Del Shannon-Live in Australia (1989)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Biographies-Cast-Del Shannon
Rating
Year Of Production	1989
Running Time	57:27 (Case: 65)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Craig Chapman
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Del Shannon
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$34.95	Music	Del Shannon

    Born Charles Westover, the American gained fame with his first single Runaway and soon became known for his use of minor chords and melancholic lyrics, ensuring he stood out from the crowd in the early 60s. Many years later, the Bee Gees cited his influence on their famous falsetto vocal style which they used to great effect during the 70s.

    Del Shannon delivered many hits until The Beatles' British invasion of America, whereupon his sound was suddenly considered to be old hat. In response, he recorded the first American cover of a Beatles song, From Me To You, with mild success. He later recorded albums with Nicky Hopkins and Jeff Lynne, returning to tour Australia many times.

    This concert includes a lot of well-known rock 'n roll standards including many of Del's own hits, and the tight backing band is clearly Aussie, although the saxophonist can't seem to get that clapping in time thing right. There are also quite a few amusing moments besides the dated hair-dos and balding RSL patrons: the drummer looks like he just got out of hospital, with a big bandage over his swollen right eye and the sweaty, bra-less backup singer bouncing all over the stage - I don't know how they managed to get through a song without cracking up.

    The direction is good and energetic, considering only a few cameras were used.

    There was rumours after Roy Orbison's passing that Del would replace him in the Traveling Wilburys, but it wasn't to be. Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty produced his final album with the Heartbreakers as his backing band and a short tour followed. The Wilburys went on to record a great version of Runaway as a tribute to Del, which was released as a b-side.

Video

    I would consider this transfer bad, even for a VHS tape.

    The feature is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, full frame.

    From the very beginning there are a distinct lack of deep blacks in the transfer, with the image exhibiting virtually no shadow detail. The large amount of grain in the image (eg 1:28, 53:42) destroyed any hint of sharpness. No low level noise was apparent.

    Colours seemed decidedly bland - evidence of an old analogue master.

    There were no MPEG or film artefacts to speak of, and although minor aliasing does creep up now and then (7:50, 41:12), it is not overly distracting. From 15:00 onwards, the feature is peppered with intermittent grey flecks passing from right to left across the screen, an ugly, distracting analogue video artefact.

    There are no subtitles available on this single layered disc.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio is as lame as the video, I'm afraid.

    The only track on offer is English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s).

    Dialogue was easy to understand at all times and diction was not an issue. Audio sync was always spot on.

    I was very disappointed to hear that the live audio for the track Walkaway had been replaced by Del Shannon's studio recording. One can clearly hear the recording quality change, and the botch-up is even more pronounced by the obvious fade-out at the end of the song, before cutting sharply back to the original live audio. You would seriously have to be deaf not to notice the difference in sound quality between this and other tracks on the DVD.

    In some instances the keyboard was too low in the mix, and at other times it was overpowering. The same can be said for the lead guitar.

    A distracting audio drop-out is also evident at 4:28. The volume level drops considerably for several seconds in the middle of the second song, Handy Man.

    Subwoofer reaction to this very top-heavy soundtrack was minimal.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    Did you say extras?

Menu

Biography

    This appears to be the only version of this DVD available.

    The video transfer is ordinary to say the least.

    The audio quality ranges from bearable to embarrassing.

    The extras barely deserve to be called extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall