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Dom Robinson reviews
Wienerworld Ltd
- Cert:
- Cat.no: WNRD2399
- Running time: 39 minutes
- Year: 1986
- Pressing: 2006
- Region(s): All, PAL
- Sound: Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English
- Fullscreen: 4:3
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £12.99
- Extras:Interview
This DVD: 
Back in 1986, one of my favourite years for music, Cutting Crewemerged on to the pop scene, front by the oddly-named Nick van Eede and a group of guys with similarlystrange mulleted hairstyles that couldn’t have been from any other era.
They reached No.4 in August with (I Just) Died in Your Arms, a massive radio hit also, but theproblem with that is that when a band tries to release a follow-up single it tends to get ignored asthey’re still wrapped up with the first one. Hence, I Just Died In Your Arms‘ release didn’ttranslate into single sales, only reaching No.31 and a remix, a year later, struggled a bit furtherto No.24.
That’s a great shame as one of my favourite albums was their debut release, Broadcast, one of thosehidden gems I bought from Music Zone on Princes Street in Stockport on cassette for just £2.99 andplayed until it almost snapped. In fact, 10 years later I was still listening to it and now I’ve put thisDVD on I should really think about getting the CD at a bargain price as the tracks from it still sound asfresh as ever and they take me back to a simpler time when I was just 14.
Watching this DVD, filmed at Knopf’s Music Hall in Hamburg on January 31st 1987,I can appreciate the intricate melodies as songs follow a general conventional pathbut skew off into unexpected lines very briefly as three men on guitars plus keyboards and drums work inperfect harmony. It’s worth noting that the music and vocals don’t always come across as even andclear-cut on this DVD as they do on the album, but then this was most likely an early live performancefor them as at one point Nick says it’s their first gig in Europe.
Either way, albeit a short set this does showcase a good selection of their slow tunes, Died InYour Arms, I’ve Been In Love Before, Sahara and their rockier ones, Any Colour, a fantasticopener to their debut album, Fear of Falling and one to air-guitar to, One For The MockingBird which, if it did get a release over here, didn’t even make the Top 75. Bah, the UK single-buyingpublic had no bloody taste back then…. (nor, now!)
With a band line-up that hails from both the UK and Canada, had the radio stations and UK music scenegiven them a chance, Cutting Crew should’ve been the next ‘A-Ha’ in terms of popularity. One of the mostunderrated bands of the ’80s, they certainly had the mesmerising tunes as well as the hairstyles.
Cutting Crew (2003)
The picture, presented in 4:3 fullscreen, is not the best. It’s colourful but close-up shots can be abit jerky and long shots make you feel more like you’re watching a Video cD. Yes, I know it’s a 20-year-oldconcert but a bit of remastering wouldn’t have gone amiss.
The sound is in both Dolby Surround and Dolby Digital 5.1. Clearly it certainly wasn’t originally recordedin the latter, and what it tends to do is copy most of the front output into the rear speakers so that itliterally echoes around the room. It’s probably more palatable to go for the former option which keepsthe music at the front and has some crowd noises behind you in the surround channel as that’d be morereflective of what it’s like to be at the gig.
The menu features a looped piece of an instrumental from Fear of Falling which, just as it’s aboutto get going back into the meat of the song…. doesn’t, and just loops round again. This gets veryannoying after a while if you leave the menu playing.
There’s one chapter per track, which is spot-on, with separate menus giving you the option of either thestraight-forward ‘Track Selection’ and a stylish ‘Individual Playlists’ menu that lets you choose thetracks you want to hear and their order. Just select and press ‘Play’.
Extras are few and far between on this DVD, alas. In fact, it’s just a 5-minute interview with Nick van Eedeand guitarist Kevin Scott Macmichael, hosted by Full House Rock Show’s curiously named Alan Bangs. On theone hand, full marks must go for giving a whacking 9 chapters to it during that short piece, given the number ofDVDs out there where you get, say, a whole hour-long documentary about a film which doesn’t have *any* chapterpoints to break it up.
On the other hand, Nick and Kevin’s interview has stupidly been dubbed over inGerman for its target audience, even if English subtitles are an option. Surely they could’ve got a cleanversion of the audio for an alternate version of the interview?
Oh, and I can see *why* they would like to close the set on Died In Your Arms, but I would liketo have seen them do the title track of Broadcast as it was an absolute corker of a finale tothat album.
Overall, as great as the music is on this disc, the briefness of it and the lack of decent extras makesit one for the die-hard fans only.
The full list of tracks included are :
1. Intro – Alan Bangs
2. Any Colour
3. Fear of Falling
4. Sahara
5. One For The Mocking Bird
6. I’ve Been In Love Before
7. Instrumental Solo
8. I Just Died In Your Arms
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.