Dom Robinson reviews
EMI Chrysalis
- Cert:
- Cat.no: 7243 4 92430 9 5
- Running time: 170 minutes
- Year: 2000
- Pressing: 2000
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: Too many to count
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Surround
- Languages: English
- Lyrics: None
- Fullscreen: 4:3
- 16:9-enhanced: No
- Macrovision: No
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras: Behind-the-scenes, multi-angle video, DVD-ROM material
Robbie Williams: Where Egos Darebrings his fans a little bit of everything from what he’s been up to overthe past 15 months and is his second DVD release since theAngels DVD EPand contains the following features :
- The Legendary Slaine Castle Concert, August 1999 : 32 mins longand contains the songs Let Me Entertain You, Strong, Phoenix from theFlames, Angels, Should I Stay or Should I Go and Millennium. Thisbreaks with tradition and is in slight-widescreen at an approximate 14:9ratio.
- Short Cuts : Many different snippets of backstage behaviour inRobbie’s life.
- Rock DJ : The promo where he peels off, literally. It’s fairlygruesome and quite a surprise the first time you see it. There’s also an’interactive’ version which allows you to see how 20+ points of the videowere actually made.
- Sing When You’re Winning : Robbie making his latest album, orjust arsing about in the studio.
- Dance with the Devil : A bonus music track with four separateangels from which to choose.
- DVD-ROM : When placed in a PC’s DVD-ROM drive, desktop wallpaper,icons and sounds are available for installation.
- TV Wall : With this option selected from the main menu, movesbetween various sub-menus will provide interruptions from Rob TV sponsors.You’ll notice them when you see them.
Having reached the top of the album charts with Life Thru a Lens,I’ve Been Expecting You and now Sing When You’re Winning,his solo singles chart history to November 2000 is as follows :
Jul 97No. 8Lazy Days
Sep 97No.14South of the Border
Dec 97No. 5Angels
Mar 98No. 3Let Me Entertain You
Sep 98No. 1Millennium
Dec 98No. 4No Regrets/Antmusic
Mar 99No. 4Strong
Nov 99No. 1She’s The One/It’s Only Us
Aug 00No. 1Rock DJ
Oct 00No. 2Kids (with Kylie Minogue)
In similar fashion to theAngels DVD EPthere’s no artifacts to be found, so if you buy this you can rely upon itspicture quality. Everything’s in 4:3 fullscreen bar the Slaine concertas mentioned before. Every bit of the DVD is split into individual chapters,totalling 55, so I’m not about to work out the average bitrate by hand…
The sound is available in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround for the Slaine concertand Rock DJ video, but Dolby Surround options are also available. There areno problems in this department during the tunes, while any dialogue scenesare, understandably, quiet.
Extras. :It’s difficult to quantify these because on one hand the disc is chock-fullof them, whereas they’re all included in the near-3hr running time.
In short though, there’s Behind-the-scenes material in the form ofhis album ‘making of’ and the “Rock DJ” supplementals. Multi-angle videois present in the Dance with the Devil promo and I’ve already doffeda cap to the DVD-ROM material.
There’s too many chapters to count on this DVD and there are no lyricsonscreen. All the menus are filled with random, short, soundclips, whilecontaining some animation that appears to ‘stutter’ a bit.
This will definitely be a hit with Robbie fans and should provide muchbetter value than a linear video tape ever could.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
Also, take a look at myRobbie Williams: Angels DVD EP
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2000.
Check out theOfficial Robbie Williams site.
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.