Concert for George (2003)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Menu Animation & Audio Gallery-Photo Booklet Alternative Version-Theatrical Version Featurette-Ravi's Orchestra Featurette-Monty Python Featurette-George's Band Interviews-Cast-Musicians
Rating
Year Of Production	2003
Running Time	146:35
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (73:02) Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	David Leland
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Eric Clapton Jeff Lynne Paul McCartney Ringo Starr Dhani Harrison Ravi Shankar Anoushka Shankar Billy Preston Tom Petty Eric Idle Terry Gilliam Michael Palin Terry Jones
Case	Gatefold
RPI	$59.95	Music	George Harrison Ravi Shankar

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English dts 5.1 (768Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English French German Spanish Italian Portuguese Dutch	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Isn't it funny how just when you think you've seen it all, a disc comes along that makes you rethink your whole top ten. This is one such disc, and although I'd been anticipating it for some time and knew roughly about its contents, I didn't realise just how emotionally stirring and stunningly produced it would be.

    A year after George Harrison's passing, a group of his closest friends assembled for a one-off show at the Royal Albert Hall to perform many of George's most beloved compositions. All profits from ticket sales and merchandise associated with the event went towards George's Material World foundation, a charity established by the former Beatle in 1973 to encourage alternate musical and philosophical expression.

    As a whole, this package is very thoughtfully produced and contains two discs, the first of which includes the Albert Hall performance in its entirety, uninterrupted. The second disc features a 100 minute cut of the performance with interviews and backstage footage added to give it a documentary feel. The shorter cut of the performance on disc two received a limited theatrical run in cinemas in the United States and the UK prior to its DVD release.

Disc One: Complete Concert

    The concert opens with a prayer chant, followed by a welcome speech and verbal introduction by Eric Clapton. Anoushka Shankar takes the stage and performs an Indian classical piece on Sitar and is accompanied by an astounding twenty-four piece orchestra of Indian instruments including Veena, Sarod, Tanpura and Sarangi. Anoushka is then joined by Jeff Lynne for a beautiful rendition of The Inner Light, which originally appeared as the b-side of the Beatles' single Lady Madonna.

    Ravi Shankar composed Arpan specifically for this occasion and the piece is given special attention on one of the fascinating featurettes included on disc two. This is an astounding piece of work, conducted by his daughter Anoushka and featuring an inspiring guitar solo by Clapton during its climax.

    After a brief intermission, a familiar voice announces "Ladies and gentlemen, it's... Monty Python!" to which a brass band begins playing Sit On My Face, a memorable tune from Python's Contractual Obligation album. Michael Palin then offers a moving tribute, as he is joined on stage by Eric Idle, Neil Innes, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam and Carol Cleveland. The remainder of the concert is comprised of songs performed by an all-star band, fronted by Jeff Lynne and Eric Clapton along with George's son Dhani.

    The revolving door never stops spinning on stage, with talents such as Jools Holland, Sam Brown, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, Tom Petty and Joe Brown lending themselves to some great performances of George's songs. The late Michael Kamen also contributed to the occasion, providing string arrangements and conducting a small ensemble for the evening.

    In what is one of many highlights during the performance, Petty, Lynne and drummer Jim Keltner reunite for Handle With Care, a track they originally recorded for the Traveling Wilburys. Jeff and Tom share the vocals on this song and Jeff does a particularly faithful rendition of Roy Orbison's parts.

    This is by far my preferred of the two discs because the experience flows much more smoothly and is uninterrupted by interviews. There are some truly soaring moments, such as Clapton's moving rendition of Beware of Darkness and McCartney performing All Things Must Pass, but the night's closing number sung by Joe Brown is pure magic.

Disc Two: Theatrical Version with Additional Material (100:15)

    This is a shorter feature, with interview segments and rehearsal footage woven throughout the concert performance. Some of these interview segments actually interrupt songs, so it is a good thing that we have the complete performance on disc one. The track listing is rearranged for this cut and four songs are omitted; That's The Way It Goes, I Need You, Wah Wah and the classical Indian piece Your Eyes.

    There are some great moments to be found in this version of the occasion. Eric Clapton offers some intimate thoughts on his motivation for arranging this concert, as well as speculating on what George's reaction to this event might have been. I had a guilty laugh when I saw George's son Dhani in the background at 6:00 trying to retrieve a pick from inside his acoustic guitar- a frustrating problem for any guitarist, but always hilarious for onlookers.

    In a year that has seen some truly great music DVD releases such as the Led Zeppelin DVD and Birtles Shorrock Goble, Concert For George is monumental for me, and I am certain it would be similarly embraced by any Beatles fan or music lover.

