Spandau Ballet: Soul Boys of the Western World: 3-disc Special Edition on Blu-ray – The DVDfever Review

For the film’s picture and sound, I’ve given them both an 8/10. Both are perfectly fine, but most of the film is archive 4:3 footage – thankfully all presented in the correct ratio, rather than zooming in to 16:9 – so it’s obviously not going to look as good as a modern feature film, but it does look exactly as you’d expect.

And while Blu-ray discs come in 1080p high defintion, there’s little here that’s in HD. In fact, I think only the clip from the 2010 Isle of Wight festival has that honour. Hence, if you’re watching this on DVD then overall you won’t lose out on anything. That said, at the time of release, Amazon has the 3-disc Blu-ray at £14.00, and the 3-disc DVD at £15.00!

Similarly, with the sound, the main thing for your ears is the music and that sounds spot-on, but it’s basic stereo audio and you wouldn’t expect anything else.

The extras are as follows, the recently-filmed parts of which are in HD, but sadly none of them are subtitled:

• Interview and behind the scenes footage: The following is a list of the extras on the disc, and they’re all a continuation of what we’ve seen in the main film. In fact, there’s bits of these spliced into the film itself as it all tells the story. The first four extras are on disc 2, and the rest are on disc 3.

  The Isle of Wight Festival concert is the only extra in HD, but they’re all essential viewing, and I like the To Cut A Long Story Short Time Machine Edit as it splices together clips of the same song performed over the years, including studio and live versions. It’s like the ultimate remix!

  I do think that, since disc one only contains the film, the extras could’ve been fitted onto two discs, for both Blu-ray and DVD, but spreading it onto three discs does enable Metrodome to issue separate 2-disc and 3-disc versions of each, which seems rather excessive, and rather a cash-in. They’re not the only company to do this, as a lot of big films issue 1-disc and 2-disc versions, but they really shouldn’t.

  Anyhoo, here are the extras:

  • BBC Nationwide Photoshoot for Axiom, 25th February 1981 (3:18)
    
  • BBC Nationwide Interview February 1981 (18:27)
    
  • Interview by Pat Wardsley at the Underground Club, New York 5th May, 1981 (28:42)
    
  • Never Seen Before Performance at the Underground Club, 6th May 1981 (56:26)
    
  • Isle of Wight Festival, 13th June 2010 (55:58)
    
  • To Cut A Long Story Short Time Machine Edit (3:39)
    
  • Theatrical Trailer (2:33)

As you put each disc in, the menu bursts into life with clips from the film and a different song (in turn – Chant No.1, Through The Barricades and Gold). Unfortunately, there are no subtitles, and when it comes to the chaptering, I feel one should come every five minutes on average. Arrow, like many other distributors, go for a low 12 however long the film. I would like them to increase that number.

Spandau Ballet: Soul Boys of the Western World: 3-disc Special Edition is out on Monday October 27th on Blu-ray and DVD, and check out the full-size cover by clicking on the packshot.

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FILM PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS	Gold! Er… I, mean 10! 8 8 6
OVERALL	8

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Detailed specs:
Cert:
Running time: 110 minutes
Year: 2014
Distributor: Metrodome Distribution
Released: October 27th 2014
Chapters: 12
Cat.no: MTDBD5944
Picture: 1080p High Definition
Sound: DTS 5.1 HD Master Audio, DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1
Languages: English
Subtitles: English
Aspect ratio: varies
Disc Format: 3*BD50

Director: George Hencken
Producers: Steve Dagger and Scott Millaney
Sound Dept: Dan Johnson (sound re-recording mixer/supervising sound editor) and Bernard O’Reilly (sound effects editor)

Cast:
Tony Hadley (Vocals)
Gary Kemp (Songwriter, Guitar)
Martin Kemp (Bass Guitar)
Steve Norman (Guitar, Percussion, Sax)
John Keeble (Drums)