I think some of them are the same as Love though. I think the Love versions of "Yellow Submarine" and "Eleanor Rigby" were used in the YS movie which is also on 1+. I think "All You Need is Love","Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows", "Lady Madonna" and "Strawberry Fields Forever" are also all cobbed from Love. The best new surround tracks on 1+ are "Paperback Writer", "Penny Lane", "Hello, Goodbye", and "Hey Bulldog". Pretty sure the title track on the Help! is from Love too.
It's a while since I watched 1+ Strawberry fields probably wouldn't be, it starts off as a demo. Within you without you/ tomorrow never knows is more the former than the later, mainly the drums and weird mad vocal sound effect from TNK. Lady madonna could be the love mix. It's hard to remember, but very few of the Love mixes sound like the original songs
Live In Lyon Concert Performance by Bryan Ferry Released 29 Aug 2013 Recorded 25th of July 2011 at the ancient Roman amphitheatre in Lyon Genre Rock, Pop Label Eagle Vision Director Fabien Raymond Live In Lyon (Nuits De Fourvière) is a 2013 DVD and bluray release of a Bryan Ferry concert during Bryan Ferry's Olympia tour. Filmed on the 25th of July 2011 at the ancient Roman amphitheatre in Lyon, France as part of the Nuits de Fourvière Festival. The show features tracks from across Ferry s 40 year career including classic Roxy Music songs, solo hits and his renowned interpretations of other writer's material. Personnel Vocals – Bryan Ferry Backing Vocals – Aleysha Gordon, Bridgette Amofah, Sewuese Abwa, Shar White Bass – Jeremy Meehan Drums – Andy Newmark, Tara Ferry Guitar – Neil Hubbard, Oliver Thompson Keyboards, Saxophone – Jorja Chalmers Piano – Colin Good, Bryan Ferry Track Listing 1. I Put A Spell On You 2:52 2. Slave To Love 3:27 3. Don't Stop The Dance 3:45 4. Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues 4:21 5. If There Is Something 6:03 6. Make You Feel My Love 3:29 7. You Can Dance 3:34 8. Alphaville 3:18 9. Reasons Or Rhyme 3:58 10. Oh Yeah! 4:28 11. Like A Hurricane 8:06 12. Tara 4:07 13. Bitter-Sweet 3:44 14. Avalon 4:22 15. My Only Love 8:05 16. What Goes On 3:51 17. Sign Of The Times 2:19 18. Love Is The Drug 3:34 19. All Along The Watchtower 3:48 20. Let's Stick Together 4:39 21. Hold On I'm Coming 3:11 22. Jealous Guy 9:40 Version Control This was released in DVD, CD+DVD. bluray, and CD+ bluray. I bought a used copy of the CD + bluray set that came without the CD. Whew, at least it had bluray. There are a few new copies to be had, but they are a little pricey. Most of used copies are in Europe. Amazon. Importcds. Discogs. The Concert We’ve got a modern bluray top notch video quality and DTS HD 5.1. You can tell they are trying to recapture the magic of Roxy Music - The High Road. It’s an outdoor concert in France, besides Ferry there are two other Roxy veterans on stage, and the set list as the concert winds down looks very familiar. There are black backup singers and dancers, but only the backup singers are black and the dancers don’t sing. They are also parked on the outskirts of the stage, so they don’t dominate the show like the trio did to great effect on The High Road. The surround is pretty special. I won’t call it a mix, because I think Bob Clearmountain created it with the benefit of microphones set in the back of the coliseum. Ferry’s lead vocals do dominate the rear channel, but what you get in the back isn’t just reverb – it’s echo. U2 at Red Rocks is the other concert on our list that sounds like this. Lots of crowd noise in the rears too. There’s also a really good true surround mix for the closing credits. There a huge screen that shows a montage of band performances and other stuff. I don’t think any of it is live. At the beginning of some songs, the video is shown as an intro to the concert footage. “I Put A Spell On You” Covered on Taxi. I have this album, but I have never listened to it much. But this song starts off things really well. Thompson looks like a kid, but he doesn’t make me miss Manzanera one little bit. “Slave To Love“ From Boys and Girls. My favorite Ferry albums are the last three Roxy Music albums and the first two solo albums after that. The dancers are seriously verging on pornography. “Don't Stop The Dance” From Boys and Girls. The credits say Chalmers plays keyboards, but she is also the stand in for McKay (or David Sanborn who played sax on Boys and Girls). She does a great job even if she is taller. “Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues “ Bon Dylan song covered on Dylanesque. This is not bad at all, but I’m inclined to think the blues is not the best use of Ferry’s talents. He can play harmonica though. Dancers disappear. “If There Is Something” From Roxy Music s/t debut. Ferry retreats to a keyboard in the upper right part of the stage, which gives some of the other musicians a chance in the spotlight. Veterans Newmark and Hubbard start the song of, but neither of them were on the first Roxy album. The main star who delivers the sax solo at the end is Chalmers. The backing vocalists are too shabby either. “Make You Feel My Love” Bon Dylan song covered on Dylanesque. Ferry comes back out front with Good backing on piano, Hubbard chimes in with a solo, and Thompson answers. A slow song; my least favorite track so far. “You Can Dance” From Olympia. I don’t have this album, but maybe I should. This sounds great. The dancers are back. Flaming guitar from Thompson. Lots of reverb in the rears. “Alphaville” From Olympia. Chalmers just playing keyboards. She’s wearing high heels – maybe she isn’t so tall after all. Great guitar duet left and right. “Reasons Or Rhyme” From Olympia. I don’t like this song as much as the pervious two, but it still has some awesome guitar work from Thompson. “Oh Yeah!” From Roxy Music Flesh and Blood. I know F&B isn’t a highly regarded Roxy album, but I rate it just barely below Avalon. “Like A Hurricane” Neil Young song also covered on The High Road. Ferry retreats to to his upper right hangout, dancers take a break Chalmers starts it off on keyboards and there a serious echoes in the rears – the surround is just fantastic on this song. The background singers, Thompson and Hubbard on guiatar, and Chalmers on sax (she comes up front again) also all light up the rears too. “Tara” From Roxy Music Avalon. Ferry still in back, Chalmers in front with soprano sax solo that echoes in the rears again. Hubbard acoustic guitar solo. “Bitter-Sweet” From Roxy Music Country Life. The dancers are back, but now in back skin suits and masks. Not so sexy. Tara Ferry playing the chime. “Avalon” From Roxy Music Avalon. OK, the highlight of The High Road for me. Ferry takes a back seat again, so who will be the songbird? It’s Sewuese Abwa and she makes the rear speakers ring. “My Only Love” From Roxy Music Flesh and Blood. I already said I love this album and this song is a big reason why. Hubbard and Newmark were both on the original version. Ferry still in back but on the left this time. Thompson and Hubbard both with excellent solos, and the backing singers take over at the end. This is what plays on the top menu, so I guess I’m not the only one who thinks it’s a highlight: “What Goes On” From The Bride Stripped Bare. Ferry comes back in front and introduces the band. I have several of the earlier Ferry solo albums, but not this one – but there’s three songs from it on the set list. This song is more of a rocker than the later Roxy material material they just got through playing. Tara Ferry seems to be handling most of the drumming. “Sign Of The Times” From The Bride Stripped Bare. More of the same, nothing for Chalmers to do but play a little percussion. Meehan anchors the rhythm section as usual. “Love Is The Drug” From Roxy Music Siren. More early Roxy, and the dancers are back in their original skimpy attire. Chalmers gets to play sax again. “All Along The Watchtower” Bon Dylan song covered on Dylanesque. Can’t complain about this Dylan cover even if Chalmers and the backuo singers are relegated to percussion. Thompson tears it up, Hubbard with nice solo too. “Let's Stick Together” Covered on Let's Stick Together. Another early Ferry rocker, with Chalmers leading on sax – she comes down front next to Ferry. The dancers come down in front too. They all take their bows - last song of the set. “Hold On I'm Coming” From The Bride Stripped Bare. The first encore picks up where the finale left off, but no sax. More tasty guitar from Thompson. “Jealous Guy” Cover of John Lennon song released as a Roxy single. This was also the last song on The High Road. The dancers leave and Good and Ferry start it off. Chalmers, Thompson, and Hubbard all get solos. ______ So this concert isn’t quite a magical as The High Road was, but it’s a great show with maybe one clunker on the set list. I don’t like the early solo stuff quite as much, but as long as I’m going to pick up a copy of Olympia, I might as well get The Bride Stripped Bare too. The surround may be “just” a concert mix, but high frequencies bouncing off the back of the coliseum make this much more enjoyable than usual. The price tag is rather high, but had I known how good it is, I wouldn’t have blinked at the $50 price tag for a new copy. As it is, the somewhat damaged and incomplete used copy that I got for $30 had the disc that mattered so I can’t complain. I’m really not at all upset that the CD was missing – I ripped both the stereo and surround mixes from the bluray. Music – 3 Sound quality – 3 Video presentation – 3 Video quality – 3 Surround – 2 (a 3 if the whole concert were as good as “Like a Hurricane”)
Live at the Roundhouse Concert Documentary by Nick Mason's Saucerful Of Secrets Released 18 Sep 2020 Recorded May 3 and 4, 2019 at the Roundhouse, London Genre Prog Rock, Psychedelic Rock Label Legacy, Sony Director James Tonkin Nick Mason, the only band member to have played on all of Pink Floyd's studio albums, returns to the group's earliest records, joined in the line-up by Gary Kemp, Guy Pratt, Lee Harris and Dom Beken. Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets took the drummer back to clubs for the first time in 1967, then to theatres, across the UK, North America and Europe, playing only music his old band had recorded before The Dark Side of the Moon. Captured from the band's celebrated shows at London's Roundhouse, where Pink Floyd played some of their most revered early shows in the 1960s, Live at the Roundhouse features a uniquely thrilling setlist including songs hailing from Syd Barrett's time with the band. Only four songs from this eclectic roster have ever previously appeared on official live releases by Pink Floyd or its members. Everything else is being experienced for the first time since their original live performances. Personnel Guy Pratt – Bass, Lead Vocals Nick Mason – Drums, Percussion Gary Kemp – Guitar, Lead Vocals Lee Harris – Guitar, Vocals Dom Beken – Keyboards, Vocals Track Listing 1 Beginnings 2 Instellar Overdrive 3 Astronomy Domine 4 Lucifer Sam 5 Fearless 6 Obcured By Clouds 7 When You're In 8 Remember A Day 9 Arnold Layne 10 Vegetable Man 11 If 12 Atom Heart Mother 13 If ( Reprise ) 14 The Nile Song 15 Green Is The Colour 16 Let There Be More Light 17 Childhood's End 18 Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun 19 See Emily Play 20 Bike 21 One Of These Days 22 A Saucerful Of Secrets 23 Point Me At The Sky Version Control This concert was released on LP, 2CD + DVD, and bluray. I have the bluray of course. It’s a new release and widely available. Amazon. The Concert The video is ultrawidescreen with black bars at the top and bottom. The surround audio is PCM – why can’t everyone do that? The concert starts with an historical interview with some german guy who isn’t sure Pink Floyd makes very good music. It’s mildly amusing but it left me hoping be the only documentary interlude. I was disappointed in that regard. The surround uses the front channel for lead vocals, but the rears aren’t used for much but crowd noise. “Instellar Overdrive” The concert actually starts on chapter 2 with this song from The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. Harris, Pratt, and Kemp are lined up in front; Mason and Beken are behind them. In the back og the stage is a huge screen that delivers a steady stream of psychedelia and historical Floyd footage, usually featuring Mason. This song is an instrumental and Harris does most of the guitar work, including the slide sections. Kemp also makes use of a synthesizer of some sort – doesn’t seem to have a keyboard. All in all, a very nice start – it segues straight into…. “Astronomy Domine” Also from The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. The vocals are sung in unison and they pretty much sound like the original version. Also a very nice rendition. Unfortunately, this track is followed by more documentary, but it is in its chapter so you can skip it. “Lucifer Sam” Om chapter 5 now, still covering The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. Pratt covers the Syd Barrett vocals. “Fearless” I don’t think of Meddle as an early Floyd album – it’s more like the first of a run of four classic albums. Kemp covers the Gilmour vocals, but he doesn’t really sound like him. The chanting at the end of the song seems to be the same as the original – and it’s in surround. I wouldn’t pick this one as the best or as an exemplar, but it’s all I could find: “Obcured By Clouds” and “When You're In” Both on chapter 7. OK, this was even later and Obscured By Clouds is really a soundtrack. Never heard of it at the time, and I don’t have it. These aren’t bad instrumentals, but a step down from Meddle. Followed by more documentary, time to skip to… “When You're In” also from Obscured By Clouds. Pratt handles lead vocals “Remember A Day” On chapter 9, from A Saucerful of Secrets. Pratt handles this rare song with Richard Wright vocals. “Arnold Layne” A 1969 single. Kemp lead vocals, Pratt backing. “Vegetable Man” A 1967 single clearly written by Barrett. Kemp with lead vocals again. First song in a while that I really got a kick out of. Followed by more documentary; skipping ahead to…. “If” / “Atom Heart Mother” / “If ( Reprise )” On chapter 13 we get a sequence from Atom Heart Mother. Kemp on lead vocals and acoustic and electric guitar, Harris with electric playing some slide. More sound effects in surround. Best thing on here since the opening two tracks. “The Nile Song” More is another soundtrack-album that I had never heard of until recently. This is a quasi-heavy metal song with Pratt on lead vocals. Kemp and Harris take turns covering Gilmour. “Green Is The Colour” Another one from More, the lighting turns green and so does the screen. Beken with piano solo, Kemp with lead vocals. ”Let There Be More Light” From A Saucerful of Secrets. Kemp with lead vocals and most of the guitar work, they do a good job with this one from the album the band was named after. Uh oh, more documentary. Advance to… “Childhood's End” On chapter 18, another one from Obscured By Clouds. Rocker with Kemp lead vocals. “Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun” From A Saucerful of Secrets. Mason gets to play the gong - he’s pretty happy about that. Pratt gets a chance at the gong too. Beken very busy with the synths. Another great rendition – I’d drop the video here if I could find one. “See Emily Play” Barrett song that appeared on the U.S. edition of The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. Pratt with lead vocals. “Bike” From The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. Might be the closest Pink Floyd ever came to a pop song. Kemp with lead vocals. “One Of These Days” From Meddle. This isn’t a pop song. Prerecorded sound effects, then Pratt leads it off with the classic bass line. Harris sits and lays his guitar down flat. They really do look like they are having a good time playing this, and why wouldn’t they? Documentary Incoming, advance to “A Saucerful Of Secrets” On Chapter 24, we get the band’s eponymous song. Pratt starts with some slide bass, Kemo handles most of the vocals. “Point Me At The Sky” 1968 Single. Starts with a barbershop triad. Ends with them saying goodbye – nice ending, but “Saucerful” was the real finale. ______ To me, the main attraction of this concert is the coverage of the first two Pink Floyd albums and especially the material by Syd Barrett. However, I also quite enjoyed the Atom Heart Mother excerpt and the rendition of “One of These Days”. I found much of the other early 70’s material to be a little bland. The surround mix on the whole doesn’t use the rears enough to deserve a point, but there is a minute of cool surround at the end of “Fearless”. Music – 2 Sound quality – 3 Video presentation – 2 (the documentary segments didn’t help) Video quality – 3 Surround – 1 Probably going to do Roger Waters Us + Them next week.
Re: Nick Mason The second entry for 'When You're In" shouldn't be there - once I figured out that it was in the same chapter (partly because I noted it had no vocals) as "Obscured By Clouds" I combined it the two, but then didn't delete the comment I has started.
Grace Under Pressure Tour Concert Performance by Rush Released Released March 28, 1986 (Betamax, VHS) 1988 (Laserdisc) May 1, 2007 (DVD) Recorded September 21, 1984 Venue Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Genre Progressive rock, hard rock Length 63:05 (CD) Label Anthem/Mercury Records The concert footage documented in Grace Under Pressure Tour was filmed on September 21, 1984 at Maple Leaf Gardens, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Personnel Geddy Lee: Bass and rhythm guitar, vocals, synthesizers, bass pedal synthesizer Alex Lifeson: Electric and acoustic guitars, bass pedal synthesizer Neil Peart: Drums and percussion Track Listing 1. Three Stooges Intro ("Three Blind Mice") 2. "The Spirit of Radio" 3. "The Enemy Within" 4. "The Weapon" 5. "Witch Hunt" 6. "New World Man" 7. "Distant Early Warning" 8. "Red Sector A" 9. "Closer to the Heart" 10. Medley: "YYZ"/"2112: The Temples of Syrinx"/"Tom Sawyer" 11. "Vital Signs" 12. Medley: "Finding My Way"/"In the Mood" Version Control The Betamax and VHS videocassettes were the original formats of release, in 1986, under the title Grace Under Pressure Tour. The Laserdisc was released in 1988. In addition to the "Grace Under Pressure" concert, the original releases also included a full-length music video for "The Big Money," a truncated version of which was released to outlets like MTV and on the short-lived CD Video format. This version of Grace Under Pressure Tour is currently out-of-print in all three formats. In 2006, a DVD version of the original production, retitled Grace Under Pressure 1984, with its audio re-mastered in 5.1-channel Dolby Surround by Rush guitarist and co-producer Alex Lifeson, was released as part of the DVD box set, titled Rush Replay X 3. In 2007, the DVD version of Grace Under Pressure 1984, as it was included in Replay X 3, was released as a single, stand-alone DVD. As a special feature, Rush Replay x 3 includes an audio CD of Grace Under Pressure Tour that was unavailable elsewhere until a stand-alone CD release in 2009. The DVD release does not include the music video for "The Big Money." Amazon lists a new copy of Replay X3 for $129. I scrounged a used copy with a missing CD (at least I knew about it in advance this time) for about $35 shipped. Mark has already reviewed the first disc in this set – Exit.... Stage Left. Used copies of the standalone DVD seem to be nonexistant. The Concert The intro screens look just fine, but once you get to the concert the video screams VHS. It is reformatted for widescreen, but that’s not really a good thing – I would probably rather have higher resolution on a smaller screen. I does have DTS 5.1. The surround is perhaps a little better than the modern blurays: Geddy Lee vocals are isolated in the center channel, which I like. It’s mostly crowd noise in the rear, but several of the songs do have some pretty mice reverb too. "The Spirit of Radio" From Permanent Waves. The opening credits are in the same chapter as the first song, which is a little annoying. So guess what, these guys are 20-30 years younger than they are on the blurays. But only Peart looks very different – he has hair and a ponytail. There do appear to be a stack of amps behind Lifeson – perhaps they are even functional. Lee has a much bigger set of keyboards. He often plays in front of the keyboards even when just playing his ultra-light bass. Lifeson uses several different guitars, but not so many as he does in the later concerts. There is a single screen in the rear for video. The videos are also sometimes spliced into the concert film, usually at the beginning of a song. This song sounds fine here, but it appears on the blurays quite a bit too. "The Enemy Within" From Grace Under Pressure. GUP is one of my favorite Rush albums, and this is song that doesn’t show up later. Not only that, it’s the first song of the “Fear” trilogy. A fine place for sample: "The Weapon" From Signals. Pretty silly intro at the beginning, but it prompts the audience into putting 3D glasses on. The second song of the trilogy starts of with synth. Peart was already pretty good at throwing his sticks up in the air and catching them in 1984, but I think he got better with twenty more years of practice. "Witch Hunt" From Moving Pictures. Another video intro to the third part of the “Fear” trilogy. "New World Man" From Signals. Another synth intro, but Lee moves to center once the songs starts. "Distant Early Warning" From Grace Under Pressure. This song and the associated video did appear in 21st century concerts, but it sounds really good here too. I think the vocals are better. Vocal echoes in the rear – nice. Nice guitar reverb too. "Red Sector A" From Grace Under Pressure. Another GUP gem that also showed up on 21st century set lists. Lee sticks to keyboards. "Closer to the Heart" From Moving Pictures. Not standard fare later on. Lee back on bass. Medley: "YYZ"/"2112: The Temples of Syrinx"/"Tom Sawyer" From Moving Pictures and 2112. These got played all the time on the blurays. Lee switches between keyboards and bass. Lifeson guitar clinic. Really nice reverb in rears here too. "Vital Signs" From Moving Pictures. Another one from MP that didn’t get played much later on. Lee on bass. Medley: "Finding My Way"/"In the Mood" From s/t debut. OK this something that you don’t see much of – coverage of the debut album. Yes they sound like a garage band, but it’s a nice finish. ______ The video quality of this concert just isn’t in the same league as the more modern concerts that appear on bluray. They also didn't put on as much of a show. However, the audio quality is good and the surround is barely good enough to earn a point. The video is also relatively short – the newer concert videos are at least twice as long. But you get some songs that don’t appear in later concerts, and you get to see the band play them back when they were relatively new. In particular, it has the "Fear Trilogy". I’m glad to have it. Music – 2.5 Sound quality – 3 Video presentation – 2 Video quality – 1 Surround – 2
Us + Them Directed by Roger Waters, Sean Evans Produced by Mark Fenwick, Clare Spencer, Roger Waters Written by Roger Waters Screenplay by Roger Waters, Sean Evans Concert Venue Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam Recording Dates 18 – 23 June 2018 Cinematography Brett Turnbull Edited by Katharine McQuerrey Distributed by Us + Them Production Limited Release date 2 October 2019 (UK Theatrical); 2 October 2019 (DVD and Bluray) Running time 135 minutes Country United Kingdom Language English Roger Waters: Us + Them is a 2019 British concert film by English musician Roger Waters, founding member of Pink Floyd. The film was directed by Waters and Sean Evans, and it captures a truncated performance from Waters' 2017–18 live tour. The cinema release of the film was accompanied by a documentary titled A Fleeting Glimpse, capturing behind the scenes footage of the band rehearsing, performing sound-checks before shows and in the aftermath of performances. Before its official release, the film was screened on 7 September 2019 at Venice Film Festival. The film released in theaters across the world on 2 and 6 October in 2019. In May 2020, it was announced that the film would be getting a digital release, starting with YouTube on 16 June, and followed by Blu-ray and DVD on 2 October. The film features songs from Pink Floyd albums and Waters' last album, Is This the Life We Really Want? It also featured across the four shows from the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam. Personnel (Musicians only) Jon Carin - Keyboards & Guitars Dave Kilminster - Guitars Bo Koster - Hammond organ & Piano Holly Laessig - Vocals Ian Ritchie - Saxophone Gus Seyffert - Guitars & Bass Joey Waronker - Drums Roger Waters - Lead Vocals & Bass Jonathan Wilson - Guitars & Vocals Jess Wolfe - Vocals Track Listing 1. "Speak to Me" (Played on tape, with parts of the vocal track from "When We Were Young") 2. "Breathe" 3. "One of These Days" 4. "Time / Breathe (Reprise)" 5. "The Great Gig in the Sky" 6. "Welcome to the Machine" 7. "When We Were Young" (Shortened version without the vocal track) 8. "Déjà Vu" 9. "The Last Refugee" 10. "Picture That" 11. "Wish You Were Here" 12. "The Happiest Days of Our Lives" 13. "Another Brick in the Wall (Parts II & III)" 14. "Dogs" 15. "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" 16. "Money" 17. "Us and Them" 18. "Brain Damage" (with vocal intro) 19. "Eclipse" Version Control The was recently released on DVD and bluray and is widely available. The Concert First of all, this is a concert-movie. However, the audio is all concert, so it’s more concert than movie. The movies scenes all have a Middle Eastern theme. There is a huge screen (largest I’ve ever seen) in the back of the stage that often shows some of the cinematography, but the movies scenes also often completely replace the concert video. The video is ultra widescreen with black bars at the top and bottom – sometimes the video actually takes up less than half of the actual screen. The audio has both Dolby Atmos and Dolby True HD 5.1 options. With the Atmos, which is what I listened to mostly, I think there is more action from the ceiling speakers than the rears. It is the sound effects (much of which is standard Pink Floyd fare) that are the most impressive surroundwise. "Breathe" From Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon. Starts out with a desert scene with prerecorded “Speak to Me” playing. Then we get the concert stage and theater with a view of Earth from the moon and blue lighting. The main band lineup is in front from left to right: Wilson on guitar, the two female vocalists Laessig and Wolfe, Waters, and Seyffert. Rear left behind Wilson are the two keyboard players Carin and Coster. Waronker on drums is rear right behind Seyffert. Wilson is lead vocalist on this song, and Waters plays bass. Song ends with more gorgeous desert scenery with a woman and child walking down a path. "One of These Days" From Meddle. If you are keeping score, this is the one and only Floyd song on the set list that also appeared in the Nick Mason concert. Water still on bass, Seyffert plays lead guitar. Bass drum in surround, Mason’s recorded vocals in the rear. Video is not so gorgeous scenery, most of it indoors. "Time / Breathe (Reprise)" From Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon. Clocks in surround and on the screen. The metronome is Waters on bass. The girls help out Waronker with the drumming. Waters with lead vocals, Wilson backing. Video is of drone pilot getting up and going to work somewhere in suburbia. Then we’re back in the Middle East somewhere with mother and child again. "The Great Gig in the Sky" From Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon. The screen has band shots that appear to be live superimposed on a background of stars. Very cool. Laessig and Wolfe sing this as a duet, which is awesome. No external video on this one. "Welcome to the Machine" From Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here. Starts off with sound effects in surround. Waters with electric guitar. Wilson has moved over to the right of Waters with guitar and backing vocals, Seyffert is on bass back with Waronker. The screen seems to be mostly band shots – no extra video on this "When We Were Young" / Déjà Vu" From Is This the Life We Really Want? Now we suddenly jump from classic Floyd material to Waters’ most recent solo album. Waters with acoustic guitar and vocals. Video is of drone bombing. "The Last Refugee" From Is This the Life We Really Want? Just piano percussion and Waters with vocals. Video of woman dancing in dungy apartment. Backing vocals from Laessig and Wolfe plus some synth. "Picture That" From Is This the Life We Really Want? Drone pilot turns off his equipment and lights up a joint. The whole band gets involved again. Water still just vocals, Wilson back over on the left with guitar and backing vocals. The video is highly processed and off-color with subways, drones, and middle east footage. "Wish You Were Here" From Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here. OK, back to the Floyd – not a moment too soon. Wilson has a 12-string acoustic guitar. Waters and Kilminster over on the right have six string acoustic guitars. Waters lead vocals, Laessig and Wolfe backing. The screen shows two hands that move towards each other as if they are about to claps, but they disintegrate before that ever happens. "The Happiest Days of Our Lives" From Pink Floyd Brick in the Wall. Helicopter noises in surround in the dark. When the lights come on. there are about a dozen children lined up in front with orange jump suits and hoods over their heads. They take the hoods off and lipsync to be the prerecorded choir. They take off the orange suits, revealing black shirts with a white “RESIST” in the front Waters back on electric bass and lead vocals. Screen mostly shows projections of the children on stage. "Another Brick in the Wall (Parts II & III)" From Pink Floyd Brick in the Wall. Continues from previous track with the children still in black shirts. "Dogs" From Pink Floyd Animals. With warning sounds in surround, a contraption is lowered from the roof over the middle of the audience. It ends up being an utterly fantastic set of projection screens that run perpendicular to the stage, and at the outset shows a rendition of the factory on the cover of Animals. The song starts and because the camera now starts showing this apparition, we see less of the band. However, Carin and Seyffert are playing acoustic guitar, Wilson in the middle with lead vocals and electric guitar, Waters with bass, Kilminster on the left playing lead guitar, Laessig and Wolfe help out with the drumming. The projected factory in the middle recedes into he stars, and the concert video gives way to a movie clip showing what appear to be Syrian refugees dragging a boat to the ocean. Back to the concert where projections of band members appear on the perpendicular screen and also sometimes directly to the video screen. This segment isn’t quite as impressive as the next one, but since it isn’t as overtly political, I’ll drop the video clip here: "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" From Pink Floyd Animals. The bands starts off wearing pig masks and drinking champagne with synth running in the background with a bit of surround They rip them off and the song starts in earnest. Seyffert with main acoustic guitar at the beginning and he also takes over on bass, Waters with lead vocals, Kilminster and Wilson take turns at lead guitar, Laessig and Wolfe drumming and dancing, Carin with some electric guitar too. A flying pig with it’s own porcine projection screen comes out to join the perpendicular screen above the crowd. The video in this one picks on the current U.S. president. You may or may not like it for that reason, but it’s a spectacular show either way. "Money" From Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon. Money sound effects in surround and currency on the screen.. The perpendicular screen just used as an ancillary to the center screen on stage. Concert video briefly gives way to computer graphics and a nuclear blast. Ritchie comes out for sax solo. Kilminster lead guitar on left, Wilson with lead vocals. G7 leaders on screen. "Us and Them" From Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon. Wilson lead guitar and vocals, more sax from Ritchie. Screens show Middle East strife. "Brain Damage" / "Eclipse" From Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon. Water with acoustic guitar and lead vocals, Laessig and Wolfe backing. The perpendicular screen is gone, but there is a large sphere hanging around in it’s place. A laser generated pyramid appears over the middle of the crowd with the ball hanging around over it. Rainbow lights projecting from the stage, more less reproducing the DSOTM cover – another great spectacle. ______ All the Pink Floyd material is very well done, but the sequence with material from his solo album, “Wish You Were Here” and The Wall segment are not as good as the rest of the it. By and large. I would have to say this concert is a better modern rendition of classic Floyd material than anything his former bandmates have done. It is most certainly the best coverage of Animals, and it has most of Dark Side of the Moon as well. The visual presentation raises the bar as the best ever. Truly amazing. There are many very cool surround passages, but those largely involve sound effects – not giving full marks for that. Music – 3 Sound quality – 3 Video presentation – 3 Video quality – 3 Surround – 2
Ayreon Universe Concert Performance by Ayreon Released March 30, 2018 Recorded September 15-16, 2017 at 013 Poppodium in Tilburg Genre Progressive metal, progressive rock Length 122:38 Label Mascot Label Group / Music Theories Producer Arjen Anthony Lucassen Ayreon Universe – The Best of Ayreon Live, alternatively known as simply Ayreon Universe, is a live album and DVD/Blu-ray by Arjen Anthony Lucassen's progressive rock/metal rock opera project Ayreon, released on March 30, 2018. Unlike Ayreon's first live album The Theater Equation, which was a stage performance of the album The Human Equation, Ayreon Universe was performed as a traditional concert, with two additional songs from Star One, another project by Lucassen. It was recorded during a series of concerts in September 2017, which were the first ever official Ayreon concerts, although The Theater Equation was released (but not performed) as an official Ayreon product. The performance featured 16 singers, all of whom had previously worked together with Lucassen on his studio albums. Personnel Vocalists Floor Jansen (Nightwish, ex-After Forever, ex-ReVamp) Damian Wilson (Headspace, ex-Threshold) Hansi Kürsch (Blind Guardian) Tommy Karevik (Kamelot, Seventh Wonder) Anneke van Giersbergen (Anneke van Giersbergen, The Gentle Storm, VUUR, ex-The Gathering) Marco Hietala (Nightwish, Tarot) Jonas Renkse (Katatonia, Bloodbath, ex-October Tide) Mike Mills (Toehider) Marcela Bovio (MaYaN, ex-Stream of Passion, ex-Elfonía) Irene Jansen Robert Soeterboek (ex-Erik Norlander) John Jaycee Cuijpers (Praying Mantis) Edward Reekers (ex-Kayak) Jay van Feggelen (ex-Bodine) Maggy Luyten (Nightmare) Lisette van den Berg (Scarlet Stories) Instrumentalists Ed Warby - drums except on "Comatose" and "And the Druids Turned to Stone", additional vocals in "Day Eleven: Love" Johan van Stratum (VUUR, ex-Stream of Passion) - bass, except on "Intergalactic Space Crusaders" Peter Vink - bass in "Intergalactic Space Crusaders" Marcel Coenen (Lemur Voice, Sun Caged) - lead guitar Ferry Duijsens - guitar Joost van den Broek (ex-After Forever) - keyboards Ben Mathot - violin Jeroen Goossens - flutes, woodwinds Maaike Peterse - cello Rob Snijders - percussion in "Comatose" and drums on "And the Druids Turned to Stone" Arjen Anthony Lucassen - additional guitar and vocals in "Amazing Flight in Space" and "The Eye of Ra” Track Listing 1 Prologue 4:50 2 Dreamtime 2:34 3 Abbey Of Synn 4:17 4 River Of Time 3:57 5 The Blackboard 1:52 6 The Theory Of Everything 4:40 7 Merlin's Will 3:09 8 Waking Dreams 3:41 9 Dawn Of A Million Souls 5:09 10 Valley Of The Queens 2:50 11 Ride The Comet 3:42 12 Star Of Sirrah 5:54 13 Comatose 2:59 14 Loser 4:43 15 And The Druids Turned To Stone 4:43 16 The Two Gates 10:27 17 Into The Black Hole 6:11 18 Actual Fantasy 1:25 19 Computer Eyes 4:43 20 Magnetism 4:57 21 Age Of Shadows 4:37 22 Intergalactic Space Crusaders 5:35 23 Collision 3:35 24 Everybody Dies 5:02 25 The Castle Hall 6:36 26 Arjen's Speech 11:11 27 Amazing Flight In Space 6:13 28 Day Eleven: Love 4:05 29 The Eye Of Ra 7:36 30 End Credits Version Control The concert was released on 2CD, 3LP, CD+DVD+Bluray, 2DVD, and standalone bluray. I have the bluray, of course – why would you want anything else? Unfortunately, it’s out of print already. A few used copies are to be had in Europe. Discogs. The Concert Bluray video with DTD HD 5.1. Big screen in the rear of the stage, with van den Broek (keyboards) and Warby (drums) as permanent fixtures in the back. All the other musicians appear in front; they vary with the song, but the usual suspects from left to right are Coenen, vStratum and Duijsen. Background vocal trio of Irene Jansen, van den Berg and Bovio are in back to the right of the drum set. Stars (well moving dots) on the screen. There is usually no surround worth mentioning – just crowd noise and a tiny bit of reverb. But there are exceptions to that rule. “Prologue” From The Final Experiment. Narrator (Mills) wearing laser pointers on his head and identifying himself as TH1 introduces the Ayreon Universe. Not that it really matters. The prologue plays prerecorded while pictures of Ayreon albums flash up on the screen. “Dreamtime” From The Final Experiment. JvdB starts it off, Duijsens with acoustic guitar, Reekers lead vocals. “Abbey Of Synn” From Actual Fantasy. Warby, Coenen and vStratum come out for the first time. Soeterboek is lead vocalist. Solos from JvdB and Coenen. “River Of Time “ From 01011001. Now we’re into the more symphonic later stuff, and Goossens, Peterse and Mathot are to the left of JvdB with flute, cello, and violin respectively. Kürsch and Hietala are the vocalists. This sounds like one of the gaelic Nightwish songs. Mathot goes in front for a solo. Swirling clocks on the screen. “The Blackboard” From The Theory Of Everything. Stage mostly clears, but vStratum starts it off with a heavy bass line, accompanied by Duijsen on acoustic guitar. Mills and Bovio with vocals. “The Theory Of Everything” From The Theory Of Everything. Coenen comes back along with Goossens playing flute in front. Mills and Bovio still on with vocals. “Merlin's Will” From The Final Experiment. Just the guitar players in front with Floor Jansen singing lead. The background trio on the right have returned. “Waking Dreams” From 01011001. Hey, some sound effects in the rear speakers. Just bass, keyboards, drums, and Renske with vocals until van Giersbergen come out to join him. Duijsen comes back on too. “Dawn Of A Million Souls” From Universal Migrator, Part 2. Now for some more serious metal (I prefer the more proggy Part 1). Anyway, Cuijpers with lead vocals and Coenen back to play lead guitar. “Valley Of The Queens” From The Electric Castle. Goossens out to start it off with flute. Peterse on the left with cello. Floor, vGiersbergen, and Bovio are out to sing lead. “Ride The Comet” From 01011001. Surround!!! Synth in the rears to start, background trio (maybe just Bovio) after that. Renske lead vocals, Luyten comes out to join him. “Star Of Sirrah” From The Source. My favorite Ayreon song. Mills with lead, there’s some synth in the back again. Luyten instead of Floor though, which is a bit of a bummer. Kürsch is out there too. vStratum with the incredible bass line, Coenen with the guitar solo. “Comatose” From 01011001. Snijders starts it off with small drum set in front. Renske and vGiersbergen colead vocalists. Peterse on the left with cello again. “Loser” From The Human Equation. Goossens has a didgeroo – I learned what that was from the Midnight Oil concert. He trades it in for a flute; the string section is out there too. Mills is the vocalist. The background trio plus Luyten come out to harass him. Lots of keyboard work from JvdB. “And The Druids Turned To Stone” From Universal Migrator, Part 1. My favorite album, but this is not anywhere close to my favorite song from it. Wilson is the lead vocalist, and Sniders takes Warby’s place behind the main drum set. Stonehenge on the screen. Synth in the rear again. “The Two Gates” From The Electric Castle. Mills is back with his laser pointers, sound effects in the rear. The back to the heavy metal with Cuijpers singing lead, Warby back on drums. Irene Jansen comes forward to introduce the musicians. “Into The Black Hole” From Universal Migrator, Part 2. More metal with Karevik singing lead (yes he sang Daniel on Transitus). Pretty cool planetary graphics on screen. Another solo from Coenen. “Actual Fantasy” From Actual Fantasy. Orchestral trio start it off, Reekers is the lead vocalist with the trio backing. “Computer Eyes” From Actual Fantasy. Nice synth and sound effects in the rear, ethereal guitar work from Coenen. Reekers still out there, Soeterboek comes out too. No trio on either side. “Magnetism” From The Theory Of Everything. Peterse starts it off then Mathot and Goosens join her. It’s another gaelic metal piece. Karevik, vGiersbergen, and Hietala are the vocalists. “Age Of Shadows” From 01011001. Sound effects in the rear plus some menacing robotic arms. It’s also a great song with Hietala singing lead, Kürsch and Floor come out to join him. Mathot on violin. “Intergalactic Space Crusaders” From Star One Space Metal. From another one of Arjen’s projects - technically, not an Ayreon song. Vink plays bass. Renske and Luyten with vocals. “Collision” From The Theory Of Everything. vStratum back on bass, Karevik and Hietela vocals. “Everybody Dies” From The Source. There may be only two songs from my second favorite Ayreon album on the set list, but they are my favorite two. Great graphics and lots of different vocalists, including laser pointer Mills at the beginning and Floor at the end: “The Castle Hall” From The Electric Castle. Lucassen comes out to sort of play guitar. Soeterboek and Renske are the vocalists, flute solo from Goosens, Mathot on violin. “Amazing Flight In Space” From The Electric Castle. Lucassen gives speech and we are into encore territory. He lead the song off and I dare say he is really playing. He also sings colead with van Feggelen. Lots of flute and violin after they are done. “Day Eleven: Love” From The Human Equation. Vocal heavy song with Reeker, Bovio, Irene, Soeterboek, and vdBerg. Warby even takes a turn too. The orchestral trio are all out there too. “The Eye Of Ra” From Star One Space Metal. Cuijpers is lead vocalist with both Jansen sisters backing. The whole cast comes out to sing the finale. ______ Even though it is very similar, I like this concert better than The Electric Castle Live mainly because I like the set list better. Except for the disturbing lack of material from from Migrator Part 1, it's a pretty good Ayreon compilation. It’s an entertaining show with a revolving cast of vocalists and instrumentalists performing. There is one great surround track, and enough other flashes of surround greatness to garner a point. Music – 2.5 Sound quality – 3 Video presentation – 3 Video quality – 3 Surround – 2
Rolling Stones - Steel Wheels Live. SD-BD Region: ABC (all regions) BD Aspect Ratio: 16:9 (4:3PB) Picture Format: NTSC SD-BD Audio: LPCM Stereo, DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio SD-BD Format: BD-50 Subtitles: None BBFC Certification: PG (mild bad language) Total running time: 158 mins approx. Genre: Concert film 1 1 Intro 2 2 Start Me Up 3 3 Bitch 4 4 Sad Sad Sad 5 5 Undercover Of The Night 6 6 Harlem Shuffle 7 7 Tumbling Dice 8 8 Miss You 9 9 Terrifying 10 10 Ruby Tuesday 11 11 Salt Of The Earth (featuring Axl Rose & Izzy Stradlin) 12 12 Rock And A Hard Place 13 13 Mixed Emotions 14 14 Honky Tonk Women 15 15 Midnight Rambler 16 16 You Can’t Always Get What You Want 17 17 Little Red Rooster(featuring Eric Clapton) 18 18 Boogie Chillen (featuring Eric Clapton & John Lee Hooker) 19 19 Can’t Be Seen 20 20 Happy 21 21 Paint It Black 22 22 2,000 Light Years From Home 23 23 Sympathy For The Devil 24 24 Gimme Shelter 25 25 It’s Only Rock n Roll (But I Like It) 26 26 Brown Sugar 27 27 (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction 28 28 Jumpin’ Jack Flash --------------------------------------------------- I have always been a fan of the Stones, and I have always been a fan of live albums, and when video concerts became a real thing they usurped the albums for me, because I like watching bands even if they just stand there and play. In recent years that has been a very cool thing, because there have been so many great concerts released on dvd and bluray. So far I have and really enjoy Ladies and Gentleman The Rolling Stones, Some Girls Live and Live At The Hampton Coliseum .... So this one may round out my interest in Stones live releases ... although who knows whether something else will tickle my fancy. I have never seen this, although I read around the board that it was a televised concert, but the set list is good, and this tour got a lot of lip service, so I am looking forward to checking it out ... Anyway Lets just hook in and see what we have here. The intro isn't anything special but Start me up kicks in nicely. Start Me Up The picture is 4:3 but it is really nice and clean and sharp. The guys look young remarkably, and then I remind myself this is about thirty years ago, and I am old now lol. Really nice version of Start me up, Mick the picture of an energetic front man, and singing well. Ronnie plays a nice lead break Bitch Again a solid performance, and Keith takes the lead guitar here. Nice to see Keith fully conscious Sad Sad Sad Nice little rocker, keeps things moving nicely. Undercover Of The Night With the surround... it is mainly ambience, but Ronnie is on the left side to varying degrees, and Keith is right to varying degrees. Harlem Shuffle The stage is really large and at various times the band is augmented by horns and backing vocalists. There are a couple of keyboard players, and at this stage Bill and Charlie are still the rhythm section. Tumbling Dice Mick is really working the crowd and running around like a young fella. It seems like Keith really loves this song, from the very first note. Miss You Mick was on guitar for a couple of songs earlier, and he's back on guitar again here, and you can hear him. Some of the levels aren't brilliant. The keys are often a little MIA. The bass is pretty low. As with a couple of other songs, this has a pretty decent surround mix. Terrifying This is a new track for me. I never bought the Steel Wheels album, the first Stones album I didn't have. This is a pretty good track. Ruby Tuesday One of my favourite Stones tracks. Mick donned a long gold jacket to sing this. Again the surround mix seems to be pretty good. Salt Of The Earth We get Axl and Izzy joining in here. This come across very well Axl does a good job, and sings this pretty straight, respecting whose stage he is on. Really nice track to pull out, and very well done. Rock And A Hard Place Another track I'm not familiar with. Mick's on the guitar again. Mixed Emotions I do remember this one. Honky Tonk Women Obviously a classic and Keith does some really nice stuff during this. We get a couple of giant blow up Honky Tonk Women. Again the mix is very ... I want to say inclusive, more than immersive. Midnight Rambler I'll probably always love the the Yaya's version best, but let's see how we roll here. Bill has been off in his own world most of the show. Mick blows a pretty mean harp. Good version. You Can't Always Get What You Want An obvious classic. We even get the horn at the start. Really nice. They do a really good job of this but the change in the middle didn't work for me. Little Red Rooster We get Clapton out with the boys here. Clapton tears it up really nicely. Keith and Eric have a good laugh. Keith really seems to be enjoying the shoe. Bill looks like he would rather be anywhere but here. Mick pulls the harp out, and Mick and Eric do a bit of call and response. Nice stuff. Boogie Chillun John Lee zhooker strolls out... John Lee holds court, and I reckon the guitarists are getting a buzz playing with a legend. John Lee does his thing for a while, and then nods at Clapton to do something. John Lee does his thing after that, sings a bit more and then says goodnight. High fives all round, John and the boys have a bit of a dance. Can't be Seen Keith takes centre stage, and sings another new track. Interesting track, and Keith does a pretty good job of it. Happy Keith is very animated and does a good job of this. I love this song. Ronnie plays some nice slide. I think Bill smiled. Paint It Black A nice inclusion and it comes across well. 2000 Light Years From Home Another nice inclusion. Not sure how often they've done this but it works well... we get the keyboard players messing around with a bit of a highlighted section that leads into... Sympathy For The Devil I would assume this is a pretty standard track for a Stones show. The intro is r excellent. Ronnie's guitar is a little loud when it kicks in, but it balances out nicely. Keith runs around the stage playing a nice lead, Ronnie plays a bit too. The attractive ladies singing backup crush up on Bill and he can't help but smile. Very cool stuff, thanks ladies. Gimme Shelter Undoubtedly for me, the crowning achievement in the Stones catalog. We have ladies on bvox, and I feel pretty happy, because for this song they're needed to really sell it. Great version, but it peters out a little. Then we get the intros. It's Only rock And Roll Mick grabs Bill and pulls him to the front of the stage... Bill smiles again, perhaps a record Brown Sugar Bobby Keys is great here. Everyone is having a blast. Satisfaction Just about a standard these days, but still full of fire after all these years. The horns augment it, and it works well. Keith tears it up. Jumpin Jack Flash We get the obligatory leaving of the stage, and this is the encore, and it's full of fire and venom and Ronnie is covering the licks really well. Mick is in a boxer's robe. Keith is having g a blast. I reckon this is an excellent show. The band are into it, the performances are good. The support artists are into it and they are good also. It is just a really good rock and roll show. There are a couple of slightly down moments for me, but there are a few songs I wasn't familiar with. They come across well, but Can't Be Seen, for example, it never going to draw the same response from me as Ruby Tuesday or Jumpin Jack Flash. The surround mix is a nice listen.... there are a few bits and pieces going on in the sides, but as we have come to expect, it isn't a studio mix. The ambience does work well though, and I felt engaged in the show from an audio perspective. From a straight audio perspective the mix was slightly erratic, or it seemed like it to me. There were a few spots had something a little loud, and other spots were something may be a bit quiet, but at the end of the day it is a rock and roll show, and rock and roll isn't really about precision from a concert perspective. I think it sounds good, and it sounds vital and live, and I think it works. Jagger hit the stage running, and didn't stop, except when he was playing guitar. Keith was really good all night, though I thought his new song didn't quite work. Other than that though he was happy, coherent and invested in what was going on, and did a great job. Ronnie is excellent, he seems to be .... idk, mr reliability. He covered some very important sections and did so really well, he lit up his guitar on many occasions and he and Keith always seem to work well together. Bill looked like he was somewhere else most of the night, but he did flicker a few smiles later on. He seemed solid, but wasn't really high in the mix. Charlie is solid as a rock. This is excellent, but I am probably going to reach for Ladies and Gentleman and Hampton Coliseum, before this one. It goes for just over two and half hours, and it fills the time really well, but Ladies and Gentleman is something a bit special, and I have a close affinity with Still Life, so Hampton Coliseum is very close to my musical heart also. This is available on vinyl, cd, bluray, and various combinations of all of them. If you love the Stones, I imagine you'll love it.... If you were to question the purchase, I think it would mainly be based on how much you think you would watch it ... To some degree, even if I don't watch it again, I got my moneys worth. Anyway, I'm not really sure what else to say, I am happy with this purchase, and I think it is an excellent concert. Midnight Rambler
I enjoyed this live back in the day. It was a $50 pay per view as was mentioned and you could also get 3D glasses for use in a couple songs. Pretty sure it was simulcast but I can't remember exactly. You may have needed to hook up your cable out to your FM antenna and tune in to the proper frequency like you did with MTV and HBO at the time. Edit...it was actually $24.95 and it was simulcast nationally.
I have a memory of watching it on tv at ( or very near) the time and I know I didn't pay $50 for it. Is that possible?
Probably. I moved out of that apartment, where I remember watching it, in 1991, so it wasn't too much later. And I'm certain there was no dish on top of that nyc apartment building
Samsara Movie by Various Artists Directed by Ron Fricke Produced by Mark Magidson Written by Ron Fricke, Mark Magidson Music by Michael Stearns, Lisa Gerrard, Marcello de Francisci Cinematography Ron Fricke Edited by Ron Fricke, Mark Magidson Production company Magidson Films Distributed by Oscilloscope Laboratories Release date September 11, 2011 (TIFF), August 24, 2012 Running time 99 minutes Country United States Samsara is a 2011 American non-narrative documentary film of international imagery directed by Ron Fricke and produced by Mark Magidson, who also collaborated on Baraka (1992), a film of a similar vein, and Chronos (1985). Completed over a period of five years in 25 different countries around the world, it was shot in 70 mm format and output to digital format. The film premiered at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival and received a limited release in August 2012. The official website describes the film, "Expanding on the themes they developed in Baraka (1992) and Chronos (1985), Samsara explores the wonders of our world from the mundane to the miraculous, looking into the unfathomable reaches of humanity's spirituality and the human experience. Neither a traditional documentary nor a travelogue, Samsara takes the form of a nonverbal, guided meditation." Samsara is directed by Ron Fricke and produced by Mark Magidson. The pair had collaborated on Baraka and reunited in 2006 to plan Samsara. They researched locations that would fit the conceptual imagery of saṃsāra, to them "meaning 'birth, death and rebirth' or 'impermanence'". They gathered research from people's works and photo books as well as the Internet and YouTube, resources not available at the time of planning Baraka. They considered using digital cameras but decided to film in 70 mm instead, considering its quality superior. Fricke and Magidson began filming Samsara the following year. Filming lasted for more than four years and took place in 25 countries across five continents. Three years into filming, the pair began assembling the film and editing it. They pursued several pick-up shoots to augment the final product. The crew used three 70 mm cameras for filming; two cameras manufactured by Panavision and one specialty time-lapse camera designed by Fricke. While the scenes were captured on 65 mm negative film, they were output to Digital Cinema Package (DCP), a digital output. Magidson described the process, "We're doing a combination of what we think is the best of both technologies, the best way to image capture and then the best way to output. Once we get into the digital environment, we're able to refine the imagery, we're able to save shots that we'd have to otherwise trash really for various reasons." Where they cut their negatives for Baraka, the negatives for Samsara were scanned then worked on digitally. The pair used the Telecine process to format the film to ProRes for the editing process and used Final Cut for editing. Music The film's music was composed by Michael Stearns, Lisa Gerrard, and Marcello De Francisci. Stearns collaborated with the filmmakers on Baraka and Chronos, and Gerrard also collaborated with them on Baraka. Unlike Baraka, Samsara was edited without music, and the composers worked on numerous sequences as separate pieces. The filmmakers then connected the sequences. Magidson explained of the pieces, "It's a piece of music you can listen to as music as well that interprets their feelings to know that imagery in that sequence visually, so they're kind of interpreting it musically." The scoring process lasted between six and seven months. There is a soundtrack for the movie, but I think it is a subset of what is in the movie. Unlike the movie which has a World Music tone to it, I think the music composed specifically for the movie largely falls under an Ambient genre heading. Track list (from Soundtrack) 1. Bali Girls 1:37 2. Ladakh 3:55 3. Modern Life 6:07 4. Jerusalem 4:01 5. Villages And Freeways 5:47 6. Swimming And Skiing 1:17 7. Dubai 3:45 8. Food Chain 4:05 9. Dump / Igen 3:33 10. Manila 1:52 11. Sagazan 2:27 12. Pagan 2:27 13. Geisha 4:31 14. War Machine 1:53 15. Organics 3:03 16. Katrina 2:31 17. Cebu 3:00 18. St. Peters 2:31 19. Thousand Hands 2:17 20. Organics Excerpt 1:50 There are also several pieces from other artists that I don’t think are in the soundtrack: “Bali Dance” and “1000 Hands” from Star Songs by Bonnie Jo Hunt and Ron Sunslinge “Spheres” by Keith Jarrett “La Ilaha Illah Lah / Nigun Le Mashiakh” by Yuval Ron “Shengshik Pema Jungney” by Choying Drolma and Steve Tibbetts “Byssan Lull, Koka Kittelin Full” by Vidia Wesenlund “Sayat Nova” by Dijan Gasparyan “Kothbiro” by Ayub Ogada “Call to Prayer” – Radio & Television Symphony Orchestra of Bosnia Herzegovina Version Control The soundtrack and the movie are still available. You can also stream the movie with a Prime subscription. The Movie This has an ultra widescreen video with black bars at top and bottom. The audio is DTS HD 7.1 – but it’s not Atmos. On my 5.2.2 system I just get regular surround, with nothing from the ceiling speakers. There’s plenty coming from the rear speakers, but I wouldn’t call it anything more than immersive, but given the ambient nature of most of the music I don’t think you can expect much else. I can’t really do a track by track for this because there aren’t that many identifiable single pieces, plus matching up the music with the video isn’t easy in most cases – the documentation just isn’t there. Plus, the ends don’t justify the means. However, I will say that while the music generally goes well with the video, it’s also mostly stuff I wouldn’t want to listen to without the video (e.g. unlike Koyaanisqatsi). But there is an exception, which is a really nice song (“Kothbiro” by Ayub Ogada) that you won’t find on the soundtrack. It accompanies a segment on guns: I was hoping for a nice segment with Lisa Gerrard vocals, but in most cases she comes with some relatively unattractive video, plus there’s much better stuff on any Dead Can Dance album or her own solo albums. Also, let it be noted that there is a lot of unattractive video. I don’t need to see the high-speed hi-def meat processing segment ever again. The guy in a business suit putting green goop (money, I guess) on his face I can do without too - especially in hi-def. Most of the exceptionally gorgeous video is at the beginning and the end. The aerial view of a congregation at Mecca and the 1000 Hands video at the very end are both quite special. ______ I have had this in my stack of unopened blurays for several months and was been looking forward it. But on the whole it was a little disappointing. I’d already seen some of the best video segments and Gerrard was good but not great. I liked Baraka better. Music – 1.5 Sound quality – 3 Video presentation – 2 Video quality – 3 Surround – 2
Many of the links in my Dead Can Dance video post have gone dead. Maybe I'll update it one of these days. In the mean time, here' the best one: I'm posting it here because the video is sourced from Samsara; most of it appears in the movie, but I think there are a few bits that don't. It has a much better soundtrack than anything in the movie.
I love Boys and Girls and Bete Noire but kind of lost track of him during the 90s. I did pick up Olympia and really enjoyed it so I'm guessing you'll like it too. I'll have to check out this disc... thanks for the review!
Yes, I did just pick up Olympia and I like it a lot. I didn’t realize “BF Bass” was one of the songs on the album - there is a really nice surround version of that song which runs during the Live in Lyon credits.
I saw the show a couple years ago. The politics are “in your face,” but I’ve no problem with that It suits the songs, both new and the “Animals” section. We’ll leave it there. Looking forward to a review.
The Roundhouse Tapes Concert Performance by Opeth Released 23 October 2007 Recorded 9 November 2006 Venue Camden Roundhouse in London, England, UK Length 96:12 Label Peaceville The Roundhouse Tapes is a live double album by Swedish progressive metal band Opeth. The CD was recorded on 9 November 2006 and was released on 23 October 2007 in the US, on 5 November in Europe, and on 20 November in the rest of the world. A two-disc DVD version was released on 10 November 2008, and includes exclusive menu music written by Mikael Åkerfeldt and Per Wiberg. The title is a play on the name of Iron Maiden's first release The Soundhouse Tapes, as well as the venue where the record was recorded.[citation needed] Åkerfeldt said, "The Roundhouse concert will always be a very memorable gig for us for many reasons, but most importantly it caught the band at the peak of the Ghost Reveries tour". This is the final Opeth release with Peter Lindgren. The film features songs from Pink Floyd albums and Waters' last album, Is This the Life We Really Want? It also featured across the four shows from the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam. Personnel Mikael Åkerfeldt – guitar, vocals, mixing, direction Peter Lindgren – guitar Martín Méndez – bass guitar Per Wiberg – keyboards, backing vocals Martin "Axe" Axenrot – drums Track Listing No. Title Length 1. "When" 10:28 2. "Ghost of Perdition" 10:57 3. "Under the Weeping Moon" 10:28 4. "Bleak" 8:39 5. "Face of Melinda" 9:58 6. "The Night and the Silent Water" 10:29 7. "Windowpane" 8:01 8. "Blackwater Park" 19:00 9. "Demon of the Fall" 8:14 Version Control There are multiple 2CD, DVD , and 2CD + DVD versions of this. I have the single DVD version, and I’m pretty sure I got it new for under $10 - it can still be had for about that price. Discogs The Concert Pretty good video quality for a DVD – the lighting is just right. There are three audio options – DD stereo, DD quad, and DTS 5.1. The DTS has the highest bit rate and it shows, but they are all basically stereo. Jens Bogren did the mix here too (like the 5.1 for Ghost Reveries), so I was expecting just a little reverb in the back – and that’s what it is. But if anything, the rear speakers are less useless here. Since this concert is from the tour for Ghost Reveries, I got this thinking it would have mostly material from their more recent albums. But no –five of the nine are from the first four albums that I don’t have. The Roundhouse looks pretty much like it did with the Saucerful in there, but the screen sportin psychedelia behind the stage is much smaller, the musicians are younger and have longer hair. Linden, Åkerfeldt and Méndez are lined up in front, Wiberg and Axenrot are in back. Axenrot had just joined the band after Ghost Reveries was recorded. "When" From My Arms, Your Hearse. Starts straight off with a metal barrage and growly vocals. Åkerfeldt does the most of the vocals and all of the growly ones. If Opeth never ditched the growly vocals I probably wouldn’t be interested in them. The song does also have both clean lead and backing vocals during the prog passages. The video switches between color and B&W. "Ghost of Perdition" From Ghost Reveries. Starts off the same way. The video quality is deliberately sabotaged for brief periods of time – streaks and pseudo graininess. I presume this was done for artistic reasons – Porcupine Tree Arriving Somewhere… did the same sort of thing. Trying to disguise the fact that there isn’t much of a stage show I guess. I sort of figured that the growly vocals must be the result f some electronic treatment, but Åkerfeldt uses the same microphone and switches back and forth between growly and clean. "Under the Weeping Moon" From Orchid. From their debut album. Åkerfeldt explains that the lyrics are “black metal nonsense” Starts off as instrumental; don’t get the growly vocals until about a minute in. Some messing with the video during an ethereal passage again. This one has some clean vocals too, so I guess they always did that. "Bleak" From Blackwater Park. A very nice proggy song with mostly clean vocals. Steven Wilson sang many of the vocals on the studio version of this, but Åkerfeldt and Wiberg handle them just fine here. Clip goes here, but the video quality of the DVD is a little better than this: "Face of Melinda" From Still Life. Wiberg and Linden start it off slow, and five minutes later it turns into metal. All clean vocals. "The Night and the Silent Water" From Morningrise. Starts off as a proggy instrumental, but a minute in we get the growly vocals. The good thing is that the instrumental passages are far longer than the growly vocal passages. Video editor nesses around with black and white again. "Windowpane" From Damnation. This is the song that supposedly gets chicks backstage. That must mean no growly vocals – which I already knew because Damnation has no growly vocals. Wiberg fills in for Steven Wilson again. "Blackwater Park" From Blackwater Park. Starts off with a metal barrage and serious hair twirling. Growly vocals start a couple minutes in. Ethereal passage with grainy video. Blackwater Park is a really good album – too bad about the vocals. "Demon of the Fall" From My Arms, Your Hearse. The encore. The Roundhouse Tapes cover appears on the screen – I guess they had it designed beforehand. Band into. Méndez is from Uruguay – how the hell did he hook up with the Swedes? Anyway, they eventually get around to one last song that starts with reverb and a guitar intro, and then the growly vocals with metal backing. ______ I never learned to like the growly vocals, but I got to the point where I found them tolerable. However, my wife still doesn’t like them at all. So in the end, The Roundhouse Tapes is a compilation that covers some their earlier stuff that I’m glad to have. But I’m not going to run out and buy any of them. The main value of the video is getting to see the band in the flesh, plus now I’ve seen growly vocals live. Music – 2.0 Sound quality – 3 Video presentation – 2 Video quality – 2 Surround – 1
Selling England By The Pound & Spectral Mornings: Live at Hammersmith Concert Performance by Steve Hackett Released 25 September 2020 Recorded 29 November 2019 Venue Hammersmith Eventim Apollo, London Genre Progressive Rock Label Inside Out Producer Paul M Green Selling England By The Pound & Spectral Mornings: Live At Hammersmith is a live recording is from his 2019 UK tour. The concert was recorded at the Hammersmith Eventim Apollo, the final night of the tour. Steve Hackett was joined by his touring band of Roger King (keyboards), Jonas Reingold (bass), Rob Townsend (saxes/flutes), Craig Blundell (drums and percussion) with Nad Sylvan on vocals. Special guests for this performance were Steve’s brother John Hackett (flute) and Amanda Lehmann (guitar and vocals). Personnel Steve Hackett – Guitar, Vocals Jonas Reingold – Bass, Twelve-String Guitar, Vocals Craig Blundell –Drums, Percussion, Vocals Roger King – Keyboards Rob Townsend – Saxophone, Woodwind, Percussion, Vocals, Keyboards, Bass Pedals Nad Sylvan – Vocals, Tambourine Guests Amanda Lehmann – Guitar, Vocals John Hackett – Flute Track Listing 1. Intro 2. Every Day 3. Under The Eye Of The Sun 4. Fallen Walls And Pedestals 5. Beasts In Our Time 6. The Virgin And The Gypsy 7. Tigermoth 8. Spectral Mornings 9. The Red Flower Of Tai Chi Blooms Everywhere 10. Clocks - The Angel Of Mons 11. Dancing With The Moonlit Knight 12. I Know What I Like 13. Firth Of Fifth 14. More Fool Me 15. The Battle Of Epping Forest 16. After The Ordeal 17. The Cinema Show 18. Aisle Of Plenty 19. Déja Vu 20. Dance On A Volcano 21. Los Endos Version Control There are 2CD + DVD and 2CD + bluray versions of this, plus an artbook that goes for twice as much with no more content. I have the bluray – I got it from Importcds because Amazon doesn’t have separate listings for the DVD and Bluray – so I’m not sure what you would get from them, but the bluray seems to be on backorder now. There is also a 2013 Hackett Genesis Revisited Concert at the Hammersmith on bluray. It’s not the same. The Concert Great video quality and we’ve got LPCM stereo mixed by Roger King and a DTS HD 5.1 surround mix from Steven Wilson. I’ll be listening to the surround, of course. “Every Day” From Spectral Mornings. King and Blundell are in the back row, while Townsend, Hackett, Lehman and Reingold are lined up in front. Sylvan is out there for background vocals on this song just in front of King, but behind and in between Towsend and Hackett. It’s definitely a true surround mix. Most instruments are in front, but keyboards are in surround and the vocalists are in different speakers. Lehmann is rear right, I think it’s Townsend rear left, Reingold in center channel, and Hackett mixed in front. Some guitar reverb in the back. Townsend soprano sax on left. Also, while Hackett is usually in front, I think there some passages that have Hackett and Lehmann guitar left and right. At one point, heavy Hackett reverb pans in surround – very cool. “Under The Eye Of The Sun” From At the Edge of Light. His most recent solo album. Similar mix with several vocalists – Lehmann and someone else in the back. Sylvan is still out there. Townsend on the left again, I think a little heavier in the rear. Keyboards in surround, Hackett mostly in front. “Fallen Walls And Pedestals” From At the Edge of Light. No vocals on this one – Lehmann and Sylvan both gone. Townsend plays two different saxes and flute – all on the left. This mix is a bit “left heavy” because often there’s nothing on the right to match Townsend on the left. “Beasts In Our Time” From At the Edge of Light. Hackett lead vocals in the center channel, Lehmann returns with backing vocals rear right, Townsend vocals rear left when not playing sax or flute. Some keyboards parts exclusively in rear. Hackett guitar effects often in surround. “The Virgin And The Gypsy” From Spectral Mornings. John Hackett joins with flute, Lehmann off. Steve with acoustic guitar in surround, vocals in center channel. Lehmann backing rear right, must be Reingold rear left because he is the only other one singing. Also Reingold has a double necked guitar and he’s playing the 12-string – which is on the right. Townsend starts out on sax, but he switches to flute as John starts playing and we get left and right flutes. “Tigermoth” From Spectral Mornings. Front and rear keyboard parts from King, but I don’t think either one is live. Actually Townsend is on a mellotron – he may be doing some of it. Hackett back on electric guitar in front. Reingold with bass. “Spectral Mornings” From Spectral Mornings. Synth in surround. Reingold back on the 12-string – and he is in surround. Townsend starts iut sax – and he is in front. Hackett electric guitar in front, but with lots of reverb. “The Red Flower Of Tai Chi Blooms Everywhere” From Spectral Mornings. Steve with acoustic guitar, John back with Townsend for left and right flutes. King, Blundell and Reingold sit this one out. “Clocks - The Angel Of Mons” From Spectral Mornings. Starts out with left and right percussion in the rear speakers – Townsend is helping out Blundell. Synth in surround, electric guitar in front, bass and drums in front. Spotlights go into heavy rotation. Blundell drum solo – in front with just a little reverb in back. Not to worry, the song ends with barrage of surround. That concludes the solo set, on to genesis revisited. “Dancing With The Moonlit Knight” From Genesis Selling England By The Pound. The entire album is played in song order – the next seven songs are from SEBTP as well. Sylvan is back and “Can you tell me where my country lies?” comes from the center channel. Hackett electric guitar in front and I daresay the mellotron keyboards from Townsend are in the rear. Reinhold has the doubleneck again and he plays both the twelve string on top and the bass on the bottom. I think the 12 string is in the rear when he’s on it. King keyboards in surround. Townsend switches to sax then flute and he’s on the left. “I Know What I Like” Starts with guitar sound effects (Hackett can do weird stuff with it) in surround. Percussion and backing from Townsend in rear. Bass and drums in front. Townsend switches to sax on left with King keyboards in rear while Hackett sits for a while. But he comes back for a solo in front. A much jazzier version than the original. Townsend with turn on flute – that was not in the original either. “Firth Of Fifth” King starts it off; piano in front. Hackett, bass, drums in front. Sylvan still in center. Synth in surround. Townsend with sax solo in front. Keyboards in surround, but King pretty much has the rear speakers to himself. The lights all converge on Hackett during the main in the solo and it’s awesome. I’d put the video clip here, but “The Cinema Show” seems to be the only choice. In any case, an excellent Firth that they didn’t try to jazz up. “More Fool Me” Sylvan is out there to cover Gabriel, but he can do Collins too if he has to. Hackett acoustic guitar in surround. Mellotron from Townsend in rear, Reingold with electric guitar. “The Battle Of Epping Forest” Blundell and Townsend on flute start it off. King keyboards in rear, Hackett guitar in front. Reingold is double necked, mostly playing the bass, but he’s in the rear when playing the 12 string. Townsend with backing vocals – in front this time. Some clapping in the rear, sax still on the left. Front and rear keyboard parts from King. “After The Ordeal” Piano and guitar duet; guitar in front, piano in rear. Townsend comes in with flute then sax on left. Blundell and Reingold come in at the end. “The Cinema Show” and “Aisle Of Plenty” Left and right guitars from Hackett and Reingold. Flute and sax in center channel. Reingold backing vocals rear left – which is a bit irksome since he is on the right side of the stage. Hwn things start cranking Hackett goes back to front, Reingold to bass, Townsend sax back on left. Keyboards in front. Not much in the back except on the left when Townsend is playing. The spotlights are cool here, but Firth was better. Oh well, this is what I got: “Déja Vu” Song by Gabriel and Hackett that didn’t make it onto SEBTP, appears on Genesis Revisited. Front and back keyboards. Bass front-right – good thing I have a subwoofer over there. Sax on left. Converging spotlights during Hackett solo again – with lots of reverb. “Dance On A Volcano” From Genesis Trick of the Tail. Hackett in front, Reingold 12 string and mellotron in rear. Townsend sax in front – he also does keyboard bass. Some keyboard parts in front too. “Los Endos” From Genesis Trick of the Tail. Encore with no Sylvan. Hackett always ends with this, but this is a jazzed up version. Just about everything in front, but Townsend sax is in the rear. Dry ice machine kicks in. Sylvan comes back for a quickie vocal at the end. ______ I've been looking forward to this, and I was not at all disappointed. I saw this show in Pittsburgh two months before this recording and loved it; but that didn't come with a surround mix. The only thing to pick on here is the stage show, but when the spotlights all line up on Hackett for one of his solos it is very cool. Lots of excellent musicianship on display as well. I’ve given threes for less. If you want a Steven Wilson surround mix of a Genesis album, here it is. I’ve seen the mix criticized for being too front heavy, but let’s remember this is a live performance. There’s lot’s of stuff going on in the rears very nearly all of the time. But I would agree that is a little left-heavy. After Lehmann leaves the stage, the rear right speaker does seem to be underutilized. Music – 3.0 Sound quality – 3 Video presentation – 3 Video quality – 3 Surround – 3
The Magic Stag Video Collection by Djabe The DVD with a 5.1 mix of the studio album The Magic Stag that I reviewed earlier today also comes with several concert clips plus a video. The audio on all tracks is stereo only. Here is a brief run through: “Bubble Dream” From Flow. There is very little documentation for any of these. This one was recorded in Washington DC at the Kennedy Center on June 22, 2019 – I think they are at small stage at the end of the main hallway. The video has quite decent DVD quality and stereo audio. Just the five main band members. This is a jazz piece with Koós-Hutás on flugelhorn and drummer Kaszás with vocals. Long piano solo from Nagy. Guitaist Égerházi is seated on the right. “Deep Lights“ From Flow. Another one from Washington DC. Starts off with bass line from Barabás, Koós-Hutás still with flugelhorn. Égerházi stands and plays some lead. No vocals. Pretty long track with quite a bit of improvisation with both Barabás and Koós-Hutás who are front and center taking the lead. “Witchi Tai To” From Witchi Tai To. This one of their early albums, so I guess this must be a classic song of theirs. This is recorded at the Leopolis Jazz Festival in Lviv, Ukraine in June 2019. It’s and outdoor concert with very good DVD video quality. Screen in back shows live band member and crowd shots. Koós-Hutás with trumpet, vocals from Kaszás and Égerházi. Nice song – I can see why it would be a hit. “The Lost Card “ Another one from Lviv. I don’t think this is a Djabe song. It’s a solo from Barabás with an eastern feel to it. “Gallop” From Witchi Tai To. Now we are at the Budapest Jazz club in July 2019. The video quality is low end for a DVD. There are two quest musicians, one of whom is Steve Hackett, and he plays a pretty awesome solo. There is a also a tenor sax player who I am going to guess is Ferenc Muck – he also gets a solo. “Coffee Break” From Witchi Tai To. Same line up, but the guest sax player gets most of the work – Hackett is sitting. Égerházi (acoustric guitar), Kaszás (trumpet) and Nagy all get solos too. “Power Of Wings” From The Magic Stag. This is only video track from the new album, but it happens to be my favorite track. I’m guessing that’s Szabó who comes on to play sitar. Égerházi does most of the guitar work. Even though he is not on the studio track, Hackett does get a brief solo here. Kaszás plays a muted trumpet, which sounds really cool. “Lava Lamp” From Forward. This is a quarantine video which shows the band members playing at home. I like this song - might be the best thing on here. You can watch it on Youtube too, of course: The last two were the best plus the snippet solo by Hackett on “Gallop” was nice. Not bad for bonus material. Music – 1.5 Sound quality – 3 Video presentation – 2 Video quality – 2 Surround – 1
