Queen: Live In Rio: Rock In Rio on DVD

• Cat.no: PLMPA 01181
• Cert: E
• Running time: 60 minutes
• Sides: 1 (CLV)
• Year: 1985
• Pressing: UK, 1997
• Chapters: 16
• Sound: Stereo
• Presented in Fullscreen
• Price: £19.99
• Extras : None
  

  ---

  Featuring:

  Freddie Mercury (Lead Vocals)
  Brian May (Guitar and Vocals)
  John Deacon (Bass)
  Roger Taylor (Drums)

Queen : Live In Riobrings to PAL Laserdisc Queen’s performance in RioDe Janeiro, Brazil between January 11th and 20th, 1985.

At 2am on the 12th January 1985, Queen stepped out on stage to make one of theirmost historic concert appearances to date.

Freddie, Roger, John and Brian faced a crowd of well over 250,000 people, thelargest crowd ever assembled for a single concert. The occasion was the openingof the Rock In Rio Festival, an extraordinary ten-day event billed as”90 hours of peace and music” – a coming-together of many of the world’smost important music artistes for what was intended to be the biggest rockcelebration since Woodstock in 1969.

Having previously trail-blazed Latin America with their pioneering tour in1981, it was only fitting that the opening ceremony should be staged by Queen,and their return to the country was without doubt one of the most eagerlyanticipated moments in the festival.

There are 16 chapters, one for each song, and the top-notch track listingis as follows :

1. Tie Your Mother Down
2. Seven Seas of Rhye
3. Keep Yourself Alive
4. Liar
5. It’s A Hard Life
6. Now I’m Here
7. Is This The World We Created ?
8. Love Of My Life
9. Brighton Rock
10. Hammer To Fall
11. Bohemian Rhapsody
12. Radio Gaga
13. I Want To Break Free
14. We Will Rock You
15. We Are The Champions
16. God Save The Queen

With The Freddie Mercury Tribute concert, Queen Live in Rio,Greatest Flix I and II and Champions of the World alreadyreleased on laserdisc, Pioneer is serving Queen fans very well indeed.

This disc is also very well-timed, as the first track on it, Tie Your MotherDown, is re-released as a single on December 1st. Other highlights of theconcert include Freddie’s trademark “Dey-oh” chant between him and the audiencewhich comes after It’s A Hard Life, Freddie getting the entire crowdto sing the opening verse to Love of My Life on their own, a rousingversion of We Will Rock You, and the all-time classic Queen song,Bohemian Rhapsody.

All great content, but the content only gets a 3/5 for being too short atonly 60 minutes.

The picture quality is the one thing which brings this disc down. It can bedescribed as average, at best. The reason? Looks like a standards NTSC to PALconversion, so Pioneer should either have sourced a PAL master for this releaseor mastered the disc in NTSC. As the latter is not their policy, this could notbe done in the first place.

The sound quality certainly shines though, and for any Queen fan looking tocomplete their collection of Queen on PAL Laserdisc, then it’s certainly notgoing to break the bank by making this purchase.

However, for any casual buyer looking for a piece of Queen to showcase on theirlaserdisc player, I’d recommend you to spend an extra fifteen pounds insteadand buy the PAL LD, Greatest Flix I and II, especially as this one onlyclocks in at an hour, and their “Greatest Flix” laserdisc is over two-and-a-halfhours. If you’re after a live disc as well, I’d recommend the 75-minuteQueen: Live At Wembley 86 over this one, as it has a sharper picturebeing shot on PAL equipment to begin with.

Film : 3/5
Picture : 2/5
Sound : 5/5

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1997.