Skip to content
DVDfever.co.uk – Rolling Stones: The Biggest Bang Blu-ray reviewDom Robinson reviews
Universal MusicBlu-ray: 
DVD:
- Cert:
- Running time: 93 minutes
- Cat no: 0602517680906
- Year: 2007
- Released: June 2009
- Region(s): 0, PAL
- Chapters: 20 plus extras
- Picture: 1080p High Definition
- Sound: DTS 5.1 Master Audio, Uncompress PCM Stereo
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: 8 languages
- Widescreen: 1.78:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99 (Blu-ray), £39.99 (DVD)
- Extras: Salt of the Earth: A Bigger Bang Tour Documentary, Austin Texas mini-documentary, Extra tracks, Jukebox
Director:
- Hamish Hamilton
The band :
- Mick Jagger
Keith Richards
Charlie Watts
Ronnie Wood
The Rolling Stones: The Biggest Bangis a kick-ass concert that gives us 18 tracks over 93 minutes, starting with the relatively recent You Got MeRocking. Well, I did say ‘relatively recent’ as it came out in 1994 on the album Voodoo Lounge, which hasbeen followed by only two albums, Bridges to Babylon in 1997, and The Biggest Bang in 2005.
Next comes more classic fare in the form of Let’s Spend the Night Together, but for me the bulk of theenjoyment comes in the second half of the concert as while there’s less well-known songs early on, the biggest hitscome later, such as Under My Thumb, Get Off of My Cloud, Sympathy for the Devil and Jumpin’ Jack Flashto name but four.
The Biggest Bang is a cracker of a concert, this time performed in Austin, Texas, set on a magnificent stageon which I didn’t realise at first has rows of seating either side of the main stage, as well as a zillion audiencemembers in front, standing up. A huge screen also sits at the back of the stage twhich is sure to reach out to thoseat the back of the audience. I would’ve preferred more of the classic tunes for a Blu-ray release such as this, althoughI appreciate the fact it came off the back of a particular album as opposed to a greatest hits.
If there’s a downside to the presentation it’s that the original DVD came on four discs, which also took in concerts in Brazil and a selectionof songs from China and Argentina(see here for more info about it),whereas most of the content we get comes from discs 1 and 4, as described below. It’s also a shame that this disc doesn’tactually feature every track from the gig itself, as 43 mins in as Charlie Watts is introduced, we can see the set listand that it also includes Bitch, Start Me Up and You Can’t Always Get What You Want, the latter of whichis one of the encore tracks. Why would Universal do this? What’s the point in filming a gig and not show every track?
The concert is presented in a 16:9 anamorphic ratio and looks stunning, representing a gig bursting in lush colour andterrific atmosphere. For the record, I’m watching on a Panasonic 37″ Plasma screen. The sound is naturally outstandingin DTS 5.1 – it’s the Stones doing what they do, and there’s nothing that can be taken away from that.
The extras are as follows:
- Salt of the Earth: A Bigger Bang Tour Documentary (67:21)Broken up into 11 chapters, this documentary looks at all the different stops of the tour as well as rehearsal footageand an early club performance where they get back into ‘stage mode’ in preparation for the main gig. Tgere’s also alook at their Super Bowl performance from 2006 and the effort that went into that including building the mammoth stagein 5½ minutes.
- Mini-documentary (5:54):This gives a glimps of the band performing back-stage but doesn’t go into any great detail.
- Extra tracks (13:36):Taken from the concert at the Saitama Super Arena, Saitama, in Japan, here you getLet’s Spend the Night Together, Rain Fall Down and Rough Justice. These look a bit clearer as they haven’thad the same film effect applied as the main feature.
- Jukebox:Rather than play all the tracks in order, you can select which tracks you want to hear and in what order.
The disc menu features a gorgeous piece of CGI leading to it, and then a looped piece of Jumpin’ Jack Flash.There are subtitles in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese and Japanese. However, these arejust for the documentaries and sadly not the song lyrics which is a great shame. For the chapters, there’s one apiecefor each track plus an opening piece and the closing credits, so you couldn’t ask for more from those.
The full list of tracks included are :
1. You Got Me Rocking
2. Let’s Spend the Night Together
3. She’s So Cold
4. Oh No, Not You Again
5. Sway
6. Bob Wills Is Still the King
7. Streets Of Love
8. Ain’t Too Proud to Beg
9. Tumbling Dice
10. Learning The Game
11. Little T&A
12. Under My Thumb
13. Get Off of My Cloud
14. Honky Tonk Women
15. Sympathy for the Devil
16. Jumpin’ Jack Flash
17. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction
18. Brown Sugar
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.