Oasis: There And Then on DVD

• Cat.no: SVD 48421
• Cert: E
• Running time: 86 mins
• Year: 1995, 1996
• Pressing: 1998
• Region(s): 2, PAL
• Chapters: 18 plus extras
• Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 and Stereo
• Languages: Mancunian
• Presented in Fullscreen
• 16:9-enhanced: No
• Macrovision: No
• Disc Format: DVD 5
• Price: £19.99
• Extras : Scene index

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Directors:

Mark Szaszy and Dick Carruthers

Featuring:

Liam Gallagher (Vocals)
Noel Gallagher (Guitars/Vocals)
Paul Arthurs (Guitars/Keys)
Paul McGuigan (Bass Guitar)
Alan White (Drums)

Oasis: There And Then features one of Manchester’s biggest bands loud and proud in three concerts merged into one, interspersed with interview clips. Most of the tracks come from a gig at Manchester City’s football ground, Maine Road, on 28th April 1996, a few were filmed at Earls Court in London on 4th November 1995; and “I Am The Walrus” was shot the day after at the same location.

The band’s first single, and my favourite track from them to date, made No.31, but better things were to come. The follow-up, Shakermaker made No.11, followed by four assaults on the Top Ten : Live Forever (No.10), Cigarettes And Alcohol (No.7), Whatever (No.3), and a No.1 smash for Some Might Say. All these tracks, bar “Whatever”, came from their first No.1 album, Definitely Maybe.

Their second album, (What’s The Story) Morning Glory made No.1 as well, in 1995, and spawned three hit singles. The first was released at the height of a head-to-head rivalry with fellow Britpop band, Blur, whose Country House beat them to No.1, leaving Oasis’s Roll With It to languish at No.2. The top slot was denied them again, when they released Wonderwall, it taking second place to Robson & Jerome‘s dreadful double-cover of “I Believe/Up On The Roof”. I wasn’t a big fan of Wonderwall, preferring instead one of the other tracks on the CD single, The Masterplan. Finally, the third single from the album, Don’t Look Back in Anger shot to No.1 in March 1996, and remaining in the UK Top 75 for 16 weeks. Although they didn’t release any other singles from the album in the UK, many of the tracks were played on radio stations on a rotational basis, including Champagne Supernova, Morning Glory, Cast No Shadow and She’s Electric. In fact, it’s been these additional tracks which I have personally preferred to those released as singles, and Oasis have made promo videos for at least the first two of those four listed.

On Thursday 21st August, 1997, Oasis released their third album, Be Here Now, which sold enough copies to reach the top slot by the following Saturday evening, making it the fastest selling album in the UK, reaching No.1 in just three days, from which three singles were released: D’You Know What I Mean (No.1, June 97), Stand By Me (No.2, Oct 97) and All Around the World (No.1, Jan 98). To bring things up to date, their compilation of B-sides, The Masterplan, made No.2 in the album charts in November last year.

Oasis have made a point of being one of an increasing number of bands to make all of their singles constantly available to fans, so the record books are littered with endless re-entries of their past singles. Other bands to do this include The Charlatans and The Prodigy.

The picture quality is mostly very good, although there are few scenes with bright red backgrounds where artifacts tend to show up noticeably. On the whole though, the representation of the concert plays very well indeed and the average bitrate is a very good 6.70Mb/s, peaking at close to 10Mb/s. Given that the performance is displayed in 4:3, the disc is obviously not anamorphic – a process used for prints with a ratio of 16:9 or wider which allows extra resolution on widescreen televisions.

The sound can be heard in Stereo and Dolby Digital 5.1 and all the songs power through the speakers with enough force to have the neighbours banging on the walls. The concert loses a point overall as one or two of the songs, eg. Roll With It and Wonderwall aren’t quite my cup of tea, but I’ll happily turn up the volume for Supersonic, Champagne Supernova, The Masterplan and an acoustic rendition of Morning Glory.

Extras :

Chapters :

There are 18 chapters, one for each song including the programme start, which is to be expected and there are no complaints from me about that. The track listing is as follows :

1. Programme Start
2. Swamp Song
3. Acquiesce
4. Supersonic
5. Hello
6. Some Might Say
7. Roll With It
8. Morning Glory
9. Round Are Way
10. Cigarettes & Alcohol
11. Champagne Supernova
12. Cast No Shadow
13. Wonderwall
14. The Masterplan
15. Don’t Look Back In Anger
16. Live Forever
17. I Am The Walrus
18. Cum On Feel The Noize

Languages/Subtitles :

Just the one language: English with a Mancunian dialect, occasionally peppered with naughty language. No subtitles or lyrics present.

Menu :

A static menu with no more than a handful of pictures to look at while selecting the options.

Overall, you have a concert and that’s it. No more features than you’d find on a standard video tape, other than the choice of track like a CD. However, some biographies about the band members wouldn’t have gone amiss and there wasn’t even an insert with my DVD so I don’t know if this is intenational or not. There are some brief interview clips spread throughout the disc between songs but if you can understand half of what Liam’s on about, you’re a better man than I.