John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers and Friends-70th Birthday Concert (2003)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Music	Menu Audio Interviews-Cast-John Mayall
Rating
Year Of Production	2003
Running Time	123:18 (Case: 137)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (62:51)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Aubrey Powell
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	John Mayall Eric Clapton Mick Taylor Chris Barber Joe Yuele Hank Van Sickle Buddy Whittington Tom Canning
Case	?
RPI	$29.95	Music	None Given

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/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	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    John Mayall was one of the most important figures of the 1960's British blues scene. His band, the Bluesbreakers, are famous for being the breeding ground for many important musicians who have gone on to bigger things. These include Eric Clapton (who joined Mayall from The Yardbirds, and left to form Cream), Mick Taylor (later in the Rolling Stones), Peter Green, John McVie & Mick Fleetwood (Fleetwood Mac) and  Jack Bruce (Cream). John Mayall himself was more famous as a bandleader and picker of talent than in his own right as a musician. Despite this, he is still a talented keyboard and harmonica player and a decent singer. John Mayall was born in 1933, so is significantly older than the other people mentioned above. On the occasion of his 70th birthday, he held a concert incorporating some of his old bandmates, including Eric Clapton & Mick Taylor in Liverpool, England. This DVD contains that concert seemingly in its entirety. The concert also set out to raise money for Unicef.

    As for the concert itself, it stretches over more than 2 hours and includes John Mayall's current Bluesbreakers line-up of Tom Canning (keyboard), Hank Van Sickle (bass), Buddy Whittington (guitar) & Joe Yuele (drums). They are a very good band and all play well during the concert. Buddy Whittington is a stand-out and acquits himself well, looking and sounding right at home in the exalted company of the special guests. Mick Taylor joins the band for a total of five songs including the finale and plays some quite good solos without generating too much excitement. Eric Clapton joins the band for 8 tracks and his appearance really lifts the show, once a problem with his volume is solved after the first two numbers. Eric also sings two numbers, Hoochie Coochie Man & I'm Tore Down both of which are excellent. The other special guest is Chris Barber, a trombone player and jazz band leader of similar vintage to John Mayall. His trombone is very welcome and adds to the songs he appears on.

    Although John Mayall's instrumental prowess has not dimmed with age, his singing is starting to show his 70 years. He was never the finest singer in Blues, but with age his voice has become quite croaky. The finale, Talk To Your Daughter, is great, featuring solos by all the main guitarists and ends the show on a high note.

    Overall, this is a very good concert film by a good quality blues band featuring some great special guests. If you are a John Mayall fan, buy with confidence. If you are a fan of Eric Clapton, you will also find this of interest. Royalties from the sale of this disc go to Unicef.

Video

    The video quality is excellent.

    The feature is presented in the original aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The picture was very clear and sharp throughout, with no evidence of low level noise. Shadow detail was excellent as required.

    The colour was very good throughout with all colours being well saturated and free from colour bleeding. The skin colouring was very natural. Much of the concert used blue filtered lighting but this was not an issue.

    The only artefacts I noticed were some minor aliasing on guitar straps, jackets and amplifiers but this was not distracting.

    There are no subtitles.

    This is a dual layered disc and the layer change is well placed between songs at 62:51.
    

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio quality is excellent.

    This DVD contains three audio options, a 6 channel DTS soundtrack encoded at 768 Kb/s, a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack encoded at 448 Kb/s and a Dolby Digital 2.0 track encoded at 192 Kb/s. The DTS track was fantastic with great depth and clarity. The Dolby Digital 5.1 was also very good and the 2.0 track was fine but sounded a bit thin compared to the others. If you can listen to this in DTS, do so!

    Singing was clear and easy to understand.    

    There were no problems with audio sync.    

    The music came across very well with clear delineation of the instruments. The only minor quibble was the mixing or volume of Eric Clapton's guitar during his first two numbers onstage. During this time, his guitar was almost impossible to hear.

    The surround speakers were used throughout for crowd noises and some music but as it was a concert film the music made more sense coming from the front i.e. the direction of the stage.

    The subwoofer was used constantly to add bass to the music.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    The menu included a song selection function and music.

Interview with John Mayall (12:01)

    This is an interesting interview with John Mayall where he discusses the famous people who have passed through his band and his pride at being associated with them. He also discusses how he chooses people to join his band. This item also includes footage of the lead-up to the concert, including rehearsal footage of Eric Clapton & Mick Taylor. The guitar playing here is well worth seeing as is the interview itself.

    This disc is available in Region 1 in exactly the same format.

    The video quality is excellent.

    The audio quality is excellent.

    The disc has an interview with John Mayall as its only extra..

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall