Paul Weller-Live at Braehead (2002) |
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General | Extras | ||
Category | Music |
Menu Animation & Audio Booklet |
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Rating | |||
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) |
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Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.78:1 | ||
16x9 Enhancement |
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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 |
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:
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 |
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.
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Overall |
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.
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Audio Sync | |
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts | |
Surround Channel Use | |
Subwoofer | |
Overall |
A four page booklet which gives quite a detailed account of what Paul Weller has been doing for the past few years.
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.
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.
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Overall |
Review Equipment | |
DVD | Loewe Xemix 5106DO, using RGB output |
Display | Loewe Calida (84cm). Calibrated with Digital Video Essentials (PAL). This display device is 16x9 capable. |
Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Digital Video Essentials (PAL). |
Amplification | Harmon/Kardon AVR7000. |
Speakers | Front - B&W 602S2, Centre - B&W CC6S2, Rear - B&W 601S2, Sub - Energy E:xl S10 |