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Dom Robinson reviews
BMG
- Cat.no: 74321 743479
- Cert: E
- Running time: 96 minutes
- Concert Date: December 6th, 1999
- Pressing: 2000
- Region(s): 0, PAL
- Chapters: 22
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: None
- Widescreen: 16:9 (1.77:1)
- 16:9-enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: No
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras : Scene index, Lyrics, Discography, Gallery, Multi-Angle feature on two tracks,”Peacetalk” (62-minute documentary), Weblinks, Animated and scored menus
Featuring:
- Annie Lennox (Vocals)
David A. Stewart (Guitar)
Steve Lewinson (Bass Guitar)
Pete Lewinson (Drums)
Joel Campbell (Keyboards)
Sam Flynn (Keyboards)
Chris Davis (Saxophone)
Beverly Skeete, Claudia Fontaine, Faye Simpson (Backing Vocals)
Eurythmics: Peacetouris the live show that Annie Lennox and David A. Stewart performed on December6th, 1999 at London Docklands Arena when they brought their peacetour to a close, withall of the proceeds being split between Greenpeace and Amnesty International.The gig features great live interpretations of their songs, making some of them sound quitedifferent from their studio-bound originals and breathes new life into the elder tracks.
I first learned of Annie and Dave when I was just seven years old and they had their biggesthit as The Tourists, I Only Wanna Be With You (No.4, Nov 79). Towards theend of 1980 though, they called it a day, but were soon back in mid-81 as the Eurythmics.
After a number of big hits including Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) (No.2, Feb 83),Thorn in My Side (No.5, Sep 86) and their only No.1 hit to date, There Must Be An Angel(Playing With My Heart) (No.1, July 85), they went their separate ways in 1991, releasinga Greatest Hits album, then a Live album in 1993, then followed their own paths for a while.
On their own, Annie sang her own songs, such as Why (No.5, Mar 92)Walking On Broken Glass (No.8, Aug 92) and No More “I Love You”‘s (No.2, Feb 95),a cover of the song by The Lover Speaks (No.58, Aug 86).
David produced his own too, such as Lily Was Here (No.6, Feb 90), Jack Talking(No.69, Aug 90) and Heart of Stone (No.36, Sep 94), before going on to make hisdirectorial debut with the All Saints debut movie, Honest, which didn’t exactlywow the critics on this side of the pond.
Last year, they reformed for a new album, Peace, which has so far spawned two hitssingles as can be seen in the career history listed below, with many of the tracks from the80s playing a great part in the soundtrack to my life :
Jul 81No.63Never Gonna Cry AgainNov 82No.54Love is a StrangerFeb 83No. 2Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)Apr 83No. 6Love is a Stranger (re-entry)Jul 83No. 3Who’s That Girl?Nov 83No.10Right By Your SideJan 84No. 8Here Comes the Rain AgainNov 84No. 4Sexcrime (Nineteen Eighty Four)Jan 85No.44JuliaApr 85No.17Would I Lie To You?Jul 85No. 1There Must Be An Angel (Playing with My Heart)Nov 85No. 9Sisters Are Doin’ It For ThemselvesJan 86No.12It’s Alright (Baby’s Coming Back)Jun 86No.30When Tomorrow ComesSep 86No. 5Thorn in My SideNov 86No.23The Miracle of LoveFeb 87No.31Missionary ManOct 87No.25Beethoven (I Love to Listen to)Dec 87No.41ShameApr 88No.26I Need a ManJun 88No.16You Have Placed a Chill in my HeartAug 89No.26RevivalNov 89No.25Don’t Ask Me WhyFeb 90No.29The King and Queen of AmericaMay 90No.23AngelMar 91No.46Love is a Stranger (re-issue)Nov 91No.48Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) (re-mix)Oct 99No.11I Saved the World TodayFeb 00No.2717 Again
The picture quality is fantastic, with stark colours faithfully reproduced and the entireset contains great detail. Sometimes the concert appears as if it has been shot on video,while at others it appears to have been treated to look as if it was shot on film and inthe latter you might expect to see motion artifacts trying to creep through, but I couldn’tfind any on a 32″ widescreen TV and was very pleased all round.
The average bitrate is a very good 6.70Mb/s, frequently peaking close to 9Mb/s.
The sound is available in Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Stereo flavours, although it’salways best to choose the former as for those of us with not Dolby Digital-equipped, likemyself, the DVD player will downmix the signal to surround sound and it’s a much richer-soundingoption than plain stereo.
Extras. : Chapters :There are 22 chapters, 21 for the songs plus a closing track for the end credits.The track listing is as follows :
1. I Want it All
2. Missionary Man
3. Thorn in My Side
4. When Tomorrow Comes
5. It’s Alright (Baby’s Coming Back)
6. I Saved the World Today
7. Who’s That Girl?
8. I Love You Like a Ball and Chain
9. Would I Lie To You?
10. Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves
11. 17 Again
12. You Have Placed a Chill in My Heart
13. Love is a Stranger
14. I Need a Man
15. Walking on Broken Glass
16. There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart)
17. Here Comes the Rain Again
18. Why
19. The Miracle of Love
20. Peace is Just a Word
21. Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)
Languages and Lyrics :All the songs are sung in their original English language, but sadly there are no lyricsonscreen, even though lyrics for each track are listed in the extras section, so during theconcert we don’t get to SingalongaLennox. And there’s more… :And plenty more too, especially for a live performance where such DVDs don’t get much in theway of special treatment. In fact, there’s only this DVD, Talking Heads: Stop Making Senseand one I’ll mention in the next paragraph which spring to mind as being dealt a very fair hand.
First off is a Multi-Angle feature, the like of which has also been seen on theMetallica: Cunning Stunts,in which two tracks, Sweet Dreams and 17 Again, allow you to play director.The menu here implies that there are just two angles to choose from but my Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROMplayer found three each to play with. Upon selecting a new angle, it does take a second or twofor the change to take effect, just in case you thought it wasn’t working.
A 10-picture Photo Gallery contains well-detailed black and white shots, some lookingvery bizarre indeed. The Discography gives full track listings for each of their albumsreleased as the Eurythmics, plus some music excerpts and those tracks highlighted inred will allow instant access to that track in the concert.
As mentioned earlier, the Lyrics section provides the words for each concert track, butI would have liked to seen them onscreen during the concert too. If you run this DVD in aDVD-ROM player, you will also be able to go online as it provides links to websites for the band,plus the two charities they’re supporting.
Finally, highlight of this section has to be Peacetalk, a 62-minute exclusive documentary about themaking of the album presented in a 15:9 (1.66:1) ratio and featuring five tracks from thealbum, some in more than one form, such as 17 Again, Peace is Just a Word andI Saved the World Today.
Menu :
Some of the menus, including the main one, have some degree of animation and mostcontain some music excerpts – particularly the Discography extras which containstracks from the albums featured while the main menu only features a few seconds of Peace isJust a Word – and there are neat screen-wipes between most of the menus.
Overall, it’s very hard to fault such an excellent release: a concert with music blaring outof the speakers that will have your feet stomping rather than tapping, an anamorphic 16:9widescreen picture, stacks of extras and great presentation.
Of course, it doesn’t take an Einstein to work out that the purchasers of this DVD will beEurythmics fans only, but those who do are certainly in for a great treat.
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.