Knebworth: The Silver Clef Award Winners-Volumes One, Two & Three (1990)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Menu Animation & Audio Booklet
Rating
Year Of Production	1990
Running Time	179:30
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Larry Jordan Bruce Gowers
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Tears For Fears Cliff Richard Phil Collins Paul McCartney Status Quo Eric Clapton Dire Straits Elton John Robert Plant Genesis Pink Floyd
Case	Amaray-Transparent-S/C-Dual
RPI	$59.95	Music	Various

    On June 30, 1990 a whole gaggle of the cream of British rock 'n' roll gave up their time to perform for free at Knebworth House in Hertfordshire. The cause was for charity, more specifically for the Nordoff-Robbins (no - not the ice cream franchise) Music Therapy Centre and also for the BRIT school for performing arts and technology.

    Apparently Nordoff-Robbins gives out some gongs each year to artists for their outstanding service to the music industry, these being given the silly name of the Silver Clef Awards. The organisers simply asked all the musos who had won the previous awards and hoped that most were available. Quite a few of them obviously had nothing on and turned up.

    The show is presented as a series of short sets from each artist, usually comprising three or four songs each. It was dubbed the Dinosaurs of Rock and showcased some of the best of British from the 70s and 80s. A sell-out crowd of 120,000 people and a worldwide audience on MTV witnessed the event. The cream of British rock who were available at the time are all here. Eric Clapton, Dire Straits, Status Quo, Robert Plant, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Robert Plant, Phil Collins, and even Cliff Richard and The Shadows get a whirl. Tears for Fears (remember them) open the show performing three songs during a torrential downpour. From then on it's nearly three hours of solid rock. There's a sort of supergroup formed when Elton John takes the stage. Eric Clapton and his band and the Dire Straits guys hang around and lend support to the manic piano player.

    The show has been available as three separate volumes on VHS and laserdisc for some time, but is now released as a dual disc DVD set. Volumes 1 and 2 are on the first disc, and Volume 3 is on the second disc.

    One small gripe is the lack of time code information on either of the discs. Not so much a pain when you are simply watching the show, but it makes reviewing them a real chore.

Video

    The video is presented in the circa 1990 television aspect ratio of 1.33:1. It is not 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer is reasonably sharp with no apparent shadow detail problems. There are some fairly dramatic differences in lighting as the show starts in the morning and carries right through the late afternoon and evening, but all are handled well with no real grain to report. There is no low level noise. Colours aren't really that attention grabbing, but are varied with bright blue skies countered by pouring rain and overcast conditions. The light show during Pink Floyd's set is particularly colourful. There aren't any real colour problems, unless you consider Cliff Richard's and Eric Clapton's bright pink suits as something worthy of debate.

    There are no apparent MPEG artefacts. There's a little shimmer on the odd surface here and there. Items such as keyboards and microphone stands are the biggest culprits. There are no other video artefacts.

    There are no subtitles.

    This is a two disc set. Disc one is dual layered and I would presume the layer change is located between volumes one and two. The second disc is single layered only.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There are three audio soundtracks from which to choose. Dolby Digital in both 5.1 and 2.0 flavours are joined by a dts soundtrack encoded at a bitrate of 1536 Kb/s.

    The two surround mixes have obviously been recently remastered. Both are quite good, but are not without their problems. The usual concert problems pop up here and there. Some feedback during Cliff Richard's We Don't Talk is probably the worst moment for source related problems. In comparison, I would favour neither of the surround mixes over the other. Both are pretty much equal, but are delivered slightly differently. The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is definitely warmer sounding and the dts track offers slightly brighter and clearer vocals.

    There is significant surround use. The usual crowd noise has been faithfully placed to the rear channels and is consistent and constant in delivery. There is also some annoying reverberation during a few of the songs. Phil Collins Sussudio is the worst example where a distinct echo is heard in both rear channels. It sounds completely unnatural.

    The subwoofer is used, quite sparingly really, and never sounds over the top.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu Animation & Audio

Booklet

    A four page colour booklet which summarises the purpose of the concert and provides another summary of each of the three volumes and complete band listing for each act.

    Both the Region 1 and Region 2 versions of this title are exactly the same as ours.

    There is certainly a variety of talent on show here and everyone who appreciates any of the big names of British rock 'n' roll from the 70s and 80s should find something to satisfy themselves here. Being released as a complete set of volumes is certainly the way to go. It would be all-too-brief if only viewing a single volume at a time.

    The video is early 1990s, but it still scrubs up quite well.

    The remastered audio is not without fault, but on the whole is really quite excellent.

    There are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall