Bandstand
Presents: The Bee Gees 1963 - 1966, Little Pattie 1965 - 1968, The De
Kroo Brothers 1960 - 1963
+ John Farnham 1968 -
1970, Olivia Newton-John 1968/Easybeats:
Easy Come, Easy Go w/Rolling Stones In Oz 1966: What's On The
Flipside?/Herman's
Hermits: Live In Australia 1966
(Umbrella Region Free PAL Import DVDs)/Midnight
Special 11-DVD Box Set
(1972 - 1979/Time Life/StarVista)/Roger
Waters: The Wall
(2014/Universal Blu-ray Set)
Picture:
C/C/C/C/C+/B- Sound: C/C/C+/C/C+/B Extras: D/D/C+/D/B+/B
Main Programs: B-/B-/C+/C/B+/B
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Bandstand
Import DVDs are now only available from our friends at Umbrella
Entertainment in Australia, can only play on Blu-ray players that can
handle the PAL DVD format, are Region Free and can be ordered from
the link below.
Here
are our latest music titles for you to know about....
More
archival music releases have arrived from Umbrella and include
Bandstand
Presents: The Bee Gees 1963 - 1966, Little Pattie 1965 - 1968, The De
Kroo Brothers 1960 - 1963
+ John
Farnham 1968 - 1970, Olivia Newton-John 1968,
all three of which continue the long line of releases from this
historical music show we have covered many times, including in this
review of titles from the series...
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/13213/Bandstand+Live+In+Australia:+Peter,+Paul+&+Ma
Grouped
compilations from the series in a new way, the Bee Gees disc only has
so much of them, so expect more from the other (lesser known outside
of Australia) acts than them, but it is a good collection that will
be a revelation to those only used to the vocal group since the late
1960s to their Disco peak. John Farnham has more time on the disc he
shares with a pre-breakout Olivia Newton-John, but her moments are
interesting as she was just going solo and she was just being
herself. That authenticity shows here All clips here have been on
previous year-by-year volumes.
Peter
Clifton, best known for the Led Zeppelin film The
Song Remains The Same
(reviewed elsewhere on this site) long before directed both
Easybeats:
Easy Come, Easy Go
and The
Rolling Stones In Oz 1966
(a bonus feature!) contained on this disc that alone makes it a
curio, but don't look for surrealism here. Both are good outright
concerts that show both bands in their early prime from the What's
On The Flipside?
series. Together, they last only 81 minutes, but they are worth
seeing, but of course, Stones fans will want the disc and care less
about who is directing it.
Finally
we have Herman's
Hermits: Live In Australia 1966
is a 25-minutes show that as an Australian TV special that we've seen
in bits and pieces (in most cases) on the Bandstand
DVDs before, but its nice to have the show in one piece, though it
should have been included in the 1969 Live DVD Umbrella issued as
there was likely room for it. Fans will; like it and they are in
fine form here with hits like ''Can
You Hear My Heartbeat?''
and ''Jezebel''
plus ''I'm
Into Something Good''
and ''Mrs.
Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter''
among others. You can also get more Hermits in the NTSC DVD format
at this link...
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/9732/The+British+Invasion+5+DVD+Box+Set+(Dusty+Sp
Unless
you count the Stones concert on the Easybeats disc as an extra like
we do, none of the se DVDs have any extras, which has been the case
with most of the releases in this series.
Now
to revisit the great U.S. music series Midnight
Special
(1972 - 1979) which we've reviewed smaller sets of as follows...
3-DVD
set with bonus Comedy DVD
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/13509/Lost+Songs:+The+Basement+Tapes+Continued+(2
6-DVD
set of additional performances
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/13022/The+Buddy+Holly+Story+(1978/Sony/Columbia/Tw
This
new box set brings those all together (130 full-length songs), then
adds a new double DVD set of extras with interviews with musicians
(some of which appear on the other sets in parts) on the one DVD and
seven making-of/behind the scenes featurettes on the show on DVD #2.
This all includes Frankie Valli, The O'Jays, Thelma Huston, KC from
the Sunshine Band, Todd Rundgren, Neil Sedaka, Thelma Houston and
frankly, more people who can never be interviewed enough. This is
now the most complete collection of the show and is extremely
recommended for serious music fans.
Last
but not least is Sean Evans' Roger
Waters: The Wall
(2014), a new program Waters co-directed that shows him behind the
scenes of the show, his life, in reflection and recreating the Pink
Floyd classic as a solo artist without really missing a beat. I
should add that the crowds are so great, they help make it even
better. This runs long to the point that only true fans will be able
to enjoy it long-term, but the actual content of the Rock Opera is as
relevant as ever and all involved know it.
Therefore,
fans will make connections non-fans will often make, so being a fan
(or especially a big fan) increases the impact. Add the state if the
art sound as it is the first concert release in the U.S. in Dolby
Atmos 11.1 sound (though Metallica:
Through The Never
(2013) was issued that way in an overseas Blu-ray release) following
the 1980 Wall
film as a sonic groundbreaker. It was the first ever music film of
any kind in Dolby 5.1 (delivered on 70mm blow-up prints only). Thus,
this is also a slid demo discs for all kinds of reasons.
Extras
include Digital HD Ultraviolet Copy for PC, PC portable and iTunes
capable devices,while the Blu-rays add over 80 minutes of bonus
material including a full HD version of Waters' Facebook
Films,
Live At The O2 performances of ''Comfortably
Numb''
and ''Outside
The Wall''
with 'special appearances' by David Gilmour on both and Nick Mason on
the latter. Guess this will do until a new upgraded Blu-ray transfer
of the 1980 Wall
feature film arrives. For more Waters, try these links...
Ca
Ira
(2005 Opera on Super Audio CD)
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/9141/Roger+Waters+%E2%80%93+Ca+Ira+(2005/Opera
Whatever
Happened To Pink Floyd?: The Strange Case Of Waters & Gilmour
documentary DVD
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10898/Heart+%E2%80%93+Night+At+Sky+Church+(201
...plus
our usual Floyd content.
The
1.33 X 1 black and white image on all the Umbrella
DVDs are from often rough film (35mm and likely also 16mm) materials
as the previous Bandstand
and similar music DVD releases have, but we get some good shots just
the same. The full color 1.33 X 1 image across all the Midnight
DVDs repeat the decent quality of the previously issued DVDs, all of
which are included here. The newer interviews are not as NTSC rough
as the classic footage, but they are not so much better, yet all are
very watchable.
So
the visual champ is easily the 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition
image transfer on
Wall,
but there more than a few rough spots (slight motion blur, fake black
and white) that works against the program. Otherwise, it is easily
the visual champ here as expected.
As
for sound, all the DVDs are here in lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono with
the Umbrella
DVDs a bit rough and a bit brittle throughout as was the case in
previous releases from those series, but of the newer materials,
Eastbeats
has the best sound (maybe of any of the 1960s music DVDs we have
covered from Umbrella) holding up just that much better and equalling
the repeat performance of the Midnight
performances we previously covered.
That
leaves Wall
in Dolby Atmos 11.1, but we can only access the Dolby TrueHD 5.1
lossless mix which really shines in the concert footage, but is
laidback when Waters is on the road or being interviewed. PCM 2.0
Stereo is also included, but it is not as good.
To
order any or all of the
Umbrella import DVDs among other great releases, go to this link:
http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/
-
Nicholas Sheffo
