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Dom Robinson reviews
EMI Chrysalis
- Cat.no: 7243 4 92288 9 4
- Cert: 12
- Running time: 60 minutes
- Year: 1999
- Pressing: 1999
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 7 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Surround
- Languages: English
- Lyrics: English
- Fullscreen: 4:3
- 16:9-enhanced: No
- Macrovision: No
- Disc Format: DVD 5
- Price: £12.99
- Extras : Scene index, interviews, poems, “Find the Joker” game
Robbie Williams: Angelsis one of the first DVD EPs released by Abbey Road Interactivealong with Blur: No Distance Left To Run.
This disc contains seven videos (inc. two hidden tracks), three of which werehits (Angels, Lazy Days & South of the Border) and four non-singletracks, plus Robbie’s poems, interviews and a game of Find the Joker whichprovides access to the hidden songs.
Angels may not have been the highest-charting solo song in the man’scareer, making No.5 in December 1997, but is quite possibly the most playedof all his tunes on the radio and gained Robbie the Best Single and Videoawards at theBrit Awards 1999.
When Robbie Williams left Take That on July 18th, 1995, the day I started my currenttop-secret 9-5 job, it signalled the beginning of the end for the famedboy-band. Of the solo stars who would emerge the winner as they each wenttheir separate ways? As Robbie’s singles began to sell less and less, it lookedlike Gary Barlow would do the business, especially as he had the firstNo.1 of the lot with Forever Love, while Robbie’s Freedom stalledat No.2.
However, as time progressed, a last throw of the dice from Robbie’s recordcompany saw the ballad, Angels, released to an unsuspecting public andit grew to be one of his fans biggest ever singles in terms of the coverage itcontinues to get.
Having reached the top of the album charts with both Life Thru a Lensand I’ve Been Expecting You, his solo singles chart history to theend of 1999 is as follows :
Aug 96No. 2FreedomApr 97No. 2Old Before I Die
Jul 97No. 8Lazy Days
Sep 97No.14South of the Border
Dec 97No. 5Angels
Mar 98No. 3Let Me Entertain You
Sep 98No. 1Millennium
Dec 98No. 4No Regrets/Antmusic
Mar 99No. 4Strong
Nov 99No. 1She’s The One/It’s Only Us
Click on any of the above highlighted links to access my music chartanalysis for the week in which it was at that position.
The picture quality is spot-on perfect with zero artifacts. Most of thefootage is in 4:3, although the occasional promo is matted to a slightwidescreen ratio. Every bit of the DVD is split into individual chapters,totalling 40, so I’m not about to work out the average bitrate by hand…
The sound is Linear PCM Stereo and sounds perfectly fine, booming out whererequired for Lazy Days and South of the Border, while softeningdown for the ballad Angels.
Extras. : Chapters :Although there are 40 separate chapters on the disc, there’s 7 individualmusic tracks. The track listing is as follows :
1. Angels
2. Lazy Days
3. South of the Border
4. Heaven From Here
5. Get the Joke
6. Grace
7. Man Machine
The first five are the main tracks you can initially select, but one of thelast two are played when you’ve successfully won the Find the Jokergame.
Languages/Lyrics :Stereo sound and lyrics available in English. And there’s more :Short but sweet, the Interviews snippets show Robbie discussing thetopics of Angels and Glastonbury, there are three Poems,“Hello, Sir”, “Thankyou For Letting Me Be Me” and “Naked At AnAwards Ceremony”.
Finally, the Find the Joker game is a standard 3-card affair in whichrevealing Robbie dressed as the joker, from his Let Me Entertain Youpromo, will reveal a bonus music video as described above. For those withDVD-ROM players though, once you know which of three chapters results in whichcard being the joker, it takes the guessing game out of it…
…but by then you’ll also know in which chapters the bonus tracks are socan go straight to those anyway.
Menu :
The menu may be static but it occasionally features cheeky comments fromRobbie, including an introduction on the main menu. The backdrop is thecover to his USA compilation album release, The Ego Has Landed,which combines the best tracks from his first two albums.
Overall this is a nice little package at a cheap price and worth a look forany of his fans, or anyone who wants to check out an intriguing little DVD.Robbie’s music isn’t always my cup of tea, the best ones for me beingLazy Days, South of the Border and No Regrets, but he’scertainly one of pop’s busiest showmen.
The Brit Awards 2000 saw Robbie bringhis total of gongs to nine, this time winning Best Video and Single forlast year’s Xmas hit, She’s The One.
NB.: The certificate “12” is only in respect of the poems on this disc.Yes, the f-word is used.FILM : ***PICTURE QUALITY: *****SOUND QUALITY: *****EXTRAS: **——————————-OVERALL: **** and a scrap with Liam Gallagher
Also, it’s worthy of note that Abbey Road Interactive have been involvedwith the following DVDs that I have already reviewed :
Flash Gordon — Bean — The Graduate — Raw Deal — This is Spinal Tap
Please click on any of these pictures to access those reviews
Check out theOfficial Robbie Williams site.
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.