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Dom Robinson reviews
Sanctuary Digital Entertainment
- Cert:
- Cat.no: SDE 2011
- Running time: 73 minutes
- Year: 1990
- Pressing: 2002
- Region(s): All, PAL
- Chapters: 13
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: None
- Fullscreen: 4:3
- 16:9-Enhanced: No
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 5
- Price: £15.99
- Extras: Brit Awards clip, “Rockmeister” clips
Status Quo: Anniversary Waltzis the sort of thing you might see on VH1 these days since they became lesslike themselves and more like MTV, but with a slight rock bent.
Some groups celebrate milestones by playing Castle Donnington, some playedWembley, but the Quo play… Butlins. Yes, that’s where their roots began.I don’t know anyone who’d want to go to Butlins and I can’t say that thisgig would’ve changed my mind.
The concert footage is mixed in with footage of old – and not very well, soit’s an ill-at-ease mix, with notes scrolling along the bottom of the screenabout what happened during the years. If you do take an interest in watchingsuch a DVD like this, it would be something you’d look at once and rarelyreturn to. If you are a fan, you’ve no doubt got all the videos and CDs andthey don’t play their music any differently on this stage.
The fact that this release was filmed and came out on video 12 years ago doesn’thelp things either.
There are 13 chapters on the disc, each with a track, which are as follows:
1. Caroline
2. Roll Over Lay Down
3. Little Lady
4. Medley 1
5. Hold Yer Back
6. Down Down
7. Medley 28. In the Army Now
9. Rockin’ All Over The World
10. Don’t Waste My Time
11. Medley 3
12. Burning Bridges
13. Medley 4
Filmed in 4:3, the picture is reasonable but not particularly outstanding asyou get little more than some ageing rockers belting out their old hits, andnot a single sign of “Pictures of Matchstick Men”, which I did like.
The sound comes in both stereo and Dolby Digital 5.1, according to themenus, but the latter doesn’t sound anything like a DD5.1 soundmix should.Old footage just sounds muffled and the concert footage shot at Butlinsjust sounds like when you’ve tweaked your TV so that the sound is now usingthe ‘wide’ or ‘ambience’ mode. In other words, stick with the original versionas it certainly doesn’t envelop you either way.
Extras? A 5-minute piece about their Brit Awards 1991 award and aroundthe same for an interruption from the Rockmeister, some pillock wholooks like an ageing Radio 1 DJ and is trying to teach a couple of “rock chicks”all about the Quo. He also crops up during the gig when a red showreel logoappears and he’s intensely irritating.
There’s a subtitles option for English, but nothing uses it(!) The menus arenicely laid out and have some clever bits between them, such as the jukeboxmenu (scene selection), but if the nicest thing you can say about the DVD isa menu, it really questions the purchase.
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.