Free – Forever (Eagle DVD/CD Set)
Picture:
C Sound: C+ Extras: B- Concerts: B
Free was
a great British Rock group that were launched in 1968, but they are usually
considered a 1970s band due to the success of hits like All Right Now and their lead singer Paul Rodgers, a quintessential
lead Rock vocalist whose work in Bad Company continued his winning ways for
decades to come. Free – Forever is a surprisingly rich anthology of their work with
all kinds of great footage and concert performances that show how great they
were live.
Eagle
Vision has issued this double DVD set, breaking down what they were able to get
into interesting halves. DVD 1 has the In
Session footage as they do three songs for the German TV music show Beat Club and five songs for the
British Granada TV series Doin’ Their
Thing, both in 1970. Then five
promotional clips rightly dubbed Original Videos (including All Right Now, The Stealer, My Brother Jake,
Love You So, Wishing Well) are also here.
DVD 2 is the In Concert disc and has audio only with video montages on three
sons for their 1970 Isle
Of Wight concert. The
result is an amazing collection any serious music or Rock music fan would want
to go through.
The 1.33
X 1 image may vary throughout this set and come from film and analog video
sources (including old analog tape versions of film footage not found by the
time these discs were pressed), but at its best, the film and video can look
really good. Unfortunately, there is enough
footage that does not look as good as it should and the Music Videos (which
were mostly filmed) should look better than this.
The DTS
5.1 (where available) easily outdoes the Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 sound
throughout, though the quality of the sources of sound can also very. Unfortunately, even the best sound here is
not much more than good stereo, though the DTS can bring good qualities out of
the material the Dolby cannot. Extras
include interviews, The Freelist, Camera Access and alternate edits with
multi-angles of the Isle Of Wight show, plus a
thin booklet inside the foldout book that itself is contained in a slipcase.
Let’s
hope Eagle starts doing this with every act they can.
- Nicholas Sheffo