Video

    I'm happy to report that the entire performance appears to have been shot digitally and transferred faithfully to DVD with virtually no problems introduced in the process. As far as concert performances go, this is one of the best video transfers I have seen on DVD.

    The video transfer is presented in 1.78:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer is wonderfully sharp and exhibits a great amount of detail throughout. Black levels are true when they are most needed, as is the degree of shadow detail which is particularly evident during shots of the darkened audience. There were no issues with low level noise.

    There are distinct variances in the colour palette through the concert as the splashes of stage lighting make slight transitions between performers. The performance begins with a slightly yellow appearance which becomes more realistic when the western performances begin. There are no issues with oversaturation or bleeding in this transfer.

    Thanks to the beautiful digital transfer there are no film artefacts to be found. I noted a couple of brief instances of very minor grain that were certainly not distracting and would not be an issue to most viewers. Aliasing showed up semi-regularly, with the main culprits being guitar strings and distant shots of microphone stands. Clapton's glasses also presented a few aliasing problems during facial close-ups, but as a whole I would say that given the degree of sharpness here, the level of aliasing could have been much worse and appears to have been well controlled.

    On a number of occasions I noted minor camera operator problems such as pans that moved too fast, appearing a little jerky, but these problems were few. Moire is also evident now and then, most recognisable on speaker grilles and more noticeably on Monty Python's vests at 43:17 of disc one. These instances are only brief and don't become overwhelmingly obvious.

    There is an English subtitle stream available on both discs, but this only transcribes dialogue, not song lyrics. The font itself is white with a black border and is easy to read. The streams are paced accurately with the dialogue and appear to be relatively accurate.

    Both discs in this package are RSDL formatted. The layer transition on disc one is well placed, before the track Horse To The Water (73:02) and only briefly interrupts some audience applause. The pause on disc two is placed at 39:47, after the song Horse To The Water and is similarly unobtrusive and well placed.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There are three audio options available on these DVDs, including Dolby Digital 5.1 and dts, as well as the default Dolby Digital 2.0. Both of the Dolby Digital options are encoded at 448Kb/s, while the dts stream is encoded at 768Kb/s.

    The audio portion of this DVD has been overseen by none other than George's producer and ELO mastermind Jeff Lynne. As you would expect, both the sound quality and the mix itself is second to none.

    Vocal enunciation and delivery is very good indeed. Song lyrics and the spoken word are easy to understand at all times. Although I love the Traveling Wilburys, I do find Tom Petty's drawling voice a bit irritating at times and his band's rendition of Taxman is particularly tainted by his unique vocal style.

    Surround channel usage manages to replicate the live setting very well, directing echoes and crowd noise to the rear channels for an enveloping experience. A great example of rear activity is contained in the Classical Indian portion of the concert, with tabla drums and the sympathetic vibration of the many stringed Indian instruments echoing beautifully in the rear channels.

    The Dolby Digital 5.1 and dts mixes are virtually identical. I found the two to have very similar clarity and depth. I would say that the Dolby Digital stream is a little harsher when it comes to cymbal crashes and the higher registers of the Sitar, but otherwise there are no real problems.

    The Dolby Digital 2.0 option does a great job on its own, but is particularly responsive to Pro Logic processing. Although the stream is not flagged, echoes and atmospheric effects are directed to the rear channels in a similar way to the 5.1 soundtracks, creating a nicely enveloping experience.

    The subwoofer is used to add some excellent bottom end to the kick drums and bass guitar, but is certainly not overly dominating.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    These are a great collection of extras, covering the preparations for the gig and George's relationship with most of the musicians. The featurettes are all on disc two, playable individually or via a play all function. All of the extras are 16x9 enhanced and include Dolby Digital 2.0 audio.

Menu

Featurette - Ravi's Orchestra (11:00)

    This is a very interesting piece that details Shankar's methods of composition and how he manages to dictate his ideas to the musicians. One of the many challenges involved with this piece of music was incorporating western musicians into the orchestra, blending both eastern and western disciplines. Included in the featurette are very insightful interviews with Anoushka and Ravi Shankar.

Featurette - Monty Python (12:09)

Featurette - George's Band (7:13)

Interviews (9:54)

Photo Gallery (8:13)

    This is simply a scrolling montage of stills taken during the show, accompanied by a nice extended instrumental version of I'll See You In My Dreams.

Booklet

    This great package features an extensive 32 page booklet of photos covering the event and some moving tributes to George from many of the performers.

    The audio and video transfers are excellent and take advantage of the stronger points of this format.

    There are some genuinely interesting extra featurettes that complement the main feature well and the menus and packaging are all first class.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall