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Category:    Home > Reviews > Rock > Pop > Variety > Dance > Singing > TV Show > Australia > Documentary > Counterculture > Filmmaking > Tou > The Best Of Bandstand 1966, Volume Eight + 1967 - '68, Volume Nine (Umbrella Region Free PAL Import DVD Sets)/Frank Zappa 1969 - 1973: Freak Jazz, Movie Madness and Another Mothers (2014/Chrome Dreams

The Best Of Bandstand 1966, Volume Eight + 1967 - '68, Volume Nine (Umbrella Region Free PAL Import DVD Sets)/Frank Zappa 1969 - 1973: Freak Jazz, Movie Madness and Another Mothers (2014/Chrome Dreams/MVD DVD)/Genesis: Sum Of The Parts (2014/Eagle Blu-ray)/Trace Adkins: Live Country! (2014/Eagle DVD)


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



PLEASE NOTE: The Bandstand Import DVD Sets are now only available from our friends at Umbrella Entertainment in Australia, can only play on DVD players that can handle the PAL DVD and can be ordered from the links below.



Here's the latest music releases you ought to know about...



We continue to cover as many of the Australian Bandstand releases as we can get our hands on, this time covering The Best Of Bandstand 1966, Volume Eight + 1967 - '68, Volume Nine import DVD sets from Umbrella. By the years as compared to earlier volumes in the compilation version of the DVD releases, you can see there is some backtracking, but we get some name artists with the ones only known Down Under. Volume Eight includes Peter, Paul & Mary from 1966 in a show separate from the 1967 DVD reviewed elsewhere on this site, Helen Reddy does a way-too-laid-back version of the theme from the Michael Caine film The Liquidator (Shirley Bassey recorded the hit original featured in the film), plus the classic I Only Have Eyes For You and Call Me. Wayne Fontana does a few songs including his hit Game Of Love. We also have Don Lane before his hit TV talk show.


Volume Nine offers Roger Whittaker (who is also interviewed by host Brian Henderson), Johnnie Ray (made popular again as referenced in Dexy's Midnight Runner's hit Come On Eileen) who is part of an Overseas Artists compilation episode that also has performances by Liza Minnelli, Julie Rogers, The Shadows and Roy Orbison. These are always amusing, have rare moments and the artists you will not know unless you are from Australia and New Zealand will entertain you or make you laugh unintentionally depending on the performance, song and what they do. These are fun sets, but I wonder how many more they can come up with. We'll see.


There are sadly no extras, but here are links to our coverage of earlier compilation volumes and note this does not even cover singles devoted to name stars:


V. 1 1960 + V. 2 1963

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


V. 3 1965 - 66 + V. 4 1967 - 70

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/12569/Brian+Henderson's+Bandstand:+Live+At+The+Cap



Frank Zappa 1969 - 1973: Freak Jazz, Movie Madness and Another Mothers (2014) continues the great series of Chrome Dreams/MVD DVD documentaries on Zappa that includes the beginning of his career, as well as the advent of his record labels that he remarkably got distributed by major label Warner Bros. Records at the time. This continuation run 2.5 hours and shows his revivals of The Mothers Of Invention, his collaboration with director Tony Palmer to make the surreal, free style feature film 200 Motels (which was actually shot on early PAL analog color videotape, then released in theaters in dye-transfer, three-strip Technicolor prints (shot at Pinewood Studios) in a counterculture comedy project gone a bit awry, his personal life, his trouble with critics who thought he had gone off of the deep end, touring and other developments that were simply not sustainable at the rate he was going. Add the great new interviews with great archival footage and original music and you have another must-see show.


Contributor text info and a bonus featurette are the extras.



John Edginton's Genesis: Sum Of The Parts (2014) attempts to tell the long story of how one of the earlier progressive rock bands found success, especially when they changed to a less challenging pop/rock trio in 118 minutes. That is not enough time to cover everything and when the solo projects of the various members are addressed, some get lost in the shuffle. It is sad to see just as a new transition and era is to begin, the band looses the member its needs the most, though it is great to see how Steve Hackett made the band better than he gets credit for when Peter Gabriel left.


The program is split into the Gabriel and Collins era, with the Collins section going on longer, showing the music's ability to challenge decline severely and how they lost their Progressive Rock roots when Yes and Emerson, Lake & Palmer (or Cozy Powell for an album) did not in the same period, though that is never discussed. Worth seeing for the new interviews and classic footage, plenty of original material is licensed and it is worth a look, even if you are sick of Collins and/or felt the band sold out when they became a trio.


Extras include an informative, illustrated booklet with an essay and bonus interviews on the Blu-ray disc itself.



Trace Adkins: Live Country! (2014) is a solid concert for fans or those to be introduced to the highly successful Country solo artist, but if you are not a fan, the nearly 2 hours here might be more than you will want or take in. Still, this is professionally shot, Adkins and the band are giving it their all and you get 20 songs including what are supposed to be his biggest hits up to this recording. Still, this is for fans only at best.


Extras include an informative, illustrated booklet with an essay and bonus interviews on the Blu-ray disc itself.



The 1080i 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Genesis would normally be the outright picture winner here, but we have more than our share of rough footage from the band's early days and later music videos could look better. Therefore, the HD-shot, anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Trace can almost compete despite some softness, yet some color bleeding undermines it. The 1.33 X 1 image on Zappa follows with usually good footage, but some of it also is rough coming from the same era as early Genesis footage. That leaves the 1.33 X 1 black and white image on the Bandstand sets showing the age of the materials used, kinescoped or on analog tape, as was the case in the many previous releases from the series.


The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on Genesis is well mixed and presented, though other audio can be rough, this is still better than PCM 2.0 Stereo track also offered, while Trace gets basic a DTS 5.1 mix that can definitely compete. Zappa has lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo that has some expected monophonic sound, but holds its own, but the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on the Bandstand discs can sound a little rough and even brittle in places.



To order either of the Umbrella import DVD sets, go to these links:


BEST OF BANDSTAND VOLUME 8

http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/p-3993-best-of-bandstand-volume-8-1966.aspx


BEST OF BANDSTAND VOLUME 9

http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/p-3994-best-of-bandstand-volume-9-1967-1968.aspx



- Nicholas Sheffo


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