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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Paul Weller-Live at Braehead (2002)

Paul Weller-Live at Braehead (2002)

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Released 1-Oct-2003

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Music Menu Animation & Audio
Booklet
Rating Rated E
Year Of Production 2002
Running Time 128:09
RSDL / Flipper RSDL (66:59) Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 4 Directed By None Given
Studio
Distributor

Warner Vision
Starring Paul Weller
Case Amaray-Transparent
RPI ? Music Paul Weller


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 2.0 (256Kb/s)
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
English dts 5.1 (768Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.78:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles None Smoking Yes
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    It's often nice to catch up with an artist you remember fondly from many years ago and have since lost track of. Paul Weller is for me certainly in that category. Former front man of influential British groups The Jam and The Style Council, Weller has forged a strong solo career since the The Style Council were dropped by their record label in the late 1980s. In fact, as a gauge of his continuing success, in 2002 he released his sixth solo album, called Illumination, and set out on a subsequent tour to promote it. With a back catalogue reaching back more than 25 years, Weller had no end of material to play in this second sold-out show in Glasgow's Breahead Arena.

    Filmed on 16 October 2002, this is a live-wire show that runs for more than two hours. Most of the material on offer is from Weller's solo career and the new album of course dominates. Fans of his earlier work with both The Jam and The Style Council have not been forgotten though, with some excellent renditions of a couple of classics. For the Style Council fans Weller performs Down In The Seine and Man Of Great Promise, both from the smash hit album Our Favourite Shop. Jam fans are well catered for with renditions of In The Crowd, Man In The Cornershop, Pretty Green, and the classic Town Called Malice.

    Supported by long time stalwarts such as Steve White on drums, Damon Minchella on bass and Steve Cradock on guitar, this is certainly a passionate, live-wire and incredibly energetic performance that has the large crowd in an absolute frenzy. The only real downer in the whole thing is the shoddy way the whole thing has been edited together. It would appear several cameras were used to capture the on stage footage and the editor has decided that he must use footage from each and every one and change shots every two seconds. As a result, this is extremely tiring to watch, almost to the point of making you feel nauseous.

    However, fans will love the content here with the show running for more than two hours, and with a quality audio soundtrack it comes highly recommended. The following thirty songs are performed:

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Track Listing

1. A Bullet For Everyone
2. Into Tomorrow
3. Bull Rush
4. It's Written In The Stars
5. Going Places
6. Friday Street
7. Man In The Cornershop
8. Now The Night Is Here
9. Leafy Mysteries
10. One X One
11. Hung Up
12. Sunflower
13. In The Crowd
14. Broken Stones
15. Picking Up Sticks
16. Bagman
17. Who Brings Joy
18. Down In The Seine
19. Man Of Great Promise
20. Brand New Start
21. All Good Books
22. Can You Heal Us Holy Man
23. Porcelain Gods
24. Pretty Green
25. Whirlpool's End
26. The Changingman
27. Peacock Suit
28. Town Called Malice
29. Standing Out In The Universe
30. Wild Wood

Transfer Quality

Video

    This is a superb video transfer, and is near on faultless - a somewhat rare occurrence for a concert disc.

    We're greeted with an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. It is also 16x9 enhanced. This would appear to be the intended aspect ratio.

    This is nicely detailed and incredibly sharp throughout. There are no problems with shadow detail. Grain is barely present and there is no low level noise. Colours often suffer in concerts, but thankfully this transfer handles all the intense shades with aplomb. Vivid blues, reds and bright white light on occasion are all rendered evenly with no hint of oversaturation.

    There are no MPEG artefacts and there is no trace of any video artefacts.

    There are no subtitles which is a big let-down.

    This is a dual layered disc with RSDL formatting. The layer change occurs at 66:59 between the tracks Bagman and Who Brings Joy, and despite being quite obvious and actually quite clunky on my player it is about the best place for it.



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

Audio

    There are three audio tracks available. Two are Dolby Digital efforts, in 5.1 and 2.0 stereo respectively. The other is a half bitrate (768 Kb/s) dts 5.1 track. I listened to both 5.1 tracks completely and sampled the Dolby Digital 2.0 track briefly.

    The Dolby Digital and dts tracks are similar in terms of quality, with the latter possessing a slightly fuller sound. Both tracks offer rich and precise vocals and both provide a very similar fully enveloping soundstage with much use of the rear channels - predominantly for audience noise.

    The dialogue is excellent and the vocals are presented with a very wide soundstage, almost constantly emanating from the front three channels and often from the rears as well.

    There is plenty of surround channel use from both 5.1 soundtracks. The usual sounds of audience clapping and cheering from the rears emanate throughout the performance to impart that 'front-row' feeling.

    The sub is nicely integrated.



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

Extras

Menu Animation & Audio

Booklet

    A four page booklet which gives quite a detailed account of what Paul Weller has been doing for the past few years.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    The Region 1 and Region 2 discs are both identical to this one.

Summary

    Fans of Paul Weller will enjoy this disc immensely. While not focusing on his The Jam or The Style Council days, there are a couple of songs from that era, including a live-wire rendition of Town Called Malice. The rest of the show is pure Weller solo material including several off his last album Illumination.

    The transfer quality of the video is excellent with barely a fault. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the editing of the actual content, which is jerky and exhibits just too many quickly displayed shots. This rapid fire vision makes the whole thing a little bit difficult to enjoy in large doses.

    The audio is superb. In both Dolby Digital and dts 5.1 variants it is solidly clean and powerful, fully enveloping, and a joy to behold.

    There are basically no extras.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Darren Walters (It's . . . just the vibe . . . of my bio)
Sunday, February 15, 2004
Review Equipment
DVDLoewe Xemix 5106DO, using RGB output
DisplayLoewe Calida (84cm). Calibrated with Digital Video Essentials (PAL). This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Digital Video Essentials (PAL).
AmplificationHarmon/Kardon AVR7000.
SpeakersFront - B&W 602S2, Centre - B&W CC6S2, Rear - B&W 601S2, Sub - Energy E:xl S10

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