U.K. & U.S. counterparts. At least the young audience seems to be having a good time.


Live In Australia: Roy Orbison 1965/The Everly Brothers Live In Sydney 1968 is a nice double feature of both legendary acts in prime form. Orbison had been on a hot streak of hits since 1960 at the Monument label, young and ironically rapping up his time at company before moving to MGM Records, but he is in great form in these rarely seen performances of Pretty Woman, Mean Woman Blues, Pretty Paper, Blue Bayou and In Dreams. The Everlys were at Warner Bros. for a few years when they delivered this actual stage performance complete with their joking with each other and their band, talking to the audience and had racked up over a few dozen hits there and at their first label, Cadence. Here, they perform Lucille, Suzi Q, Walk Right Back, Wake Up Little Suzy, Cathy's Clown, All I Have To Do Is Dream, Bye Bye Love, So Sad (To Watch Good Love Go Bad), Bowling Green, ('Til) I Kissed You, Bird Dog, Let It Be Me, Be Bop A Lula and Kentucky. There are nice variations on some of the classics, they are amazing together and it is a rare opportunity to see how great they were in action. This is a great disc.


Liza Minnelli & The Allen Brothers 1967/Dionne Warwick 1966 is no weaker with a very young Minnelli opening singing the theme from Cabaret five years before making the hit movie, while later delivering Liza With A Z, If I Were In Your Shoes, Meantime, You've Let Yourself Go, One Of Those Songs, Maybe This Time and Everybody Loves My Baby with The Allen Brothers. She was married to Peter Allen at this point, who later became the subject of the musical The Boy From Oz. Warwick was on a hit streak on the Scepter label recording classic after classic by the up and coming Burt Bacharach & Hal David, who she speaks of highly in between amazing performances of Taking A Chance On Love, Anyone Who Had A Heart, Trains & Boats & Planes, Reach Out For Me, Message To Michael and a jazzy version of Somewhere from West Side Story.


It is easy to forget what an amazing act she was live and she really lets loose singing live instead of to the hit recordings and an play against the tricky time signatures with even more challenging phrasing than you would hear form just about any singer then or now. There is also her very British Carnaby Street outfit in black & white and all in mink that you have to see to believe, but the best reason to see this segment is to see an American original in her early glory and in exceptional power and control of her talents.


Best Of Volume 3, 1965 - 66 is loaded with talent from Down Under and highlights that surprise form this set include Brenda Lee (holding a Teddy Bear, the host says they were not happy with her visit!) singing Emotion, Bobby Vee sings Staying In, Vicki Carr sings Let's Talk About Love, Wayne Newton starts talling up singing As Long As I'm Singing, Peter Paul & Mary sing Jesus Met The Woman, Patsy Ann Noble sings the very interesting I Did Nothing Wrong, The Bee Gees sings My Old Man's A Dustman, I Was A Lover, Leader Of Men, Wine & Women, and Spicks & Specks, actress Jacki Weaver sings Wild!, He Don't Want Your Love Anymore and On The Good Ship Lollipop and a newly award-winning Helen Reddy sings Come Back My Love, Give Me Some Love and No Return as she begins her journey to become one of the top vocalists in the world.


The New Christie Minstrels show up with a medley, as do The Searchers (five songs including a live version of Love Potion No. 9 that is far superior to their hit version), a very young Tom Jones (with 6 songs including It's Not Unusual and the title song from the James Bond film Thunderball), Herman's Hermits do three songs including I'm Into Something Good, and The Rolling Stones singing Get Off Of My Cloud, Play With Fire, 19th Nervous Breakdown, As Tears Go By and Satisfaction. And if that were not enough for a 5 DVD set, we get a special live show with a very young Little Richard making his 1960s comeback singing 10 songs, introducing The Shirelles (who he sings I've Got Joy Down In My Heart) who sing Everybody Loves A Winner and Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? But in the middle of that show, an also-on-the-comeback Jerry Lee Lewis shows up all out in full piano power mode performing Great Balls Of Fire, You Win Again, High School Confidential, I'm On Fire and You're Cheatin' Heart.


It is as amazing as set as has been issued to date.


However, the Best Of Volume 4, 1967 - 70 set is impressive, has 5 DVDs as well and includes Jacki Weaver singing Young Love and I Feel Pretty, Frankie Avalon delivering 6 songs including It Had To Be You, Olivia Newton-John singing The Beatles' Here, There & Everywhere, a solid nightclub turn by Lainie Kazan singing Sonny, Night Song, If You Go Away and a Porgy & Bess medley, The Young Americans, Lou Rawls and Patsy Ann Noble have their medleys and a young Neil Sedaka shows up for a show that includes Oh Carol, Star Crossed-Lovers, Next Door To An Angel, You Mean Everything To Me, Calendar Girl and a triad with Judy Stone & Norma Stoneman of The Beatles' With A Little Help From My Friends.


I did not include most of the Aussie acts to make a point; these are great sets even if you are not from there and though they have no extras, you'll have hours of great performances not available anywhere else that makes this series worth going out of its way for.


The 1.33 X 1 black and white image transfers are kinescopes of the performances that can be rough (they records the image off of a TV picture tube in on 16mm monochrome film) and have some scratches, dirt and debris. The second-generation copies loose detail and become a little washed out. Still, we're lucky these survived. All sound is in lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono and can be distorted or a bit brittle in parts, so don't expect much dynamic range. Still, it can sound fine for its age and under the circumstances.



To order any or all of the Umbrella import PAL Region Free Bandstand DVDs, go to this link for more information:


http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/



- Nicholas Sheffo


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