Discs - Comments by biffbampow-45worlds

Discs - Comments by biffbampow-45worlds

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Member	Item		Review/Comment
biffbampow-45worlds 25th May 2015		DVD Cream : Their Fully Authorised Story - Classic Artists (2008)	A very enjoyable documentary and easily the best on the band as it goes quite in-depth, allowing it to take it's time. As always with Cream documentaries, Ginger Baker provides the highlights with some rather colourful and profanity laden remarks and rants! Some good bonus material too, some rare footage of the band back in the day and various unused interviews, the funniest of which is Paul Jones recalling an amusing incident involving Jack Bruce in his days with Manfred Mann which always makes me smile!
biffbampow-45worlds 22nd May 2015		DVD The Beatles - "Get Back" Chronicles	And what we have here is just the tip of the iceberg. There's something like 90 plus hours of raw soundtrack audio recordings in existence captured on Nagra tapes whenever the cameras were rolling so they could then by synched up with the vision at editing stage. Then they were also using multi camera set ups simultaneously at some points like the concert and the in studio performance they did the following day for the slower piano based numbers, I recall an interview around the time of Anthology and I think it was Bob Smeaton who said there was just endless piles of film cans and a lot of it had never even been processed or touched since the day they were filmed. It was indeed rumoured to be getting a DVD release in around 2002 and work had been done on digital remastering and director Michael Lindsay Hogg was hopeful it was finally gonna happen. It didn't. Instead we got the "Let It Be Naked" album. Outtake footage had been kicking around since VHS days but I think it was round then a new DVD or two appeared with more stuff never seen before like the strange bit where Peter Sellers pops in... Sellers couldn't understand why they were being constantly filmed when they were doing nothing. One major problem is only the Apple Studios stuff was recorded on multitrack tape (around 30 hours worth) - all the Twickenham stuff was mixed down on the fly in mono so none of that material could be mixed into stereo or 5.1. Apple could put out something amazing from all the stuff they have but... they can't even be bothered to put out a simple greatest hits DVD with all their promos fully remastered and in complete form... and recently I've read that outtakes have started to surface from some of those! Apple are sat on a goldmine but will they ever do anything useful? Sure the Magical Mystery Tour release 3 years back was great and a welcome release finally unearthing outtakes and unseen material so why they don't just pull their fingers out and deal with "Let It Be" and the promos is something that frustrates most Beatles fans. Naturally, bootleggers have filled the void and it's no surprise why they remain so popular and in demand. Not that Apple ever take a hint and start making some money for themselves.
biffbampow-45worlds 22nd May 2015		DVD The Beatles - "Get Back" Chronicles	Apple won't release it because the two surviving Beatles keep wanting to delude the world into believing the Beatles never fought or fell out and were full of "peace and love" - "Let It Be" showed and proved that they were not getting along too great by then and Ringo and Paul remain in denial and don't want us to see that side of the band. The actual "Let It Be" movie is a mess... the soundtrack doesn't match the visuals in places and it is depressing to watch, but it is honest in that it's clear they're not really interested any more and Paul is constantly trying to stop the ship from sinking. Apple have hours and hours of unseen footage from which they could create something very interesting but I fear as long as Paul and Ringo remain with us, that ain't ever gonna happen. The highlight of the film is the rooftop gig... all of a sudden, The Beatles come to life and some of that old magic surfaces. Why the Hell Apple have never bothered to do a DVD of just that performance eludes me... Neil Aspinall even mentioned that as a possibility when they finished the Anthology and asked about future plans. Sure, they played some songs more than once but it would be wonderful to see the entire performance restored, remastered and presented in it's entirety since it's a major moment in their history and nothing to be at all ashamed of. I absolutely LOVE that version of "Get Back" they used on "Anthology 3" - the final track from that gig... sure, the guitars cut out and there's temporary confusion but the whole spirit and vibe of it as they carry on and see the song to the end is pure Beatles magic.
biffbampow-45worlds 21st May 2015		DVD Ferry Cross The Mersey - [none]	Yes... it's one of my biggest bugbears! I don't take kindly to seeing the history of the last century getting rewritten by politically correct revisionists and the likes of the BBC censoring and editing stuff for such reasons. History should be left alone and left for us to make our own judgements.
biffbampow-45worlds 21st May 2015		DVD Ferry Cross The Mersey - [none]	Yes, copyright and clearance issues have indeed ensured movies like this will never get reissued - I mentioned Savile because his involvement ensures NOBODY will ever want to touch anything he was a part of and unfortunately he was in a handful of music movies, all of which like this are important snapshots of social history. At least we do have a copy of this to enjoy and my copy looks fine given it's origins whereas the copy going around of "Just For Fun" taped from a Bravo broadcast is very smeary and a pity we'll never be able to see or own it from a better print or copy. Such a shame. One of the reasons I like this movie is down to it's innocence and simple charm. Not much of a story or plot but a pleasant escape from 21st Century insanity... and to their credit, Gerry, George Martin and co didn't do a bad job with the soundtrack either though a pity The Fourmost's contribution is a forgettable dirge.
biffbampow-45worlds 21st May 2015		DVD Ferry Cross The Mersey - [none]	Definitely an unofficial boot - has never been officially re-issued in any form and unfortunately, the chance of a DVD/BluRay is zilch thanks to the presence of a certain Jimmy Savile during the final 5th of the film. A shame because as cheesy as it is, it's a rather charming period piece. For many years I read that this belonged to Apple Corps, The Beatles company and sure enough they used a whole load of Liverpool location scenes from it for the "Eleanor Rigby" sequence in The Beatles Anthology, but in the last three years, it's ownership has fallen into doubt and now being presumed as "public domain".
biffbampow-45worlds 19th May 2015		DVD Supergirl - Anchor Bay Entertainment (2000)	Just being honest! Dunaway was awful... utterly embarrassing in this film. She should had been in Superman 4!
biffbampow-45worlds 19th May 2015		DVD Supergirl - Anchor Bay Entertainment (2000)	... and Faye Dunaway ZERO!