Eric Clapton & Friends In Concert

A Benefit For The Crossroads Centre At Antigua


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Details At A Glance

General
Extras
Category Music Theatrical Trailer(s) None
Rating Other Trailer(s) None
Year Released 1999 Commentary Tracks None
Running Time 108:15 minutes Other Extras None
RSDL/Flipper RSDL (51:15)
Cast & Crew
Start Up Movie
Region 2,3,4,5,6 Director Joel Gallen
Studio
Distributor

Warner Vision
Starring Eric Clapton
Andy Fairweather-Low
Nathan East
Steve Gadd
Tim Carmon
Dave Delhomme
David Sanborn
Tessa Niles
Katie Kissoon
Case Super Jewel
RRP $39.95 Music Eric Clapton
Sheryl Crow
Mary J. Blige
Bob Dylan

 
Video
Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame Full Frame MPEG None
Widescreen Aspect Ratio None Dolby Digital 5.1
16x9 Enhancement No Soundtrack Languages English (Linear PCM 48/16 2.0, 1536Kb/s)
English (Dolby Digital 5.1, 448Kb/s)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio 1.33:1
Miscellaneous
Macrovision Yes Smoking No
Subtitles None Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

Plot Synopsis

    Regular readers of my reviews will realize that I am a huge fan of Eric Clapton. They will also realize that I gave luke-warm receptions to 24 Nights and Clapton Chronicles. Eric Clapton & Friends In Concert has restored my faith in Eric Clapton. This concert is a real beauty. Eric is in a soulful, but playful, mood, and the music is simply outstanding, reaching down deeply and touching the soul. There is a palpable emotion running through the performance which comes across on the DVD - this must have been an amazing experience for the audience at Madison Square Gardens who got to see this show live.

    Eric Clapton predominately features, with special appearances from Sheryl Crow (very good), Mary J. Blige (didn't do anything for me whatsoever), and Bob Dylan (slow to get going but OK). The track listing reads as follows;

    A number of the songs are very different from the way in which they are usually presented - the tempo has been picked up on a number of the more soulful songs such as Tears In Heaven and Change The World. Old Love is quite interesting - Eric Clapton's solo is amazing to listen to, full of emotion and pain, but then it almost falls apart until the keyboard solo really gets going. Bob Dylan's entry is very hesitant and unsure with Don't Think Twice, It's All Right and it takes him quite a while to get going. I must say he simply looks and sounds old and tired.

Transfer Quality

Video

    This video transfer is very reasonable indeed given that this is a live concert, not lit for video.

    The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. It is not 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer is reasonably sharp, though clearly not in the same league as a top-notch movie transfer. The initial copyright message and logo suffer from a marked lack of clarity which filled me with a sense of dread but fortunately, this is not reflective of the main portion of the transfer itself. The clarity of the transfer improves as it progresses, which has more to do with the fact that more light is shining on the stage than anything else. Shadow detail is very limited indeed due to the nature of the stage lighting being captured here. Black is simply that - black, with no details discernible within, though the blacks are deep and clean, with no low level noise marring the transfer at all. The black of Eric Clapton's guitar is virtually the same as his clothes, which makes for an interesting lack of contrast.

    The colours were variable, once again in keeping with the concert-style lighting. Early on in the concert, blue lighting predominates, which video always has trouble capturing. Predominantly blue shots suffered from an expected loss of definition and some slight chroma noise. This is most notable in back shots of the drum kit which is blurred and indistinct with blue lighting versus crisp and clear with full-range lighting.

    There were no MPEG artefacts noted in this transfer, and nor were there any video artefacts noted.

    There is a very odd bit of editing at 42:10 with a single frame close-up of Mary J. Blige being inserted into the video stream for no apparent reason.

    This disc is sensibly presented on an RSDL-formatted DVD, with the layer change placed as unobtrusively as possible in between songs at 51:15.

Audio

    There are two audio tracks on this DVD; the default English Linear PCM 48/16 2.0, and an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. I listened predominantly to the Dolby Digital 5.1 track, but compared the Linear PCM track briefly. Note that this DVD has been authored so that you cannot change audio tracks on the fly, which is extremely irritating.

    The mix of this DVD is aggressive and quite loud compared to other DVDs - I was perfectly happy with this at reference level, but others may want to turn the audio down a little.

    The vocals are firmly and loudly anchored in the center channel, along with Eric Clapton's guitar. Despite this, I felt that the other channels tended to slightly overwhelm the centre channel, making some vocals a little hard to make out, especially those of Sheryl Crow.

    There were no audio sync problems with this DVD at all.

    The surround channels were used as music wraparound, as well as carrying the audience noise. At the conclusion of the songs, the audience noise was wrapped into the front surround speakers which provided an unusually forward audience presence to this soundtrack. The musical instruments were all mixed according to their stage position. This provided some interesting audio-visual discrepancies when a soloist was front-and-centre visually but mixed left or right aurally. Of particular note in this regard was David Sanborn on saxophone and some of Sheryl Crow's guitar, both mixed left aurally whilst visually front-and-centre.

    The .1 channel was aggressively and constantly used to support the soundtrack. It was extremely effective in providing a solid foundation on which the rest of the sound could be layered. Nathan East's superb bass work was beautifully and strongly rendered by the subwoofer.

Extras

    There are no extras on this disc at all.

Menu

R4 vs R1

    The Region 4 version of this DVD appears to have the same limited features as the Region 1 version.

Summary

    Eric Clapton & Friends In Concert is a fantastic concert, captured nicely on DVD. Highly recommended without reservation for all fans of Eric Clapton and anyone with a passing interest in his music, though I personally suggest skipping Mary J. Birge's two songs.

    The video quality is good given the source material.

    The audio quality is very good.

    There are no extras.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras  
Plot
Overall

© Michael Demtschyna (read my bio)
16th March 2000

Review Equipment
DVD Palsonic DVD-2000 and Toshiba 2109, using S-Video output
Display Loewe Art-95 95cm direct view CRT in 4:3 mode, via the S-Video input. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials.
Audio Decoder Denon AVD-2000 Dolby Digital AddOn Decoder, used as a standalone processor. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials.
Amplification 2 x EA Playmaster 100W per channel stereo amplifiers for Left, Right, Left Rear and Right Rear; Philips 360 50W per channel stereo amplifier for Centre and Subwoofer
Speakers Philips S2000 speakers for Left, Right; Polk Audio CS-100 Centre Speaker; Apex AS-123 speakers for Left Rear and Right Rear; Hsu Research TN-1220HO subwoofer